Several projects that push the boundaries of knowledge and have high potential for impact have been awarded support through Princeton's Dean for Research Innovation Fund.
The funding makes possible explorations in the natural sciences and social sciences, collaborations with industry, and collaborations between artists and scientists or engineers. Several of the projects have the potential for direct benefits to human health while others explore themes in history and the arts. The projects were chosen by faculty-led committees based on the quality, originality and potential of the research.
"Princeton faculty are pioneers across the range of human inquiry, and these innovation funds enable our researchers and their teams to explore paths that they might not otherwise take," said Dean for Research Pablo Debenedetti, the Class of 1950 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science and professor of chemical and biological engineering. "Through this funding program, the University shows support for the innovation mindset that leads to truly profound advances and can also lead to societal benefits."

A project to study antimicrobial agents found in the pouches of marsupials such as this sugar glider is one of three to be awarded Dean for Research Innovation Funds for New Ideas in the Natural Sciences. Photo by Patrick Kavanagh
New ideas in the natural sciences
The fund supports the exploration of new concepts that require additional study or experiments before they are ready to become the basis of a competitive proposal to a funding agency.
Finding novel antimicrobials by studying marsupials

Ricardo Mallarino. Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Boosting the ability to study molecules in motion

Charles Fefferman and Amit Singer. Photos by Julia Fefferman and provided by the Department of Mathematics
Lowering barriers to gene therapy for the brain

Lisa Boulanger. Photo by Lisa Boulanger

The use of individual-level historical data for studies of long-term impacts of history, including precolonial and colonial societies in Africa, is the focus of a new projected awarded the Dean for Research Innovation Fund for New Ideas in the Social Sciences. Image by François-Edmond Fortier
New ideas in the social sciences
This fund encourages scholarship on new and enduring questions. The selected projects are ones that will result in the advancement of a discipline through the development of new directions, working groups, conferences, technologies, or expanded access to research resources, or lead to a major piece of scholarly work.
Resilience: A psychological and ecological history

Katja Guenther. Photo by Edward Baring
Social histories: Applying statistical methods to understand the past

Leonard Wantchekon. Photo by Matthew Khoury
Industrial collaborations
This fund supports research collaborations that address societal challenges of interest both to industry and to academic scientists and engineers. Industry often plays an essential role in bringing the innovations of University researchers to fruition and making them available to society at large. The program requires an agreement from the industry collaborator to provide matching funds in the second year of the project.
Time-resolved breath oxygen monitor for critical care

Gerard Wysocki. Photo by David Kelly Crow
Novel nanostructured complex fluids for biofilm removal

Howard Stone. Photo by David Kelly Crow

Left: Dancer Cori Kresge in photo by Sigrid Adriaenssens. Right: Cori Kresge in net, with dancer Chris Ralph standing in background. Photo by Barry Onouye Studio
Research collaborations between artists and scientists or engineers
This fund encourages collaborations between faculty scholars in the arts and those in the natural sciences or engineering to promote synergistic innovations, allowing experts in seemingly unrelated fields to unify and expand their respective knowledge in ways that benefit both disciplines.
NODES-Net tOpology and Dance Exploration Systems

Sigrid Adriaenssens and Rebecca Lazier. Photos by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy and Bentley Drezner
The project involves first designing and fabricating different types of nets and then hosting intensive research sessions with dancers in Princeton's Lewis Center for the Arts. The team will experiment with choreography and collect movement in a digital framework gathered from reflective beads mounted on the nets. The project will include collaboration with Adam Finkelstein, professor of computer science, to transform these data into insights on net structure and properties. The project will include a public performance.
Exposure

Clockwise from top left: Eduardo Cadava, Fazal Sheikh, Mark Zondlo and John Higgins. Photos by Eduardo Cadava, Alexandra Beck, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and Laura Pedrick

Exposure by Fazal Sheikh
Left: 37°8'0.13"N / 109°52'32.53"W, Mexican Hat Uranium Disposal Cell, Navajo Nation, southern Utah, 2017.
Right: 40°4'5"N, 109°24'.77"W, Evaporation ponds and fracking installations, Chapita Wells Oil and Gas Field, Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, Utah, 2017.
All images copyright the artist, Fazal Sheikh
The team includes Michael Celia, the Theodora Shelton Pitney Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of PEI; Peter Jaffe, the William L. Knapp '47 Professor of Civil Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering; Zia Mian, research scientist at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security; and Emily Wild, Princeton's chemistry, geosciences and environmental studies librarian.