News

person taking out an electric car battery — Photo by Kumpan Electric on Unsplash

Chemistry & Chemical Biology

Nickel catalyst enables high-performance fuel cell free of precious metals

3/24/2026 A&S Communications

Cornell chemists have developed a nonprecious metal catalyst – nickel coated with carbon – that works well in alkaline media.

Provided Film poster: Hunting Yellow Pigs

Mathematics

'Hunting Yellow Pigs' film shows a singular approach to math education

3/17/2026 A&S Communications

Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz appears in a new film, “Hunting Yellow Pigs,” that celebrates the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM) and its unconventional approach to math education. The Cornell Department of Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences will host a screening with filmmaker Ming-I Huang on March 24 at 4 p.m. in Schwarz Auditorium, room 201 in Rockefeller Hall.

Photograph illustartion of hands, arms, and flowing cloth, representing a dance — Jini Li Poster image for 'Penumbra,' PMA's March 20-21 spring dance presentation

Performing and Media Arts

Spring dance presentation explores ‘the shadow self’

3/16/2026 A&S Communications

Cornell dance students will present “Penumbra: 2026 Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series,” a performance of original dance work hosted by the Department of Performing and Media Arts in the College of Arts & Sciences, March 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of ’56 Flexible Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The show features work by visiting choreographer Babatunji Johnson and Cornell professor of the practice Danielle Russo.

semi-realistic image of a human hand reaching toward a robot hand through a screen — created with AI

Physics

Testing large language models on scientific literature

3/10/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell physicists and Google researchers wondered whether LLMs could understand scientific literature at the level of a specialist.

Two people seated in large chairs, conversing in front of an audience — Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University Seth Klarman ’79 (left) and Bret Stephens discuss the state of journalism and debate in the U.S. March 6 in Klarman Hall.

Distinguished Visiting Journalists

NY Times writer and Klarman '79: Civil debate can change minds

3/10/2026 Cornell Chronicle

A live and online audience of nearly 1,000 tapped into a conversation between Bret Stephens and Seth Klarman.

Person standing befor others, a computer open, looking confident — Chase Chappell/Unsplash

Government

Workers who love ‘synergizing paradigms’ might be bad at their jobs

3/2/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like “synergistic leadership,” or “growth-hacking paradigms” may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study into “corporate BS” reveals.

Physics

Holding chaos at bay in the quantum world

2/27/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers have found that quantum systems in a frozen state can be stabilized long enough to be a useful strategy for preserving information before it disappears.

Asian studies

Daniel Gold, professor of Asian studies emeritus, dies at 78

2/26/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Daniel Gold, a professor of Asian studies emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died on Feb. 16 in Ithaca. He was 78.

Classics

Making an impression: A new approach to classical concepts of the image

2/26/2026 A&S Communications

For the ancient Greeks, an image could be understood as a seal pressed on a material to leave a mark, as opposed to an inferior imitation (mimēsis), scholar Verity Platt argues in a new book.

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 honored for chemistry in the public interest

2/23/2026 A&S Communications

The Gustavus John Esseln Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest from the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society honors outstanding achievement in scientific and technical work that contributes to public well-being.

Political history

LaFeber-Silbey Lecture considers “A World Without Law?”

2/19/2026 A&S Communications

Scholar of law Philippe Sands will give the LaFeber-Silbey Lecture in History on March 5, considering "Lessons from History and Literature, from Nuremberg to Pinochet and Beyond.”

Religious studies

John: The life and times of the ‘maverick’ Gospel

2/18/2026 Cornell Chronicle

The fourth Gospel of the New Testament holds many of the Bible’s most well-known passages, but also some of its controversies.

History

How WWII changed ideas of racial purity in Japan

2/16/2026 A&S Communications

The new book explores what happened to “mixed blood” children born to Japanese women and foreign soldiers.

Psychology

Cornell researchers win prize for insight into conspiracy belief

2/10/2026 A&S Communications

Gordon Pennycook and David Rand won the 2026 Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Three college campus buildings of various architectural types receed into the distance under a grey sky and a bare branch — Jason Koski/Cornell University Three Arts Quad buildings: Klarman Hall, Lincoln Hall and Sibley Hall

Klarman Fellows

College of Arts and Sciences announces 2026 Klarman Fellows

2/4/2026 A&S Communications

The 12 early-career scholars will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

painting by Paul Gauguin showing the artist wearing a hat with a wall and some furniture behind him. On the wall is a framed painting of a person lying on a bed — Public domain Self Portrait, 1893 by Paul Gauguin

Moral psychology

Art offers access to true self

2/3/2026 Cornell Chronicle

… would be the kind of thing which allows people to be their free, truest selves,” Wylie said. “Pulling on that thread is … that “lives devoted exclusively to moral goals may lack the freedom and richness that many find fulfilling,” Wylie said. …

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

Gravitational wave signal tests Einstein’s theory of general relativity

1/29/2026 Cornell Chronicle

When two black holes merge, the collision rings like a bell, emitting specific tones characterized by two numbers.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Chemist Song Lin wins Snapdragon Prize

1/27/2026 A&S Communications

The award recognizes innovation in modern pharmaceutical discovery and manufacturing.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Scialog award will help Cornell chemist research quantum entanglement

1/26/2026 A&S Communications

Eunice Bae is part of the three-person group researching “Quantum Entanglement of Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion Pairs.”

