If a budding entrepreneur ever needed a lesson in the power of persistence, the story of Dr. Leonard Schleifer ’73 would be a good one to hear.Schleifer, the 2019 Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year who majored in biological sciences as a Cornell undergrad, shared the successes and failures he experienced while growing his biotechnology company, Regeneron, during an April 11 conversation with Lance…
“Arts Unplugged,” a new series of events sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, will kick off April 26 with “The Odyssey in Ithaca,” a daylong community reading of a new translation of Homer’s “Odyssey” featuring campus and community members.Readers for the event, which runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Groos Family Atrium of Klarman Hall, will include students, faculty and staff from…
Three new faculty members who specialize in African American literature will be joining the Department of English for the fall of 2019. Derrick Spires and Nafissa Thompson-Spires, both currently faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chelsea Mikael Frazier, a PhD candidate finishing up her work at Northwestern University, will join the department this summer, adding to its…
Starting this fall, all incoming students in the College of Arts & Sciences will meet weekly in a small group with a faculty member to help students make the transition to college life easier. Arts & Sciences faculty voted this month to approve the expansion.The College began offering these advising seminars to first-year students in 2017 to complement the current advising structure,…
The college of Arts & Sciences has named Irene Lessmeister MA ‘09, PHD ’12, its new director of admissions.Irene LessmeisterLessmeister, who joined the college in 2013 as an assistant dean in admissions and advising, said she looks forward to leading the admission staff during a time of great change and challenges for university admissions offices.“The pace of change in our field is…
A new lecture series in human evolution will kick off with an April 9 event, featuring Cynthia Beall, distinguished university professor and Sarah Idell Pyle Professor of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University.The Kenneth A.R. Kennedy Lecture in Human Evolution was established to honor and celebrate Kennedy, a professor of physical anthropology and ecology and evolutionary biology at…
Seven alumni with degrees in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies returned to campus March 8 for a panel discussion, sharing their stories of the varied career paths they’ve taken with their liberal arts majors.“FGSS really carried with me into every single space I entered since I graduated,” said Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler ’13, currently a graduate student in urban planning at Harvard…
Estefania Perez ’21 is all abuzz as she enters the Arts & Sciences Career Development offices in early March. She’s just heard back from a staffer in the office of a U.S. senator whom she’d really love to work for this summer. And her interview is in two days. She’s in desperate need of some wisdom from Ana Adinolfi, senior career associate in the office.The scene is a common one for Adinolfi…
The college is now taking the initial steps to implement the new curriculum, passed by Arts & Sciences faculty last October, with full rollout expected to begin with the class of students who will enter Cornell in the fall of 2020.The new curriculum, focuses on the theme of exploration and reaffirms the college’s commitment to a liberal arts and sciences education. Changes will make the…
Richard Schuler, professor emeritus in the Department of Economics in the College of Arts & Sciences and professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, passed away Feb. 13 at the age of 81. Services were held Feb. 18 at Saint Catherine’s of Sienna Church in Ithaca.Schuler joined the Cornell faculty in 1972. His research emphasized the micro-planning,…
An upcoming multimedia event will showcase the collaboration of a Cornell English professor and a local filmmaker, who worked with local women to tell their stories of trauma and joy through poetry and film.“Other Powers: Trauma Survivors Reclaim Joy,” is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 12 and 13 at Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green St. It will include a film, a talkback and readings by performance artist…
When the Forbes 30 under 30 list comes out each year, it’s common to assume that the Cornellians represented there came from the Dyson School or maybe engineering.But the College of Arts & Sciences was well represented on this year’s list --- with five of the alumni who were recently featured in a Cornell Entrepreneur Network livestream event coming from the college and this year’s Cornell…
An alumna from the College of Arts & Sciences has created a new fund to help students with some of the unexpected expenses of career exploration – travel costs for interviews, conference attendance fees and even a new interview suit.The new professional development fund in Arts & Sciences Career Development helped students to attend this year’s New York Recruiting Consortium event Jan. 11…
A new minor track in the Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) allows students to explore the social causes and consequences of inequalities in life expectancy, health outcomes, health-promoting behaviors and access to health care.Students in any major are now able to declare a Health Equity Track within the Minor in Inequality Studies. The track is especially relevant for students who are…
