News

historical black and white photo of about 10 lumber workers posing on a mechanized crane in the woods. They are standing on felled trees. — Watt Family Photographs/McNeese State University “Woods workers” posing with a large crane near Carson, Louisiana, 1920.

Africana studies

Redbones and racial nuance in Louisiana Lumber War

11/5/2025 A&S Communications

Klarman Fellow Kendall Artz wants to push beyond the assumption – one replicated by scholars – that company rosters and state records hold all there is to know about racial expression.

Provided Book cover: Within the Shop of the Divine

Poetry

Summoning religion, mythology and memory ‘Within the Shop of the Divine’

11/3/2025 A&S Communications

A Saint Anthony statue that glows in the dark lights the way into poems that connect people beyond death, visit holy sites, consider Satanic bargains and consult astrology.

Book cover: Domestic Nationalsim — Provided

Asian studies

Indonesian women created a political voice through gendered care work

10/29/2025 A&S Communications

In "Domestic Nationalism," Chiara Formichi argues that during the 1920s to 1950s, Indonesian women’s domestic activities contributed to nation-building as a political project.

Book cover: Haunted by the Civil War — Provided

American literature

Civil War still haunts American attitudes toward democracy

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A new book by Shirley Samuels examines the story behind today’s divided America in literature and art created during and soon after the Civil War.

Lumpy, tawny, textured surface with one smooth bead embedded in it — Kelly Presutti/Provided Ferrous agglomeration with porcelain shards and a French trading bead, 1788–2003. Musée Maritime de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, LAP.030.52

History of Art and Visual Studies

Objects from famous shipwreck tell deeper stories

10/22/2025 A&S Communications

La Pérouse’s expedition, wrecked in 1788, was intended to rival those of British explorer Captain James Cook and to bring the French renown in scientific knowledge. Through the visual materials related to the voyage and its wreck, Kelly Presutti tells a larger story about the enterprise of empire.

Person standing at a small podium, smiling — Cornell University file photo Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo, M.F.A. ’10, speaks at Cornell in 2012.

Creative Writing Program

Bulawayo wins 25th anniversary Best of Caine prize

10/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

NoViolet Bulawayo, M.F.A. ’10, assistant professor in A&S, has won the Best of Caine Award as judges have chosen her short story, “Hitting Budapest,” as the best to have won the Caine Prize for African Writing in the award’s 25 years.

Person wearing PPE holding two small, colorful birds — Chris Kitchen Zhilei Zhao and parrots

Neurobiology and Behavior

Zhao wins Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty award

10/16/2025 A&S Communications

A former Klarman Fellow in neurobiology and behavior in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S), Zhao is continuing his research into the neural mechanisms of parrot vocalizations in the Goldberg lab with this support.

Three spheres near each other, light between — Trophim Laptev/Unsplash

Physics

Using AI to learn quantum complexity

10/15/2025 A&S Communications

Cornell physicists and computer scientists have developed a machine learning architecture inspired by the large language models (LLMs) behind ChatGPT to help them study the vastly complicated interactions that happen when nature's smallest particles interact.

Two people sitting in arm chairs, conversing in front of an audience — Kate Blackwood/College of Arts and Sciences Tanenhaus conversing with Dean Peter John Loewen during “The Man Who Built a Movement: How William F. Buckley Invented Modern Conservativism" on Oct. 9

Distinguished Visiting Journalist

Master storyteller shares secrets

10/14/2025 A&S Communications

During a week on campus, author and editor Sam Tanenhaus, told stories every step of the way and reminded his listeners that politically complex and even morally ambiguous material makes for great storytelling.

Ancient stone building near modern buildings in Athens, Greece — David Fucsku/Unsplash The ancient Agora of Athens, Greece

Government

Public speeches challenged assumptions in ancient Greece

10/13/2025 Cornell Chronicle

In a new paper, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow Davide Napoli argues that public speeches in ancient Greece aimed not to express personal views, but to undermine entrenched ideas and challenge common-sense conclusions.

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

Cornell physicists update catalog of binary black holes

10/8/2025 A&S Communications

… Virgo and KAGRA announced detection of the 200th in March 2025. LIGO’s four-kilometer-long arms pick up a …

Comparative literature

Writers, translators consider ‘Ukraine in Translation’ Oct. 18

10/7/2025 A&S Communications

The symposium responds to a new urgency to Ukrainian culture of the past, present and future both inside and outside the country.

