

CMI Best Paper Awards recognize work on carbon capture, irrigation’s climate impact
April 27, 2022 ・ Morgan KellyThe Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) recognized Tom Postma, a Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, and Yujin Zeng, an associate research scholar in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, at the CMI Annual Meeting for outstanding published research. Postma was awarded…
Like a natural system, democracy faces collapse as polarization leads to loss of diversity
December 6, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyMuch like an overexploited ecosystem, the increasingly polarized political landscape in the United States — and much of the world — is experiencing a catastrophic loss of diversity that threatens the resilience not only of democracy, but also of society, according…
HMEI Biodiversity Challenge awards $600,000 to inaugural projects exploring the roots of and pressures on biodiversity
September 15, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyThe High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) has awarded nearly $600,000 in inaugural funds from the Thomas A. and Currie C. Barron Family Biodiversity Research Challenge Fund — or Biodiversity Challenge — to six projects led by Princeton University faculty that…
CMI recognizes published postdoctoral and graduate research related to Net-Zero America, hurricane intensity
April 20, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyErin Mayfield, a postdoctoral research associate in the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), and Justin Ng, who received his Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton in 2019, were recognized at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Carbon Mitigation…


Spacing COVID-19 vaccine doses has epidemiological benefits, but longer-term outcomes depend on immunity robustness
March 9, 2021Delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccines should reduce case numbers in the near term. But the longer-term case burden and the potential for evolution of viral “escape” from immunity will depend on the robustness of immune responses generated by natural…


High end of climate sensitivity in new climate models seen as less plausible
March 3, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyA recent analysis of the latest generation of climate models — known as a CMIP6 — provides a cautionary tale on interpreting climate simulations as scientists develop more sensitive and sophisticated projections of how the Earth will respond to increasing…
True toll of coronavirus on sub-Saharan Africa may be obscured by tremendous variability in risk factors and surveillance
February 17, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyOne early feature of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic was the perception that sub-Saharan Africa was largely being spared the skyrocketing infection and death rates that were disrupting nations around the world. While still seemingly mild, the true toll of…
Adherence to health precautions, not climate, the biggest factor driving wintertime COVID-19 outbreaks
February 9, 2021 ・ Morgan KellyWintertime outbreaks of COVID-19 have been largely driven by whether people adhere to control measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, according to a study published Feb. 8 in Nature Communications by Princeton University researchers. Climate and population immunity…
Getting U.S. to net-zero emissions by 2050 will take massive, but affordable, coordination
December 15, 2020 ・ Molly A. SeltzerWith a massive, nationwide effort the United States could reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 using existing technology and at costs aligned with historical spending on energy, according to a study led by Princeton researchers. The new “Net-Zero…