If you ask Dr. Lachlan Forrow ’78 about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, you’re likely to hear an enthusiastic response about the late Nobel laureate’s extraordinary range of talents, from his work as a young theologian to his campaign against nuclear weapons near the end of his life. But it is Schweitzer’s most famous contribution — as a doctor, tending to underserved patients in Lambaréné, Gabon — that has helped to shape Forrow’s career.

Dr. Lachlan Forrow ’78, pictured with a portrait of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. (Courtesy Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)

Forrow, a philosophy major at Princeton, traveled to Gabon in 1982, taking a break from his studies at Harvard Medical School to work for three months in the hospital that Schweitzer founded. The brief fellowship was a challenging experience that left a lasting impression.

Nearly a decade later, as board member of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, Forrow helped launch a program for U.S. Schweitzer Fellows — aspiring medical professionals who would help to address unmet needs in American cities. In the last 18 years, the program’s annual cohort has grown from 12 fellows to 250, and Forrow, now president of the fellowship group, aims to double that number in the next five years.

“Schweitzer started his hospital in Lambaréné, but he said that everyone has his or her own Lambaréné,” Forrow said. “When they find it, it’s very fulfilling. … We’re trying to help people find their Lambaréné.”

This fall, in the peak season for college applications, several high school seniors who attended Princeton’s Summer Journalism Program (SJP) will be getting a little extra help as they try to earn admission to some of the nation’s best universities. SJP staff remain in contact to assist students in the college application process, and if history is a guide, the SJP graduates should fare well: Four program alumni currently are enrolled at Princeton, and others have gone on to elite schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

The nomination for our Tigers of the Week — the SJP directors, pictured from left, Richard Just ’01, Greg Mancini ’01, Rich Tucker ’01, and Michael Koike ’01 — came from a program alumna, Tasnim Shamma ’11, a Daily Princetonian senior writer who said that without SJP, she never would have applied to Princeton.

Just, Mancini, Tucker, and Koike, four friends who worked together on The Daily Princetonian staff, created SJP after graduation in an effort to diversify college and professional newsrooms by giving students from low-income backgrounds a chance to explore and study journalism in a 10-day summer seminar. All student expenses, including travel costs, are paid by donors (mostly Princeton alumni).

Pianist Robert Taub ’77 has a deep knowledge of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, both as a musician and a music scholar. In the mid-1990s, he performed all 32 sonatas in a three-year span. Earlier this year, he authored a book called Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, which Library Journal called “a close, careful reading of every aspect of performance from fingering to tempo.”

Taub majored in music at Princeton, earned a doctorate from Julliard, and has returned to teach courses on campus in recent years. His latest project is a comprehensive collection of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas — the first in more than 100 years from the venerable publisher G. Schirmer — that will encapsulate the works in two volumes of annotated sheet music and 10 CDs that feature Taub playing the sonatas. He told James Barron ’77, the secretary for his class, that the new collection sums up many years of playing and studying the sonatas. By citing Beethoven’s own fingerings and markings, Taub said he is attempting “to portray an artistic vision that transcends the little black dots on the page.”

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Author Jonathan Safran Foer ’99 earned acclaim for the captivating prose in his first two novels, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. His newest work, the nonfiction book Eating Animals, is drawing a different sort of attention for its controversial, compelling take on, well, eating meat. Foer’s route to vegetarianism is described in an excerpt published in the food issue of The New York Times Magazine earlier this month. (In it, he briefly mentions wrestling with the morality of eating meat during his time as a philosophy major at Princeton.)

Foer shared some of his views during a recent edition of Larry King Live, and The Huffington Post has launched a series of essays responding to Eating Animals. Aaron Gross, founder of the advocacy group Farm Forward, wrote the introduction, describing the book as “part personal journey, part modern muckraking and a surprisingly candid and empathetic book on food.” Actress Natalie Portman followed with a review in which she said the book changed her “from a 20-year vegetarian to a vegan activist.”

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

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Peter Orszag ’91, director of the Office of Management and Budget, ranked No. 5 on GQ’s list of the most powerful people in Washington, D.C., published last week. (Other Princeton alumni on the list include Robert Mueller ’66, No. 19; Richard Holbrooke *70, No. 21; and Edward Yingling ’70, No. 24). The reason for Orszag’s high ranking, according to GQ: “For every must-have on Obama’s domestic agenda — cap and trade, saner immigration policies, educational reform — the pressure’s on Orszag to make sure it can’t be branded as, er, ‘socialism.’ ” The respect Orszag built while head of the Congressional Budget Office, the magazine added, has made him “extremely influential with centrists” in Congress.

This month, Orszag has been trying to wield a different sort of influence around Washington. The avid runner lauched the OMB Pedometer Challenge, an effort to help his co-workers in the federal government burn off extra calories. Federal employees who volunteer to wear pedometers and out-step the OMB director have a chance to win prizes, including free lunches and a “happy healthy hour” for the winning team. “When you measure something and have a competition surrounding it,” Orszag explained in a White House video, “it creates a strong incentive to do more of it.” Better health, he added, may be the “ultimate prize.”

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In soccer, national-team coaches ultimately are judged by how their teams perform at the World Cup, but just getting into the tournament can be a challenging process. This week, head coach Bob Bradley ’80 and the U.S. men’s national team earned its ticket to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, winning in Honduras Oct. 10 to improve to 6-1-2 in qualifying matches.

For Bradley and his players, the celebration was cut short Oct. 13 when Charlie Davies, a 23-year-old forward on the team, was seriously injured in an early-morning car crash that killed one passenger. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Charlie and his family, as well as the people in the car and the families of the others involved,” Bradley said in a press conference. “As a team, we are relying on each other in a moment that has for sure hit us all hard.”

Bradley, the U.S. coach since December 2006, was a successful player at Princeton and coached the Tigers from 1984 to 1995, leading his team to the NCAA Final Four in 1993. In professional soccer, he coached the Chicago Fire to the Major League Soccer championship in 1998.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

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David Goldstein ’84 with daughter Galit ’13

Friday, Oct. 9 will be a big day for David Goldstein ’84, a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. Goldstein is on the science team of NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) spacecraft, which will crash into the moon’s Cabeus crater at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, kicking up dust that researchers believe contains ice. A second spacecraft will follow, four minutes after the first.

