Students and alumni from the College of Arts & Sciences gathered in late June for a series of networking events, helping students explore careers in health care, finance, law, politics/government and media.
The Arts & Sciences Career Connections Committee (ASCCC) hosts events during summer and winter breaks. The summer events are in-person networking events and traditionally take place…
Cyrus Moussavi/Provided
Thomas Feng, left, a Ph.D. candidate in performance practice, and Hanna Kebbede, the niece of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru who established the foundation that holds Emahoy’s archive, go through newly discovered cassette recordings by Emahoy at the courtyard of the Debre Genet Ethiopian Orthodox church in Jerusalem. The cassettes, along with manuscripts and recording equipment, were found in Emahoy’s room after her death.
Cornell scientists have revealed a new phase of matter in candidate topological superconductors that could have significant consequences for condensed matter physics and for the field of quantum computing and spintronics.
Researchers at the Macroscopic Quantum Matter Group at Cornell have discovered and visualized a crystalline yet superconducting state in a new and unusual superconductor,…
With artificial intelligence poised to assist in profound scientific discoveries that will change the world, Cornell is leading a new $11.3 million center focused on human-AI collaboration that uses mathematics as a common language.
The Scientific Artificial Intelligence Center, or SciAI Center, is being launched with a grant from the Office of Naval Research and is led by Christopher J…
Sreang "C" Hok/Cornell University
Student checking out books in the Mui Ho Fine Arts Library.
Take a vicarious trip back to campus with these books that unfold, at least in part, at your alma mater—either the real one, or a fictionalized and renamed incarnation that will still strike a familiar chord.
A number are bestsellers penned by critically acclaimed, award-winning authors and remain popular. While a few are out of print and may be harder to find, copies can generally be located…
Using a combination of high-powered X-rays, phase-retrieval algorithms and machine learning, Cornell researchers revealed the intricate nanotextures in thin-film materials, offering scientists a new, streamlined approach to analyzing potential candidates for quantum computing and microelectronics, among other applications.
Scientists are especially interested in nanotextures that are…
Three Arts & Sciences faculty members have been selected as finalists for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs Summit 2023.
Among the 30 finalists in the social sciences and humanities category are:
Lori Khatchadourian, associate professor of Near Eastern studies and anthropology, and Adam T. Smith, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology, for their…
Young people on social media may be posing for their friends – but potential employers and others who could impact their professional lives are viewing these posts, too.
In a new study by Cornell psychology researchers, female applicants for scholarships or jobs were viewed less favorably than males when study participants, acting as decision-makers, were shown “sexy” social media photos…
Jason Koski/Cornell University
The A. D. White Reading Room in Uris Library.
by :
Katya Hrichak
,
Cornell University Graduate School
Becoming fluent in another language can be an integral component to humanities students’ studies, but for many, juggling language classes with additional coursework requirements, teaching assistantships, and other responsibilities can prove challenging during the academic year. To support summer learning opportunities, the Graduate School offers Summer Foreign Language Grants that can help…
Like light switches, transistors control the flow of electric currents. Transistors are the fundamental building blocks of any computing device, from smartphones to the computers in cars. According to Phuong Nguyen, a PhD candidate under the direction of Kin Fai Mak, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and Jie Shan, professor of applied and engineering physics in…
Jesse Winter
Natalie Arimah '19, left, and Jen Maclaughlin were able to connect this month at a student-alumni networking event in New York City.
Natalie Arimah ’19 used to think that she would go to med school or law school, find the right job and stay there forever. But now, she’s gaining confidence and realizes that she’s in charge of her own career. If a job isn’t challenging her or fitting in with her goals in life, she’s not afraid to find something else.
Behind her all the way is Jen Maclaughlin, director of Career Development…
Provided
Olivia Ochoa enjoys a break in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. She's working this summer with the Migration Policy Institute.
A total of 135 students in the College of Arts & Sciences are able to take on unpaid or minimally-paid summer experiences this year with help from the College’s Summer Experience Grants (SEG).
Students will be traveling as far as Ecuador or staying on campus to join a research lab for these experiences, which help them make decisions about their majors and future career goals.
“As a…
Ryan Young/Cornell University
Andy Shin '23, M.P.A. '25
As a teenager, Andy Shin ’23, M.P.A. ’25, spent Independence Day volunteering at the festivities in his hometown of Diamond Bar, California; already he associated the Fourth of July with service, community and the diversity he had come to love in the U.S.
