News

Circle on textured paper that says 'Federal Reserve'; an extreme close up of a one-dollar bill, US — Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash

Economics

Threats to Fed independence already taking an economic toll

1/22/2026 A&S Communications

While market movements have been modest so far, they signal declining trust in the ability or willingness of future FOMC members to achieve the Fed's inflation objectives, says Cornell economist Ryan Chahrour.

people dancing — Courtesy of Janus Films Still from 8 ½ (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)

Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema unveils diverse, collaboration-driven spring lineup

1/22/2026 A&S Communications

From midcentury melodramas to speculative visions of technology and the human body—and even a French coming of age story about crafting world class cheese—Cornell Cinema’s spring season offers a varied plate.

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

We can improvise new sentences so readily, language scientists believe, because we have acquired mental representations of the patterns of language that allow us to combine words into sentences.

Illustration of underwater scene with three faculty head shots superimposed on it — Provided The "Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action, and Reflection" event on Wed. Jan. 28, a collaboration between the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, will include a faculty panel, workshop, and tour of “Naples: Course of Empire,” the new Alexis Rockman exhibit that opens Jan. 20 at the Johnson Museum.

Teaching about climate change

Faculty event to highlight how teaching about climate change can move beyond discourse and despair

1/21/2026 Cornell Chronicle

On Jan. 28, the Center for Teaching Innovation and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will co-host “Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action and Reflection,” a faculty panel, teaching workshop and exhibit tour exploring how instructors can engage the humanities, climate change and community in their teaching.

The U.S. Capital. — Photo by Quick PS on Unsplash U.S. Capitol

Artificial Intelligence

AI chip exports bill an “attempt to reclaim congressional agency”

1/21/2026 A&S Communications

Prof. Sarah Kreps comments on proposed legislation giving Congress power over artificial intelligence chip exports.

person reading on a bench in a large, sunny, modern room — Cornell University file photo

Alumni authors

Your January 2026 reads

1/20/2026 Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include poetry, an anthropologist’s memoir, and a chronicle of the Nazi’s massive looting of European artworks.

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 from a Cornell researcher who has spent years studying the forest and its significance in Russian history and culture.

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.

Anson Teague Wigner/Provided Mendi and Keith Obadike

Performing and Media Arts

Artist team Mendi + Keith Obadike named USA Fellows

1/15/2026 A&S Communications

The Obadikes have exhibited and performed their interdisciplinary work at The New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include four books, two albums, and a series of large-scale public sound artworks.

Colorful interior of a chapel with a vaulted ceiling; people sit in the pews facing a person speaking at the front — Noël Heaney/Cornell University A “Soup & Hope” event from 2024

Cornell history

In Praise of Sage Chapel, East Hill’s beloved house of worship

1/15/2026 Cornellians

Built in an era when the University was under fire for being nonsectarian, it offers respite from a bustling campus.

Ryan Young/Cornell University Ambre Dromgoole

Africana studies

How music galvanized the fight for civil rights

1/15/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches tapped into a Black musical tradition that animated the Civil Rights Movement, says Ambre Dromgoole, assistant professor of Africana religions and music.

Overlooking a college campus under a yellow sky at dawn

Sciences

$1.5M grant boosts postdoctoral research across 4 colleges

1/15/2026 Cornell Chronicle

In 2026, the from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will begin funding 10 two-year postdoctoral appointments including three in astronomy, chemistry and physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

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.

Sanae Takaichi in dark suit jacket sits at a table with microphones between two men, and more men sitting in the room behind her — Japan's Cabinet Public Affairs Office, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a meeting of the Population Strategy Headquarters

History

Tensions with China give Japanese PM an opening for snap elections

1/14/2026 A&S Communications

Prof. Kristin Roebuck comments on the plans of Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to dissolve parliament next week and call a snap election.

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.

Provided Scott Lincicome

Freedom and Free Societies

Trade expert discusses misconceptions about trade Jan. 29

1/12/2026 A&S Communications

Scott Lincicome will talk about imports, tariffs and globalization during his talk, “What You Think You Know About Trade is Probably Wrong."

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

Women played a major role in debates surrounding the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Rachel Sandwell writes in a new book, “National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile: Sex, Gender, and Nation in the Struggle against Apartheid.”

Hill with dozens of colorful houses on it, backed by a bleak landscape with snow — Annie Spratt/Unsplash Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland

International politics

Europe has little leverage to push back if Trump moves to take Greenland

1/7/2026 A&S Communications

A Cornell historian and military expert doubts a NATO military response to the US annexation of Greenland would not happen, Despite tough talk from European leaders.

