News
Bayu Ahmad
Provided Bayu Ahmad
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Student spotlight: Bayu Ahmad

Cornell University Graduate School

Bayu Ahmad, a doctoral candidate in chemistry and chemical biology, studies the use of organic chemistry for sustainable applications under the guidance of Phillip Milner at Cornell.

Person sitting in a deep windowsill, reading a book
Cornell University file photo
Alumni

Your February 2026 reads

Cornellians

This month’s featured titles by A&S alumni and faculty include a look at the urban-rural divide, a biography of an anti-poverty activist, and a business guide for "winning dream jobs, awards, and elite opportunities.”

Person in a blue USA jersey reaches up to slap hands with a member of the crowd, celebrating
Getty Images/Provided Rory Guilday ’25 thanks fans after receiving the gold medal.
Olympic Games

Cornell alumnae leave Milan with one gold, two silvers in Olympic hockey

Cornell Chronicle

Rory Guilday ’25 won a gold medal and Brianne Jenner ’15 and Kristin O'Neill ’20 took silver in women’s Olympic hockey.

Blue plaque with the title, "Toni Morrison" and a paragraph of text
Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University A historical marker for Toni Morrison, M.A. ’55, was unveiled at 513 N. Albany St in Ithaca, where she lived during her first year at Cornell.
Alumni authors

Historical marker commemorates Toni Morrison’s time in Ithaca

Cornell Chronicle

Cornell faculty, staff, students and community members celebrated the 95th birthday of Toni Morrison, M.A. ’55, by unveiling a new historical marker in front of 513 N. Albany St., where she lived while in graduate school.

arts quad statue
A. D. White Professors at Large

Five A.D. White Professors-at-Large on campus this spring

Cornell Chronicle

Named for Cornell’s first president, the program sponsors scholars and public intellectuals in the life sciences, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences and the arts and this semester features several connections with the College of Arts and Sciences.

Theater seats and a curtain in the distance
Paolo Chiabrando/Unsplash
Literatures in English

2024-25 Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism winners announced

A&S Communications

Masi Asare of Northwestern University and arts journalist Billy McEntee have been named winners of the 2024-25 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

Philippe Sands
Provided Philippe Sands
Political history

LaFeber-Silbey Lecture considers “A World Without Law?”

A&S Communications

Scholar of law Philippe Sands will give the LaFeber-Silbey Lecture in History on March 5, considering "Lessons from History and Literature, from Nuremberg to Pinochet and Beyond.”

Book cover: The Gospel of John
Religion

John: The life and times of the ‘maverick’ Gospel

Cornell Chronicle

In her new book, Kim Haines-Eitzen explores the fourth Gospel of the New Testament, which holds many of the Bible’s most well-known passages but is also at the root of many controversies.

Clock tower in foreground, snowy college campus in the distance, seen from above in low light
Research fellowships

Five from Cornell named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows

Cornell Chronicle

Five Cornell faculty members are among 126 early-career researchers across North America who have won 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Ayshwarya Subramanian
Molecular biology and genetics

Computational biologist receives NIH NDRI Pilot Award

A&S Communications

Ayshwarya Subramanian researches diabetic kidney disease, the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, affecting 30% to 50% of people with diabetes.

Steven Stucky
Music

Events honor the legacy of composer Steven Stucky

A&S Communications

The Department of Music is honoring the late Steven Stucky, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and beloved Cornell professor, with a series of concerts.

Bret Stephens
Provided Bret Stephens
Distinguished Visiting Journalists

Bret Stephens and Seth Klarman in conversation, March 6

A&S Communications

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, a Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist and Seth Klarman ’79, CEO and portfolio manager of The Baupost Group and 2026 Hatfield Fellow, will offer “On Democracy, Conservatism and Journalism: A Conversation with Bret Stephens," a wide-ranging conversation.

people sitting around a table
Provided Prof. Alexander Livingston talks with Upward Bound students over winter break during a pilot of the new summer program for high school students.
Civic education and outreach

New summer course to spark civic engagement in high schoolers

A&S Communications

A grant from the Teagle Foundation will allow Cornell faculty and staff to launch a new civic education program for high school students, opening pathways to higher education.