Physics

‘Bottling’ human intuition for AI-led materials discovery

10/2/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell researcher and collaborators have developed a machine-learning model that encapsulates and quantifies the valuable intuition of human experts in the quest to discover new quantum materials.

Colorful clouds and stars in deep space — Arnaud Mariat/Unsplash

Physics

Physicist: After 33 billon years, universe ‘will end in a big crunch’

10/2/2025 Cornell Chronicle

After expanding to its peak size about 11 billion years from now, the universe will begin to contract – snapping back like a rubber band to a single point at the end, according to a Cornell physicist.

Molecular biology and genetics

Nobel-winning biochemist to speak on the origins of life

9/25/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Jack Szostak, Ph.D. ’77, will return to campus to give the 2025 Ef Racker Lecture on Oct. 9.

Literary scholarship

Culler receives 2026 Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award

9/24/2025 A&S Communications

A specialist in literary and cultural theory and French literature of the 19th century, Culler will receive the award in June 2026 during the International Society for the Study of Narrative conference in Denmark.

Physics

Revitalizing introductory physics labs with NSF support

9/23/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Through The Introductory Physics Lab Institute, professor Natasha Holmes shares best practices in physics labs.

Molecular biology and genetics

Emr wins the World Laureate Association Prize

9/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The award is for breakthrough discoveries in the cellular mechanisms of receptor membrane protein transport and degradation.

Book cover: Unfiltered Regard for China — Provided

History

Politics gets personal for China scholar

9/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Historian Peidong Sun began her new book “Unfiltered Regard for China: French Perspectives from Mao to Xi” amid profound personal upheaval: An exit ban from China and a move to France.

Tall display case in a museum room that's full of light — Adam T. Smith/Provided Open through Dec. 31, 'Sacred Ground' highlights findings from a four-year archaeological excavation of Ithaca’s St. James A.M.E. Zion Church conducted by Cornell faculty, students and Ithaca school children from 2021–2024.

Ithaca community engagement

‘Sacred Ground’ exhibit receives Historic Ithaca preservation award

9/11/2025 A&S Communications

Open now through Dec. 31, the exhibit highlights findings from a four-year archaeological excavation of Ithaca’s St. James A.M.E. Zion Church conducted by Cornell faculty, students and Ithaca school children from 2021–2024.

Clément Morin/© Nobel Prize Outreach Claudia Goldin '67

Economics

Nobel-winning economist to speak on ‘why women won’

9/10/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Claudia Goldin ’67, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics, will return to campus to give the 2025 Staller Lecture on Sept. 25.

Book cover: Rural Versus Urban — Provided

Government

How rural vs urban polarization can be repaired

9/10/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The study by Cornell government scholars Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown spans five decades and includes every U.S. county.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Chemist Song Lin named 2025 Blavatnik National Award finalist

9/9/2025 A&S Communications

Recognized for advancing electrochemical techniques that enable efficient, sustainable synthesis of complex organic molecules, accelerating drug development, and materials innovation, Lin is a finalist in Chemical Sciences.

Anthropology

Kidney disease and climate change in Nicaragua’s sugarcane zone

9/8/2025 A&S Communications

“What is happening to the kidneys of sugarcane workers is not a result of climate change. It is climate change": Anthropologist Alex Nading documents how environmental justice activists are addressing the epidemic.

Person holding a piece of paper and speaking into a microphone — Robert Barker/Cornell University file photo Martin Hatch in 2015

Music

Ethnomusicologist Martin Hatch, professor of music emeritus, dies at 83

9/8/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Martin F. Hatch Jr., Ph.D. ’80, professor of music emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Aug. 23 in Ithaca, New York. He was 83.

Copyright Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud (JUCO), www.jucophoto.com/Creative Commons Attribution Cory Doctorow

Humanities and technology

Doctorow to discuss the digital world as A.D. White professor-at-large

9/3/2025 A&S Communications

Science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow will visit Cornell Sept. 11-19 as an A.D. White Professor at Large, taking part in several events on campus and in the community..

