Cornell astronomers’ exploration of the solar system just got a major boost: Two faculty members will play critical roles in one of the two final concepts that NASA has selected for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-2020s under its New Frontiers Program. Steven Squyres, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences in Cornell’s Department of Astronomy, will lead the Comet…
When we experience losses that seem insurmountable, how do we once again plant the seeds of hope? Hope is an integral part of social life. Yet, hope has not been studied systematically in the social sciences. “Economy of Hope,” edited by Hirokazu Miyazaki and Richard Swedberg, investigates hope in a broad range of socioeconomic situations and phenomena across time and space. In the collection…
Roberto Sierra, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Music, has been awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin, by the Society of Spanish Composers (SGAE) Foundation. The prize, which includes a 20,000 Euros award, will be presented to Sierra in the spring in Madrid, Spain; a…
Cornell has a history of hiring faculty with strengths and interests in German, not only within the Department of German Studies, but throughout the university.So, 25 years ago, Professor Peter Uwe Hohendahl set about creating an institute that could bring faculty from across campus with interests in German together for conferences and colloquia to share ideas, opinions and research.The Institute…
Mi Comunidad, which means “My Community,” is a student-run mentoring program run by graduate and professional students affiliated with the Latin@ Graduate Students Coalition (LGSC) and supported by the Latina/o Studies Program and the Latina/o Student Success Office.“The goal was to create a program that was more focused on fostering friendships than professional relationships,” said Andrea Monge…
Geoffrey W. Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is one of 155 new members elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced Dec. 12. The 2017 NAI fellows will be inducted April 5, 2018, at the NAI annual conference in Washington, D.C.Election as an NAI fellow is bestowed on academic inventors who have …
Dieting is a $60 billion industry, with 45 million Americans trying to lose weight every year. But despite all the money and effort, these diets haven’t succeeded for the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese. In “Diet and the Disease of Civilization,” Adrienne Rose Bitar defines “success” differently: What if diet books work like literature?Instead of evaluating diets by their…
A small child stood transfixed as the ancient lines of “The Wanderer” rang through the Big Red Barn, the story of a man traveling “the exile’s path” who recalls “hardships and cruel wars and deaths of lords.” But while the child was unlikely to understand a word of the poem, read in the original 10th century Old English by a group of graduate students and Thomas D. Hill, professor of English and…
“You have to be quick on your feet and able to handle heavy situations – especially in entertainment,” said Sam Naimi ‘16. “The emphasis on theory and liberal studies (in Arts & Sciences) allowed me to be a really good critical thinker.”After positions with the Ellen DeGeneres show and TMZ, Naimi now works at PMK•BNC, a public relations agency that specializes in entertainment and popular…
A new online, interactive exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts’ Golden Records is raising funds for three organizations, one of them Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute (CSI). “A Message from Earth” represents a “collage of the contemporary human condition,” according to exhibit organizer WeTransfer’s press release. The exhibit features new and exclusive pieces…
Each Wednesday Ellen Abrams, a Ph.D candidate in science & technology studies, leads a class of high school students in New York City through workshops and discussions about writing, history and current events, as she works to introduce them to the landscape of higher education.The program is a collaboration between Cornell, University Heights High School and Power Writers, a NYC non-profit…
Serge Petchenyi / Cornell University
Students participate in an in-class discussion.
Innovative approaches to pedagogy are changing the future of Cornell, and the College of Arts and Sciences has launched a web feature to spotlight new developments throughout the college. The site includes stories about teaching methods, education research, curriculum redesign and more.“The College of Arts and Sciences’ commitment to active learning and education innovation is impressive, and its…
Mariana Federica Wolfner ‘74, Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, has received the 2017 Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology from the Entomological Society of America. The award recognizes scientists who have distinguished themselves through innovative research in these areas of entomology. Her award was presented at the annual meeting of the…
Teachers of European and world history can draw on well-regarded textbooks to understand the history of science and technology, but such works usually present this history from the point of view of a particular specialty. The recently released “Scientific Practices in European History, 1200–1800” by Peter Dear takes a different approach. Rather than providing an over-arching historical framework,…
Professor Amy Villarejo, who led the Department of Performing and Media Arts as chair for seven years, has been named the first faculty director for the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity.The program, launched last month with a $20 million gift from the Milstein Family Foundation, led by Howard P. Milstein ’73, Abby S. Milstein, and Michael M. Milstein ‘11, is a collaboration between the…
Ethan Felder ‘09 isn’t shy about standing up for what he believes in. Even if that means literally standing up in front of a crowd of a thousand people at a Queens neighborhood rally.Felder, a union-side labor lawyer in New York City, visited campus in November to talk about his work and his pro bono cases, including a recent voting rights case that he won in Queens.That case, in which Felder and…