Two people in suits standing in front of the recognizable white dome of the US Capitol Building
Provided Christian Gant-Madison '25, right, interned with Congressman Gabe Evans (CO-08), left, last summer.
AI literacy

Helping urban youth use AI to navigate the future

Cornell Chronicle

Christian Gant-Madison's '25 platform will use AI to connect youth to jobs, skill development opportunities, civic education information and social resources.

Book cover: Japan Reborn
History

How WWII changed ideas of racial purity in Japan

A&S Communications

In “Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War,” Kristin Roebuck explores what happened to “mixed blood” children born to Japanese women and foreign soldiers from the peak of Japan’s imperial expansion in the 1930s through the empire’s collapse in 1945 and beyond.

Anna Ho sitting at desk, pointing at computer screen with image of star exploding
Jason Koski, Cornell University Anna Ho
Astronomy

Astronomer Anna Ho named Cottrell Scholar  

A&S Communications

With a proposal titled “Fast Transients: Revealing the Diversity of Relativistic Stellar Explosions,” Ho is one of 24 early career scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy each receiving $120,000 for proposals incorporating research and science education.

Three people holding up medals they've just won
Tim Hipps/U.S. Army IMCOM Public Affairs, Creative Commons license 2.0 Paul Chelimo, USA (left) and Mo Farah, Great Britain, medalists in the men's 5,000 meter run, Rio Olympic Games
Olympic Games

Psychology expert on losing a gold medal

A&S Communications

Bronze medalists often appear happier than their competitors who win silver, says Cornell psychology researcher Thomas Gilovich.

High rise apartment building fronting a city street with a trolley
Joel Fulgencio/Unsplash North Point, Hong Kong
International studies

China’s pushback on UK shows pivoting from Washington isn’t so easy

A&S Communications

China's criticism of the United Kingdom’s move to expand its British National (Overseas) visa pathway for Hong Kong residents illustrates how governments courting Beijing, amid frustration with Washington’s volatility, can find engagement with China difficult to manage.

Uris Hall
Psychology

Cornell researchers win prize for insight into conspiracy belief

A&S Communications

The 2026 Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science goes to psychology researchers Gordon Pennycook and David Rand.

Person talking with lab equipment in the background
Provided Jeremy Baskin
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Newly identified protein interaction helps keep cells’ recycling system in balance

Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers have discovered a new way cells regulate how they respond to stress, identifying an interaction between two proteins that helps keep a critical cellular recycling system in balance.

people standing around a portrait
Jakub Koguciuk/Provided Andrew C. Weislogel, the interim chief curator at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, shows students a piece depicting staffage in an early scene of New York Harbor.
Innovative courses

Museum installation focuses on small figures in large landscapes

A&S Communications

A new student-led installation at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art explores the role of “staffage" figures.

Illustration parody of an ape evolving into a human–holding a bouquet of flowers
Illustration by Ashley Osburn/Cornell University
Alumni

Online dating seem awful? The reason may lie in evolution

Cornellians

In a new book –released in time for Valentine’s Day – a psychologist alum offers hopeful insights for those looking for love

Tigran Hamasyan
Arnos Martirosyan/Provided Tigran Hamasyan
Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

Pianist, composer Tigran Hamasyan plays Dallas Morse Concert Series

A&S Communications

Released on Feb. 6 via Naïve Records, Hamasyan's album "Manifeste" marks a new chapter for one of the most visionary artists working at the intersection of jazz, progressive rock, and global music.

Student standing in front of railing
Kathy Hovis Katrina Greene '27
Student excellence

A&S student chosen for civic engagement scholarship

A&S Communications

Katrina Greene '27 will be headed to Washington, D.C. as a John Robert Lewis Scholar, an award given by the Faith and Politics Institute.

Schmidt Sciences
AI in science

11 new researchers become Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows

Cornell Bowers CIS

Cornell researchers interested in diverse topics ranging from peptide engineering and cellular metabolites to quantum physics and sustainable computing are among the newest cohort selected by the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows program.

