Princeton Alumni Weekly

01/24/2025

Who better to review the -nominated film ”A Complete Unknown” than history professor Sean Wilentz, author of the 2010 book ”Bob Dylan in America”?

The spirit is dead-on, Wilentz says, but Dylan “had this intense energy, and that doesn’t come across.”

Read more:

‘The facts are all true, the songs are all true. But none of it happened the way that the film depicts it,’ says the Princeton history professor

01/24/2025

Princeton’s Late Meal, served at 8:30 p.m., has been the subject of memes, hangry athlete discourse, and controversy over the program’s nonexistent weekend hours. Throughout its history, Late Meal has served as something greater than just a place for students to get a quesadilla, though. In my experience, it’s a cornerstone of community-building.

Read more from PAW intern James Swinehart ’27:

Each night at Late Meal, hungry undergrads find food and community

01/23/2025

Why do Black women receive C-sections at higher rates than their white counterparts? The root cause of this discrepancy has been unclear, but a new study led by Janet Currie *88, Princeton Universityprofessor of economics and public affairs, sheds some light.

Read more:

Janet Currie *88, Princeton professor of economics and public affairs, led the research

01/21/2025

In the middle of the night on Jan. 8, Jason Rhodes *99, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, watched in increasing alarm as the hillside surrounding his home in Altadena, California, became engulfed in flame. “It was the worst hellscape I’ve ever walked through,” Rhodes says. “It was howling winds, smoke. I could hardly see 20 feet away.”

Rhodes is just one of many Princetonians based in Southern California who have lost their homes to the wildfires that swept through the Los Angeles basin. “I always knew the canyons and the hillsides were at risk,” says Peter Braveman ’72, who lost his Palisades house in the fire. “We actually never thought that where we were in the Palisades village was going to be at risk.”

Read more:

From Altadena to Malibu to Pacific Palisades, Princetonians are picking up the pieces. “When the bad stuff happens, my tendency is to try to focus on ‘What’s the next step?’”

01/17/2025

PAW’s annual “Lives Lived & Lost” issue will reflect on the impact of 12 alumni who died last year — and Tiger Bech ’21, who was killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day in the New Orleans truck attack.

Bech had “a magnetic personality and a larger-than-life sense of humor,“ writes Hope Perry ’24. “He was described by Princeton football coaches as fearless, and Bech’s teammates gravitated toward him as a source of joy and encouragement on and off the field.”

Read more:

’He was like a lightning bolt that streaked across all of our lives,’ wrote his high school position coach Lance Strother

01/17/2025

Did Emilia Bassano really write some of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare? On the latest PAW Book Club podcast, author Jodi Picoult ’87 answered book club members’ questions about ”By Any Other Name,“ her meticulously researched novel that plays what we know of Bassano against what we know — and don’t know — about the Bard.

“I don’t believe that the same person who created those incredibly complex female characters in the plays would not have taught his own daughters to read or write. It made me fall into, as I said, this rabbit hole about authorship, and about what we actually know, the actual facts that we have about Shakespeare, who he was, and what, if anything, he wrote.”

Listen on PAW’s website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Soundcloud:

‘I never set about to write this story because I wanted to take down Shakespeare. I did it because I love those plays, and I wanted to understand how they could have come to be’

01/16/2025

Princeton men’s basketball unveiled new uniforms today, to be first worn at their Ivy League home opener vs. Columbia on Monday.

The jerseys feature classic script text and the “Sailor Tiger,” which has been used by Princeton teams since at least the 1990s (but probably began earlier).🏀🐅

01/15/2025

Michelle Lerner ’93 knows that it can be hard to make a career transition later in life. Yet with the publication of her debut novel, “Ring,” this month, the former public interest lawyer says others shouldn’t wait to do the work they want to do.

“I think part of what I learned is I can do this, and if I had really had the wherewithal and given myself permission earlier, I could have done it earlier also,” Lerner says. “I’m not sorry I did any of it. ... I’m glad that I had the experience of doing the work that I did, and that I get to also have this second career focusing on what I wanted to focus on from the beginning.”

