How do plant roots store carbon? Princeton researchers found that the energy a plant devotes to its roots depends on proximity to other plants: when close together, plants heavily invest in their root systems to compete for finite underground resources; if far apart, they invest less. As about a third of the world's vegetation biomass (and carbon) is belowground, this model provides a valuable tool to predict root proliferation in global earth-system models.

The endowed position expands interdisciplinary research and teaching focused on Indigenous communities around the world.

The Borexino detector, a hyper-sensitive instrument deep underground in Italy, has finally succeeded at the nearly impossible task of detecting CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) neutrinos from our sun’s core. These little-known particles reveal the last missing detail of the fusion cycle powering our sun and other stars, and could answer still-outstanding questions of the sun's composition.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Princeton's Global History Lab is continuing to partner with a worldwide network of universities and NGOs to teach history in these challenging times.