April 16: Computer Scientist Avi Wigderson *83 Wins the Turing Award

Institute for Advanced Study computer scientist Avi Wigderson *83 is this year’s recipient of the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award, widely considered the Nobel Prize of computing. — Quanta Magazine
 
Poet Charif Shanahan ’05 is among the 2024 recipients of the Whiting Award, which grants writers $50,000 each to support their craft. — NPR

Princeton anthropology professor Ryo Morimoto and writer Thomas Dayzie ’22 discussed their film Titration, about how the U.S. mined for uranium on Indigenous American land during World War II, employing Navajo people without disclosing the health risks. — Rocky Mountain PBS
 
CEO Andrea Jung ’79 said her microfinance organization Grameen America is raising $600 million in capital to invest in women-owned businesses, noting that women business owners who receive loans from Grameen have a 99.5% repayment rate. — Forbes
 
Ret. Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 called Iran’s attack on Israel “a very big deal,” noting the situation concerns not only Israel’s safety but also freedom of navigation for the oil and gas that come from the gulf and power the global economy. — CNN
 
Harvard folklore professor Maria Tatar *71 commented on parallels between fairy tales and public speculation that Kate Middleton and Megan Markle have been “silenced”: “This is what happens when you fall in love with a prince,” Tatar said. “You trade in your voice.” — Yahoo! News
 
SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley ’85 discussed the defense contractor’s plans after it landed its first contract with the Pentagon, collaborating to create an AI-powered satellite. — Yahoo! Finance
 
Independent presidential candidate Cornel West *80 chose as his running mate Melina Abdullah, a pan-African studies professor at California State University, Los Angeles. — CNN
 
Former president Donald Trump endorsed David McCormick *94 *96, who is running again for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania. Last time, Trump supported McCormick’s primary opponent Mehmet Oz, who then lost to now-Sen. John Fetterman. — The Hill
 
Maisha Robinson ’02, chair of the Palliative Medicine Department at Mayo Clinic in Florida, offered tips for leaving advanced directives so loved ones know how to handle an emergency or end of life situation. — Mayo Clinic News Network

“Paywalls create a two-tiered system: credible, fact-based information for people who are willing to pay for it, and murkier, less-reliable information for everyone else. Simply put, paywalls get in the way of informing the public, which is the mission of journalism. And they get in the way of the public being informed, which is the foundation of democracy.”

— Journalist Richard Stengel ’77, making a case for news organizations to lower paywalls and make their work free and open to the public during the 2024 election. — The Atlantic

 African-American studies professor Eddie Glaude Jr. *97 said when times get tough, Americans “retreat to the solidarity found in being white or, more modestly, in resigning oneself to the world as it is.” — Time
 
Hobart and William Smith Colleges politics professor Jodi Dean ’84 was relieved of her classroom duties after penning an essay for Verso saying the images from Oct. 7 in Israel were “exhilarating.” — Finger Lakes Daily News

Kareem Maddox ’11 talked about his work in local radio and podcasting in between graduating from Princeton and being named to Team USA’s 3x3 basketball team that will compete in the Paris Olympics this summer. — The Sun

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