Today’s Briefing:
Q&A: Joshua Angrist GS ’89 was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics, becoming one of five Princeton affiliates to be awarded a Nobel Prize this year, an unprecedented number in the University’s history. He was jointly awarded half of the prize with Guido Imbens “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.” Angrist sat for an interview with The Daily Princetonian to discuss his Nobel Prize-winning work, upbringing, and Princeton’s significant role in his successes, among other topics.
“You know, most undergraduates will not go on to a life of research, but I think many undergraduates who haven’t thought about studying economics are missing out, and they should give it a shot,” said Angrist when asked if he had any advice to offer Princeton students.
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NEW TRAVEL GUIDELINES: Updated international travel guidelines were sent out in an email yesterday. Although personal international travel still requires approval from the Director of Student Life (DSL), additional Global Safety and Security (GSS) approval is now only needed for travel to places not in the student’s home country and with a Level 4 travel advisory from the U.S. Department of State. From December 6 through January 24, restrictions and registration requirements for personal international travel will be lifted for undergraduate students. Graduate students are allowed to travel to places with up to a Level 3 travel advisory after getting approval from their department chair, program director, or dean. Associate Provost for International Affairs and Operations Aly Kassam-Remtulla wrote that they were “guardedly optimistic” about lifting more restrictions during the Spring semester.
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OBITUARY: Geosciences professor Tullis Onstott GS ’80 died on October 19 at age 66 from lung cancer complications. His work on underground microbial life earned him acclaim, including being named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2007. Onstott was a member of the University faculty for 37 years and created the Planets and Life certificate program. His body of research includes over 200 scientific papers, discovering the deepest known multicellular organism on Earth, writing a book, and leading many projects funded by NASA’s Astrobiology Program. Peers and students alike praised his character, with Yuri Tamama ’22 describing Ostott as a “welcoming and kind mentor” during her time as a first-year student in his lab.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Prominent artificial intelligence (AI) scholar Kate Crawford held an in-person discussion with political theorist Wendy Brown GS ’83 as part of the Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture series on Oct. 27, representing the first in-person discussion series convened by Princeton Public Lectures (PPL) since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. During their conversation, Crawford spoke about the environmental, moral, and social dimensions of AI and also elaborated on her thoughts regarding the potential future trajectory of AI technology. The conversation centered around the themes examined in Crawford’s latest book, “Atlas of AI: Power, Politics and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence.”
“We have a tendency to narrow AI within technical paradigms. But AI is as many social practices as it is technical practice. And it’s also the infrastructures that subtend these systems,” said Crawford on the dangers of characterizing AI in narrow terms.
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