Read more about this Tiger of the Week:

‘If I had really had the wherewithal and given myself permission earlier, I could have done it earlier,’ Lerner says

01/10/2025

Men’s basketball’s Ivy League season tips off tomorrow at Harvard. There’s a lot at stake for Princeton (11-4) — the team is working toward its fourth consecutive regular-season championship.

Read more:

Sports Men’s Basketball Seeking Fourth Consecutive Ivy League Crown Dalen Davis ’27 prepares to shoot what would ultimately be the game-winning three against Akron.  Shelley Szwast By Hope Perry ’24 Published Jan. 10, 2025 2 min read Copied to clipboard Men’s basketball’s Ivy League seaso...

01/10/2025

Who do YOU think are Princeton’s greatest athletes?

PAW’s list of 25, curated by a panel of experts, is online. But we’re also collecting readers’ opinions for possible future publication. Use this interactive online tool to build your own list, submit a letter to the editor, or just write to us at [email protected].

Now it’s your turn: Re-rank PAW’s list of top 25 athletes and add your own picks. PAW will collect the entries and compile them into a new readers’ choice list.

01/08/2025

#10 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Chris Ahrens ’98.

Ahrens (pictured at left) represented the U.S. in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the latter. He claimed world championship gold medals in 1995, ’97, ’98, and ’99. And at Princeton, Ahrens was on the men’s heavyweight eight teams that won the IRA championship in 1996 and ’98.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/08/2025

#9 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Diana Matheson ’08.

An Olympic bronze medalist for Canada in 2012 and 2016, Matheson was named Ivy League rookie of the year and player of the year at Princeton. When she graduated, Matheson was Princeton’s career leader in assists — and now shares second place. She’s still the leader for most assists in a game (with four vs. Rutgers).

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/07/2025

Latalia White ’13 shared her story about experiencing imposter syndrome at Princeton with Jess Deutsch ’91 and PAW.

“Many of us had struggles at Princeton. We weren’t alone, even though we felt isolated. Now, I work with high-functioning, smart, educated people who appear to have it all, but they have problems, too — we all do. ... I think Princeton will be better when we are willing to talk about our losses as much as our wins.”

Read more:

‘I think Princeton will be better when we are willing to talk about our losses as much as our wins’

01/07/2025

#8 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Yasser El Halaby ’06, men’s squash.

El Halaby (right) won the College Squash Association individual championship all four years, while leading Princeton to two Ivy League titles and two appearances in the CSA team finals. He would often draw standing-room crowds to his matches. Turning professional after graduation, El Halaby has been ranked as high as No. 40 in the world.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/07/2025

#7 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Cathy Corcione ’74.

Corcione, who swam in the 1968 Olympics when she was only 15, helped found the Princeton women’s swimming program. As a junior, she set national records in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle, and the following year won national championships in the 100- and 200-yard individual medleys.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/06/2025

#6 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Carol Brown ’75.

Brown (left) starred on Princeton’s women’s rowing team for three years, and she also swam and was part of a national record relay team in the 200-yard freestyle relay. A member of three Olympic rowing teams, Brown won a bronze medal in 1976. She was later inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/06/2025

#5 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Caroline Lind ’06.

In 2006, Lind anchored a women’s eight that won a national championship for Princeton, winning all its races by more than 6.4 seconds. She won gold medals in the women’s eight at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, as well as six world championships. Lind and her 2008 Olympic boatmates were inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.

01/03/2025

#4 on PAW’s list of the 25 greatest Princeton athletes is Dick Kazmaier ’52.

In 1951, Kazmaier became the only Princetonian and last Ivy Leaguer to win the Heisman Trophy. A two-time All-American at tailback in the single wing offense, Kazmaier led the nation in total offense his senior year and was also named the AP male athlete of the year. The University retired Kazmaier’s (and Bradley’s) number 42 for all sports in 2008.

Read the full list and create your own using our interactive online tool at paw.princeton.edu.