Newsmakers

DANIEL KAPLAN *82 was one of four New Jersey secondary school teachers honored at Princeton’s Commencement. Kaplan, who earned a doctorate in physics, teaches physics at Matawan Regional High School. ... Scholastic Parent & Child magazine named first lady MICHELLE OBAMA ’85 and Huffington Post columnist LISA BELKIN ’82 two of the 10 most-influential people in family life. Obama was recognized for raising awareness of childhood obesity and developing her Let’s Move program. Belkin “represents the explosion of online community voices who are redefining the way mothers (fathers, too!) find and share advice on raising their children,” the magazine said. ... ELLEN FRANKEL *78’s first opera, Slaying the Dragon, premiered in June at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. Inspired by real events, the opera tells the story of a white supremacist who transforms his life, thanks to a rabbi and his wife. ... Inventor MICHAEL TSENG ’05, a Princeton electrical engineering alumnus, earned second prize in Walmart’s “Get on the Shelf” contest, designed to seek out undiscovered products, for his PlateTopper airtight food cover. ... Several new members of the American ­Philo­sophical Society are alumni: GEORGE RUPP ’64, ­president of the International Rescue Committee; TERENCE TAO *96, a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles; and CHARLES K. WILLIAMS ’53 *56, director emeritus of the Corinth Excava­tions of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Three professors also were named: BONNIE L. BASSLER, a professor of molecular biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; Nobel laureate CHRISTOPHER A. SIMS, a professor of economics and banking; and BRENT D. SHAW, a professor of ­classics.