American Studies Program

In Kops Lecture, law scholar will explore ‘the Constitution in crisis’

9/2/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Aziz Rana, a professor of law at Boston College, will discuss the relationship between the constitutional system and current democratic backsliding.

Close up of a paving stone carved with an octopus, next to grass — Laurent Dubreuil/Provided From the Sea, digital photograph, shot in Rochester, NY

Humanities

‘Odyssea Americana’ art exhibit opens at The Soil Factory Sept. 4

8/28/2025 A&S Communications

Photography, drawing, maps, calligraphy, installations and audio recordings depict a trip by three scholar-artists in honor of Odysseus’ epic voyage, but in North America.

Near Eastern studies

New book introduces Maimonides, ‘one of civilization’s greatest minds’

8/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Maimonides, one of the most significant intellectual figures of the medieval period,worked as a physician, thought like a scientist, and served as a leader of the Jewish community in Cairo.

close-up of pillls of sevreal sizes and colors, spilling out of a bottle — pina messina/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Creating safe medicinal molecules with sustainable electrochemistry

8/14/2025 A&S Communications

Song Lin and collaborators use electrochemistry to selectively synthesize chiral compounds – important in pharmaceuticals.

White spark of light against a blue-black background — Casey Horner/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Light-powered, reusable: Sustainable catalyst drives challenging reactions

8/13/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell chemistry researchers have designed a light-powered, reusable catalyst that’s pre-charged by electricity and capable of driving challenging reactions, with applications including drug development and environmental clean-up.

In the sky, a perfect half circle appears around a rising sun with two bright "sun dogs" on either side — Tenbergen/Creative Commons license 4.0 A sun dog and 22 degree halo appearing over Winnipeg, Canada. Sun dogs and other visual effects occur when icy crystals in Earth’s atmosphere align in certain ways; Cornell astronomers predict that similar effects can appear when starlight interacts with quartz crystals in exoplanet atmospheres.

Astronomy

Sun dogs, other celestial effects could appear in alien skies

7/30/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Phenomena common to Earth’s atmosphere can appear in the skies over some exoplanets of the “hot Jupiter” variety.

Artificial intelligence leadership

National Science Foundation announces Cornell-led AI Materials Institute

7/29/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The NSF, in partnership with Intel, will invest $20 million over five years.

Book cover: Global Challenges to Democracy

Government

Cornell scholars address global democratic erosion in book

7/21/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell government scholars have been tracking democracy's erosion in various regions – including the United States.

Faculty honors

Colanzi wins Zinklar Award for short fiction

6/24/2025 A&S Communications

Liliana Colanzi’s award is the first Zinklar Prize to honor Spanish language fiction.

A sign sticks out from a crowd of people, saying "the Earth is flat) — Kajetan Sumila/Unsplash

Psychology

Conspiracy theorists unaware their beliefs are on the fringe

6/24/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Overconfidence is a hallmark trait of people who believe in conspiracies, Cornell psychology researchers have found.

A telescope in space: topped by a circular yellow mirror, the object is boat-shaped, with a background of stars — Northrup Grumman An illustration of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomy

Cornell astronomers win time on James Webb Space Telescope

6/17/2025 A&S Communications

“It’s the cutting edge of what we can achieve, with better precisions and resolutions than other instruments.”

Two people standing on a stage, holding a certificate between them — Diogo Lopes de Oliveira/Provided PCST Network President Sook-kyoung Cho presents Bruce Lewenstein with the 2025 Award for the Advancement of Science Communication as a Professional Field (PCST Award).

Science and Technology Studies

Lewenstein wins science communication prize

6/10/2025 A&S Communications

The inaugural Award for the Advancement of Science Communication as a Professional Field from the International Network on Public Communication of Science & Technology recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of science communication as a field.

church building with a green-blue bell tower — Provided St. James A.M.E. Zion Church

Ithaca community engagement

History Center exhibit chronicles excavation at Ithaca’s ‘Freedom Church’

6/10/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The exhibit on Ithaca’s St. James A.M.E. Zion Church will open on Juneteenth with a community event scheduled for 4 p.m.

