Princeton University Graduate School

What are you reading as we count down the days to the start of the academic year?

(For incoming students, it’s just 1️⃣9️⃣ days until New Graduate Student Orientation August 26-27. Sign up on Canvas.)

This summer, Emma Ljung, senior lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program, is reading "Pappan och havet" by Tove Jansson.

"Most people think the Moomin series is for children — the characters are trolls, after all, and live in a magical valley without policemen or cities — but they are in fact deeply philosophical and describe many of the feelings and experiences that shape us humans," says Emma, who is also the director of the Santa Susana Archaeological Project and founder of the Western Iberia Archaeology collective.

In the book, Emma says, "Moominpappa moves his family across the wild sea to a hostile island to take up his presumed destiny as lighthouse keeper, but after trials and tribulations comes to realize that a Moominpappa can only ever be a Moominpappa and that is just fine."

Emma teaches courses at all levels on campus: first-year students, transfers, sophomores, and Princeton University Graduate School students. Her current courses include "Constructing the Past" (WRI 146), "The Past Is a Foreign Country" (WRI 208), and "Write to Publish in the Social Sciences and Humanities" (WRI 504).

She also teaches "The Writing's on the Wall: Exploring Princeton through Data-Driven Fieldwork" (WRI 222) — a research course on campus about the complex traditions of Princeton.

Emma re-reads the "Pappan och havet" series every year and regularly gives the English translations to her students.

"I adore seeing them being read across campus!"

Princetonians, let us know what you're reading this summer by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/mht4dRTsv4VZn6n2A

Excitement is picking up at the Graduate School! Every week, more early-arriving new graduate students get to campus. As they settle in, we're kicking off our Countdown to New Graduate Student Orientation, August 26-27, by highlighting the kind of community they're joining, starting with a graduate student leader who put her academic training to work supporting policymakers at the United Nations.

Zoë Gorman is a Princeton University Ph.D. candidate in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Princeton University, and also vice president of Graduate Student Government of Princeton University Princeton University Graduate Student Government (GSG). This year, she was part of the team that received the United Nations Secretary General Award, given to one project each year for innovation.

The award-winning project, “From Airwaves to Algorithms: Tackling Mis/Disinformation and Hate Speech in Peacekeeping Settings,” emphasized two tools: Unite Wave, which analyzes FM radio broadcasts in dozens of local languages, and the Monitoring and Analysis of the Information Environment (MAIE) platform, which tracks online discourse and detects inauthentic behavior.

As a Data Science Research Fellow, Gorman developed a method combining a rule-based semantic algorithm with machine learning topic modeling to extract meaningful narratives from radio data. This helps integrate Unite Wave with MAIE to better identify how narratives flow across platforms in UN peacekeeping contexts around the world.

The project exposed Gorman to methods and data she'll use in her dissertation. Her takeaway: collaboration between academics and policymakers can produce groundbreaking research with impact on people's lives.

"I wasn't an expert in text analysis methods going into the project (and I'm still not), and I think putting yourself out there and trying to code or get creative about technical problems is so important, especially for women,” Gorman said. “I would encourage others not to be afraid to broaden their skillsets."

Gorman's adviser alerted her to the UN fellowship but this is the kind of experiential learning opportunity the Graduate School's GradFUTURES team is always cultivating. Learn more about experiential learning at https://bit.ly/4wepYlx.

2️⃣ 0️⃣ Days until New Student Orientation, August 26-27. Register on Canvas.

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This spring, Xiaogang He *16 *19 was named the inaugural winner of the Global Climate Research Prize. The prestigious new international award, which was founded by Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and LUT University in Finland, recognizes “research which has transformative and transboundary implications for addressing climate change-induced issues globally.”

Currently an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore, he began working on large-scale modeling of floods and droughts as a student at Princeton University, where he received his master's degree in 2016 and his Ph.D. in 2019, both in civil and environmental engineering. He also received a certificate in Science, Technology, and International Policy (STEP) through the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where he studied under Michael Oppenheimer, the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs.

“The prize panel specifically highlighted the transboundary impact of my research and its relevance to water, food, and energy security across vulnerable regions, themes that I first began to develop under your mentorship as a STEP fellow,” He wrote in an email to Oppenheimer.

Read more about He and his research at the link ⤵️

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The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory recently announced the launch of a graduate student collaborative research initiative with Princeton University. The Collaborative Research in Plasma Science and Technology (CRPST) program formalizes joint advising and expands opportunities for Princeton University graduate students in engineering, physics and related fields to conduct research at PPPL.

The program is designed to expand collaborations between University faculty and PPPL scientists on graduate student research aligned with the Lab's mission and advancing discoveries in plasma science and technology. The program supports research in fusion energy, plasma science and technology, machine learning applications, microelectronics, quantum materials and devices, electromanufacturing, computational physics and other areas aligned with PPPL priorities.

Each graduate student in the program is co‑advised by one PPPL scientist and one Princeton University faculty member. Students will spend at least one day a week at PPPL, working within research groups and accessing Laboratory facilities to support their projects. The pilot is supported through a shared funding model in which CRPST provides half of the funding for graduate student support each year, which is matched by funding from the Princeton faculty adviser's own research funds.