If water ice is present, Goldstein explains, it could be a valuable resource for astronauts at a lunar station. As NASA’s Web site notes, “It will not be practical to transport to space the amount of water needed for human and exploration needs.” (Interested readers can follow the LCROSS spacecraft’s journey on Twitter.)

Goldstein, an expert in fluid dynamics, has worked to model the gas and dust dynamics of the LCROSS impact plumes. His research group also models comet impacts on the moon.

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Ralph Nader ’55 has been many things in his five decades of public life — a consumer advocate, an environmental activist, a best-selling author of nonfiction, and a frequent presidential candidate. This month, he added “novelist” to the list. Nader’s fiction debut is a 733-page story of “practical utopia,” titled Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, in which a cadre of wealthy individuals sets out to solve America’s problems, from big business to the federal government.

The novel, published by Seven Stories Press, has earned kudos from a few high-profile readers. Warren Beatty (in the book, a California gubernatorial candidate) said the story “shows us how good [Nader] thinks things could be,” and Princeton professor Cornel West *80 hailed the book’s “moral substance.” Ted Turner, one of the novel’s super-rich heroes, said he was happy to be included, according to the Washington Post.

Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus of The Nation, told the Associated Press that he was skeptical about the chances of seeing Nader’s vision in the real world. “But Ralph is a prophet,” Navasky added. “He has been right about so many things the rest of us couldn’t imagine.”

(Photo courtesy Seven Stories Press)

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(Courtesy The Rockefeller University)

After earning her Ph.D. in biochemical sciences from Princeton in 1977, Elaine Fuchs embarked on a remarkable career in cell biology and molecular genetics. Her work has probed the properties of stem cells and enhanced our understanding of inherited diseases and cancers. She explained her most significant work, on the human skin, in a commencement address at the University of Chicago:

“I explore how [skin] functions at a molecular level to keep microbes out, to keep our body fluids in so we don’t dehydrate, and to protect us from the mechanical and physical stresses of our environment. Through elucidating the normal functions of the skin, my laboratory has been guided to the genetic bases of different types of inherited and acquired disorders of the skin, ranging from severe blistering disorders to skin cancers.”

Fuchs, a Rockefeller University professor, has collected a long list of honors and honorary degrees, and last week, she received word of another: Fuchs will be one of nine recipients of the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific award. She will be honored Oct. 7 at a White House ceremony led by President Barack Obama.

In a news release, Obama called the honorees “national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators.”

Fuchs is not the only National Medal of Science winner with Princeton ties. Astronomy professor James Gunn, best known for mapping the heavens with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, also will be honored this year.

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A look back at our top Tigers

With PAW’s print edition entering its summer hiatus, the Tiger of the Week is taking a short break as well. We will return with new honorees in the fall, beginning Sept. 23. In the meantime, check The Weekly Blog for campus and alumni news updates throughout the summer months. And click on the photos below to see Tiger of the Week honorees that you might have missed. (You can read the names and class years of each alumna or alumnus by scrolling over the photos.)

Tiger of the Week: Frederick Ilchman ’90

Curator Frederick Ilchman ’90's latest work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "Rivals in Renaissance Venice," has been described in terms normally applied to summer blockbuster movies: "hot" (The New York Times), "breathtaking" (Newsweek), and "too good to miss" (The Boston Globe).

The MFA exhibition, which runs through Aug. 16, highlights Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese, three legendary artists from the 16th century who were rivals in the densely-populated and artistically vibrant city of Venice. They often embedded critiques of each other's work in their paintings, including some of the period's best-known works.

Tiger of the Week: Matt Hawrilenko ’04

Matt Hawrilenko ’04 doesn’t really like casinos, which may seem like an occupational handicap for a professional poker player. But Hawrilenko makes his living online, playing high-stakes cash games against some of the world’s top players. A few times each year, he also tries his hand on the tournament circuit, and on July 3, he scored big, winning more than $1 million in the World Series of Poker $5,000 Short-Handed No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

Hawrilenko, our Tiger of the Week, started playing poker in his senior year at Princeton, when the online poker craze was hitting its stride. His first full-time job was at Susquehanna International Group, an options-trading firm that uses poker as a training tool. After two years, Hawrilenko realized that finance wasn’t for him, but he also found that he could make good money playing poker.

Tiger of the Week: Tora Harris ’02

Tora Harris ’02 started June 28 with a simple message on his Twitter feed: “Nice day for jumping.” Five hours later, the former Princeton high-jump star sent a follow-up that verified his first impression: “1st place! National champ again.” Harris had cleared the bar at 2.31 meters (7 feet, 7 inches) to win the high jump at the USA Track and Field National Championships in Eugene, Ore. Along with the national title, Harris earned a bid to the world championships in Berlin this August.

Harris showed remarkable talent at Princeton, winning seven Ivy Heps championships and sweeping the NCAA indoor and outdoor high jump titles as a senior. He has continued to excel after college, competing in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and winning national titles in 2006 (outdoor) and 2007 (indoor).

Harris told USA Track and Field that his latest win, in windy conditions, required making adjustments throughout the competition. He was one of four competitors to clear 2.28 meters (topping the mark on his third and final try), and he made the winning 2.31-meter jump on his second attempt. “I was just hanging in there and staying tough,” he said.

(Photo courtesy USA Track and Field)

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Tiger of the Week: Mark Feuerstein ’93

Actor Mark Feuerstein ’93 has a reputation for playing nice guys on TV shows like Good Morning, Miami and The West Wing — TV Guide called him “the menschiest mensch who ever mensched” — and his latest role on USA Network’s Royal Pains is no exception. As Hank Lawson, a doctor who makes house calls to the super-rich in the Hamptons, Feuerstein again shows off his friendly, caring side. “I could hold out for the scary-villain part on Heroes,” the New York City native told TV Guide, “but in the long run it might not be as interesting as being the lead on a show set in a world that I know and love from growing up in New York, written by incredible writers and with incredible castmates.”

The decision seems to be paying off: In addition to earning mostly favorable reviews, Royal Pains has been a ratings hit, ranking second among cable series in its first month and drawing more than 5.5 million viewers each week.

Feuerstein’s acting career began at Princeton when he went to his first audition as a freshman. He soon drifted away from his dream of going to law school, and he earned a Fulbright scholarship to study drama in London after graduation. Most kids “grow up wanting to be a movie star and become a lawyer,” he said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. “I grew up wanting to be a lawyer and became an actor.”