Climate science, theater, and civic engagement come together in an interdisciplinary setting in a new performing and media arts course that culminates in a multimedia performance this week.This Engaged Cornell project is presented in collaboration with the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences climatologist Toby Ault, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, and Ithaca-based…
Katherine McCulloh ‘12 thinks math is an art.“Before attending Cornell I didn’t see math as the intricate art it is,” she said, “but being exposed to math at such an advanced level at Cornell helped me push myself to think, to see mathematics on a deeper level and construct more concrete arguments.”Now on the math team at Success Academy Charter Schools, McCulloh said math has opened up many…
Second-year MFA students in Cornell’s creative writing program were given the chance to read their works in front of editors, agents and publicists at a Nov. 12 event in New York City, thanks to the generosity of David Picket ’84.The David L. Picket & Cornell Creative Writing Program Literary Reading in NYC was held at the Cornell Club and included readings by nine MFA students, as well as a…
Adadot Hayes ’64 said she will never forget Jeffrey, a baby born with Trisomy 13, a chromosomal condition that left him without eyes, with a cleft palate and a host of other problems.Most babies with this genetic disorder don’t live past 1 month, so his parents were advised to tell relatives and friends that he had died at birth. But Jeffrey lived to be 9 1/2 years old and Hayes, then a young…
Annie Kline ’20 is a perfect example of a student who comes to Cornell with a ton of interests and uses her first two years in the College of Arts & Sciences to explore the possibilities before deciding on a major. We sat down with Annie to find out how she came to major in history and minor in information science.How did you choose Cornell?Cornell was the first school I visited and I loved…
Kanzi the bonobo (pygmee chimpanzee) hunches over, banging the rock in one hand against the rock in his other hand, determinedly whacking it until a piece slices off: making and using the same kind of tool as our Stone Age ancestors.The scene from that video, and others showing Kanzi’s language abilities, opened “Eloquence of the Apes: a Trans-Disciplinary Workshop on Apes, Language and…
Xak Bjerken, professor of music, has released a downloadable disc of solo and chamber music composed by Steven Stucky, professor emeritus of music.The project, “Steven Stucky: Chamber Music” which was released by Open G Records on Nov. 10 includes premiere recordings of the Violin Sonata, Piano Sonata, Piano Quintet, and Piano Quartet, as well as the Chorale from “Album Leaves,” written for…
Andrew Bass, professor of neurobiology and behavior, has been named Senior Associate Dean overseeing math and sciences for the College of Arts & Sciences. He will assume the role on Jan. 1, when the term ends of Barbara Baird, Horace White Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Bass served as chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior from 1994-99 and co-chair from 2001-02,…
Four Arts & Sciences students are part of the delegation of faculty, staff and students attending the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this week in Bonn, Germany.“My background is in environmental governance and sustainable development, so one of my main goals for the conference was to learn firsthand about how…
Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are offering a number of classes next spring related to topics you read about in the news every day. As they explore recent events and our current national climate in their research and scholarship, students have the opportunity to engage with their expertise through numerous courses, including the sample courses below: LSP 4635/AMST 4633/ASRC 4635…
Fiery supernovae, delicate rings of ice, planet-hopping comets – visitors to Fuertes Observatory have seen them all. For 100 years, Fuertes Observatory has opened a window to the cosmos for the Cornell and Ithaca communities.On Nov. 17, the Cornell Astronomical Society and Department of Astronomy invite the community to celebrate Fuertes’ centennial. “A Century of Observing at Fuertes” features…
Professor Gerard Aching encouraged students to think of the ways that empathy (or the lack of it) has impacted people’s actions throughout history and affects our individual actions toward others during a Bethe Ansatz talk Nov. 1.“Empathy is different from sympathy, which is compassion and pity toward another,” said Aching, professor of Africana and Romance studies. Rather than feel sorry for…
In the early 1970s, getting out of the Soviet Union was no easy feat, especially for Jews. In his memoir, “Thanksgiving All Year Round,” Gavriel Shapiro, Cornell professor of comparative and Russian literature, recounts his struggle to immigrate to Israel – including arrests, job loss, imprisonment and trial – and risking everything for freedom.Leaving the totalitarian state after two years of…
Shakarean Hutchinson, a master’s student in the creative writing program, has been named the fiction winner of the 2017 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers for her story “How to Kill Pigs.” The award, given annually to black college fiction and poetry writers, is named after Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright.“Hurston is a hero of mine,” Hutchinson said. “When I read her for the first…
More than 500 people, including many Cornell alumni, faculty, staff and students, gathered in New York City for Entrepreneurship at Cornell’s sixth Summit event Nov. 3.Speakers shared stories of their entrepreneurial journeys and the lessons they’ve learned from starting companies, while participants explored 17 booths featuring products and services from Cornell start-ups and programs.“Across…
J. Robert Lennon, professor of English, will argue for the benefits of the third person point of view during a Nov. 15 talk as part of the “In a Word” series from the Department of English and the creative writing program.Lennon, who says that the first person is often misused in American fiction, will give examples of the flexibility of third person narration during his talk, “Some Important…
“Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the 20th century,” declares Timothy Snyder in his new book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” On Oct. 30, Cornell students, faculty and members of the Ithaca community gathered to discuss Snyder’s work as part of a community book read, which drew more than 100 people.