People observing a waterfall
Noël Heaney/Cornell University A trip to Taughannock Falls State Park for the past course “Gorgeous Gorges.”
Alumni

CAU Summer Courses: From wine pairings to town-gown history

Cornellians

Registration is now open for the two sessions of weeklong offerings, with the option to stay in a newly renovated Balch Hall

Two students connecting wires on a lab table
Provided The Center for Teaching Innovation will host the faculty panel "The Art of the Lab," the second installment in its annual "Art of Teaching" series, on Feb. 11.
Teaching innovation

CTI’s ‘Art of the Lab’ faculty panel to highlight creative approaches to instruction

Cornell Chronicle

CTI’s “The Art of Teaching” series returns Feb. 11 with “The Art of the Lab.” Faculty panelists will share creative instructional approaches for designing student-centered laboratory experiences.

Students walk past Goldwin Smith Hall in the fall
Distinguished Visiting Journalists

Three Distinguished Visiting Journalists head to campus

Cornell Chronicle

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, New York Times White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs and ProPublica investigative reporter Keri Blakinger ’14 will visit Cornell this spring.

Building with textured brick
Africana studies

Nigeria's Tinubu 'should be commended' for accepting US counterterrorism assistance, says Cornell expert

A&S Communications

Olúfémi Táíwò, professor of Africana studies, shares insight into Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu's deployment of an army battalion to central Kwara state after suspected jihadist fighters killed at least 170 people on Tuesday night, hours after the United States said it had a small number of troops in the country.

Person in red hockey gear, puck near the stick
Cornell University Rory Guilday ’25 will become the first Cornell alumna to represent the United States in women’s hockey at the Olympics.
Alumni

Four women’s hockey alumnae to play at Winter Olympics

Cornell Chronicle

Players familiar to Cornell women’s hockey fans will take the ice when the puck drops at the 2026 Winter Olympics this week in Milan, Italy.

Three college campus buildings of various architectural types receed into the distance under a grey sky and a bare branch
Jason Koski/Cornell University Three Arts Quad buildings: Klarman Hall, Lincoln Hall and Sibley Hall
Klarman Fellows

College of Arts and Sciences announces 2026 Klarman Fellows

A&S Communications

The 12 early-career scholars will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Red flag against a white sky
Alejandro Luengo/Unsplash Chinese flag
Scholarship

Three Cornellians named Schwarzman Scholars for study in China

Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell student and two alumni have been named Schwarzman Scholars for the 2026-27 academic year and will spend it in a master’s program in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Movie poster: Rule Breakers
Provided Movie poster: Rule Breakers
Cornell Cinema

Film about Afghan girls’ robotics club, panel set for Feb. 11

Cornell Chronicle

Cornell Cinema will present a screening of the documentary “Rule Breakers,” chronicling the founding of Afghanistan’s first all-girls robotics team, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.

Michael Abels
Arts Unplugged

Composer Michael Abels, famous for work on Jordan Peele films, to visit March 6-7

A&S Communications

Events include film screenings, panel discussions and a concert by the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony.

Cornell's central campus with lake beyond
Physics

Four on faculty to receive DOE early-career grants

Cornell Chronicle

Four Cornell faculty members are among 99 researchers across the U.S. who have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its Office of Science Early Career Research Program.

painting by Paul Gauguin showing the artist wearing a hat with a wall and some furniture behind him. On the wall is a framed painting of a person lying on a bed
Public domain Self Portrait, 1893 by Paul Gauguin
Moral psychology

Art offers access to true self

Cornell Chronicle

Psychology researcher Jordan Wylie and colleagues found that artistic excellence, rather than moral excellence, offers greater access to one’s true self.

Keisha N. Blaine
Provided Keisha N. Blaine
Black History Month

Historian Keisha N. Blain to speak on Black women and the history of human rights

A&S Communications

In the public lecture culminating the Black History Month series, Blain will trace how Black women from Ida B. Wells to contemporary Black Lives Matter leaders have used the language and practice of human rights to confront racism and white supremacy.

Bad Bunny
© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com/Creative Commons license 4.0 Bad Bunny
Performing and Media Arts

Bad Bunny breaks through: Cornell expert on the Grammys

A&S Communications

The first artist to win Album of the Year with a Spanish‑language album, Bad Bunny reflects the mainstreaming of Spanish language music and artistry, says professor Karen Jaime.

College campus buildings with lights on at dusk
Cornell University file photo
Teaching awards

Weiss and Provost awards honor outstanding faculty

Cornell Chronicle

Four faculty from A&S have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching.