In memoriam

Savely Senderovich, scholar of Russian literature, dies at 89

6/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A mainstay of the Department of Russian Literature from 1977 until his retirement after the department closed in 2010, Senderovich oversaw the establishment of a comprehensive graduate program in Russian literature, expanding Cornell’s graduate offerings in the field.

Dollar bills, some of them folded and crumpled, resting on a white surface — Emilio Takas/Unsplash What it would take to dethrone the dollar? Ryan Chahrour researches this and related questions

Economics

‘Expectations matter’: Cornell expert on today’s economic turmoil

5/29/2025 A&S Communications

Ryan Chahrour studies how people’s beliefs drive economic events and what makes the U.S. dollar special – and dominant – in world trade.

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

Psychology

Brain-inspired AI model learns sensory data efficiently

5/21/2025 A&S Communications

With brain mechanisms as a guide, Cornell researchers are designing low-energy robotic systems inspired by biology and useful for a wide range of potential applications.

Pink flowering tree and a stone colonade with people on the steps — Jason Koski/Cornell University Spring flowers blossom outside Goldwin Smith Hall.

Excellence in teaching and advising

Outstanding faculty win 2025 teaching and advising awards

5/15/2025 A&S Communications

Among those being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are faculty members Begüm Adalet, Claudia Verhoeven, and Marcelo Aguiar.

Jason Koski/Cornell University Héctor Abruña, the Émile M. Chamot Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Abruña receives 2025 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences

5/15/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The biennial prize, announced May 15, “recognizes an individual for exceptional and original research in a selected area of chemistry that has advanced the field in a major way.”

Clear glass chemistry beakers — Hans Reniers/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Carbon dioxide key to making a precise polymer safely

5/13/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell chemists have developed a user-friendly, scalable process for methacrylate that’s precisely controlled and mediated by carbon dioxide.

People cluster together in an outdoor shelter, looking at papers and flowers — Dan Rosenberg/Provided From left, MFA students Gerardo Iglesias, Sarah Iqbal and Aishvarya Arora listen to observations by two young poets at the Ithaca Children’s Garden.

Creative Writing Program

Cornell writers inspire kids’ poetry at Ithaca Children’s Garden

5/8/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A crew of Cornell creative writers lent their time and experience to guide young poets during Nature Poetry in the Garden, an event held May 3 at the Ithaca Children’s Garden.

Glass shelves in wooden cases holding pieces of pottery — Alison Rittershaus/Provided An Amazonian headdress is displayed with two cases of artifacts in the Anthropology and CIAMS Collections

Anthropology

Cornell anthropology opens Collaboratory May 14

5/1/2025 A&S Communications

The new Anthropology Collaboratory gathers many of the university’s anthropology collections and laboratories together in one place in Olin Library.

Person in blue shirt stands in front of complicated silver equipment — Chris Kitchen Manipulating the properties of atomic material helps Paul Malinowski understand the fundamental physics of how different quantum phases develop and are related to each other.

Klarman Fellows

Klarman Fellow honored for outstanding achievement in physics

5/1/2025 A&S Communications

Paul Malinowski received the 2025 Martin and Beate Block Winter Award from the Aspen Center for Physics.

Nicolas van de Walle speaking, hands moving, wearing glasses and a jacket — Cornell University File Photo Nicolas van de Walle

Government

Conference on African political economy honors van de Walle

4/30/2025 A&S Communications

“Politics, Markets, and Governance in Africa: A conference in honor of Nicolas van de Walle,” set for May 8-9, will focus on the core themes of African political economy, regimes, and modes of electoral and social participation and contestation.

Light bulb decorated to show Earth's continents — Provided

Energy

Cornell Energy Summit considers global energy needs

4/23/2025 A&S Communications

The 2025 Cornell Energy Summit: “The Energy Landscape: Meeting Global Needs in the Age of Sustainability” will be held on April 30, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Statler Hotel Ballroom.

Science history

First Guerlac Lecture to celebrate ‘rock star’ science historian

4/22/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Princeton history professor Michael Gordin will give the inaugural lecture celebrating the life and work of Henry Guerlac ’32, M.S. ’33, an influential historian of science and Cornell faculty member for three decades.

