Physical Sciences

  • Bristol-Myers Squibb collaboration leads to open-source software to optimize chemical reactions

    Wednesday, Feb 3, 2021
    by Wendy Plump, Department of Chemistry
    Princeton chemists Benjamin Shields and Abigail Doyle

    Scientists from Princeton chemistry and computer science work with industry to create tool based on machine-learning 

    In the past few years, the Doyle Lab has turned increasingly to data science techniques to assist problem-solving in organic synthesis. Researchers are driven partly by a year-old federal initiative that seeks to conjoin data science and chemistry, and partly by the notion that a chemist’s time is better spent exploring new reactions than optimizing them. 

  • Chemist Chirik discovers “transformative” route to recyclable plastics

    Thursday, Jan 28, 2021
    by Wendy Plump, Department of Chemistry

    Scientists from ExxonMobil Chemical collaborate on developing new materials that benefit society

    As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers in the Chirik Lab have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule – from a material known for over a century and used to make common products like tires and shoe soles – with vast implications for fulfilling that promise through depolymerization.

  • Princeton Announces Engage 2020, New Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference

    Wednesday, Oct 14, 2020
    Engage 2020, Princeton's first innovation and entrepreneurship conference

    The mission of Princeton University will be brought to life in a new way through Engage 2020, the inaugural innovation and entrepreneurship conference scheduled for November 4-6, 2020. Presented by the Princeton innovation and entrepreneurship team and its campus partners, Engage 2020 will offer more than 50 live, online sessions of relevance to academia, business and industry, Princeton alumni, entrepreneurs, investors, foundations and the intellectually curious.

  • Invention sparked by COVID-19 pandemic safely disinfects surfaces continuously

    Monday, Oct 12, 2020
    by Larry Bernard, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

    An invention to apply plasma to frequently touched items for continuous disinfection could provide a safe and effective, non-chemical way to reduce pathogens on various surfaces such as keypads, escalator handrails and other high-touch surfaces, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) inventors say.

    The invention (patent pending) directs cold plasma from different orientations to keep surfaces disinfected without hand sanitizer, sprays, ultraviolet light or other chemical-based solutions.

  • Princeton Catalysis Initiative signs agreement with Genmab to forge strong community bond

    Friday, Oct 9, 2020
    by Wendy Plump, Department of Chemistry
    Princeton researchers and Genmab scientists held a jumpstart meeting in Plainsboro earlier this month: (l to r) Daniel Martin, Noah Bissonnette, Patricia Coutinho de Souza, Marie Zamanis, Angelo Harris, and Jacob Geri. Photo by C. Todd Reichart

    Opening a new chapter in community-based collaboration, the Princeton Catalysis Initiative (PCI) has signed a partnership agreement with Genmab, an international biotech company based in Denmark with U.S. headquarters in Plainsboro. This is the sixth partnership for PCI in just over two years. 

    PCI enables new synergies and mission-inspired projects between Princeton University researchers and corporate scientists. The Genmab partnership was officially launched this month during a socially distanced tour of Genmab's state-of-the-art facilities. 

  • New study provides evidence for decades-old theory to explain the odd behaviors of water

    Thursday, Jul 16, 2020
    by Catherine Zandonella, Office of the Dean for Research

    Water, so ordinary and so essential to life, acts in ways that are quite puzzling to scientists. For example, why is ice less dense than water, floating rather than sinking the way other liquids do when they freeze?

    Now a new study provides strong evidence for a controversial theory that at very cold temperatures water can exist in two distinct liquid forms, one being less dense and more structured than the other.

  • Astrophysicist Kunz receives NSF award for research and for establishing plasma physics summer school aimed at attracting underrepresented students to field

    Tuesday, Jun 23, 2020
    by John Greenwald, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

    Matthew Kunz, an assistant professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) five-year grant to research magnetic fields throughout the early universe and to establish a summer school on plasma physics aimed at attracting women and underrepresented minorities to the field.

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