Two people conversing at a black round table, talking into microphones
Garth Avery/Cornell University Jessica Salerno, left, associate professor in the College of Human Ecology and Cornell Law School, speaks with Cornell Chronicle writer Laura Reiley for the “Research Matters” podcast.
Psychology

Research Matters’ video podcast debuts, translating ideas into impact

Cornell Chronicle

Launching Jan. 27 with three episodes, “Research Matters” spotlights Cornell scholars whose research directly engages with real-world challenges, from climate change and public safety to mental health.

Actor on the set of a lab, wearing a chic trench coat, among a collection of burned or corrupted objects
Provided In the lab as intern Daisy on “Bones"
Alumni

You'll recognize this alum from 'Undeclared,' 'Bones,' and more

Cornellians

… Veteran actor Carla Gallo ’97 has a long list of credits on TV and in movies — and now, she’s co-starring in the hit comedy "Platonic." … Carla Gallo ’97 has interned as a researcher in a crime-solving … biker gangs as a federal agent; and even contemplated a career in the adult film industry. It would seem a …

two black holes approach each other with a dark background of space
SXS Lensing/Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Collaboration A visualization from a computer simulation of two black holes
Astrophysics

Gravitational wave signal tests Einstein’s theory of general relativity

Cornell Chronicle

When two black holes merge, the collision rings like a bell, emitting specific tones characterized by two numbers.

three people talking
Jesse Winter Students and alumni met for a summer networking event June 26 in New York City.
Career Development

Events boost student opportunities for career exploration

A&S Communications

More than 150 students took advantage of winter break to jump start the career and internship process through A&S events.

A red star and an earth-like planet with purple lines between them (illustration)
Danielle Futselaar/Artsource.nl Artistic illustration of the magnetic interaction between a red dwarf star such as GJ 687, and its exoplanet.
Astronomy research

Novel way to detect signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems unveiled

A&S Communications

Thanks to this innovation, scientists have discovered new radio bursts originating from dwarf stars and possibly from exoplanets.

Song Lin
Jason Koski/Cornell University Song Lin
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Chemist Song Lin wins Snapdragon Prize

A&S Communications

The award recognizes innovation in modern pharmaceutical discovery and manufacturing.

Several people standing around and sitting on porch steps in the shade, playing drums, guitars and maracas
Provided Garifuna Collective
Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

Garifuna Collective featured on Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

A&S Communications

Rooted in the Afro-AmerIndian heritage of communities along the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, Garifuna music blends West African rhythms, indigenous Carib influences and the Arawak language.

Yuon Jue Bae
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Scialog award will help Cornell chemist research quantum entanglement

A&S Communications

Eunice Bae is part of the three-person group researching “Quantum Entanglement of Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion Pairs.”

yellowed musical instrument keyboard keys
Joe Wilensky/Cornell University Cornell's Center for Historical Keyboards is a world-renowned repository of vintage instruments, from pipe organs to fortepianos.
Alumni

Fossiles to fortepianos: The Hill's 'mini-museums' and collections

Cornellians

The next time you visit Ithaca, check out exhibits on Chimes history, astronomical instruments, historical keyboards and so much more

people dancing
Courtesy of Janus Films Still from 8 ½ (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)
Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema unveils diverse, collaboration-driven spring lineup

A&S Communications

From midcentury melodramas to speculative visions of technology and the human body—and even a French coming of age story about crafting world class cheese—Cornell Cinema’s spring season offers a varied plate.

Circle on textured paper that says 'Federal Reserve'; an extreme close up of a one-dollar bill, US
Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash
Economics

Threats to Fed independence already taking an economic toll

A&S Communications

While market movements have been modest so far, they signal declining trust in the ability or willingness of future FOMC members to achieve the Fed's inflation objectives, says Cornell economist Ryan Chahrour.

The U.S. Capital.
Photo by Quick PS on Unsplash U.S. Capitol
Artificial Intelligence

AI chip exports bill an “attempt to reclaim congressional agency”

A&S Communications

Prof. Sarah Kreps comments on proposed legislation giving Congress power over artificial intelligence chip exports.