Several people dancing in formation in a sunny studio — Anthony Lewis Lall/Provided Preparing for the April 25-26 "SHED" performance, Ashley Dorais and other dancers rehearse elements choreographed by the influential Merce Cunningham

Performing and Media Arts

PMA’s ‘SHED’ performance features intermedia dance

4/15/2025 A&S Communications

The culmination of a year-long study of “New/Futurism: Installation, Intermedia, Interactive & Immersive Dance,” the April 25-26 performance also features the work of influential choreographer Merce Cunningham and highlights collaboration among art forms.

Four people stand in a circle, chatting and smiling — Sreang Hok/Cornell University Graduate students chat at Cornell's Big Red Barn

Psychology

Finding friendship at first whiff

4/15/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Two women meeting for the first time can judge within minutes whether they have potential to be friends – guided as much by smell as any other sense, according to new Cornell psychology research.

Image of aMedieval scholar sitting at a table writing with a quill pen

Comparative Literature

Biblical scholar: Parables in Luke parallel Genesis stories

4/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Prof. Carmichael identifies how parables unique to Luke were composed as a response to, and reframing of, problems attributed to the earliest of biblical times.

Faculty honors

French university honors Jonathan Culler for literary contributions

3/26/2025 A&S Communications

On March 26, the University of Paris 8 on March 26 recognized Culler for his contributions to literary and theoretical studies and his close ties with French intellectual movements.

Provided Book cover: Multiverse Analysis

Sociology

Book calls social scientists to robust ‘multiverse’ analysis

3/25/2025 Cornell Chronicle

To cut through misinformation, noise and fragile claims, sociologist Cristobal Young calls social science researchers to adopt a new approach.

Book cover: The Necromantic State — Provided The Necromantic State

Romance studies

Professor’s book probes afterlife of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

3/25/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The works ponders how “ghosts” can help a state secure its survival and ground its authority in moments of crisis, such as the one Venezuela is experiencing now.

Physics

Quantum mechanics with a twist: spring 2025 Bethe lecture

3/25/2025 A&S Communications

Physicist Shahal Ilani will introduce the emerging field of twistronics, which is revolutionizing our ability to harness quantum phenomena, during a public lecture April 9.

A gold padlock on a white computer keyboard — Towfiqu barbhuiya/Unsplash

Science and Technology Studies

Balancing various uncertainties in cyber threat intelligence

3/20/2025 Cornell Chronicle

… the compromised software. The attack – a supply-chain hack by a Russian intelligence agency – demonstrates the … such as the 2020 SolarWinds attack. “A supply-chain hack is one of the most difficult to detect because this …

Klarman Fellows

Klarman Fellow headed to Yaddo residency

3/19/2025 A&S Communications

Eraldo Souza dos Santos will work on their next book project, “Everything Disappears,” a family memoir and meditation on the lived experience of Blackness and enslavement in modern Brazil.

Person wearing laytex gloves sitting at a table with four ancient artifacts: pots — Provided Danielle Vander Horst, M.A. '19, with a collection of face pots during a 2018 research trip at the Colchester and Essex Museum, Colchester, United Kingdom

History of Art and Visual Studies

History of art staff member publishes research on face pots

3/17/2025 A&S Communications

Danielle Vander Horst, M.A., '19 will continue her study of Romano-British face pots, pursuing a Ph.D. through Cornell's Employee Degree Program.

Plastic items in many colors crushed together and wrapped for recycling — Nareeta Martin/Unsplash Plastics bound for recycling

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Reducing plastic’s environmental impact with machine learning

3/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Chemistry researchers have found ways to reduce the environmental impact of high-density polyethylene by developing a model that enables manufacturers to customize and improve those materials.

Illustration showing a crowd of people, a network of dots and lines, and some binary code — Laura Chichisan/College of Arts and Sciences In a world that’s growing more connected every day, economists and computer scientists need to work together. Cornell researchers have thought this way for years, and the rest of the world is catching on.

Research Collaboration and Impact

Where computer scientists and economists talk to each other

3/5/2025 A&S Communications

In a world that’s growing more connected every day, economists and computer scientists need to work together. Cornell researchers have thought this way for years, and the rest of the world is catching on.

Three people cluster around a computer in a science lab — Ryan Young/Cornell University

Physics

Peer recognition crucial for success in physics research

3/5/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Even when women receive similar amounts of recognition from peers as men for excelling in physics classes, they perceive significantly less peer recognition, new research has found.

