As Cornell suspended classes and organizations around the world canceled events amid the coronavirus pandemic, students organizing the 22nd annual Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) graduate student conference faced a difficult call.
by :
Chukwudumebi (Joshua) Obi
,
Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity
Tapan Parikh, associate professor in the department of Information Science and faculty director of the Milstein Program at Cornell Tech, visited campus with other Cornell Tech educators in February to talk with Milstein students about what to expect during their first six-week summer session at Cornell Tech this summer.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the first NYC public school closures on March 12, adding to the many K-12 schools across the country that are closing or moving to online education to help control the spread of the coronavirus. Equity is a large concern in school closures for those students who depend on subsidized breakfasts and lunches and also may not have a supportive environment outside of school.
Radiocarbon dating, invented in the late 1940s and improved ever since to provide more precise measurements, is the standard method for determining the dates of artifacts in archaeology and other disciplines.
“If it’s organic and old – up to 50,000 years – you date it by radiocarbon,” said Sturt Manning, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Classical Archaeology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"“When you start studying a biological process that becomes more intricate and complex than you can just simply intuit, you have to discipline your mind with a computer model."
Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor in the astronomy department and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, will give the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting June 1.
Cornell and the Ithaca community celebrated the life, work and influence of synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, Ph.D. ’65, with three days of events March 5-7.
More than three years into the provost’s Radical Collaboration initiative, about 15 faculty members have been hired across fields and colleges, partnerships continue to spark research and bold approaches into new areas, and each of the strategic task forces feeding the program has crafted its own approach to the effort.
The focus was on the period from the late 15th to the early 17th century, he said, or “the long 16th century of change in the northeast.”
New research is producing a more accurate historical timeline for the occupation of Native American sites in upstate New York, based on radiocarbon dating of organic materials and statistical modeling.
Jolene Rickard, associate professor in the Department of Art (Architecture, Art and Planning) and the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies (Arts and Sciences), has artwork currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Cornell students who carefully followed President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment can now take a course on the subject matter starting in the fall. The course, taught by Joseph Margulies, a professor of government and law, and Edward Baptist, professor of history, will look at the politics and history of impeachment in the United States.
Cornell structural biologists took a new approach to using a classic method of X-ray analysis to capture something the conventional method had never accounted for: the collective motion of proteins. And they did so by creating software to painstakingly stitch together the scraps of data that are usually disregarded in the process.
However the COVID-19 epidemic unfolds — even if it is soon brought under control globally — it is likely to do much more economic damage than policy makers seem to realize, wrote Kaushik Basu, professor of economics, in an opinion piece in Marketwatch.
Yunyun Wang ’20, a double major in information science, systems and technology (ISST) and government, has been named a Newman Civic Fellow, an honor given by Campus Compact that “recognizes and supports community-committed students who are changemakers and public problem-solvers” according to information on its website.
A Media Studies Conference, “Media Objects,” will take place at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art next fall, postponed from this spring. With a focus on the distinctive approaches to the study of media, the conference will host speakers from a wide variety of disciplines.
Nelson Hairston, the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Environmental Science emeritus, has been awarded the Naumann-Thienemann Medal by the Societas Internationalis Limnologiae (SIL), the highest honor that can be bestowed internationally for outstanding scientific contributions to limnology.
Hairston will receive this honor at the next SIL congress in Gwangju, South Korea.
Forty years after Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan first introduced the world to the wonders of science through his “Cosmos” television series, a new season of thought-provoking scientific adventures will air on the National Geographic Channel, beginning March 9. All but one of the science advisers for the acclaimed series are Cornell faculty.
by :
Chloe Kanders
,
Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity
Milstein students spent two weeks in February participating in critical reflection and Intergroup Dialogue Project workshops as part of their Collab Course. In these workshops, students reflect on their ongoing work with community partners and learn about mentorship opportunities within the program and on campus.
"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.
Seed and small grants from the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies are launching some big global initiatives – from uncovering one of Pompeii’s lost gardens to bringing together international researchers studying Indonesia’s 700 languages.
Recyclable plastic containers with the No. 2 designation could become even more popular for manufacturers as plastic milk jugs, dish soap containers and shampoo bottles may soon get an environmental makeover.
Cells depend on signaling to regulate most life processes, including cell growth and differentiation, immune response and reactions to various stresses.
Joshua Johnson’s ’21 senior research project won’t be just on paper – he envisions kids walking through his senior project: a museum that helps them think more broadly about the term “classical civilizations.”
Gene drives use genetic engineering to create a desired mutation in a few individuals that then spreads via mating throughout a population in fewer than 10 generations.
Caitlín Barrett, associate professor of classics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Kathryn Gleason ’79, professor of landscape architecture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have been collaborating since 2016 on the excavation and survey of a large house and garden site, the Casa della Regina Carolina Project, at Pompeii in southern Italy.
Climate change, school segregation and online interaction are among the topics to be investigated by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences’ newest group of faculty fellows.
What impact does weather have on Mexican migrants’ decisions and routes? What is the connection between contemporary human migrations and the forced migration of the African slave trade?
Can we relocate a sinking city to become a new political crossroads and hub of biocultural diversity? And how are emerging diseases like COVID-19 related to the increasingly mobile practices of humans and animals?
The College of Arts & Sciences is gearing up for Giving Day on Thursday, March 12 and we hope you'll join in the fun!
Your gifts to our annual fund, undergraduate scholarship fund or any of our departments and programs help our faculty and students reach their full potential.
Leftover radiation from the Big Bang – the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – carries clues about the fundamental nature of the universe, which was only 400,000 years old when the CMB was released.
After the focus on dictatorships in the South Carolina democratic debate on Tuesday, Valerie Bunce, the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and government professor at Cornell, and Jessica Chen Weiss, associate professor of government, discuss differing types of dictatorship and authoritarian regimes
The four faculty teams that received funding support through the President’s Visioning Committee on Cornell in New York City have conducted cross-campus workshops, hosted interdisciplinary talks and expanded their outreach as they move towards presenting final results in the fall.
Concluding a multiyear review, Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff has announced a pair of initiatives intended to chart the future of social sciences scholarship and education at Cornell.
The university will launch the Cornell School of Public Policy, a separate school with its own dean who will report to the provost. In addition, “superdepartments” drawing faculty from multiple colleges or schools will be created or expanded in the disciplines of economics, psychology and sociology.
The strange oscillations that first emanated from the small synthesizer factory of Robert Moog, Ph.D. ’65, more than a half-century ago in the quiet village of Trumansburg, New York, have become signature sounds reverberating throughout the history of electronic music – from Wendy Carlos to Daft Punk; from Emerson, Lake and Palmer to Flying Lotus.
Derrick R. Spires, associate professor of English, was awarded the St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize for his book, “The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States.”
The award, given by the Bibliographical Society of America, honors research in the bibliography of American literature and history. The award carries a prize of $2,000 and a year’s membership in the organization.
Insurgent nakedness is the most universal and yet the most highly context-driven mode of dissent, writes Naminata Diabate, assistant professor of comparative literature.