But Shin didn’t feel entirely a part of that community – because he wasn’t a U.S. citizen.
“I really, really wanted to become an…
NANOGrav/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet
The NANOGrav collaboration has found the first evidence for low-frequency gravitational waves permeating the cosmos. The finding was made possible with 15 years of pulsar observations that turned the Milky Way into a galaxy-sized gravitational wave detector.
A 15-year collaboration in which Cornell astrophysicists have played leading roles has found the first evidence of gravitational waves slowly undulating through the galaxy, ripples in space-time likely generated by pairs of supermassive black holes in the process of merging.
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center had…
Steven Jackson believes a university should be, first and foremost, about educating students, and that core belief will inspire him in his new role as vice provost for academic innovation (VPAI).
“My interest in the position really came from my central commitment as a teacher at Cornell,” said Jackson, professor in the Department of Information Science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of…
The “widowhood effect” – the tendency for married people to die in close succession – is accelerated when spouses don’t know each other’s friends well, new Cornell sociology research finds.
Analyzing the first longitudinal data detailing older adults’ social networks along with demographic and health measures, the researchers found that over a 10-year study period, the probability of death…
An open access book, “Performing Prowess: Essays on Localized Hindu Elements in Southeast Asian Art from Past to Present” published in May. A hardcover edition will be published in Thailand later this year.
Hindu art is abundant and vibrant in Southeast Asia, from peninsular Thailand to the island of Bali, a tradition that has continued unbroken for more than 1,500 years, said Wannasarn (Saam) Noonsuk, Ph.D. ’12 – and Cornell is a key center of scholarship in the field.
“Cornell has been a powerhouse in Southeast Asian Studies and very strong in art history,” said Noonsuk, who is now an…
Listening to Michael Poll play Bach on guitar, it’s easy to hear the expertise he pours into his playing.
What’s not as evident to the audience member: the myriad decisions Poll makes while preparing the piece–which Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for lute–for performance on the guitar. There are technical challenges to be overcome between instruments, aesthetic differences between centuries, and…
Provided
A scene from Austin Bunn’s new short film “Campfire.”
“Campfire,” an original short film by Associate Professor Austin Bunn, won the Provincetown International Film Festival’s "best queer short" award this month – its third award this summer. The Provincetown award makes the film eligible for an Academy Award nomination.
The film tells the story of a married dairy farmer who travels to a gay campground in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania to…
The British Empire was not created through military might alone, historian Robert Travers points out in a new book; subsuming existing bureaucracy was another way the East India Company consolidated power in India starting in the 1770s.
In “Empires of Complaints: Mughal Law and the Making of British India, 1765-1793” Travers, professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, shows…
Carl Sagan Institute/R. Payne
Artist impression showing the exoplanet LP 890-9c’s potential evolution from a hot Earth to a desiccated Venus.
How close can a rocky planet be to a star, and still sustain water and life?
A recently discovered exoplanet may be key to solving that mystery, providing important insights about conditions at the inner edge of a star’s habitable zone and why Earth and Venus developed so differently, according to new research led by Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute and associate…
Twenty-three faculty members in the College of Arts & Sciences were recently honored with endowed professorships approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees, continuing the college’s priority to recognize and support faculty excellence.
With these new appointments, the number of A&S faculty appointed to endowed professorships since fall 2018 has reached 66.
“These endowed…
Provided
An illustration depicting Asakusa District in Tokyo, a thriving movie theater and entertainment area in early twentieth century Japan.
As soon as a new media technology emerges – for instance ChatGPT or a virtual reality headset – a discourse starts up, as enthusiasts expound on its uses while skeptics write op-eds about perceived threats.
“We’re in an era where it seems that new media and media technologies that kind of freak us out emerge constantly,” said Andrew Campana, assistant professor of Asian studies in the…
Elias Beltrán is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature from the Bronx, N.Y. He earned a bachelor’s degree in literature and the humanities from Bard College and now studies Hispanophone Caribbean literature, art, culture and history under the guidance of Natalie Melas, associate professor in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell.