Two people sitting on a couch, conversing — Samsung UK/Unsplash Humans possess a remarkable ability to talk about almost anything, readily improvising new sentences – but how?

Psychology

Discovery challenges assumptions about the structure of language

1/21/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers believe that mental representations of language patterns make humans adept at improvising new sentences.

Book cover: The Oak and the Larch — Provided The Oak and the Larch

Comparative literature

Recounting Russia’s history through its forests

1/20/2026 Cornell Chronicle

The fate of Russia’s forests will affect the whole world, according to a new book by a Cornell researcher.

Moral psychology

Doris wins Gittler Award for contributions to social psychology and ethics

1/16/2026 A&S Communications

A leading proponent of interdisciplinary approaches to moral psychology exploring questions of character, virtue and agency, John Doris writes about a movement to inform moral philosophy with psychological research, as well as the other way around.

Isaac Vazquez/Provided Danielle Russo in her studio at Yaddo

Performing and Media Arts

Yaddo residency shapes long-term dance research

1/14/2026 A&S Communications

During her Yaddo residency, Danielle Russo developed a dance piece, enriching the work by drawing on ideas of ritual movement, personal memories and family history, and more.

Artist's illustration of the Pandora spacecraft with an exoplanet and two stars in the background — NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from exoplanets’ atmospheres – worlds beyond our solar system – and their stars.

Astronomy

Pandora satellite launches for exoplanet observation

1/13/2026 A&S Communications

Tasked with studying exoplanet systems around small stars, the refrigerator-sized satellite is the first in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program – small-scale missions designed to train early-career scientists, including Trevor Foote, Ph.D. ’24, a former member of the research group led by faculty member Nikole Lewis.

Anna Ho sitting at desk, pointing at computer screen with image of star exploding — Jason Koski, Cornell University Anna Ho

Astronomy

Cornell astronomer honored for achievement in observational research

1/8/2026 A&S Communications

With the 2026 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, the American Astronomical Society recognizes Anna Y. Q. Ho’s pioneering investigations of extreme explosions powered by stellar death.

History

Women in exile shaped South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement

1/7/2026 Cornell Chronicle

… party of leader Nelson Mandela, considered what a future free society would look like and how that goal should be … (with Nelson Mandela as president) and again in subsequent free and fair elections. But what makes it particularly … increasingly subject to apartheid laws restricting their freedom of movement. From the mid-1960s until the end of the …

Mathematics

Mészáros elected to American Mathematical Society

12/22/2025 A&S Communications

Mészáros’ research focuses on algebraic and geometric combinatorics.

Cedille Records/Photo by Elliot Mandel Record album cover: Songs in Flight

History

‘Songs In Flight,’ inspired by Cornell-based project, earns Grammy nod

12/18/2025 A&S Communications

Based on poems by A&S alumna Tsitsi Ella Jaji, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’08, the songs by Shawn Okpebholo bring to life individual stories preserved by the Cornell-based Freedom on the Move project.

History

In Bukovina, European empires built new worlds out of inherited materials

12/18/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The region never fit easily among its neighbors, as regimes including the Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union tried to remake it in their image.

hand in a blue glove holding a beaker with clear liquid in it — RephiLe water/Unsplash Cornell chemists have found a way to encapsulate a molecule’s quantum mechanical information so they can feed that – rather than simpler structural information – into ML algorithms, providing up to 100 times more accuracy than the current most popular method

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Quantum mechanical molecular ‘fingerprints’ solve machine learning mystery

12/17/2025 A&S Communications

The new method can predict molecular properties with up to 100 times more accuracy than the current method.

Asian studies

Campana wins MLA’s Scaglione Prize for book on Japanese poetry

12/8/2025 A&S Communications

“Expanding Verse: Japanese Poetry at the Edge of Media" is study of work by poets who push the genre in unexpected directions.

colorful toy blocks — Benjamin D. Esham/Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license 4.0

Physics

Electrons stay put in layers of mismatched ‘quantum Legos’

12/5/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Electrons can be elusive, but Cornell researchers using a new computational method can now account for where they go – or don’t go – in certain layered materials.

