Innovation

The Princeton Entrepreneurship Council (PEC) has become part of the Office of the Dean for Research, reporting to Vice Dean for Innovation Rodney Priestley. The move emphasizes the role of entrepreneurship in enhancing the societal impact of innovations that emerge from research.

With the aim of accelerating solutions to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Princeton has awarded University funding for seven new faculty-led research initiatives with strong potential for impact.

The funding enables faculty and their teams to address crucial questions in biomedical, health-related and fundamental science, as well as policy, social and economic topics. Projects will receive funding of up to $100,000.

A quantum physicist was in a quandary.

Nathalie de Leon, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, needed to control the carbon atoms on the surface of a diamond, but the sheer hardness of the diamond was defeating all attempts — not just hers, but those of every physicist who had tried over the previous half century.

“There was very large graveyard of people who had tried and failed,” de Leon said.

Optimeos Life Sciences, a startup founded by two Princeton University faculty members, has reached agreements with six pharmaceutical companies to develop therapeutics using a Princeton-developed drug delivery technology. The collaborations have the potential to improve the effectiveness of medications for the treatment of diseases, ranging from cancer to diabetes.