Cognitive science + literary studies

University Lecture examines ‘The Narrative Brain’

2/26/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Our minds and the ways we tell stories are closely attuned, research shows, and scholar Fritz Breithaupt will explore how that connection works during a March visit as University Lecturer.

Microscope with a dish on it; a blue-gloved hand reaches in — ThisisEngineering/Unsplash

Research

Roundtable to consider ‘Science Under Siege’

2/24/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The Feb. 28 event will provide a forum for scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars to discuss challenges to research support in response to recent major changes to federal funding.

promotional poster showing a blue ball marked with black cross-hatches and the words "Media Objects — The World According to Sound “Media Objects,” a podcast collaboration between Cornell media experts and sound artists The World According to Sound, begins Feb. 6.

Media Studies

Media Objects podcast releases 'sonic essays' based at Cornell

2/6/2025 A&S Communications

The series features the voices and research of 13 Cornell faculty members, more than half from A&S.

Classics

Frederick Ahl, innovative classics scholar, dies at 83

2/5/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A scholar of Greek and Roman epic and drama and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, Ahl was a member of the Cornell faculty for more than 52 years.

Orange red and white horizontal streaks of light under a dark blue sky, showing automobile traffic in motion at night — Ryan Young/Cornell University

Klarman Fellows

New Klarman Fellows to join the College of Arts and Sciences

2/4/2025 A&S Communications

Fellows will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Benjamin Widom, influential physical chemist, dies at 97

1/31/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Benjamin Widom, Ph.D. ’53, Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Jan. 23 in Ithaca. He was 97.

Tall stacks of old car tires — Jon Tyson/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Durable plastic gets a sustainability makeover

1/29/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell chemist has created an alternative to the unrecyclable, plastic-based material used for durable items such as car tires, replacement hip joints and bowling balls.

Tranparent flasks in a chemistry lab, with amounts of orange liquid — Elevate/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

How a pervasive microorganism generates a greenhouse gas

1/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers have discovered a way for ammonia oxidizing archaea, one of the most abundant types of microorganisms on Earth, to produce nitrous oxide, a potent and long-lasting greenhouse gas.

Romance studies

Fulginiti wins book prize

1/16/2025 A&S Communications

Fulginiti’s novel, “Il dolore degli altri” (“The Pain of Others”), was chosen from among 114 competing manuscripts and will be published soon by Italian publisher ExCogita.

Pile of tiny squares: SPECS devices — Provided SPECS devices

Chemistry and Physics

Light-activated micro device expands ‘green’ electrochemistry

1/9/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell chemists and nanofabrication experts have joined forces to create a 2 millimeter-wide, wireless, light-activated device to simplify electrochemistry for broad use.

Barry Adams, former vice provost and literature scholar, dies at 89

1/9/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Barry Banfield Adams, professor of literatures of English emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Dec. 31 at home in Brooktondale, New York. He was 89.

Two mice perched on flowers and facing each other

Neurobiology and Behavior

Mice use their tongues to ‘see’ tactile targets

1/7/2025 A&S Communications

Cornell scientists have identified the neural pathway mice use to direct the tongue to tactile targets.

Government

Elizabeth Sanders, scholar of U.S. political development, dies at 81

1/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Elizabeth Sanders, Ph.D. ’78, professor of government emerita in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Dec. 2 in Cullman, Alabama. She was 81.

Book cover: Queer Latin American Voices — Provided

Klarman Fellows

Klarman Fellow co-edits trilingual ‘Queer Latin American Voices’

12/19/2024 A&S Communications

Romance studies scholar Romina Wainberg is co-editor of a collection which contains brief texts and illustrations by Latin American LGBTQIA+ writers and artists, accompanied by responses by queer academics in Spanish, Portuguese or English.

Ancient ship underbody, just a skeleton of wood — Kyrenia Ship Excavations/Provided The Kyrenia was the first major Greek Hellenistic-period ship to be found with a largely intact hull. It was excavated and reassembled for scientific study.

Archaeology

Manning honored for contributions to archaeology

12/17/2024 A&S Communications

Sturt Manning, received the P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award at the Annual Meetings of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) in Boston in November.