He talks about his research in this story…
A series of new papers, including one by Kathryn Mann, associate professor of mathematics and Joyce A. Yelencsics ’65 and Frederick M Rosevear Faculty Leadership Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences, describes how to reconstruct key dynamical systems, which address how phenomena as simple as a pendulum’s back-and-forth motion or as complex as the weather evolve over time, with relatively…
Richard William “Dick” Miller, the Wyn and William Y. Hutchinson Professor in Ethics and Public Life Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, who brought deep moral insight to philosophical theory and matters of social and political justice, died June 9. He was 77.
Miller was widely heralded for extending the traditional boundaries of philosophy to incorporate the social sciences – a far…
Andreas Praefcke/Creative Commons license 3.0
Main Reading Room, Library of Congress (Jefferson Building), Washington, D.C.
Historian Tamika Nunley can see the U.S. Supreme Court through the window of her office in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where she is serving as the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History this summer. It’s a great vantage point, she said, not only for looking out at landmarks of American government, but also for reflecting on the ways laws and judgements have…
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
In this image of Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope, sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth are revealed. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
Among astronomical topics, gas can be underappreciated, says astronomer Martha Haynes; yet the stuff that powers stars and generates storms on Jupiter is a key to understanding the universe.
"Gas fills the space between the planets, between the stars and between the galaxies,” said Haynes, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Astronomy in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Gas…
Patrick Shanahan
The 'Software Pirates' win the group costume contest: (l-r) Chris Christensen, Savannah Relos, and Zora Blitz
The normally staid plaster casts in Klarman Hall’s Groos Family Atrium were draped in fishing nets on June 7, while a skeleton in manacles grinned from the lectern. A pirate skull and cross bones banner leered down from the second floor at the people gathered for the annual College of Arts & Sciences staff appreciation picnic, while “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” blasted from the…
Zehui Chen/Chinese Academy of Science and April (Xinzhu) Wei/Cornell University
An illustration showing the continued, albeit waning, influence of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans
Recent scientific discoveries have shown that Neanderthal genes comprise some 1 to 4% of the genome of present-day humans whose ancestors migrated out of Africa, but the question remained open on how much those genes are still actively influencing human traits — until now.
A multi-institution research team including Cornell has developed a new suite of computational genetic tools to…
S.E. Cupp alongside Joy Behar as a co-host on “The View”
On most Wednesdays, S.E. Cupp ’00 is in her Connecticut home, exchanging emails with her editors at CNN. The TV host and political commentator—an outspoken voice of practical conservatism on the network since 2013—is fleshing out what to cover on her next segment of “SE Cupp Unfiltered,” which she records on Thursdays.
“That’s a fun conversation,” Cupp says on a sunny day in rural Upstate NY,…
Heather Ainsworth/provided
Carley Robinson ’20 is directing the play “Fertile Grounds” for Ithaca’s Civic Ensemble.
On June 2, the Ithaca theater organization Civic Ensemble will premiere “Fertile Grounds,” a community-based play that invites the audience onto a fictional farming cooperative involving people of color to explore the relationship of grief, community and wellness.
The opening marks the continuation of the ensemble’s longstanding collaboration with Cornell – and the professional directing debut…
Jason Koski/Cornell University
Students line up for recognition at the 2023 Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony on May 27 at Barton Hall.
Cornell’s newest doctoral graduates have completed one significant milestone, but their journey as scholars is only beginning, President Martha E. Pollack said to nearly 350 candidates waiting to cross the stage and be recognized at the 2023 Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony on May 27 at Barton Hall.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve stood in a cap and gown, with an achievement behind you and new…
Only 13 percent of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history, and only 22 percent of those students are proficient in civics, with adults faring little better, writes Glenn Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies, in a Washington Post commentary, citing the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Americans across the political spectrum believe that more…
More than 25 years ago, Professor Steven Strogatz and then-graduate student Duncan Watts, Ph.D. ’97, embarked on research so daring in its interdisciplinarity, and so broad in its reach, that at first they didn’t tell anyone about it.
The problem they were working on involved “six degrees of separation” – the idea that any one person in the world could connect to any other…
Jason Koski/Cornell University
Steve Strogatz brings math alive through engaged learning techniques in his class, Mathematical Explorations.
Bolstering its commitment to broader engagement, the College of Arts and Sciences has established the Susan and Barton Winokur Distinguished Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science and Mathematics.