You see that adorable boy every time you grab your morning coffee at Libe Café and you wonder: What does he do on Friday nights? Could he be vegan? Maybe he’s a Republican? Might he be my … perfect match?A group of Cornell students is hoping to help students find their special someone just in time for Valentine’s Day using an algorithm they’ve created and survey data from students about their…
Thanks to contributions from two Arts & Sciences alumni, more students than ever before were able to attend networking events over winter break in New York City and Washington, D.C.The events, sponsored by the Arts & Sciences Career Connections Committee (ASCCC), offered students the chance to explore careers in finance, healthcare, government and policy, law and media.“The events were a…
Iftikhar Dadi, associate professor of history of art, has received a $238,000 grant from the Getty Foundation's Connecting Art Histories initiative for a series of research seminars. The project, “Connecting Modern Art Histories in and across Africa, South and Southeast Asia,” is a collaboration between Cornell’s Institute of Comparative Modernities (ICM), the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh, and…
Alex Vladimirsky is the type of mathematician who draws inspiration from real-world problems. This was one of his main reasons for joining Cornell, where interdisciplinary collaborations are both valued and encouraged.“I appreciate the opportunity to interact with colleagues in engineering, in medicine, in sociology, in economics, in physics, in computer science,” he said. “Both in my teaching…
When Dr. David Murray ’52 finally held his Cornell diploma in his hands earlier this month, his wife Judy Sayles said he raised one hand to heaven.His mother would have been so happy.Murray — a biology/pre-med major — was so anxious to get to medical school to pursue his goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon that he took summer school courses at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa (his home town…
Some days, there’s nothing better than slouching on the couch and watching a stream of YouTube videos – whether you’re catching up on Saturday Night Live skits, laughing with Dude Perfect, learning the latest makeup techniques from James Charles or chilling with cute puppy videos.And amazingly, the videos that end up in your recommended sections are also ones that you end up usually loving.That…
During his time at Cornell, Benjamin Montaño ’19 has had the opportunity to pursue a variety of interests —from research into immigration to direct work with farmworkers to his current studies investigating how citizens interact with government, particularly through infrastructure projects.For his senior thesis and his project as a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Montaño has been combing…
When linguistics Ph.D. candidate Simone Harmath-de Lemos started studying the indigenous Bororo language of Brazil, she was excited to expand her knowledge of her own culture — she has heard from oral accounts that one of her foremothers was a Bororo.With around 900 speakers, Bororo is one of the 40 percent of languages around the world in danger of dying, said Mats Rooth, linguistics professor…
When Jonathan Avery ’19 came to Cornell as a freshman, many of his friends on the track team had their schedules all lined up – for the next four years. They were hotel school students, engineers, ILR students or business majors and had a well-defined curriculum.Avery, an Arts & Sciences student, had many more options, but decided to major in economics because of his interest in business and…
Dick Silver ’50, MD ‘53, has had a notable career in medicine, spending most of his time studying, treating and curing cancer at Weill Cornell Medicine.But the professors who took the most interest in him during his Cornell undergraduate days, and really got to know him as a person, were his music professors: William Campbell, director of the symphonic and Big Red bands, and Robert Hull, director…
Several alumni are providing major funding for the college’s Posse program for at least the next five years.Ron McCray '79 and Dennis '65 and Joyce '66 Black are contributing $2 million as part of a challenge grant, encouraging other alumni to support the program, which offers scholarships to students from Chicago and brings them to campus each fall in “posses” of 10 students. The challenge,…
Looking at an animated film by Lynn Tomlinson ’88, a viewer feels like they’re in front of an impressionist painting by Van Gogh or the Hudson River School painters, or riding the waves with fishermen in a work by Winslow Homer.Tomlinson uses colorful, clay-on-glass animation to create her stories, a process where oil-based modeling clay is spread thinly on a glass sheet and moved frame-by-frame…
After graduating as a theater major, Dana Lerner ’14 wanted to make some connections on Broadway. So, as a budding entrepreneur, she began networking and investing in Broadway and off-Broadway shows.Those early connections and projects, which introduced her to the inner world of Broadway productions, have paid off, giving her an understanding of everything from budgets to operating agreements…
Arts and Sciences’ students in various special research programs gathered to share dinner and stories – and find some common ground – during a reception Nov. 5.“Dining Out on your Research” was organized by advising deans within the College, who wanted to connect students conducting various research projects with each other.“We wanted to give the scholars an opportunity to meet peers from other…