Asian studies

Poets in Japan experiment at the edge of media

12/12/2024 Cornell Chronicle

During the past century, experimental poets in Japan have been stretching the conventional definition of the genre by creating poems in unexpected places, according to a Cornell researcher.

Provided Book cover: Never on Time, Always in Time

Literary studies

In ‘Fun Home’ and other books, queer narratives rework time

12/11/2024 Cornell Chronicle

In “Never On Time, But Always in Time,” Kate McCullough of the College of Arts and Sciences examines four books to explore how queer narratives focus on the body and its senses to find alternative ways of experiencing and presenting time.

A painted portrait, from the 17th century, of a confident looking woman wearing an elaborate ruff and dark colored gown — Galleria Nazionale della Liguria a Palazzo Spinola, Genoa. Under sumptuary laws, women could be denounced for new and fashionable jewellery items, such as the randiglia, or metal support that propped up stylishly large ruffs, worn in this 1610 portrait, "Veronica Spinola Serra," by Guilliam van Deynum (c. 1575 – c. 1624).

History of Art and Visual Studies

Fashion police dictated gender norms in early modern Genoa

12/10/2024 A&S Communications

Sumptuary laws – designed to “control luxury clothing consumption and the social ills it could encourage” – constrained women more than they did men.

Book cover: Borrowing Paradise — Provided

History of Art and Visual Studies

A story of environmental hope set in Bali

12/9/2024 A&S Communications

"Borrowing Paradise," a new book for children, brings a community-centered Balinese Hindi ritual to life.

Double helix strands made out of tiny blue beads against a dark blue background — Braňo/Unsplash DNA double helix

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

New pathway found for regulating zinc in E. coli

12/4/2024 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers have discovered a pathway by which E. coli regulates zinc levels, an insight that could advance the understanding of metal regulation in bacteria and lead to antibacterial applications such as in medical instruments.

A mother helping a child with the hood of a parka — Sai De Silva/Unsplash

Economics

Working moms set an example for the next generation

12/3/2024 Cornell Chronicle

A girl who attends a school with classmates whose mothers work is more likely to be in the workforce when she has a child herself than a girl who grows up in local circles where most mothers stay at home, Cornell researchers have found.

Three people look intensely at a small black and red machine in a science laboratory — Jason Koski/Cornell University Itai Cohen, center, professor of Physics and Design Tech, works with Melody Lim, left, and Zexi Liang, right, at Cohen’s lab in the Physical Sciences Building.

Physics

Smallest walking robot makes microscale measurements

12/2/2024 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers in physics and engineering have created the smallest walking robot yet. Its mission: to be tiny enough to interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that it can maneuver, and take images and measurements.

Klarman Fellows

Klarman Fellow wins Middle East Studies dissertation award

12/2/2024 A&S Communications

Olga Verlato's dissertation, “Languages of Power and People: Multilingualism, Politics, and Resistance in Modern Egypt and the Mediterranean,” received the Malcolm H. Kerr Award from the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

The panelists sitting in arm chairs, all three looking at Prof. Jamila Michener talking into the microphone. — Chris Kitchen for Cornell University Ann Marimow ’97, the Fall Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist (far left) discussed the impact of Supreme Court decisions on ordinary Americans with panelists, from left, Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences and professor of government (A&S); Jamila Michener, associate professor of government (A&S) and of public policy in the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy; and Michael Dorf, the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law.

Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program

A politicized Supreme Court meets a new moment for America

11/26/2024 Cornell Chronicle

A panel of experts moderated by Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist Ann Marimow '97 discussed the impact of the Supreme Court's decisions on ordinary Americans and the workings of American democracy.

Provided Book cover: The Perversity of Gratitude

Africana Studies

Farred analyzes his apartheid education in ‘philosophical memoir’

11/20/2024 A&S Communications

In “The Perversity of Gratitude: An Apartheid Education," Grant Farred describes his experience of flourishing intellectually, despite and even thanks to being educated under apartheid, while also analyzing concepts that made such an education possible.

Book cover: The Architecture of Blame and Praise — Provided The Architecture of Blame and Praise

Philosophy

Holding people responsible through a system of blame, praise

11/18/2024 Cornell Chronicle

Philosopher David Shoemaker examines the complicated nature of both modes of response, teasing out their many varieties while defending a general symmetry between them.