A coach with a white board in front of several hockey players in red and white jerseys — Cornell Athletics Derraugh coaching during the 2011–12 season

Alumni

'Remember they’re playing for the love of the game’

1/6/2026 Cornellians

A former Big Red star himself, women’s ice hockey coach and A&S alum Doug Derraugh ’91 has led the squad to five ECAC championships.

Person pushing, on a dolly, a large red frame wrapped in plastic — Rick Ryan/Cornell University Lead rigger Ed Foster guides the movement of the Prime-Cam support raft, a carefully choreographed step in preparing the telescope for shipment.

Astronomy

The people behind the telescope: How specialized expertise is supporting science at the edge of the universe

1/5/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Behind a world-leading telescope bound for Chile is a team of engineers, machinists, electronics specialists and riggers at Cornell. Meet the specialized staff whose expertise is helping push cosmology to new frontiers.

Person holding a golf club casually, smiling — Cy Cyr/Golf Channel Mullins competing at the World Long Drive Championship in 2016

Alumni

Power play: Arts & Sciences alum is a long drive golfing champ

12/23/2025 Cornellians

After competing in track and field for the Big Red, Troy Mullins ’09 parlayed her athleticism into success at smashing the ball.

Mathematics

Mészáros elected to American Mathematical Society

12/22/2025 A&S Communications

Mészáros’ research focuses on algebraic and geometric combinatorics.

a piece of fabric with a design on it — Ryan Young/Cornell University HelioSkin is a lightweight, stretchable architectural fabric that is aesthetically attractive and can wrap around complex shapes.

Cornell University

2025 Year in Review

12/19/2025 Cornell Chronicle

In 2025, Cornell produced cutting-edge AI research, inaugurated a president and advanced agriculture and sustainability. The university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni made the world a better place, welcomed back two Nobel laureate alumni and conducted research that matters.

Illustration showing RNA Polymerase II interacting with Chromatin — Provided This cartoon illustrates how RNA polymerase generates torsional stress in DNA during transcription. Chromatin, composed of nucleosomes with DNA wrapped around histone proteins, buffers this stress, enabling the polymerase to transcribe through nucleosomes.

Physics

Unexpected allies: DNA packaging aids gene expression

12/19/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers discovered that DNA packaging structures called nucleosomes, which have been traditionally seen as roadblocks for gene expression, actually help reduce torsional stress in DNA strands and facilitate genetic information decoding.

Hand holding a smart phone showing the TikTok icon — Solen Feyissa/Unsplash

Government

TikTok user long-term experience will ‘depend’ on regulators in new framework

12/19/2025 A&S Communications

Tiktok has signed a deal to spin off its U.S. business, but it remains unclear how effectively the new framework will address the initial national security threat concerns, says government professor Sarah Kreps.

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

Physics

AI gives scientists a boost, but at the cost of too many mediocre papers

12/19/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A new study shows that using large language models like ChatGPT boosts paper production, especially for non-native English speakers, but the overall increase in AI-written papers is making it harder to separate the valuable contributions from the AI slop.

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.

Large concrete dish surrounded by three poles and wires; a mechanism is suspended over the dish. the whole thing, a telescope, is surrounded by lush trees — David Parker/Science Photo Library Arecibo Observatory

Astronomy

Astronomer paints vivid history of Arecibo Observatory

12/16/2025 Cornell Chronicle

In a new book, Donald Campbell, Ph.D. ’71, professor emeritus of astronomy, recounts the history of Arecibo from construction to its last days under Cornell’s management in 2011.

Aerial view of a green field in summer, a distant view and a square marked on on the ground, set with small boxes — Chris Kitchen for Cornell University Researchers said enclosed fields, just off Cornell's campus, vastly expand the experiences of lab mice, which have only ever lived in a cage a little larger than a shoebox.

Neurobiology and Behavior

In lab mice rehomed to fields, anxiety is reversed

12/16/2025 Cornell Chronicle

When postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zipple releases lab mice into a large, enclosed field just off Cornell’s campus, something remarkable happens.

Book cover: Modernity and Malevolence in the Psychiatric Clinic

Anthropology

Book explores ‘modernity and malevolence’ in Indian clinical care

12/16/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The book shows how patterns of psycho-social stress combined with modernity’s pressures can influence psychiatric practice.