It’s not typical for an undergrad composer to have their work heard by a live audience of upwards of 20,000 people, but 13 students in a new music composition class can jot that down on their resumes.The students of Eli Marshall, a lecturer in the Department of Music, are spending the first two months of the semester composing music for eight solo instruments – ranging from percussion to voice to…
By a 2 to 1 margin, faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences approved a new undergraduate curriculum for students. Plans will soon be under way to implement it. The new curriculum focuses on the theme of exploration and reaffirms the college’s commitment to a liberal arts and sciences education. Changes will make the curriculum easier for students to navigate, simplify the graduation…
Mike Clifford’s mom might be the only Ivy League parent who encouraged her son to pursue poetry rather than a job in finance.“In the fall semester of my senior year, I got an offer, along with the MBA students, for a full-time job with J.P. Morgan,” said Clifford ’87, who majored in English and minored in economics. “My mom said to me, ‘But I thought you were going to be a poet?’”Clifford thrived…
Assistant Professor Óscar Gil-García of Binghamton University and his brother, Manuel Gil, a professional photographer, will share the story of their exhibit, “From Stateless to Citizen: Indigenous Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico” during a Nov. 9 lunch in the Latina/o Studies Center on the fourth floor of Rockefeller Hall.The exhibit includes photographs and stories of residents of La Gloria, a…
Generous alumni, parents and friends of the College of Arts & Sciences are helping to provide exciting opportunities for students, from support for scholarships and innovative programs to the creation of faculty positions in various departments.In fiscal year 2018, the college raised $53.7 million in gifts, big and small, from 6,378 generous alumni, parents and friends, topping the college’s…
Using the Cornell Portal outside Olin Library, Emma Wagner ’21 talked with two young people from Kigali, Rwanda, who told her health care is better in urban areas than rural ones and explained the country’s universal health care system. The Rwandans also asked Wagner about the MeToo movement in the U.S.“The most surprising thing to me was how similar we all were,” Wagner said. “I was in the…
New renovations and expansions in Uris Hall have improved classroom and seminar room spaces in the Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI), given undergrads in the sociology department a computer lounge and provided more space for graduate students to hold meetings and conduct research."Sociology's new undergrad computing lab provides a good space for students to work on their own or…
On the table in her cozy Fifth Avenue office, Funmi Dosunmu ’12 offers her clients the choice of champagne, a mimosa, a plate of sweets or just an Evian water. They are celebrating, after all. Most of them are planning for one of the biggest days of their lives. Adorning her walls are gorgeous shots from weddings that she’s planned.Dosunmu juggles several entrepreneurial ventures at once –…
When Rolf Barth ’59 thinks about his time as a Cornell Chemistry major, he remembers the 80 hours a week he spent in classes, labs, his language courses in German and Russian, plus three summers doing research at CalTech and Scripps Oceanographic Institute.“At Cornell, they emphasized spoken language from the very beginning, so that while you started the year with basic conversation, by the end…
Enrique Morones, president and founder of Border Angels, will offer a public talk, “Border Angels, Border Realities and Immigration Today,” at 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at the First Unitarian Church, 306 N. Aurora St., Ithaca. He will also visit Cornell classes and meet with students during his two-day visit to Ithaca.Border Angels is a nonprofit volunteer organization advocating for migrants through…
These days, nearly 900 customers pass through the lines every day at the Temple of Zeus café in the atrium of Klarman Hall. That’s a far cry from its humble origins in 1964 as a coffee and donut operation run by one of the building maintenance staff.Now, you can find on the menu two or three creative soups, healthy sandwiches and salads with locally-sources breads, meats, cheeses and vegetables…
The inaugural group of 14 students in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity had the chance to swap stories with new Arts & Sciences Dean Ray Jayawardhana during a welcome dinner for the students Sept 5.On his second day as dean, Jayawardhana listened as each of the scholars described how they hope to combine their interests in technology with a variety of humanities and social…
Thomas Davidson, right, a doctoral student in the field of sociology, at work in the Social Dynamics Laboratory run by Michael Macy, back, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Arts and Sciences in sociology.Graduate and undergraduate students from Cornell’s social sciences fields are increasingly sought after by tech companies, who are searching for employees who understand social processes, psychology…
John Carboni ’20 got a front row seat this summer in an operating room at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, as surgeons surgically cut into a patient’s shoulder area for a replacement, cutting into joints and replacing the ball and socket with a metal prosthesis.
