Princeton University Graduate School

Now that it's July, the summer in the northern hemisphere is officially in full swing — and we will soon be faced with the question: what will we do with our "free time" once the World Cup is over?!

Whether you're sitting on the beach or spending a rainy day indoors, these thought-provoking summer reading lists from Princeton University faculty are worth exploring.

Two of the featured faculty are Graduate School alums. Also look for "America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries" by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. *97, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, and recommendations from Juri Seo, professor of music and director of graduate studies in composition.

Check out the faculty interviews and book lists at https://bit.ly/4p6PKWZ

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Department of English, Princeton University
Department of Music at Princeton University

While most graduate students arrive in late August, some begin to arrive as early as July 1 (and on other dates throughout the summer) due to specifically approved academic requirements. Campus, alumni, and local friends, please join us in welcoming these early arrivals to our community and helping them settle in during these quiet months.

New grad students, we're so glad you're here! We can't wait to see everyone at New Graduate Student Orientation on August 26 and 27! Check out Canvas for the full schedule.

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Alan Turing *38, the "father of computer science", was born 114 years ago today.

Turing received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1938 under the direction of his adviser Alonzo Church. (Church had earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1927.) Best known for his role as a codebreaker in World War II, Turing is considered a pioneer of theoretical computer science and an icon of LGBTQ+ history. As a gay man, he was jailed and persecuted in the UK. He died by su***de in 1954, at the age of 41.

On May 16, 1938, the Department of Mathematics commented on Turing’s Princeton doctoral dissertation, “Systems of logic based on ordinals”: “This thesis is an able and unusual contribution indicative not only of technical capability but also of considerable insight into the problems treated and appreciation of their relationship to other questions…There are also incidental but noteworthy contributions to other branches of mathematics, in particular, to analysis.” (See photo 3 for Turing's handwritten mathematical notations in his dissertation.)

In 2019, Princeton unveiled a portrait of Turing by Jordan Sokol that was added to the Princeton University Art Museum's permanent collection (photo one). In introducing the portrait, Jennifer Rexford, then chair of Princeton Computer Science and now University provost, said, “In the computer science department at Princeton, we owe a tremendous intellectual debt to Alan Turing for our historical strength in theoretical computer science, of course, but also research in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and even working at the intersection of computing with biology, a topic Turing pursued in the last few years of his short life. And finally, in the applications of computing to the service of nations and of humanity.”

Turing's portrait now hangs in the Lewis Library on Princeton's campus.

Read more about Turing’s transformational impact: https://bit.ly/4eY0cfM

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