Many people working together to package food — Joel Muniz/Unsplash Gratitude helps you live up to your best self and be a better member of society.

Psychology

From better sleep to stronger communities: The benefits of gratitude

12/15/2025 A&S Communications

Gratitude not only makes you feel good, but it helps you live up to your best self and be a better member of society, psychology professor Thomas Gilovich has found.

Pontoon boat on still, gray water — Jason Koski/Cornell University A team of scientists from Cornell, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took a DEC boat out onto Seneca Lake in September to place sensors and take water samples from the lake's depths.

Ecology and evolutionary biology

The mystery of the Seneca Drums persists

12/15/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers are plumbing the depths of the largest and deepest of New York’s Finger Lakes to explain the source of its famous booming sounds.

three people smiling — Kathy Hovis From left, Wilson Kan, Marian Caballo and Reya Babu are all graduating this December.

Student accomplishments

Celebrating the journey with our December A&S grads

12/12/2025 A&S Communications

December graduates walk the stage this month, so we sat down for a talk with three A&S grads who’ve taken different pathways through Cornell.

Two people sitting at a table, reading in a room full of books on shelves; the books are reflected on the surface of the table, creating a sense of immersion — Ryan Young/Cornell University

Alumni authors

Your December 2025 reads

12/12/2025 Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include fiction from A&S alum Thomas Pynchon ’59, an award-winning poetry collection and a study of a small town.

American Studies Program

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82

12/12/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Salvatore taught at the ILR School and in the American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences for 36 years, retiring in 2017 as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Emeritus Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Mouse peeking over the back of a couch in a dim room. — Oxana Golubets/Unsplash

Neurobiology and Behavior

Brain stimulation during sleep boosts weak memories in mice

12/11/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The mice could remember new experiences that would normally be forgotten – a finding with important implications for treating Alzheimer’s disease.

Three people stand next to a silver device, about a foot taller than the people, made of a post, a box with electronics inside, and a circular top — Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University Shami Chatterjee, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences; James Cordes, the George Feldstein Professor of Astronomy; and doctoral student Sashabaw Niedbalski, on the roof of the Space Sciences Building next to the Global Radio Explorer Telescope.

Astronomy

Cake-pan telescope searches the sky for fast radio bursts

12/10/2025 Cornell Chronicle

One of the world's smallest telescopes, it is part of a series of eight terminals installed around the globe.

Student creative works

Undergrads launch magazine featuring in-depth stories

12/9/2025 A&S Communications

A new student-run magazine focuses on long-form journalism that reflects the culture of Cornell and Ithaca.

Black and white historic photo of a person playing a guitar and singing into a microphone — Provided Ellen Stekert '57 on the Hill for a return performance in 1960.

Alumni

At age 90, a singer, collector, and scholar of folk music goes digital

12/9/2025 Cornellians

After a long career onstage and off, Ellen Stekert ’57 is focused on preservation—releasing songs from her vast archive on Bandcamp.

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.

ancient stone temple surrounded by trees, under a bright blue sky — SAM sokkolinmony/Unsplash Main gate of Presh Khan Kampong svay Temple in Cambodia's Presh Vihea Province, on the border with Thailand

Government

Domestic politics driving Thailand-Cambodia border tensions says Cornell Southeast Asia expert

12/8/2025 A&S Communications

Thailand and Cambodia have long had fraught relations, professor Tom Pepinsky says after Thailand’s military launched air strikes along the Thailand-Cambodia border.

Public engagement

Workshop, talk focused on applying lessons learned from COVID

12/8/2025 A&S Communications

Scholars converged at Cornell to talk about lessons policymakers and elected officials could glean from their research into the COVID pandemic to help deal with the next public health emergency.

China and Asia-Pacific Studies

Cornell-China trip celebrates 20 years of Levinson Program

12/8/2025 A&S Communications

Leaders celebrated the Levinson Program and joined other Cornell delegates at the Cornell-China Forum.

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.

Aerial view of the Arts Quad in the fall

Social sciences

Cornell Center for Social Sciences awards fall grants targeting $50M in external research support

12/5/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The Cornell Center for Social Sciences offers multiple grants to help Cornell faculty maximize their research impact. These awards help seed ambitious projects and provide support to teams of faculty applying to major external funding and collaboration opportunities.

About five students cluster around a table full of equipment in an introductory physics lab — Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University The "Improving STEM Learning and Pedagogical Assessment" innovation project focused on creating an equitable environment for students to work in teams.