(Photo courtesy USA Network)

Bonus: See Mark Feuerstein ’93’s yearbook photo in PAW’s online feature “The envelope, please.”

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Tiger of the Week: Roland Warren ’83

Children without involved fathers are more at risk to become teen parents, fail in school, or end up in jail. Roland Warren ’83, whose father was absent for much of his childhood, avoided those pitfalls. He excelled in school, earned degrees from Princeton and Wharton, embarked on a successful career in business and finance, and with his wife, Yvette, became a parent of two sons.

Since 2001, as president of the Maryland-based National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI), Warren has overseen a range of efforts designed to support fathers, including public education campaigns and curricula for building a dad's parenting skills. He also writes a monthly column for The Washington Times called Pop's Culture. With Fathers Day approaching, Warren is our Tiger of the Week.

The recent economic decline has put stress on parents who are trying to provide for their families, and Warren, in a recent column, preached resiliency. "[S]uccess in life and in fathering is less about how many times one falls," he wrote, "but rather, about how many times one gets back up."

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Tiger of the Week: Max Anderson ’01

With a fresh diploma from Harvard Business School and a job at the money-management firm Bridgewater Associates, Max Anderson ’01 finds himself in an enviable position. But the new M.B.A. is not taking the responsibilities of the business world lightly. Last week, he and more than 400 other Harvard Business School graduates (about half of the Class of 2009) promised “to serve the greater good” and made pledges on eight specific points, including pursuing work “in an ethical manner” and presenting performance and risks “accurately and honestly.” Anderson, our Tiger of the Week, was the driving force behind this new M.B.A. Oath, a sort of Hippocratic Oath for business graduates.

The pledge is a response to unethical behavior in the business world, Anderson explained in a May 30 New York Times story. “We want to learn from those mistakes, do things differently, and accept our duty to lead responsibly,” he told the newspaper. “Realistically, we have tremendous potential to affect society for better or worse. Let’s humbly step up. We are looking out for our own interest, but also for the interest of our employees and the broader public.”

(Photo courtesy Max Anderson ’01)

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Tiger of the Week: Cameron Snaith ’00

This summer, 50 disadvantaged middle-school students from New York and Boston will attend art and music camp, thanks to our Tiger of the Week, Cameron Snaith ’00, and a group of young Princeton alumni who raised funds to provide scholarships to the children through the all-volunteer organization Giving Opportunities to Others (GOTO).

Since Snaith founded GOTO in 2001, the nonprofit has raised about $1 million and sent some 120 students to four-week, sleep-away art camps — Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in Elmer, N.J., and Camp Med-O-Lark in Washington, Maine — where they stretch their creative muscles, gain confidence, and share their interests with other students and counselors, all in rustic settings.

Tiger of the Week: Sonia Sotomayor ’76

Federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor ’76 is poised to become the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice. She also is our Tiger of the Week. President Barack Obama introduced Sotomayor as his nominee May 26, describing her as “an inspiring woman” and citing her intellect and compassion. After that introduction, Sotomayor said, “My heart today is bursting with gratitude.”

Sotomayor, a native of the Bronx, N.Y., excelled at Princeton, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, co-winner of the Pyne Prize, and a summa cum laude graduate in the history department. She joined the University’s board of trustees in 2007. Sotomayor graduated from Yale Law School and began her career as a federal judge in 1991. She was nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1997.

Ten other Princeton alumni have served as Supreme Court justices, beginning with William Patterson, Class of 1763. If confirmed, Sotomayor would join fellow Princetonian Samuel A. Alito Jr. ’72 on the high court. (The last time that two alumni sat together on the court was in 1860.) Alito famously declared his Supreme Court aspirations in his senior Nassau Herald profile. Sotomayor was not so bold, but she did include a favorite quote from another alumnus, Norman Thomas, Class of 1905: “I am not a champion of lost causes, but of causes not yet won.”

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Tiger of the Week: Monica Dweck ’76

When she was a child, Monica Dweck ’76 wanted to be a doctor because she wanted to help people. Today, as a leading oculoplastic surgeon, Dweck continues to pursue that goal, performing facial reconstruction for patients who have serious eye injuries, including many who are uninsured or underinsured. WPIX-TV in New York City profiled the Brooklyn doctor last week.

Oculoplastic surgery is a small but important a sub-specialty, said Dweck, who created the oculoplastic surgery curriculum for the ophthalmology residency program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Each surgery requires precision and an approach tailored to the unique anatomy of the patient's eye. Dweck told PAW that she sees it as an opportunity to be "artistic and creative in a scientific way."

Surgery also offers a chance to change lives by helping disfigured patients face the world again. Dweck, who completed her fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, spent time in private practice before returning home to work and teach at SUNY Downstate. She said that while her choice may have had something to do with the informal motto "Princeton in the nation's service," it really was rooted in advice that her parents gave her: "If we have skills or a special talent, then we should share that with others."

(Photo courtesy Monica Dweck ’76)

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Tiger of the Week: Eric Hagen ’92

Tiger of the Week Eric Hagen ’92 is at the top of his field, according to Forbes.com. Last week, the magazine chose him as the leading brokerage analyst in oil exploration and production, his area of expertise, and ranked Hagen fifth in its "dazzling dozen" of top analysts across all fields. (Rankings are based on a three-year performance history of "long-term calls," compiled by Zacks Investment Research in Chicago.)

Hagen, a onetime Princeton wrestler who served in the U.S. Marines after graduation, began working in the oil and natural gas sector as a consultant and has been an industry analyst for the last eight years, according to Forbes. He currently works for Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch Research, outperforming his peers with what Forbes described as "data-intensive methodology, an affinity for running 'what if' scenarios, and ... [a] focus on new industry trends."

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Tiger of the Week: J. Robert Hillier ’59 *61

When architect J. Robert Hillier ’59 *61 and his wife, Barbara, created the online magazine Obit in April 2007, they envisioned a publication that would stretch the boundaries of the standard obituary. “Obit is about life’s stories,” Hillier explained in a recent press release. “We conceived of it to deal with life, death, and transition, and in doing so brought together some of the best journalists in the country.” So while there are plenty of stories about the lives and deaths of celebrities, politicians, and star athletes, the magazine also memorializes less traditional deaths, like the end of GM’s Pontiac brand (a farewell to the muscle car).