Person with dust on face and arms, smiling while standing in a hole in the ground, an archaeological dig site — Provided Caitie Barrett, an archaeologist who investigates everyday life, doing field work in Pompeii in summer 2025

Archaeology

‘Households in Context’ wins Wiseman Book Award

12/3/2025 A&S Communications

Based on a 2018 conference co-organized by Caitie Barrett, professor of classics, and Jennifer Carrington, Ph.D. ’19, the book focuses on houses and households during a period when Egypt was ruled by Greeks and then by Romans.

Person holding up an orange menstrual cup — Sreang Hok/Cornell University Ligia Coelho, a Postdoctoral Fellow in astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences and fellow at the Carl Sagan Institute, holds a menstrual cup.

Astronomy

Spaceflight-tested menstrual cup offers choice on long missions

12/2/2025 Cornell Chronicle

To equip astronauts with health choices for future missions, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow is leading research with AstroCup, a group that recently tested two menstrual cups in spaceflight as payload on an uncrewed rocket flight.

Creative Writing Program

Professor emerita Stephanie Vaughn, ‘writer’s writer,’ dies at 81

11/24/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Vaughn taught creative writing and literature at Cornell for 39 years, retiring in 2022 as professor of literatures in English emerita.

Provided book cover: The Story in Fiction and Film of French Collaboration in the Occupation

Literatures in English

How fiction and film are shaping the Occupation narrative in France

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

In two new books, Daniel R. Schwarz considers France and the Holocaust – and how literature and film can correct erroneous depictions of history.

Person smiling down at a cup of ice cream — Cornell University file photo Howard Howland

Neurobiology and Behavior

Professor emeritus Howard Howland, expert on eyes, dies at 92

11/19/2025 Cornell Chronicle

… who studied the eyes of humans and animals, died Oct. 26 in Ithaca. He was 92. … who studied the eyes of humans and animals, died Oct. 26 in Ithaca. He was 92. Howland, professor emeritus of … At various points during his career, Howland served as a visiting professor of optometry or ophthalmology at the …

Provided Book cover: Island of Hermaphrodites

Romance studies

Translation offers English readers passage to satirical ‘Island of Hermaphrodites’

11/11/2025 A&S Communications

The novel, published anonymously in 1605, is "a very funny critique of court life that resonates for anyone dealing with very hierarchical institutions in which the exercise of power is often inscrutable and seemingly random,” says professor Kathleen Perry Long.

Illustration of a planet covered in orange-tinted clouds — Adam B. Langeveld/Carl Sagan Institute. Adapted from NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech Artist concept of a cloudy Earth-like exoplanet with colorful biota in the clouds.

Astronomy

How to spot life in the clouds on other worlds

11/11/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers have created the first reflectance spectra – a color-coded key – of microorganisms that live in the clouds floating above Earth’s surface.

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

… lights the way into poems that connect people beyond death, visit holy sites, consider Satanic bargains and consult … that imagine a medieval chapel’s construction and that visit a holy site of pilgrimage off the British coast. Other …

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

Literatures in English

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

… rare scientists, including Zhilei Zhao, who can deploy the latest AI and neurotechnical methods.” Zhao has used AI to …

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

Physics

Using AI to learn quantum complexity

10/15/2025 A&S Communications

… operate on a simple binary – like the heads or tails of a coin toss. But quantum computers operate on all possible superpositions of the coin flips, meaning that the coin can exist in multiple states at the same time – both …

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

… Review and the Week in Review and a Times writer at large, visited Cornell Oct. 6-10 as the fall Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist in A&S. He met with students and … Fox News and, more recently, Bari Weiss’ online outlet The Free Press, even as it launched writers like Joan Didion and …

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.

Astrophysics

Cornell physicists update catalog of binary black holes

10/8/2025 A&S Communications

These simulations, developed with significant input from Cornell researchers using code written at Cornell, help scientists analyze gravitational waves observed by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors located in the U.S., Italy and Japan.

Comparative literature

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

10/7/2025 A&S Communications

… and the Institute for European Studies (IES), the event is free and open to all; RSVP on the Cornell event site . …

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

… the first protocell membranes grew and divided. During his visit to Cornell, Szostak will also give a scientific …

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

… in Shanghai and fled to France, where she was granted a visiting professorship at her alma mater, Paris Institute of …

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

… tell the church’s story, including glass objects, textiles, coins and toys. A display of maps from the 19th and 20th …

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.

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

New Cornell research focuses on two types of uncertainty that play important roles in the cyber threat security industry – coordinative uncertainty and adversarial uncertainty – and analyzes the relationship between them.

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.