"There is something cathartic about smashing rocks on a hillside, miles away from civilization, in pursuit of fossils. Each swing of the hand-pick uncovers part of a mystery. A crack forms, then deepens, and suddenly the rock splits open—to reveal a fossil or reveal nothing. A fossil is set aside. An empty rock is tossed down the hillside. The process repeats—onto the next rock."
Petroleum-based polymers offer unique strength and versatility. They provide materials for affordable packaging, adhesives, building materials, computer components, and sporting and safety equipment. Durable and stable, these polymers accumulate in the environment. The creation of new plastics that can meet consumer demands without negative ecological and human health consequences is of paramount importance for global society.
Radium-223 is highly effective for treating bone metastases in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancers. Despite the therapeutic potential of radium-223, its current formulation approved by the Food and Drug Administration is effective only for patients with bone metastases. Justin J.
Thomas Hartman, assistant professor of physics, studies high-energy theoretical physics. His goal, he explains in this article in Cornell Research, is to bring to light the fundamental properties of nature, which derive from the subatomic world of quantum physics.
Eun-Ah Kim, professor of physics, has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create new data science approaches to meet the data-driven challenges of strongly correlated quantum matter (SCQM), Cornell Research reports. This project, undertaken with Kilian Q.
Mathematician Lionel Levine researches the abelian sandpile—a mathmatical model that captures aspects of the real world but with simpler rules; in this Cornell Research article, Levine calls it a "toy universe."
Jonathan D. Culler, the Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, wants to restore the magic of literary text for ordinary readers.
Jonathon Han '21 spent his summer with nephrology patients at Weill Cornell Medical Center working to improve the diagnosis of post-transplant kidney-related diagnostics. He is profiled in a recent Cornell Research story.
Assistant Professor and Mills Family Faculty Fellow Malte Ziewitz studies the changing role of governance and regulation in, of, and through digitally networked environments – the dynamics at work, the values at stake, the design options at hand.
Goldwin Smith Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Kelly R. Zamudio studies amphibians, especially frogs, combining field work and observation of behavior with genetics and genomics to glimpse the genetic processes underlying species traits. Recently her lab has turned that expertise to studying two virulent fungi of the genus Batrachochytrium, commonly called chytrids, that affect frogs and salamanders.
Justin J. Wilson, a professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is expanding on existing chemotherapeutic treatments by investigating the biomedical application potentials of other heavy transition metals, particularly compounds of the element rhenium, in order to develop a more targeted approach to halting cancerous cell division.
For most biology students, the conventional pathway toward initiating research entails pursuing questions in a research field in which they’re interested. Jordan Garcia, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, however, arrived at the subject of his PhD dissertation in a decidedly antithetical manner—by pursuing the field he found most pertinent to the questions about which he was curious.
Associate Professor of Psychology, David Smith's research aimed at understanding how the brain stores information has implications ranging from recognizing teachers in the grocery store to neurodegenerative diseases.
Cornell Research's newest enstallment of academician features takes a look at Astronomy research associate Thomas Nikola, and Developmental Sociology research assistant and lecturuer Sarah C Giroux. Both faculty incorporate active research studies in evolving fields into their teaching, bringing academic excellence to their fields.
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology David B Collum's lab recently received a $2.79m grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund his research on alkali metals reactivity and selectivity. These metals play a vital role in academic and industiral laboratories' development of medical compounds.
The research of Charles Aquadro, professor of molecular biology and genetics and director of the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics, is featured in this Cornell Research story.
A population geneticist, Aquadro looks at changes in genetic variability in populations over time and space.
A common approach to problem-solving is to split a problem into smaller sub-problems, solve each of the smaller problems, and assemble the answers into a solution to the original problem. This last step is often very difficult, as there are multiple ways of gluing the pieces of the solution together. The mathematical area of K-theory studies the different ways of putting such solutions back together, as well as the relations behind differently-assembled pieces.
This Cornell Research story focuses on the work of Jun "Kelly" Liu, professor of molecular biology and genetics, whose lab uses c. elegans nematodes to explore questions that improve the general understanding of developmental processes, stem cell biology and cellular reprogramming, and fundamental mechanisms involved in cell-cell signaling.