Two people sitting on a couch, conversing
Samsung UK/Unsplash Humans possess a remarkable ability to talk about almost anything, readily improvising new sentences – but how?
Psychology

Discovery challenges assumptions about the structure of language

Cornell Chronicle

Researchers believe that mental representations of language patterns make humans adept at improvising new sentences.

Illustration of underwater scene with three faculty head shots superimposed on it
Provided The "Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action, and Reflection" event on Wed. Jan. 28, a collaboration between the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, will include a faculty panel, workshop, and tour of “Naples: Course of Empire,” the new Alexis Rockman exhibit that opens Jan. 20 at the Johnson Museum.
Teaching innovation

Faculty event to highlight how teaching about climate change can move beyond discourse and despair

Cornell Chronicle

On Jan. 28, the Center for Teaching Innovation and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will co-host “Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action and Reflection,” a faculty panel, teaching workshop and exhibit tour exploring how instructors can engage the humanities, climate change and community in their teaching.

person reading on a bench in a large, sunny, modern room
Cornell University file photo
Alumni authors

Your January 2026 reads

Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include poetry, an anthropologist’s memoir, and a chronicle of the Nazi’s massive looting of European artworks.

Book cover: The Oak and the Larch
Provided The Oak and the Larch
Comparative literature

Recounting Russia’s history through its forests

Cornell Chronicle

The fate of Russia’s forests will affect the whole world, according to a new book by a Cornell researcher.

John Doris
Provided John Doris
Moral psychology

Doris wins Gittler Award for contributions to social psychology and ethics

A&S Communications

A leading proponent of interdisciplinary approaches to moral psychology exploring questions of character, virtue and agency, John Doris writes about a movement to inform moral philosophy with psychological research, as well as the other way around.

Mendi and Keith Obadike
Anson Teague Wigner/Provided Mendi and Keith Obadike
Performing and Media Arts

Artist team Mendi + Keith Obadike named USA Fellows

A&S Communications

The Obadikes have exhibited and performed their interdisciplinary work at The New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include four books, two albums, and a series of large-scale public sound artworks.

Colorful interior of a chapel with a vaulted ceiling; people sit in the pews facing a person speaking at the front
Noël Heaney/Cornell University A “Soup & Hope” event from 2024
Cornell history

In Praise of Sage Chapel, East Hill’s beloved house of worship

Cornellians

… While 2025 saw the celebration of Willard Straight Hall’s …

Ambre Dromgoole
Ryan Young/Cornell University Ambre Dromgoole
Africana studies

How music galvanized the fight for civil rights

Cornell Chronicle

Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches tapped into a Black musical tradition that animated the Civil Rights Movement, says Ambre Dromgoole, assistant professor of Africana religions and music.

Overlooking a college campus under a yellow sky at dawn
Sciences

$1.5M grant boosts postdoctoral research across 4 colleges

Cornell Chronicle

In 2026, the from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will begin funding 10 two-year postdoctoral appointments including three in astronomy, chemistry and physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Danielle Russo
Isaac Vazquez/Provided Danielle Russo in her studio at Yaddo
Performing and Media Arts

Yaddo residency shapes long-term dance research

A&S Communications

During her Yaddo residency, Danielle Russo developed a dance piece, enriching the work by drawing on ideas of ritual movement, personal memories and family history, and more.

Sanae Takaichi in dark suit jacket sits at a table with microphones between two men, and more men sitting in the room behind her
Japan's Cabinet Public Affairs Office, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a meeting of the Population Strategy Headquarters
History

Tensions with China give Japanese PM an opening for snap elections

A&S Communications

Prof. Kristin Roebuck comments on the plans of Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to dissolve parliament next week and call a snap election.

Artist's illustration of the Pandora spacecraft with an exoplanet and two stars in the background
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from exoplanets’ atmospheres – worlds beyond our solar system – and their stars.
Astronomy

Pandora satellite launches for exoplanet observation

A&S Communications

Tasked with studying exoplanet systems around small stars, the refrigerator-sized satellite is the first in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program – small-scale missions designed to train early-career scientists, including Trevor Foote, Ph.D. ’24, a former member of the research group led by faculty member Nikole Lewis.

Scott Lincicome
Provided Scott Lincicome
Freedom and Free Societies

Trade expert discusses misconceptions about trade Jan. 29

A&S Communications

Scott Lincicome will talk about imports, tariffs and globalization during his talk, “What You Think You Know About Trade is Probably Wrong."