Two years after its launch, Obit (obit-mag.com) has earned high praise in the online magazine world. Last week, it received two Webby Awards from the International Guild of Web Designers. Obit was one of eight publications selected for the Best Magazines category and one of 12 honored for Best Copy/Writing. Apparently, as one of Obit’s taglines proclaims, “Death is only part of the story.”

(Photo courtesy J. Robert Hillier ’59 *61)

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Tiger of the Week: Geoffrey Aguirre ’92

Neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist Geoffrey Aguirre ’92 was featured on the cover of Philadelphia magazine's April issue as one of 64 up-and-coming doctors in the area. The story highlighted Aguirre's research and clinical work on the loss and recovery of visual ability.

In studies using functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI), Aguirre has shown that the human brain seems receptive to therapies that restore sight. "When we looked at the brains of people with severe visual impairment from birth," he explained to the magazine, "the part responsive to vision was remarkably preserved, which was a big surprise -- studies in animals had suggested the opposite. In humans, who are so much more visual than other organisms, that may be the result of the brain getting just enough light through the retina early in life that it hangs on to that function." Aguirre is based in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees.

(Photo courtesy Geoffrey Aguirre ’92)

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Tiger of the Week: W.S. Merwin ’48

Poetry will be in the spotlight at Princeton next week, as the University welcomes Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and a dozen other prominent poets for the first Princeton Poetry Festival, April 27 and 28. So it is fitting that our Tiger of the Week, W.S. Merwin ’48, is a distinguished man of letters. On April 20, Merwin won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of what the award citation called “luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.” Merwin also won a Pulitzer in 1971 for The Carrier of Ladders.

As an undergraduate, Merwin was influenced by two notable English professors: highly regarded literary critic R.P. Blackmur and poet John Berryman. Merwin wrote about his Princeton mentors in his 2005 memoir, Summer Doors. While Berryman was a merciless editor, his exhaustive knowledge of poetry made an impression on the young Merwin. But Blackmur, who famously rose to prominence in the academy without the benefit of a college degree, offered the most memorable advice: “A good education,” he told Merwin, “won’t do you any harm.”

(Photo courtesy Pulitzer.org/Mark Hanauer)

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Tiger of the Week: Ellie Kemper ’02

Ellie Kemper ’02 landed a dream job last week: She took over as Dunder Mifflin’s new receptionist on NBC’s The Office. Any role on a hit comedy would be a big boost for a young actress, but this one was particularly special for Kemper, a “huge fan” of the show. “Being on set with them is like being in a dream, except the dream is real and I can reach out and touch them,” she told PAW. “Except I am trying not to touch them too much, because I was raised right.”

Kemper’s character made an immediate impression on office mates Dwight and Andy, who angled for her attention on last week’s show. The performance also impressed PAW: She’s our Tiger of the Week.

Kemper, an English major from St. Louis, Mo., honed her comedic skills as an undergraduate with the Princeton improv group Quipfire! and the Princeton Triangle Club. For more from her brief e-mail interview with PAW, click below.

Tiger of the Week: Jim Flaherty ’70

Alumni from Princeton's Class of 1970 might have noticed a familiar face next to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at last week's G20 summit in London: Jim Flaherty ’70, Canada's minister of finance, was on hand to discuss remedies for the global economic crisis. Flaherty, a longtime member of Canada's Parliament, has been the finance minister since 2006. Like the other leaders at the G20 summit, he acknowledged that significant challenges lay ahead, but he did share some promising news with his constituents back home. "Our banking system is the most sound in the world," he told Canada's CTV News. "We're the envy of other banking systems."

Flaherty's assessment has some statistical backing: Canada ranked No. 1 in a list of the world's soundest banking systems, according to an October 2008 report from the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based nonprofit. (The United States, by comparison, ranked 40th in soundness but No. 1 in overall competitiveness.) After the summit, Flaherty outlined monetary and fiscal policies that he believes will help Canada "accelerate" out of its recession.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

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Tiger of the Week: Elena Kagan ’81

In January, when Elena Kagan ’81 was selected as the U.S. solicitor general by President Barack Obama, she said that she was "honored and grateful, awestruck and excited" -- an understandable reaction to taking on the responisbility of arguing on the government's behalf in U.S. Supreme Court cases. Last week, Kagan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and became the first woman in American history to serve as solicitor general.

Kagan, nominated for Tiger of the Week by a proud Princeton classmate, left another prestigious post to join the Department of Justice. She had been dean of Harvard Law School (also the first woman in that job). In 2007, she told PAW that her career had been largely uncharted, making stops in academia, government, and the federal judiciary. "The most fun things that happen to you in your career happen as a result of serendipity," she said. "If you plan too much, when they happen to you, you might be afraid to grab them."

(Photo courtesy Harvard Law School)

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Tiger of the Week: Jodi Picoult ’87

Life is good for Jodi Picoult ’87. Last week, Handle With Care, the author’s 16th novel, debuted in the No. 1 spot of the New York Times Best Sellers List for fiction. It is the latest in a string of successful books about families and relationships.

Picoult routinely writes about gut-wrenching family situations — in Handle With Care, parents grapple with medical ethics and personal morality after the birth of a severely disabled child — but the author says her life at home has been free of such drama. “I had an incredibly happy childhood,” Picoult told USA Today earlier this month. “I married a terrific guy [fellow Princetonian Tim van Leer ’86] when I was 23. I have great, well-adjusted kids.”

On top of that, Picoult is our Tiger of the Week. What could be better?

Read two Jodi Picoult ’87 essays from PAW’s archives:

Against the current, Picoult’s recollection of her experiences as the first woman coxswain for a men’s heavyweight crew at Princeton (July 3, 2002)

Writing a challenging read: Why I write banned books (June 8, 2005)

(Photo courtesy JodiPicoult.com)

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Tiger of the Week: Denny Chin ’75

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ’75, a district judge since 1994, is “known in the legal community as even-tempered, fair, witty, and unafraid to make tough decisions,” according to Reuters. Those qualities were tested under an international spotlight March 12 when Chin’s Manhattan courtroom handled a key hearing in the case of Bernard Madoff, who was charged with 11 counts related to a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Chin made a decision that drew cheers from dozens of people in his Manhattan courtroom. After listening to three jilted investors and hearing Madoff’s admission of guilt, the judge ordered Madoff to jail, revoking bail and setting June 16 as the date for the fraudulent financier’s sentencing. He also ensured that Madoff’s victims would have an opportunity to speak at the sentencing. But Chin was not a complete crowd-pleaser — Bloomberg.com reported that he quieted investors’ jeers on at least one occasion. For his poise under pressure, Chin is our Tiger of the Week.

