Princeton University

Nassau notes

Tanner lectures focus on ‘empires’

Emma Rothschild, director of the Centre for History and Economics and a fellow of King’s College at the University of Cambridge, will deliver the Tanner Lectures on Human Values Wednesday and Thursday, April 19-20.

She will address the topic, “The Inner Life of Empires,” at 4:30 p.m. each day in McCosh 50. She intends to explore the history of values by looking at a family from Scotland, the Johnstones, at a time of transformation in Britain’s overseas empire in the mid- to late-18th century.

The first lecture, “The Johnstones and the Empire,” will examine some of the difficulties involved in writing a history of values, including the values of individuals who were not themselves theorists or philosophers. The second lecture, “The History of Sentiments,” will conclude the story of the Johnstones, and of their involvement with the East Indies, Africa and America.

Two scholars will serve as commentators for each lecture.

Rothschild is the author of “Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment” (Harvard University Press, 2001). She has written extensively on economic history and the history of economic thought, and is completing a new book about the East India Co. and the American Revolution.

The lectures are sponsored by the University Center for Human Values.

Condensed version of new course offered to University community

Members of the University community are invited to attend a one-day alumni symposium titled “Human Self-Identity in the Age of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence” from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 22.

Presented by the Alumni Association, the symposium is based on an undergraduate course that has been offered since fall 2004. The course looks at how advances in science and technology are changing people’s conception of what it means to be human, and how these changes are affecting the economy, medicine and many other aspects of society. Lectures and readings are provided by more than 20 professors drawn from the natural and social sciences, the humanities and engineering.

The course is coordinated by Daniel Osherson, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness and Culture. For the alumni seminar, he and 12 of the faculty involved will provide a condensed version of the material covered and be available for follow-up discussion.

Registration is required for this seminar. For more information, including a schedule and location, contact Kaitlin Lutz at klutz@princeton.edu.

New collection of Bishop work read by faculty

Faculty members in the Program in Creative Writing will read from a new collection of work by poet Elizabeth Bishop at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Bishop, who lived from 1911 to 1979, wrote slowly and published sparingly, but is known for the technical brilliance and formal variety of her work. During her lifetime, she won virtually every poetry prize in the country.

Alice Quinn, poetry editor of The New Yorker, will lead off the April 19 event with an introduction of “Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments.” She edited the work, published last month, drawn from 3,500 pages of Bishop’s material housed in the Vassar College library.

Reading the work will be Paul Muldoon, Joyce Carol Oates, James Richardson, Tracy Smith and Susan Wheeler.

The event is part of the Althea Ward Clark Reading Series.

Drawing and installation artist will give lecture

Drawing and installation artist Dawn Clements will give an illustrated lecture on her work at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in Room 219 of 185 Nassau St.

Clements, who is serving as a faculty member in the Program in Visual Arts and a guest printmaker this spring, is known for her large detailed drawings of domestic interior spaces (a portion of “Kitchen” is shown here).

Forum to feature early business ventures

Fifteen Princeton scientists and engineers will talk about their early-stage entrepreneurial ventures at an Innovation Forum at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in the Friend Center Convocation Room.

John Ritter, director of the Office of Technology Licensing, will open the forum with an overview of technology transfer at Princeton. Bill Martin of the JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network, a group of private venture capitalists, will moderate the event, which is open to the public.

Researchers will give short presentations describing ventures that spring from Princeton’s science and engineering laboratories. Among the presenters:

• Jeffry Stock, professor of molecular biology and chemistry, will talk about coffee extracts that may one day alleviate Alzheimer’s disease.

• Ivan Glesk, senior research scientist in electrical engineering, will discuss a compact holographic data storage system.

• William Happer, professor of physics, and his students will present their work on manufacturing miniature atomic clocks.

• Niraj Jha, professor of electrical engineering, will discuss research on nanotubes that may revolutionize an important type of microchip.

At a reception following the event, forum presenters will be on hand to answer questions about their ventures and display posters that graphically explain their work.

The forum is sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, the JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network and the University’s Office of Research and Project Administration.

Former homeland security chief Ridge to speak

Tom Ridge, the former U.S. secretary of homeland security and Pennsylvania governor, will present a lecture titled “The Best Prize in Life” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in McCosh 10.

Ridge is expected to reflect on his long career in public service during the talk, which is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Partnership for Public Service.

The speech’s title refers to a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that Ridge has often cited in speaking to college audiences: “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Ridge became the country’s first homeland security chief in October 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and served in the position until February 2005.

He was twice elected governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1995 until 2001. Prior to his stint as governor, Ridge was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 and served six terms. A U.S. Army infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, he was the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the House.

Newsweek writer compares FDR, Bush

Newsweek senior editor and columnist Jonathan Alter will speak on “FDR, Bush and the Requirements of Presidential Leadership” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Alter has been at Newsweek since 1983 and has been a columnist since 1991, covering politics, media and social and global issues. His new book, “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope,” will be published in May. He was a visiting professor at Princeton in 1997.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Potter and industrial designer honored

The University Art Museum has joined American museums across the country in honoring the potter and industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost on his 100th birthday (June 26, 2006) by putting on view one of his “Jazz Bowls.”

In 1930, Schreckengost designed approximately 50 parabolic-shaped punch bowls on commission from a New York gallery that requested “a New York theme.” The handmade “Jazz Bowls” vary in their details. Schreckengost has said, “I thought back to a magical night when a friend and I went to see [Cab] Calloway at the Cotton Club [in Harlem] ... the city, the jazz, the Cotton Club, everything ... I knew I had to get it all on the bowl.”

Symposium set on Marcel Proust

An international symposium on Marcel Proust is set for Friday and Saturday, April 21-22, in Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture.

The event, sponsored by the Department of French and Italian, will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

The conference is titled “The Strange M. Proust/L’Étrange M. Proust” and aims to put Proust’s major work — and its reception — in perspective. Although “A la Recherche du Temps perdu” has become a classic and Proust often has been considered one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, this work, in many ways, remains unorthodox. Some of the most renowned scholars and readers of Proust will participate in the event.

More information is available at web.princeton.edu/sites/fit/news.

Hosting weekend set for April 20-22

The University’s hosting weekend for students admitted to the class of 2010 is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, April 20-22.

The weekend is designed to showcase the academic, residential and social aspects of Princeton. Students and parents will attend a range of activities, including faculty and student panel discussions, open houses, tours and performing arts events.

The event is organized by the Admission Office.