Jessica Zarkin studies the effects of violence on citizens’ perceptions and behavior in Latin America. A comparative politics PhD student in Government, Zarkin is trying to understand the connection between state institutions and citizens. Her focus is on security.
As humans, we have an insatiable desire to understand the cosmos and our place in it. How did the universe begin and how did it evolve? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? How will it all end? “These are the most fundamental questions one can ask,” says Steve Kang Hoon Choi, Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow. “If we believe greater knowledge betters our lives, then this is what drives us to study the cosmos.”
Liu studies the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway, which plays critical roles in multiple developmental and homeostatic processes. Malfunction of this pathway can cause various disorders, including cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
When 17-year-old Hendryck A. Gellineau applied to Cornell in 2014, he believed that having a strong understanding of biology would prepare him for medical school. Gellineau is one of the students featured in this Cornell Research story. He was also interested in drug development research and didn’t know what would help prepare him for it.
How do nations decide when to go to war? What are the rules that govern when it is permissible to resort to war under international law? This Cornell Research profile of History Professor Isabel Hull explores her research into situations when war has been deemed permissible, specifically at what history tells us—the period 1814 to 1914 and the criteria known as jus ad bellum.
Vivekinan L. Ashok, a Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, is working with Peter K. Enns, associate professor of government, and other Cornell researchers, including Suzanne Mettler,The John L.
With this CAREER award, Jeremy M. Baskin, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is developing chemical probes to study the phosphatidic acid-mediated signaling pathways that are vital to human health and wellbeing. Baskin’s group is using chemical and biochemical tools to report on and control phosphatidic acid synthesis and to study an important signaling pathway thought to be under the control of this lipid.
Aditya Bhardwaj '20 spent his summer interning at a law firm in India, which sealed his decision to pursue career in law after graduation.His experience not only sealed his decision but gave him a much more thorough understanding of some of the practical elements of a law firm's operations.
This Cornell Research story focuses on Bach scholar and accomplished organist/pianist, David Yearsley, who is exploring not only Bach’s music but also the music of Bach’s wife and their world.
This Cornell Research story focuses on the work of Rong Ye, one of the first Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows, who is working in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
When Carole Boyce Davies, professor of Africana studies and English, first began studying African and African diaspora literature and culture, the field was dominated by male scholars and writers—both as teachers and subjects of study, according to this story on the Cornell Resarch website. Boyce Davies arrived at just the right moment to make significant contributions.
This Cornell Research story focues on the work of Chih-chun Lin, Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the in the lab of Andrew G. Clark, professor of molecular biology and genetics.
For many people, theater is pure entertainment, the chance to experience some great acting or to enjoy the glitz of an extravagant production. But beneath the surface, there is another aspect to the art, one that Bruce A. Levitt and Beth F. Milles, professor and associate professor, respectively, in performing and media arts, address.
“The world we have is a world created by humans,” says N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba, professor of Africana Studies and Research. “So we have the capacity to create another world, to imagine that world, and to work toward it. That is the passion that guides my work.”
The flight capabilities of insects are nature’s solution to locomotion in air, according to Z. Jane Wang, Physics, and there are general principles of locomotion and evolution we can learn from them.
Two major issues face humanity: justice between the generations, and justice within the current generation, according to Ravi Kanbur, Applied Economics and Management.
Although graduate student Claire Leavitt has always held a keen interest in politics, it was only toward the end of her undergraduate degree that she began envisioning a career in the sector.
Metaphysics includes big, abstract questions about the nature of reality that can’t be fully answered or investigated empirically: questions about whether or not we have free will and the nature of consciousness; about how objects or people persist through time. Are we the same people as we were as babies? Is a table the same if you inscribe your name into its surface? And what about causation, which is so central to our thinking, on what terms does one event cause another?
While a master’s student at SUNY Buffalo, Kristen Angierski '12 discovered her passion for eco-criticism—literary criticism that takes the natural world into account. This, paired with her love of animals and environmental politics, inspired her to pursue doctoral study in the environmental humanities.
Exposure to stressors can profoundly influence how individuals cope with future challenges, sometimes priming them for future stress and sometimes debilitating them. While social connectedness has emerged as a key predictor of the psychophysiological impact of stress, it's very difficult to test in a lab setting.