The applause at the end of the proceedings did little to mask an unpleasant reality. As Lev Dassin, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted, investors are unlikely to recover more than a small fraction of their losses.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Howard Gordon ’84

Jack Bauer, the hero of TV’s 24, devotes his life to protecting the world from terrorists. Off screen, producer Howard Gordon ’84, actor Kiefer Sutherland (who plays Bauer), and others on the show have turned their attention to another global threat: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

This month, 24 announced that it has become TV’s first carbon-neutral show, fulfilling a goal that Gordon outlined two years ago. Using compact fluorescent lighting, biodiesel-fueled generators, renewable electricity sources, hybrid vehicles, and digital scripts, the show cut more than 40 percent of its emissions. Producers bought carbon offsets to make up for the rest.

Gordon gets our nod as Tiger of the Week for following what he calls a “passion project.” He said in a news release that he has one additional goal in mind: “inspire our audience to make changes in their own lives.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Jim Hanks Jr. ’64

Of the many successes corporate lawyer Jim Hanks Jr. ’64 has accomplished in his life, he surely never could have predicted the one that would bring him international attention: being a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549, better known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” All 155 people on board survived the plane’s emergency landing in the Hudson River off midtown Manhattan Jan. 15.

In the weeks since, Hanks, a partner in Venable LLP, has been speaking with grace and good humor about the day, giving interviews to publications and television stations in the United States and Europe. He was seen most recently Feb. 28 on CNN’s Larry King Live, along with other passengers and crew members. Now he’s in PAW’s spotlight as our Tiger of the Week.

In an interview in January with his hometown newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, Hanks described the harrowing moments after the landing. “We got a lot of people off the raft,” he told the newspaper. “Then I heard somebody behind me yell, ‘Get the old guy up! Get the old guy up!’ And I looked around because I hadn’t seen any older gentlemen that we might need to take care of first. I looked up and realized that the guy was talking about me.”

The next day, Hanks flew home to Baltimore, after thinking briefly about taking the train - especially because geese, which caused the plane to lose its engines, could be in the sky again. “But,” he concluded, “I’m not about to let a bunch of geese run my life.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Anthony Roth Costanzo ’04

The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions may be “too venerable to be called ‘Metropolitan Idol,’” The New York Times wrote Feb. 23, but the stakes are just as high: Winning the competition can launch a young performer’s career in the same way that a win on American Idol can propel a budding pop singer to the top 40. That’s great news for Anthony Roth Costanzo ’04, one of four winners at this year’s auditions, held Feb. 22.

Costanzo, described by the Times as “a slender countertenor with heavyweight vocal cords,” performed on Broadway before arrived at Princeton. He explored his operatic talents in his senior thesis, creating, producing, and starring in a full-scale production, “The Double Life of Zeferino.” After college, he earned a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Nearly 1,800 entrants sang in this year’s National Council Auditions. Eight finalists reached the Met stage in New York. “This competition is of such importance, such magnitude, that it’s hard to fully absorb,” Costanzo told the Times before his Feb. 22 performance. “For me, it is best to go out there with a mind-set that I am simply performing, not competing.”

Mission accomplished. In addition to winning the National Council Auditions, Costanzo won first place at the National Opera Association’s vocal competition, held in Washington, D.C., in January. Later this year, he is slated to perform with the Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program, the Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York, and the New York Philharmonic in Manhattan.

(Photo courtesy the National Opera Association)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tigers of the Week: Janet Morgan Riggs *82 and Stephen J. Friedman ’59

This month, Janet Morgan Riggs *82 and Stephen J. Friedman ’59 added their names to the list of Princeton alumni serving as college presidents — a list that includes S. Georgia Nugent ’73 (Kenyon College), Anthony Marx *80 (Amherst College), Alice P. Gast *84 (Lehigh University), and at least a half-dozen others.

Riggs, who earned her Ph.D. in social psychology at Princeton, took charge of her undergraduate alma mater, Gettysburg College, Feb. 6. She had been a professor and administrator at Gettysburg for 27 years.

Friedman, a Woodrow Wilson School major and Harvard Law graduate, was appointed president of Pace University Feb. 12. He had been dean of the law school at Pace for three years after a distinguished career in government and corporate law.

Both new presidents took office with a bit of experience — Riggs had been interim president for nearly a year, Friedman for 18 months. The Gettysburg search committee met with a national pool of candidates but found its top choice right down the hall. Said committee chairman Bob Duelks: “At every turn Janet Riggs remained in the top tier. She set herself apart with her passion, commitment, and vision for her alma mater.”

(Photos courtesy Gettysburg College and Pace University)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Meg Whitman ’77

On Princeton’s campus, Meg Whitman ’77 is widely known as a generous donor and the namesake of Whitman College, one of Princeton’s four-year residential colleges, which opened its doors in the fall of 2007. But during last year’s presidential primaries, the then-CEO of eBay also became known for raising funds, taking a prominent role in the campaign of friend and former colleague Mitt Romney. Apparently, that was just the beginning of Whitman’s life in politics. Earlier this week, she announced she is exploring a bid for the Republican nomination in California’s 2010 gubernatorial race.

“Meg 2010 - A New California” appears to be Whitman’s new slogan (or at least that’s the banner on her campaign Web site), and her early priorities include restoring economic prosperity and educational excellence. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, published Feb. 11, the candidate said her corporate background would be an asset during tough economic times. Said Whitman: “I think maybe it is about time for a governor who has created jobs, who’s managed a budget, who’s led and inspired large organizations, who listens well, and who can drive an agenda.”

(Photo: Office of Communications, Princeton University)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Yasser El Halaby ’06

As a collegiate squash player, Yasser El Halaby ’06 achieved unparalleled success. He won four individual national titles in four tries and rarely lost a match in team play, helping Princeton win two Ivy League titles and reach the College Squash Association finals twice. But when El Halaby continued his career after college, professional squash promised new challenges. Many of the world's best players are El Halaby's age, and they've faced pros regularly since they were teenagers.