Anna Ho sitting at desk, pointing at computer screen with image of star exploding
Jason Koski, Cornell University Anna Ho
Astronomy

Cornell astronomer honored for achievement in observational research

A&S Communications

With the 2026 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, the American Astronomical Society recognizes Anna Y. Q. Ho’s pioneering investigations of extreme explosions powered by stellar death.

Book cover: National Liberation
History

Women in exile shaped South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement

Cornell Chronicle

Women played a major role in debates surrounding the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Rachel Sandwell writes in a new book, “National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile: Sex, Gender, and Nation in the Struggle against Apartheid.”

Hill with dozens of colorful houses on it, backed by a bleak landscape with snow
Annie Spratt/Unsplash Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland
International politics

Europe has little leverage to push back if Trump moves to take Greenland

A&S Communications

A Cornell historian and military expert doubts a NATO military response to the US annexation of Greenland would not happen, Despite tough talk from European leaders.

A coach with a white board in front of several hockey players in red and white jerseys
Cornell Athletics Derraugh coaching during the 2011–12 season
Alumni

'Remember they’re playing for the love of the game’

Cornellians

A former Big Red star himself, women’s ice hockey coach and A&S alum Doug Derraugh ’91 has led the squad to five ECAC championships.

Person pushing, on a dolly, a large red frame wrapped in plastic
Rick Ryan/Cornell University Lead rigger Ed Foster guides the movement of the Prime-Cam support raft, a carefully choreographed step in preparing the telescope for shipment.
Astronomy

The people behind the telescope: How specialized expertise is supporting science at the edge of the universe

Cornell Chronicle

Behind a world-leading telescope bound for Chile is a team of engineers, machinists, electronics specialists and riggers at Cornell. Meet the specialized staff whose expertise is helping push cosmology to new frontiers.

Person holding a golf club casually, smiling
Cy Cyr/Golf Channel Mullins competing at the World Long Drive Championship in 2016
Alumni

Power play: Arts & Sciences alum is a long drive golfing champ

Cornellians

After competing in track and field for the Big Red, Troy Mullins ’09 parlayed her athleticism into success at smashing the ball.

Karola Meszaros
Mathematics

Mészáros elected to American Mathematical Society

A&S Communications

Mészáros’ research focuses on algebraic and geometric combinatorics.

a piece of fabric with a design on it
Ryan Young/Cornell University HelioSkin is a lightweight, stretchable architectural fabric that is aesthetically attractive and can wrap around complex shapes.
Cornell University

2025 Year in Review

Cornell Chronicle

In 2025, Cornell produced cutting-edge AI research, inaugurated a president and advanced agriculture and sustainability. The university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni made the world a better place, welcomed back two Nobel laureate alumni and conducted research that matters.

Illustration showing RNA Polymerase II interacting with Chromatin
Provided This cartoon illustrates how RNA polymerase generates torsional stress in DNA during transcription. Chromatin, composed of nucleosomes with DNA wrapped around histone proteins, buffers this stress, enabling the polymerase to transcribe through nucleosomes.
Physics

Unexpected allies: DNA packaging aids gene expression

Cornell Chronicle

Researchers discovered that DNA packaging structures called nucleosomes, which have been traditionally seen as roadblocks for gene expression, actually help reduce torsional stress in DNA strands and facilitate genetic information decoding.

Hand holding a smart phone showing the TikTok icon
Solen Feyissa/Unsplash
Government

TikTok user long-term experience will ‘depend’ on regulators in new framework

A&S Communications

Tiktok has signed a deal to spin off its U.S. business, but it remains unclear how effectively the new framework will address the initial national security threat concerns, says government professor Sarah Kreps.

Illustration showing an outline of a brain in white electronic-looking wiring
Steve Johnson/Unsplash
Physics

AI gives scientists a boost, but at the cost of too many mediocre papers

Cornell Chronicle

A new study shows that using large language models like ChatGPT boosts paper production, especially for non-native English speakers, but the overall increase in AI-written papers is making it harder to separate the valuable contributions from the AI slop.