Read more about CRPST and this year's cohort of six students: https://bit.ly/44VUipY

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We are proud to share that two of the four 2026 Fields Medalists announced by the International Mathematical Union are Graduate School alumni: Yu Deng *15 and Jacob Tsimerman *11.

In addition, John Pardon '11, a Princeton University undergraduate alum and faculty member from 2016-2023, and Hong Wang, who has been affiliated with Princeton's mathematics department as a Minerva Lecturer in 2025, are the other two 2026 Fields Medalists.

Known as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics,” the Medal is awarded every four years to up to four researchers under the age of 40. It recognizes both “outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work” and “the promise of future achievement,” the IMU said in its 2026 Fields Medal announcement.

Deng, who received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 2015, was recognized “for his work in partial differential equations, including the rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation from hard-sphere dynamics for rarefied gases, the derivation of wave kinetic equations from nonlinear dispersive systems, and probabilistic approaches to nonlinear Schrodinger dynamics,” according to his Fields Medal citation. He received Princeton's Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship in 2015, the University's top honor for graduate students. He is now a professor of mathematics at The University of Chicago.

Tsimerman, who received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 2011, was recognized “for his contribution in the recasting of o-minimality as a fundamental method of arithmetic and complex algebraic geometry, and his role in the proof of many central conjectures including Griffiths' conjecture on the algebraicity of images of the period maps, and the Andre-Oort conjecture for Siegel modular varieties.” He is now a professor at the University of Toronto and a distinguished visiting professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he has been leading the School's 2025–26 special year on arithmetic geometry, Hodge theory and o-minimality, according to the IAS announcement of its affiliated 2026 Fields Medal winners.

Congratulations to all the 2026 Fields Medalists! Read more about their accomplishments: https://bit.ly/4vLtuUg

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Image 1: Yu Deng
Image 2: Jacob Tsimerman
Image 3: John Pardon
Image 4: Hong Wang

Photos courtesy of the Simons Foundation and the International Mathematical Union.

This past spring, four Princeton University graduate students attended the AAAS - The American Association for the Advancement of Science workshop, “Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering” (AAAS CASE). Through sponsorship by the Graduate School’s GradFUTURES program and the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), the students spent three days meeting with policymakers across Capitol Hill to discuss the social impact of their research.

“Walking through the congressional offices, seeing the energy and pace of it all, and sitting across from staffers who genuinely wanted to hear from us changed my mental image of what science policy looks like. What struck me most was realizing that the gap between scientists and policymakers is not a wall — it is a space that both sides are actively trying to cross… As an atmospheric physics PhD student who spends most of my days thinking about theory in front of a laptop, I had never thought of that as part of my job," Lynn Hirose, a doctoral candidate in atmospheric & oceanic studies, said about the experience.

Other students who attended the conference were Austin Fan, a doctoral candidate in chemical and biological engineering; James Trettin, a doctoral candidate in chemical and biological engineering; Kush Maheshwari, a Ph. D. candidate in the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics.

Read more about the students’ experiences and reflections https://bit.ly/4wRCNTz

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Thank you Princeton Alumni Association of Taiwan for providing this opportunity for alumni to connect with graduate student research.

Now that it's July, the summer in the northern hemisphere is officially in full swing — and we will soon be faced with the question: what will we do with our "free time" once the World Cup is over?!

Whether you're sitting on the beach or spending a rainy day indoors, these thought-provoking summer reading lists from Princeton University faculty are worth exploring.

Two of the featured faculty are Graduate School alums. Also look for "America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries" by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. *97, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, and recommendations from Juri Seo, professor of music and director of graduate studies in composition.

Check out the faculty interviews and book lists at https://bit.ly/4p6PKWZ

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As the nation marks its semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 — we're spotlighting Founding Father James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and Princeton's first graduate student.

After earning his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1771, Madison remained for an additional year of advanced study, working with Princeton President John Witherspoon in law and Hebrew.

In January 2008, Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW) named James Madison the most influential Princeton alum in history.

In 1973, the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni established the James Madison Medal in recognition of Madison as Princeton's first graduate student. The medal is considered the highest honor the Princeton community can bestow on a graduate alum and is awarded annually to an individual whose distinguished career, commitment to graduate education, or record of public service reflects Madison's legacy.

Images

#1: 1816 portrait of Madison, painted by John Vanderlyn

#2: A lithograph of Madison by E.B. and E.C. Kellogg (Princeton University Library Graphic Arts Collection)

#3: A portrait of Madison hangs in Princeton's historic Maclean House, now home to the Princeton Alumni Association. Built in 1756 as the residence of President John Witherspoon, Maclean House was where Madison studied with Witherspoon during his post-graduate year. Madison later became the first president of the Princeton Alumni Association, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.

Learn more about Madison's impact on Princeton and the nation: https://bit.ly/4ffyU4H

Enjoy this short, fun video about Mclean House: https://bit.ly/4wn0tPt

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