El Halaby has held his own, climbing as high as No. 40 in the world rankings (he's currently 51st), and he had one of his best tournaments to date at last week's JP Morgan Tournament of Champions, held in a glass court at Grand Central Station in New York. El Halaby was one of eight players to reach the main draw through a qualifier. In the round of 32, he won a tight 3-2 match over Scotsman John White, once the world's No. 1 pro. El Halaby lost his next match, 3-0 to James Willstrop (No. 5 in the world), despite having what the tournament Web site called a "roaring fan contingent" that included Princeton alumni.

The crowd support should come as no surprise to a player who drew standing-room-only audiences at the Jadwin Gym courts. As teammate Hugh Meighen ’05 told PAW in 2005, "A lot of people don't know squash, but they know Yasser."

(Photo: Beverly Schaefer)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW's Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80

In 2003, shortly after Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 returned to Princeton as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, she spoke about her priorities in an interview with PAW. Rebuilding the international affairs faculty would be at the top of the list, she said, but there were other topics on the international agenda that the deserved attention: “[T]hings like health, poverty, education, and climate change,” she explained. “It’s no longer just interstate relations.”

Slaughter, in 6 1/2 years as dean, was true to her goals, expanding the Wilson School faculty with notable hires in international affairs, building new connections with other departments, particularly in engineering and the sciences, and adding five new research centers. (A more complete recap of her time as dean will be published in PAW Feb. 11.)

Last week, Slaughter took leave from the University to begin her new job as chief of policy planning in the State Department, heading up an in-house “think tank.” In a farewell message to colleagues, she wrote: “I am fortunate to have the opportunity to be part of a great collective effort to tackle some of the gravest problems ever to have faced the nation and the world.”

(Photo: Princeton University Office of Communications, Denise Applewhite)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Michelle Obama ’85

Two Princeton alumni have occupied the White House as presidents — James Madison 1771 and Woodrow Wilson 1879. On Jan. 20, Michelle Robinson Obama ’85 became the first Princetonian to take residence as first lady. That, of course, was a tiny footnote on a remarkable, historic day, celebrated with both pomp and reflection as Barack Obama took the oath of office as the United States’ 44th president.

Michelle Obama’s official White House biography describes her childhood home as a “brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago” — quite a contrast to the most famous residence in America. The new first lady expects that daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will bring a youthful family atmosphere to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “Our hope is that the White House will feel open and fun and full of life and energy,” she told 60 Minutes in November.

In addition to having an alumna in the White House, Princeton will be well-represented in the new Obama administration (see PAW’s “Obama Watch” for alumni slated to serve in cabinet and administrative posts). Several alumni, including some of Michelle Obama’s classmates and friends, were on hand in Washington for the inauguration. There even was a hint of Princeton orange and black in the scarf worn by Michelle’s brother, Craig Robinson ’83 — or at least that’s what ABC’s Charlie Gibson ’65 guessed. On further review, it appears those colors were for Oregon State. Robinson is the head men’s basketball coach for the Beavers.

(Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP Images)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Richard “Mick” McGuire ’98

On Jan. 13, Borders Group, the Ann Arbor, Mich., based book, music, and movie retailer that owns both Borders and Waldenbooks, chose Richard “Mick” McGuire ’98 as the non-executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. McGuire had been a board member for the past year and was a partner with Pershing Square Capital Management, Borders’ largest investor. Before joining the world of hedge funds and private equity, he earned his MBA from Harvard and majored in economics at Princeton.

While the appointment is a notable achievement for the 32-year-old McGuire, it also promises challenges. According to The New York Times, Borders is contending with a heavy debt load, and its holiday sales dropped 11.7 percent, compared to 2007. Last week, Borders introduced new CEO Ron Marshall, who has experience with corporate turnarounds. “In the short time that I have worked with Mick,” Marshall said in a company press release, “I am impressed with his constructive input, sound judgment, and overall support of the company.”

(Photo courtesy Mick McGuire)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Dan Kelly ’03

Dr. Dan Kelly ’03 was still as student at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2006 when he set up a feeding center for malnourished children in Sierra Leone. Later, he worked with Sierra Leonean doctor Mohamed Bailor Barrie to start a medical clinic and a nongovernmental relief group for amputees who had lost limbs in a decade-long civil war that ended in 2002. Kelly, who has started the first year of a residency program in Houston, continues to use his free time to promote global health.

Kelly’s extraordinary service and selflessness earned him recognition as one of five “Points of Light” at Yeshiva’s Hanukkah dinner in December. He also received the Albert S. Kuperman Award for Field Work in Global Health at his medical school graduation in June. His work will be featured in an upcoming documentary, “Pride of Lions,” and on Feb. 9, he will speak at Princeton, sharing his story with a campus audience.

The people Kelly met during a 2006 fellowship in Sierra Leone inspired him to act, he told PAW’s Katherine Federici Greenwood in an interview for a February 2008 feature story. “You can’t stand there and stare,” he said. “You want to do something.”

(Photo courtesy Dan Kelly ’03)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Darroll Powe ’07

The last time most Princeton hockey fans saw Darroll Powe ’07, he was skating for the Tigers in a 4-3 win over Brown in the ECAC Hockey playoffs at Baker Rink. Powe assisted on a goal against the Bears in that game, his last home contest at Princeton. He was a stalwart in four seasons on the ice, helping to start the turnaround that has propelled the men’s hockey team into the nation’s top 10.

Powe is still skating, still wearing orange and black, and still working to change the fortunes of his team. He’s now a backup center for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, who went on a five-game winning streak shortly after Powe was promoted from the minor leagues Dec. 4.

Powe scored his first NHL goal during that streak in a win against the New York Islanders Dec. 9. He cleaned up a rebound after teammate Mike Richards fired a shot at the goalie. “It bounced off the pad and it came right to me,” Powe told the Philadelphia Daily News. “It was good to get that first one out of the way and hopefully lots more to come.”

(Photo courtesy Princeton Athletic Communications)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Tina deVaron ’78

For more than a decade, jazz singer and piano player Tina deVaron ’78 has been writing songs about motherhood and performing them for appreciative audiences of parents and kids. This week, just in time for the holidays, she released a new song about the magic of cookies — entitled “When is a cookie?” — along with a music video that shows deVaron doing her best Betty Crocker impersonation.

While she admits the story in the video is a bit “off-the-wall,” deVaron says there is an underlying statement “about joy, togetherness, and chocolate.” In a Web post about making the video, she wrote, “I have rarely had more fun in my life.” (The fun shines through — check out the full video below and read about the project on deVaron’s blog.)

