Princeton Weekly Bulletin February 8, 1999
Hercules Corp. grant creates PEAR Fund
The Hercules Corp. has pledged $750,000 to the University in honor of Robert Jahn, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The gift will endow a fund to support novel research at the University.
The newly created fund will be called the PEAR Fund, in recognition of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Program that Jahn established in 1979 and has directed over the past two decades. Created through the Hercules Director's Charitable Awards Program, it will be used for annual awards to Princeton faculty or students in any discipline who are pursuing research topics not yet sufficiently developed to attract conventional funding sources. The new program will be administered by the University Research Board.
"We are grateful to Professor Jahn and to the Hercules Corporation for this generous gift, which will encourage thoughtful curiosity and the exploration of new ideas," says President Shapiro.
Jahn, whose career at Princeton spans more than 40 years, is a specialist in space propulsion research with a BSE in mechanical engineering and a Princeton PhD in physics. A member of the Class of 1951, he was dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1971 to 1986. Currently vice president of the Society for Scientific Exploration, he is also a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Since 1985 he has served on the board of Hercules Corp., which manufactures chemical specialty products.