Record album cover: Songs in Flight
Cedille Records/Photo by Elliot Mandel Record album cover: Songs in Flight
History

‘Songs In Flight,’ inspired by Cornell-based project, earns Grammy nod

A&S Communications

Based on poems by A&S alumna Tsitsi Ella Jaji, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’08, the songs by Shawn Okpebholo bring to life individual stories preserved by the Cornell-based Freedom on the Move project.

Book cover: Bukovina
Provided
History

In Bukovina, European empires built new worlds out of inherited materials

Cornell Chronicle

The region never fit easily among its neighbors, as regimes including the Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union tried to remake it in their image.

hand in a blue glove holding a beaker with clear liquid in it
RephiLe water/Unsplash Cornell chemists have found a way to encapsulate a molecule’s quantum mechanical information so they can feed that – rather than simpler structural information – into ML algorithms, providing up to 100 times more accuracy than the current most popular method
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Quantum mechanical molecular ‘fingerprints’ solve machine learning mystery

A&S Communications

The new method can predict molecular properties with up to 100 times more accuracy than the current method.

Large concrete dish surrounded by three poles and wires; a mechanism is suspended over the dish. the whole thing, a telescope, is surrounded by lush trees
David Parker/Science Photo Library Arecibo Observatory
Astronomy

Astronomer paints vivid history of Arecibo Observatory

Cornell Chronicle

In a new book, Donald Campbell, Ph.D. ’71, professor emeritus of astronomy, recounts the history of Arecibo from construction to its last days under Cornell’s management in 2011.

Aerial view of a green field in summer, a distant view and a square marked on on the ground, set with small boxes
Chris Kitchen for Cornell University Researchers said enclosed fields, just off Cornell's campus, vastly expand the experiences of lab mice, which have only ever lived in a cage a little larger than a shoebox.
Neurobiology and Behavior

In lab mice rehomed to fields, anxiety is reversed

Cornell Chronicle

When postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zipple releases lab mice into a large, enclosed field just off Cornell’s campus, something remarkable happens.

Book cover: Modernity and Malevolence in the Psychiatric Clinic
Anthropology

Book explores ‘modernity and malevolence’ in Indian clinical care

Cornell Chronicle

The book shows how patterns of psycho-social stress combined with modernity’s pressures can influence psychiatric practice.

Many people working together to package food
Joel Muniz/Unsplash Gratitude helps you live up to your best self and be a better member of society.
Psychology

From better sleep to stronger communities: The benefits of gratitude

A&S Communications

Gratitude not only makes you feel good, but it helps you live up to your best self and be a better member of society, psychology professor Thomas Gilovich has found.

Pontoon boat on still, gray water
Jason Koski/Cornell University A team of scientists from Cornell, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took a DEC boat out onto Seneca Lake in September to place sensors and take water samples from the lake's depths.
Ecology and evolutionary biology

The mystery of the Seneca Drums persists

Cornell Chronicle

Researchers are plumbing the depths of the largest and deepest of New York’s Finger Lakes to explain the source of its famous booming sounds.

three people smiling
Kathy Hovis From left, Wilson Kan, Marian Caballo and Reya Babu are all graduating this December.
Student accomplishments

Celebrating the journey with our December A&S grads

A&S Communications

December graduates walk the stage this month, so we sat down for a talk with three A&S grads who’ve taken different pathways through Cornell.

Two people sitting at a table, reading in a room full of books on shelves; the books are reflected on the surface of the table, creating a sense of immersion
Ryan Young/Cornell University
Alumni authors

Your December 2025 reads

Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include fiction from A&S alum Thomas Pynchon ’59, an award-winning poetry collection and a study of a small town.

Nick Salvatore
Cornell University file photo
American Studies Program

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82

Cornell Chronicle

Salvatore taught at the ILR School and in the American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences for 36 years, retiring in 2017 as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Emeritus Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Mouse peeking over the back of a couch in a dim room.
Oxana Golubets/Unsplash
Neurobiology and Behavior

Brain stimulation during sleep boosts weak memories in mice

Cornell Chronicle

The mice could remember new experiences that would normally be forgotten – a finding with important implications for treating Alzheimer’s disease.