When she’s not baking up new tunes, deVaron plays weekly jazz shows for kids, called Madeline’s Tea, on Saturdays and Sundays at the Carlyle in New York City’s Bemelmans Bar. Her most recent album is Water Over Stones.

Tiger of the Week: Sean Gregory ’98

Dressed in a T-shirt, basketball shorts, and a pair of boxing gloves he’d bought at a New York sporting goods store, Time magazine reporter Sean Gregory ’98 climbed into the ring with Oscar De La Hoya at the boxing champion’s Big Bear Lake, Calif., training camp last week.

Fortunately for Gregory, the encounter was a boxing lesson, recorded for Time.com, and not a revival of George Plimpton’s participatory journalism. Viewers learned about a few of the sport’s finer points, and the writer emerged without a scratch — a win-win for Gregory, our Tiger of the Week. (De La Hoya was not as fortunate in his most recent fight; he lost a Dec. 6 bout to Manny Pacquiao.)

Gregory, a Woodrow Wilson School major who graduated from Columbia University’s journalism school in 2002, may be a familiar face for Princeton basketball fans. He was a reserve guard for the Tigers during a memorable run of Ivy championship seasons from 1996 to 1998. But an athletic background did not make Gregory a quick study in the boxing gym. His fumbling attempt to find his tempo on the speed bag offered a stark contrast to the mesmerizing rhythm of De La Hoya’s punches. That part was not scripted, Gregory said: “I actually was trying.”

Watch the complete video, which includes a cameo by former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins:

Tigers of the Week: Scott Moore ’08 and Timothy Nunan ’08

Two alumni share Tiger of the Week honors this week, and that’s not all they have in common: Scott Moore, left, and Timothy Nunan are both recent graduates (Class of 2008); both are Fulbright Fellows this year (Moore in China, Nunan in Germany); and both were named Rhodes Scholars last week, joining Princeton undergraduate Stephen Hammer ’09 on the list of 32 American students chosen for the prestigious scholarships to Oxford University.

Moore, a Woodrow Wilson School major, plans to study environmental policy at Oxford and pursue a career “enhancing and building upon the idea of international environmental cooperation, through work in the government, academic, and NGO sectors.” Nunan, a German major who won his department’s senior thesis prize, plans to pursue a career in history. “Historians are society’s gadflies, teaching not to forget, but also not to mystify,” he wrote in his Rhodes application. “There’s no quicker way to forget the past than to worship it.”

Since 1904, more than 190 Princetonians have been named Rhodes Scholars. This is the second consecutive year in which Princeton had three recipients.

Photos: Courtesy the Moore family (Moore) and Brian Wilson, Office of Communications, Princeton University (Nunan)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Reginald Gibbons ’69

When Tiger of the Week Reginald Gibbons ’69 was named one of five finalists for the 2008 National Book Award in poetry for his new collection, Creatures of a Day (LSU Press, 2008), he understood the significance of the honor. “It’s very exciting, very gratifying, and it makes me feel that my work is very present at this moment in the U.S.,” Gibbons told interviewer Craig Morgan Teicher. “The country is so huge and so many thousands of books are published, that it’s not often enough that a writer can feel that a book is present — you can publish it but it still remains absent from the culture.”

Gibbons, a professor of English, classics, and Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University, did not win the poetry award (Mark Doty received the prize Nov. 19), but he was right to believe that his work is “present”: His hometown newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, published one of his poems, “These Sideways Leaps, Remembering.” Nov. 22.

(Photo by Marc Hauser, courtesy LSU Press)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Jeff Bezos ’86

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ’86 has changed the world of online shopping and pioneered high-tech advances like the Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reader. But we’ve chosen him as Tiger of the Week for his leadership on a relatively low-tech issue. Bezos is working to eliminate hard-to-open packaging, including the “clamshell” plastic cases in which many electronic devices are sold. “I shouldn’t have to start each Christmas morning with a needle nose pliers and wire cutters,” he told The New York Times. “But that is what I do, I arm myself, and it still takes me 10 minutes to open each package.” Amen!

While the change could save time and preserve parents’ patience, the move toward “frustration-free” containers also may have a real — albeit small — public health benefit: According to the Times story, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that each year, 6,000 Americans are treated at emergency rooms for injuries incurred while prying, stabbing, or cutting through packaging.

(Photo courtesy Niall Kennedy/Flickr)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Chris Lu ’88

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition Web site counts down the days until inauguration — 69, as of Nov. 12 — and in that time, the new White House will name 15 cabinet-level secretaries and members of more than a dozen councils or offices, such as the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers. As executive director of the transition team, alumnus Chris Lu ’88 will help to manage that list of key appointments. “My job is basically to keep the trains running on time,” Lu told The Daily Princetonian last week.

Lu, a Harvard Law classmate of Obama who until recently served as the senator’s legislative director, has worked in law and government for the last two decades. He also has plenty of experience meeting deadlines, faithfully filing class notes to PAW as the secretary of the Class of 1988. With the slightest hint of favoritism, we’ve chosen Lu as our Tiger of the Week. And though he probably needs no reminder, class notes for the January issue are due Nov. 25.

(Photo courtesy Chris Lu ’88)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ’70

In a week dominated by elections for executive and legislative offices, our Tiger of the Week comes the judicial branch. On Oct. 31, U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ’70 made headlines by ordering the Justice Department to produce memorandums from the White House legal counsel’s office that describe and outline the legal justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. (The Justice Department has argued that the memorandums are protected attorney-client communications.)

For Kennedy, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, this is the latest in a list of difficult cases, from the Elian Gonzalez custody dispute in 2000 to the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes last year. But Princetonians may know him better as a former University trustee and the oldest sibling in an accomplished legal family that includes brother Randall Kennedy ’77, an author and Harvard Law professor, and sister Angela Acree ’85, a D.C. lawyer.

(Photo by Beverly Rezneck/Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Matt Iseman ’93

As an undergraduate, Matt Iseman ’93 pitched for the Princeton baseball team. This month, the actor and comedian returned to the world of sports to pitch jokes. He hosts Sports Soup, a new cable show that airs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 p.m. on Versus. The show uses video clips to poke fun at athletes, coaches, and commentators from the pro and college ranks. “We’re not trying to make anyone look bad or get anyone fired,” Iseman explained in an interview with the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “But we’re giving them the rope. If they want to hang themselves, we’ll let them and we’ll let you laugh about it.”