Education innovation

CTI grants enable faculty to research how students think and learn

12/4/2025 Cornell Chronicle

With a 2024-2025 Innovative Teaching & Learning Grant, A&S professors collaborated with others to develope an AI tool to foster student metacognitive skills around teamwork in STEM classes.

looking down on a large city set among mountains — Juan Pablo Ahumada/Unsplash Santiago, Chile

Government

Chile latest test case in South America’s far right shift

12/4/2025 A&S Communications

“Chile's vibrant democracy faces a new challenge in a highly polarized second-round presidential election" Dec. 14, says Ken Roberts, professor of government.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Forever young? Extracellular vesicles may be key to halt aging

12/4/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Scientists have outlined exactly how embryonic stem cells protect other cells from the effects of oxidative stress, thus preventing cellular aging.

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.

A city seen from a high vantage point, through a foreground of trees — Edgard Josue/Unsplash Tegucigalpa, Honduras

History

Is Silicon Valley driving Trump’s policy on Honduras?

12/2/2025 A&S Communications

Trump’s interest in Honduras is more about U.S. business interests, than democracy, says professor Raymond Craib, a historian of modern Latin America.

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.

Person in military fatigues standing in front of others, speaking — Provided Kylie Williamson ’26 has been named Navy/Marines Student of the Year by Navy Federal Credit Union, a top honor in the Reserve Officers Training Corps system.

Physics

Cornell Navy ROTC midshipman earns top honor

12/2/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Kylie Williamson ’26 has been named Navy/Marines Student of the Year by Navy Federal Credit Union, a top honor in the Reserve Officers Training Corps system. Williamson is the first Cornell student to win the award.

Forest seen from above — Gabriel Mihalcea/Unsplash

Climate science

Grants to support research at nexus of AI, climate science

12/1/2025 Cornell Chronicle

New grant funding will support eight research projects seeking to reduce AI’s energy use and integrate AI in environmental research.

Two people wearing lab safety glasses read a computer screen — Charissa King-O’Brien/Cornell Engineering Postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Gerdes, Ph.D. ’24, (left) and Jillian Goldfarb, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, led an interdisciplinary team that determined that organic residues of plant oils are poorly preserved in calcareous soils from the Mediterranean.

Archaeology

Ancient dirty dishes reveal decades of questionable findings

12/1/2025 Cornell Chronicle

An interdisciplinary team of researchers determined that organic residues of plant oils are poorly preserved in calcareous soils from the Mediterranean, leading decades of archaeologists to likely misidentify olive oil in ceramic artifacts.

Dozens of college students sit at attention in an auditorium with tiered seating — Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University Students on the first day of classes in fall 2025.

Alumni

As higher ed looks to the future, it's vital to understand the past

12/1/2025 Cornellians

Praveen Sethupathy ’03, an A&S computer sciences alum who co-chairs a faculty task force exploring Cornell’s role in a changing educational, research, and social landscape, serves as co-chair of the Committee on the Future of the American University, a group of 18 faculty appointed by the provost to explore how Cornell can evolve to best serve future generations while pursuing its core mission of education, scholarship, public impact, and community engagement.

People sitting on benches, reading with a lake and forest vista in front of them — Simon Wheeler for Cornell University

Alumni authors

Your November 2025 reads

11/25/2025 Cornellians

… Your November 2025 reads …

Freedom and Free Societies

Talk examines Civil Rights Act’s unintended consequences

11/24/2025 A&S Communications

Legal scholar Gail Heriot will describe a chain of unintended consequences of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in her talk "Why We Walk on Eggshells," Dec. 8.

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.

person holding sign saying they are working for Microsoft

Career development resources

Career Development targets resources for students in tech fields

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

Tech students need to target specific organizations that match their interests, skills and values.

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.

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Jacqueline Allen ’23

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

"I got a taste of what neuroscience research is really like."

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nicole Hao ’24, MEng ’25

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

“Nexus, to me, was also a professional development experience."

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

"Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research."

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nnenna Ochuru ’25

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

"I want to further study the politicalization of education."

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Rachel Craig ’24

11/21/2025 A&S Communications

"I had the opportunity to present what was exciting to me, and what I learned.”

Graduate student research

Student spotlight: Raul Armenta

11/20/2025 Cornell University Graduate School

Raul Armenta, a doctoral student in sociology from Los Angeles, studies the intersection of education and the criminal legal system under the guidance of Bryan Sykes.