“Orthopedics is a very physical surgery, where people are pulling back muscles, moving around bones,” he said, adding…
Arts & Sciences alumni will be treated to art exhibitions, timely presentations by faculty and fun events to catch up on old times during Homecoming 2018, set for Sept. 21-22. Make your reservations now!Here are some of the highlights:Friday eventsNoon to 11:45 p.m.: 2018 Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) Biennial: Duration: Passage, Persistence, Survival; Johnson Museum, Arts Quad, Ag Quad;…
Ashley Kim ’19 spent her summer with researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, working on research that could help doctors determine what role proteins play in the progression of disease.Kim, a chemistry major and Tanner Dean’s Scholar in the College of Arts & Sciences, received a Tanner Dean’s summer research grant that helped to pay for her living expenses while she worked…
A committee of faculty and students in the College of Arts & Sciences has put forward a revised curriculum proposal that could go to a full faculty vote this fall.The Curriculum Review Committee’s (CRC) proposal continues to emphasize a curriculum that encourages exploration. It introduces changes to the degree requirements that remove barriers to exploration and better reflect the principles…
Being an ardent fan of fiction has led George DeFendini ’22 to worlds and cultures very different from his own in Queens, N.Y. — even to galaxies far, far away and now to Ithaca.From a character in one of his “Star Wars” reading adventures, he says he’s found his own mantra: “I don’t want to live an ordinary life.” As the first student from his high school to attend an Ivy League University and…
A gift from Joe Martino ’53 to the Department of English is expanding the opportunities for students interested in studying literature from the traditional English canon.Jane Glaubman Ph.D. ’18 will hold the Joseph F. Martino '53 Lectureship in Undergraduate Teaching for the 2018-19 year and will offer two first-year writing seminars based on the theme of romance. The pair of classes will serve…
Some incoming freshmen to Cornell might walk into CHEM 2070 shaking with a bit of fear and trepidation, but not Toyosi Ayanwola ’22. She says she has a pretty good idea of what to expect after taking a chemistry class as part of Cornell’s Prefreshman Summer Program (PSP).
“After the first two weeks of my chemistry class, I realized that if I would have come into the fall without this, I might…
Alexa may not be able to read your mind -- at least not yet— but Hannah Lee ’19 is trying to help her move in that direction.“We want to train machines so they can know by looking at people’s facial expressions or hearing their speech patterns that the machine got something wrong, even before the person tells them,” Lee said.Lee is combining her interests in psychology and computer science as…
In a wood-paneled courtroom in New York City, Nadia Udochi ’20 sits at one of the lawyer’s tables, head bent over a stack of papers. Law clerk Mark McGowan is showing her how a case is organized, beginning with a lawsuit and an answer, then moving through the process of discovery and resulting in motions, hearings, a jury or bench trial and a decision.As Udochi works, she can look directly at the…