Three people stand next to a silver device, about a foot taller than the people, made of a post, a box with electronics inside, and a circular top
Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University Shami Chatterjee, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences; James Cordes, the George Feldstein Professor of Astronomy; and doctoral student Sashabaw Niedbalski, on the roof of the Space Sciences Building next to the Global Radio Explorer Telescope.
Astronomy

Cake-pan telescope searches the sky for fast radio bursts

Cornell Chronicle

One of the world's smallest telescopes, it is part of a series of eight terminals installed around the globe.

magazine cover
Student creative works

Undergrads launch magazine featuring in-depth stories

A&S Communications

A new student-run magazine focuses on long-form journalism that reflects the culture of Cornell and Ithaca.

Black and white historic photo of a person playing a guitar and singing into a microphone
Provided Ellen Stekert '57 on the Hill for a return performance in 1960.
Alumni

At age 90, a singer, collector, and scholar of folk music goes digital

Cornellians

After a long career onstage and off, Ellen Stekert ’57 is focused on preservation—releasing songs from her vast archive on Bandcamp.

Book cover: Expanding Verse
Provided Book cover: Expanding Verse
Asian studies

Campana wins MLA’s Scaglione Prize for book on Japanese poetry

A&S Communications

“Expanding Verse: Japanese Poetry at the Edge of Media" is study of work by poets who push the genre in unexpected directions.

ancient stone temple surrounded by trees, under a bright blue sky
SAM sokkolinmony/Unsplash Main gate of Presh Khan Kampong svay Temple in Cambodia's Presh Vihea Province, on the border with Thailand
Government

Domestic politics driving Thailand-Cambodia border tensions says Cornell Southeast Asia expert

A&S Communications

Thailand and Cambodia have long had fraught relations, professor Tom Pepinsky says after Thailand’s military launched air strikes along the Thailand-Cambodia border.

person speaking
eCornell Frances Lee
Public engagement

Workshop, talk focused on applying lessons learned from COVID

A&S Communications

Scholars converged at Cornell to talk about lessons policymakers and elected officials could glean from their research into the COVID pandemic to help deal with the next public health emergency.

man speaking at a podium
China and Asia-Pacific Studies

Cornell-China trip celebrates 20 years of Levinson Program

A&S Communications

Leaders celebrated the Levinson Program and joined other Cornell delegates at the Cornell-China Forum.

colorful toy blocks
Benjamin D. Esham/Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license 4.0
Physics

Electrons stay put in layers of mismatched ‘quantum Legos’

Cornell Chronicle

Electrons can be elusive, but Cornell researchers using a new computational method can now account for where they go – or don’t go – in certain layered materials.

Aerial view of the Arts Quad in the fall
Social sciences

Cornell Center for Social Sciences awards fall grants targeting $50M in external research support

Cornell Chronicle

The Cornell Center for Social Sciences offers multiple grants to help Cornell faculty maximize their research impact. These awards help seed ambitious projects and provide support to teams of faculty applying to major external funding and collaboration opportunities.

About five students cluster around a table full of equipment in an introductory physics lab
Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University The "Improving STEM Learning and Pedagogical Assessment" innovation project focused on creating an equitable environment for students to work in teams.
Education innovation

CTI grants enable faculty to research how students think and learn

Cornell Chronicle

With a 2024-2025 Innovative Teaching & Learning Grant, A&S professors collaborated with others to develope an AI tool to foster student metacognitive skills around teamwork in STEM classes.

looking down on a large city set among mountains
Juan Pablo Ahumada/Unsplash Santiago, Chile
Government

Chile latest test case in South America’s far right shift

A&S Communications

“Chile's vibrant democracy faces a new challenge in a highly polarized second-round presidential election" Dec. 14, says Ken Roberts, professor of government.

cells
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Forever young? Extracellular vesicles may be key to halt aging

Cornell Chronicle

Scientists have outlined exactly how embryonic stem cells protect other cells from the effects of oxidative stress, thus preventing cellular aging.

Seen from the back a person wearing large hooded sweatshirt faces a computer screen
Ashley Osburn/Cornell University
Psychology

AI chatbots can effectively sway voters – in either direction

Cornell Chronicle

Two new papers – with experiments conducted in four countries – demonstrate that chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are quite effective at political persuasion, moving opposition voters’ preferences by 10 percentage points or more in many cases.