Several soldiers cluster near a tank; a blue and yellow Ukraine flag flies nearby — Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Creative Commons license 2.0 Anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine

International politics

U.S.-Russia peace plan should be ‘non-starter’ for Ukraine

11/20/2025 A&S Communications

The leaked peace initiative, which would allegedly require Kyiv to surrender territory and significantly reduce the size of its army and some types of weaponry, is largely an attempt to put pressure on Zelensky, says David Silbey.

A classroom empty of students; the chairs are on desks — Sigmund/Unsplash

Sociology

Whose God goes on the classroom wall? Cornell expert on religious freedom

11/20/2025 A&S Communications

Coordinated efforts across Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments "test whether American public schools belong equally to all families—or whether some families' faith gets privileged by law while others' gets diminished by the state.”

a few dozen people stand on an outdoor staircase — Roger William Photography Dean’s Scholars at the 2025 Pinning Ceremony

Graduate student honors

Nearly 60 students recognized at pinning ceremony

11/20/2025 Cornell University Graduate School

A&S-affiliated graduate students were among nearly 60 welcomed by the Graduate School as new Dean’s Scholars at an event to honor students selected for this distinction for academic excellence, leadership, and service.

Artistic portrait of a person in argyle pattern sweater vest holds a small model of a molecule and looks pensive — Christopher Michel Photography Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor, Emeritus, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Faculty honors

Portraits honor 8 Cornell faculty as ‘new heroes’

11/20/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The portraits are part of a series by Christopher Michel, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence.

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

Howard Howland, Ph.D. ’68, a neurophysiologist who studied the eyes of humans and animals, died Oct. 26 in Ithaca. He was 92.

Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Neel Mehta '23

11/19/2025 A&S Communications

"The skills that you pick up in the lab are always going to stay with you."

Flags of east Asia on poles near a body of water. Blue sky behind them — FutureAtlas.com/Creative Commons license 2.0 Flags of east Asia

International politics

Relationship between China and Japan ‘on a knife’s edge,’ says Cornell expert

11/18/2025 A&S Communications

Japan’s refusal to retract remarks about military intervention if China moved to seize Taiwan has left relations between the two countries the worst they've been in a decade, says Allen Carlson, associate professor of government.

Two people sit at a table loaded with equipment, assembling a robot — Paul Treadwell/Cornell University Surabhi Bacchav '27 (l) and Thomas Jacobsen, University of Idaho, set up a up an AgXRP robot in summer 2025.

Engaged learning

Cornell showcases a decade of impact through new community-engaged learning video series

11/18/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement has released a new video series highlighting a decade of progress and impact in community-engaged learning across the university.

Man with checkered shirt standing in front of a screen with a multi-colored quilt of neurons — Diane Tessaglia-Hymes H. Sebastian Seung, professor of computer science and neuroscience at Princeton, showing a portion of the fruit fly connectome in the optic lobe as a featured speaker at the 2025 Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium.

Neurobiology & Behavior

Neurotech symposium explores how brain circuits drive behavior

11/17/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The event was an example of Cornell’s interdisciplinary commitment to advancing the frontiers of neurotechnology.

Person in a red dress, singing into a microphone — Nada Žgank Cécile McLorin Salvant at the 2025 Ljubljana Jazz Festival

Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant featured on Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

11/14/2025 A&S Communications

Salvant, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is an artist celebrated for bringing historical depth, dramatic flair, and exceptional musical insight to jazz standards and original works.

Government

New course encourages students to embrace disagreement

11/13/2025 A&S Communications

A new course being offered will give students the chance to consider some of the most polarizing issues in our world today.

Light source sends white rays across a dark space — Markus Kammermann/Unsplash

Physics

Light causes atomic layers to do the twist

11/12/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Using a Cornell-built instrument and Cornell-built high-speed detector, a team of researchers captured atomically thin materials responding to light with a dynamic twisting motion.

Person sitting on a bench, reading, surrounded by fall leaves on a college campus — Jason Koski/Cornell University Cornell's Arts Quad

Economics

Universities’ role in society goes beyond education, research

11/12/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Americans broadly agree that universities should engage in a range of societal issues beyond their core education and research missions.

Huge sign that says "Hollywood" on a Los Angeles hillside — Photo by Nathan DeFiesta on Unsplash

Performing and media arts

A&S launches Cornell in Los Angeles semester study away

11/12/2025 A&S Communications

The program will place students in Hollywood for a semester of coursework, networking, and cultural immersion.