Iseman graduated from Columbia University’s medical school, but during his residency, he decided that Hollywood was his true calling. Since then, he’s landed gigs on the Style Network (as the Goto Guy on Clean House), the Game Show Network (as the host of Casino Night), and the long-running soap General Hospital, where he had a recurring role, though not as a doctor. That’s right: He is a doctor, but he does not play one on TV. He’s also our Tiger of the Week.

(Photo courtesy mattiseman.com)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: William Lockwood Jr. ’59

William Lockwood Jr. ’59 was an undergraduate when he started booking concerts at McCarter Theatre in Princeton. In the 50 years since, he has become an indispensable part of the region’s arts and music scene, staging modern dance, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, classical music, and nearly everything in between at McCarter, Lincoln Center, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. McCarter celebrated Lockwood’s half-century in the business this week with performances by Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt Oct. 20 and pianist Lang Lang Oct. 21. PAW would like to add one more line to Lockwood’s anniversary marquee: “Tiger of the Week.”

Lockwood, a Princeton native and son of a Woodrow Wilson School professor, maintains close ties with University students. He serves as the business manager of the Triangle Club, and he has helped to connect McCarter performers with student artists. (In 2006, for instance, he arranged a master class with Lang Lang and a handful of top undergraduate pianists.) And while the 50-year celebration may seem to have a valedictory tone, Lockwood aims to keep filling the seats of his beloved theater well into the future. “I’ve been here through two-thirds of McCarter’s history,” he told The Times of Trenton last week. “They’ll have to carry me out. I have no plans to retire.”

(Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Mary E. Miller ’75

The Tiger of the Week is - gasp - a Yalie? Well, not entirely. But art historian Mary E. Miller ’75 made history in New Haven this week, becoming the first woman to be named dean of Yale College. She will take over the post Dec. 1.

Miller, an expert on Mayan art and architecture, graduated summa cum laude from Princeton as an art and archaeology concentrator in 1975. She earned her doctorate at Yale, joined the faculty of its art history department in 1981, and has been master of Yale’s Saybrook College since 1999. Yale president Richard Levin, in an interview with The Yale Daily News, called Miller “a magnificent scholar, a devoted teacher, and a terrific master.”

Photo courtesy Yale University Office of Public Relations

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Ibby Caputo ’03

The Oct. 8 Tiger of the Week has not been making news. Not yet. But Ibby Caputo ’03 is anxious to put her byline on stories and radio broadcasts soon. Caputo, who graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2007, spent the last year fighting acute myelogenous leukemia, which doctors feared would be fatal — at her initial diagnosis, they gave her six weeks to live. A stem-cell transplant helped to put the disease into remission, and Caputo’s strength is returning, according to her father, Steve Caputo ’75.

On Oct. 4, Ibby Caputo talked about her experiences at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night fundraiser in Franklin Township, N.J., where she was an “honored hero.” “I accepted that I might live and I might die, but my choice was life,” she said. “I chose life. I knew I that I only had two cents worth of say in the matter, and I wholeheartedly put those two cents in God’s piggy bank.”

In recent weeks, Caputo has been pitching freelance stories, conducting interviews, and looking for a fulltime public-radio job in Boston. As she wrote to friends and family in August, a year to the day after her diagnosis, “I’m itching to move on.”

Above, Ibby Caputo ’03 on the field at Fenway Park Sept. 25. The tickets were a gift from Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino ’67, a lymphoma survivor. For more about Ibby’s story, visit teamibby.com. (Photo courtesy Steve Caputo ’75)

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Susan Mango *90

Consider the week that was for Susan Mango *90: First, the biologist from the University of Utah published a paper in Current Biology, showing how a gene can be manipulated to extend the lifespan of C. elegans, a small worm commonly used as a model organism in biology labs. Then, she was named a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, her undergraduate alma mater, effective July 1, 2009. And finally, on Sept. 23, the MacArthur Foundation chose her as one of its 2008 fellows, an honor that comes with the five-year, $500,000 “genius grant.” That morning Mango told The Salt Lake Tribune, “It’s such a surprise. I’m still kind of speechless.” What’s left to say? The Princeton Ph.D. is our Tiger of the Week.

Two other graduate alumni also were selected as MacArthur fellows: John Ochsendorf *98, a structural engineer and architectural historian at MIT, and Marin Soljačić *00, a theoretical physicist at MIT. Oschendorf, Soljačić, and Mango will be spotlighted in a future issue of PAW.

Photo courtesy the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tigers of the Week: Jay Katsir ’04 and Rob Kutner ’94

Behind the scenes of two of cable television’s most popular shows, Jay Katsir ’04, pictured at right, and Rob Kutner ’94, below, shown infiltrating the CNN Grill at the Republican National Convention, spend their days trying to make America laugh. This week, the two comedy writers were recognized for their work. Katsir, a writer for The Colbert Report, and his co-workers won the 2008 Emmy for “Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program.” Kutner, a writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, also was nominated in the writing category and saw his show honored as the “Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series.” PAW adds another honor for Katsir and Kutner — they’re our Tigers of the Week.

The last year was a difficult one for television writers, who spent more than three months on strike. Katsir wrote a March 8, 2008, PAW essay before the settlement and explained that writing jokes for a living was “so like a pleasant dream that the current state of affairs seems to be the sudden waking that was inevitable all along. It’s exactly how I felt the time I fell asleep on the sidewalk during one of the pickets. Luckily, Gilbert Gottfried had a bullhorn.”

One programming note for alumni and Colbert Report fans: Princeton professor Cornel West *80 is slated to be a guest on the show Sept. 24.

Photos: Courtesy Jay Katsir ’04; courtesy Rob Kutner ’94

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

Tiger of the Week: Charles Gibson ’65

In the most publicized “get” of the presidential campaign, ABC anchorman Charles Gibson ’65 went to Alaska last week to record a series of one-on-one interviews with Gov. Sarah Palin, her first on national TV. And while most of the attention was on Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, the bright lights fell on Gibson as well, with questions about what he would ask and how tough he would be.

The interviews were a popular draw for TV viewers — ABC won the week’s evening-news ratings race by a wide margin. But reviews were mixed: Some critics complained about the drawn-out format, while others applauded Gibson’s professionalism and no-nonsense approach. As Tom Shales of the The Washington Post wrote, “[I]t was almost a no-win situation, yet he came out of it not losing.” For that, Gibson is our Tiger of the Week.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

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