Two people -- characters in a play -- stand in a field full of flowers — Cherry Arts/Provided 'Rosa and Blanca' will be performed at Ithaca’s Cherry Arts Nov. 8-17.

German studies

German studies hosts evening with ‘Rosa and Blanca’ playwright

11/7/2024 A&S Communications

Rebekka Kricheldorf will talk about writing comedy and more with Samuel Buggeln, the play’s director and artistic director of Cherry Arts, on Nov. 12 – one of several collaborations.

A field of connected hexagons against a dark gray background — AlexanderAlUS/Creative Commons license 2.0 The ideal crystalline structure of graphene, a hexagonal grid

Physics

Revealing the superconducting limit of ‘magic’ material

11/4/2024 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers have identified the highest achievable superconducting temperature of graphene – 60 Kelvin. The finding is mathematically exact and is spurring new insights into the factors that fundamentally control superconductivity.

Two people in casual clothes stand in a room full of bric-a-brac, holding professional grade recording equipment — Gundi Vigfusson/Provided The World According to Sound: Chris Hoff ’02 (left) and Sam Harnett.

Media Studies

Crowdfunding launch supports Ways of Knowing podcast at Cornell

11/1/2024 A&S Communications

A crowdfunding campaign launched Nov. 1 to support a Cornell-based season of "Ways of Knowing,” a new podcast created by The World According to Sound.

Person holds a large, yellowed document in a library setting — Chris Kitchen Jacob Anbinder examines documents held by Cornell University Library from the archives of New York's Regional Plan Association, one of the most influential urban planning organizations of the twentieth century.

History

Klarman Fellow presents findings on housing cost history

10/31/2024 A&S Communications

This fall, Jake Anbinder, a historian with an interest in cities and strong ties to public policy, presented two conference papers elaborating on his award-winning book project.

Creative Writing Program

Poet pictures ‘a place where a woman may find some peace’

10/29/2024 Cornell Chronicle

In “Purchase,” a new collection of poems from Associate Professor Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, the author seeks consolation for grief by turning to specific sources of beauty.

Person sitting at the consol of a wooden organ, hands on keyboard — Elizaveta Zabelina David Yearsley plays the Cornell Baroque Organ

Music

Handel’s greatest hits, reimagined for organ

10/23/2024 Cornell Chronicle

David Yearsley, the Herbert Gussman Professor of Music, has configured some of George Frideric Handel’s greatest works into pieces for solo organ in his new album.

Three people stand near a red production poster outside a theater — Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz PMA professor Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz (center) and NAKA Dance Theater co-founders José Ome Navarrete Mazatl (left) and Debby Kajiyama will team up again this month to create a new work at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography in Florida. They are pictured here at Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre during a spring 2024 collaboration

Performing and Media Arts

Professor creates new work at national choreography center

10/9/2024 A&S Communications

Playing two roles during a prestigious residency, Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz will both choreograph a new dance work and document the process.

Four people work at a plastic patio table in the midst of ancient ruins: they are archaeologists on an excavation site — Provided Caitie Barrett, in the foreground, works at the Casa della Regina Carolina site in 2023 with team members (left to right) Cole Warlick, GIS analyst and FileMaker database manage; Lee Graña, assistant director; and Joe Nigro, lead surveyor and iDig database manager.

Digital humanities

Modeling an ancient house and garden in 3D

9/30/2024 A&S Communications

Cornell researchers have received a $150,000 NEH Digital Humanities Advanced Grant to create a 3D virtual modeling project based on the Casa della Regina Carolina, a large Pompeian house.

Chris Kitchen Klarman Fellow Romina Wainberg

Klarman Fellows

Writing against productivity in Latin American fiction

9/25/2024 A&S Communications

Klarman Fellow Romina Wainberg is writing a book that explores how early Latin American novelists depicted the act of writing in their fiction, with a particular focus on fictional representations of the writing process.

Physics

Leading particle physicist headlines fall 2024 Bethe Lectures

9/23/2024 A&S Communications

Beate Heinemann, professor at Universität Hamburg and director for particle physics at DESY in Germany, will share the stories of two outstanding women scientists in a public lecture.