Black and white photo from 1970 of two dignitaries in an outdoor event — Eric Koch/Anefo, Creative Commons license 3.0 President Suharto of Indonesia arrives in the Netherlands for a state visit with Queen Juliana

Government

‘National hero’ honor for Suharto speaks to enduring authoritarian influence in Indonesia

11/11/2025 A&S Communications

President Prabowo’s decision to confer the title underscores how Suharto’s legacy continues to shape Indonesian politics today, says a Cornell government professor who studies political and economic systems in Southeast Asia.

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.

Person wearing a cap, sweater, wool hiking pants and sturdy boots, poses on rocky ground of a very steep hill — Mary Reppy John Reppy above Barrowdale in the English Lake District

Physics

Physicist John Reppy wins Buckley Prize

11/11/2025 A&S Communications

Reppy was recognized along with David Bishop, Ph.D. ’78, for "groundbreaking experiments" they did on helium 50 years ago.

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.

Geoffrey Coates

Awards and Honors

Chemist Geoffrey Coates wins Benjamin Franklin Medal

11/11/2025 A&S Communications

Coates is being recognized “for transformative work at the interface of chemical catalyst design and polymer science.”

Future of the American University

Building university cultures of open inquiry: Nov. 18 talk

11/7/2025 A&S Communications

John Tomasi, the inaugural president of Heterodox Academy, will speak on “The University at a Crossroads – and How We Can Build Cultures of Open Inquiry” as part of a series of events organized by the Provost’s Committee on the Future of the American University.

phone with dark mode screen and social media icons — Berke Citak/Unsplash

Psychology

Right or left, low-quality news links popular on social media

11/7/2025 Cornell Chronicle

The spread of dubious headlines on social media isn’t just a right-wing thing – it's a social media thing, according to new research from psychology professor David Rand ’04.

books in a library with computers on table — Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash

Digital humanities

Combining humanities and tech for research gains

11/7/2025 A&S Communications

An interdisciplinary project is sparking collaborations among those interested in digital approaches to the study of history, languages and culture.

Event poster in bright purple, pink and orange hues: Louise Farrence at 150 — Provided

Music

Commemorating composer, pianist, pedagogue Louise Farrenc Nov. 14-15

11/6/2025 A&S Communications

The two-day event features performances of Farrenc’s chamber music on historical instruments, a reimagining of the salon culture in collaboration with the Johnson Museum of Art, and scholarly presentations.

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.

Jewish Studies Program

Alumni gift endows director position for Jewish Studies Program

11/5/2025 A&S Communications

The $5 million gift from Joseph Lubeck ’78 offers the Jewish Studies Program foundational support for the future.

Sky scrapers rise from New York City in an aeriel shot — Triston Dunn/Unsplash New York City

Government

Is Mamdani’s win indicative of a new wave in national politics? Not likely says Cornell expert

11/5/2025 A&S Communications

New York City is too unique for Mamdani's victory to mean much for national politics, says professor of government Richard Bensel.

Society for the Humanities

Medical anthropologist to deliver annual Society for Humanities lecture

11/4/2025 A&S Communications

Stacey Langwick, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences, will speak on "Healing in a Toxic World: Reimagining the Times and Spaces of the Therapeutic."

Physics

Nathan Seiberg explores frontiers of physics in 2025 Bethe Lecture

11/4/2025 A&S Communications

Seiberg, professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will explore string theory and other aspects of scientific progress.

American studies and history

Historian to explore state of American sports in 2025 Seymour Lecture

11/4/2025 A&S Communications

Author and historian Kevin Baker will examine the paradox at the heart of modern American sports: while there are more games and sports than ever before, access has become increasingly limited and costly.

Three people sit in chairs in front of audience during a debate — Simon Wheeler for Cornell University Muna Ndulo, right, speaks as Chris Barrett, left, and moderator Paul Kaiser listen at the Einaudi Center’s Lund Critical Debate.

Government

Lund debate kicks off yearlong conversation on foreign aid

11/4/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Faculty members discussed the value of international aid in the wake of the Trump administration’s policy that froze foreign assistance.

Black and white image of a college student's face next to an image of a hand-written letter — Photo illustration by Ashley Osburn/Cornell University A student chronicled her life in the ’50s and ’60s—then shared those memories with her daughter and granddaughter

How hundreds of letters home connect a Cornellian family

11/4/2025 Cornellians

A student chronicled her life in the ’50s and ’60s—then shared those memories with her daughter and granddaughter – who's now an A&S alumna.