Distinguished mathematician, award-winning teacher and well-known science communicator Steven Strogatz has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the chair. The professorship,…
In the late nineteenth century, revolutionary Chinese students looked to theater as a way of expressing their desire for change, according to Kun Huang, a doctoral candidate in comparative literature. For inspiration, they turned to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an American novel from 1852 written by the white abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, adapting the novel into a play in 1907. They focused on…
Russell Rickford, associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, is writing a book about Guyana and its role in Pan African thought during the 1960s and 1970s, when Pan Africanism was sweeping the world. He’s titled the book "A Proxy Africa," after Pan Africanists’ vision for Guyana, which emerged as a focal point for Pan Africanism in South America, and their emphasis on…
Joyce N. Boghosian
Speaking at a dinner for the museum in 2022
When Lisa Sasaki ’97 was tapped in March 2021 to serve as interim director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, she knew she was taking on a daunting task.
The job was, as she puts it: “to build a museum that’s going to be around for as long as there’s an America.”
Of course, planning any museum from the ground up—not to mention one that will stand among the iconic…
Breakthrough Listen / Danielle Futselaar
An artist's conception of an alien device that generates repetitive signals.
The Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS), led by Akshay Suresh, Cornell doctoral candidate in astronomy, is pioneering a search for periodic signals emanating from the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The research aims to detect repetitive patterns, a way to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) within our cosmic neighborhood.
The researchers…
Dave Burbank for Cornell University
Abraham Sinfort ’23 speaks May 23 at the 35th Merrill Presidential Scholars ceremony.
Abraham Sinfort ’23 credits his high school humanities teacher, Louis Frederick, with giving him confidence to think critically about information that transcends subject material.
“Mr. Frederick’s amazing mentorship was not limited to our classroom learning experiences, and instead extended to our interactions with him in the hallways, during this lunch break, and even on the subway ride home,…
When a devastating heat wave hit the Pacific Ocean between 2013 and 2016, biologists documented sharp declines in many marine creatures, including the iconic humpback whale: Whale abundance near southeastern Alaska during and after the heat wave dropped by 56% and still hasn’t recovered to 2013 levels.
A team of Cornell researchers and external partners now seeks to understand how…
In the beginning there wasn’t anything of notice, writes psychologist Shimon Edelman in his new book “The Consciousness Revolutions: From Amoeba Awareness to Human Emancipation.” But as soon as a cell was born, according to Edelman’s view, consciousness came into being. All it took, he says, was a cell membrane to create basic conditions for consciousness: differentiation from the outside world,…
Savan DeSouza/Provided
Graduate student Sam Levenson, left, and CLASSE Research Associate Matt Andorf show off the HERACLES beamline in Newman Lab.
Cornell is breaking new ground in electron beam research with the HERACLES beamline, a state-of-the-art electron gun that mimics the harsh environments of the world’s largest particle colliders. Originally designed during the university's Energy Recovery Linac program, the electron gun at the heart of HERACLES has set records for photoinjector current, allowing researchers to study cathodes that…
The College of Arts & Sciences will welcome alumni to campus June 8-11 with a host of events for Cornell Reunion 2023, celebrating the classes of 3s and 8s.
Alumni can register now at the Reunion website.
A&S highlights will include:
"The Climate Change Comedy Hour," a multi-media presentation by Aaron Sachs, professor of history and American studies. The…
Roger William Photography
Some of the recipients of 2023 Distinguished Awards at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Celebration, May 16 in G10 Biotech
by :
Katya Hrichak
,
Cornell University Graduate School
The Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement and the Graduate and Professional Student Diversity Council presented the 2023 Distinguished Awards at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Celebration on May 16 in G10 Biotech.
This annual event recognizes the excellence represented within the graduate community and celebrates students for demonstrating…
Nic Vigilante is a doctoral student in music with a concentration in music and sound studies from Waterford, New York. They earned a B.A. from Oberlin College and B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and now study how music, sound, and performance are used to create “unreality” at Cornell under the guidance of Catherine Appert.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
I…
The College of Arts & Sciences annually honors faculty members for excellence in teaching and advising. Among the faculty members and teaching assistants being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are: Emily Fridlund, recipient of the 2023 Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists; Kendra Bischoff, recipient of the 2023 Robert A. and Donna B…
Generative artificial intelligence – popularized in 2022 by Open AI’s ChatGPT application – threatens to undermine trust in democracies when misused, but may also be harnessed for public good, Sarah Kreps told the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during a public meeting May 19.
Kreps, the John L. Wetherill Professor in the…