The book was chosen not…
Combining the passion and tenacity of a concert pianist with the inspiration he finds in nature, Joshua Sadinsky ’19 is using the College Scholar program in the College of Arts & Sciences to pursue classes and research that meld all of his interests.“I identify first as a pianist; my commitment at first is to the instrument,” said Sadinsky, who grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “But the…
Frank Drake ’51 has been searching for evidence of intelligent life in the universe for 57 years. In an astronomy colloquium talk Oct. 19, “New Frontiers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Drake described the search efforts made so far and new opportunities provided by recent technological – and philanthropic – advances.
As Cornell’s director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto…
Ranging between ancient Greece and Rome and contemporary America, Barry Strauss discussed “Populism Through the Ages: A Challenge for Democracy” as the fall distinguished faculty invitational lecturer for Phi Beta Kappa Oct. 25.“While democracy respects the rule of law, adheres to constitutional limits, and seeks a balance between classes and groups, populism is ambiguous. It promotes the people…
More than 170 faculty, staff and students joined together Oct. 13 for the 25th Latino Unity Dinner, which included performances and poetry from students and student organizations, as well as a keynote address from Eduardo Peñalver '94, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law, Cornell Law School and an Arts & Sciences grad.A few years after its inception in 1987, the Latina/o Studies…
Vikram Gadagkar MS ’10, PhD ‘13 was recently awarded a prestigious five-year Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health.The award contains two components; two years of postdoctoral support and three years for faculty support. The objective of the program is to facilitate research independence earlier in an investigator’s career. During the first mentored phase of the…
Today, 245 million people live outside of the countries where they were born, many escaping economic conditions, political suppression, or wars. But despite their circumstances, many are unwelcome in their new countries.
The Center for the Study of Inequality is partnering with the Cornell Population Center to sponsor a conference Nov. 9-10, “Criminalizing Immigrants: Border Controls,…
A 21st century learning approach requires more than rows of fixed seats, says Jon McKenzie. In a new transdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages active learning, McKenzie has combined the kinds of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical learning found in seminar, studio, and lab spaces into an approach he calls “StudioLab.”“In traditional liberal arts, different learning spaces are siloed into the…
Marvin Carlson’s reason for coming to Cornell for his doctoral degree reads a little like the storyline from “The Wizard of Oz.”“I wanted to get out of Kansas,” said Carlson, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas. He traveled east to earn his Ph.D. in theater from Cornell in 1961 and stayed on to teach in Cornell’s theater arts department for 18 years…
"Hamlet Wakes Up Late," a biting political satire of Shakespeare's tragedy by renowned Syrian poet and playwright Mamduh Adwan, will have its English-language premiere this month at the Schwartz Center. The production, translated by Margaret Litvin and directed by Rebekah Maggor, assistant professor in the Department of Performing & Media Arts, will feature original music, dancing, action…
Raymond Bally ‘19, like every other first year student at Cornell, lived on North Campus freshman year. But a month after moving into his freshman dorm, someone handed him a quarter-card about volunteering to be a firefighter in Cayuga Heights.Bally now lives full-time at the firehouse and is part of the team of volunteers that respond to emergencies in the Ithaca community. The Cayuga Heights…
The Department of English will host the Philip Freund Prize for Creative Writing Alumni Reading at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2 in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall.Lauren K. Alleyne ‘06, Tacey M. Atsitty ‘11, Jennine Capo Crucet ‘03, and Stephen D. Gutierrez ’87, winners of the prize given by the Department of English Program in Creative Writing, each receive a $5,000 stipend, and an…
Michael Lucido ’19 is studying computer science and is minoring in film. Last fall, he searched for a club to join that would appeal to both of his interests.“There were either film clubs that did shooting or CS clubs that did programming,” he said, “There weren’t a lot of technology and creative clubs – they weren’t talking to each other.”He started to talk to his friends about the need for a…
The limited racial and ethnic diversity among people in biology-related careers has long roots, according to a new study.As undergraduates, underrepresented minority students face challenges on campus and in the classroom, which can discourage them from pursuing science careers. Research has shown that the use of active learning techniques – such as working in groups and participating in…
The prospect of reaching out to alumni and industry leaders seems daunting to most students. For students who are more introverted, networking can be as hard as taking a prelim.So, the Arts & Sciences Career Development Center hosted its first “Networking for Introverts” workshop, led by Ana Adinolfi, senior career associate, Oct. 19 in Goldwin Smith Hall. The workshop was designed for…
Animals, neuroscience, consciousness and medicine: Associate Professor of English Elisha Cohn’s interests range far and wide, all seen through the lens of narrative, her driving passion.Cohn’s specialty is Victorian literature, because, she says, “it was the first period that consistently saw itself as modern and tried to theorize its own values and its own moment. There’s a great sort of pathos…
“History doesn’t repeat, but it does instruct” is the ethos of Timothy Snyder's new book, ‘On Tyranny-Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” Four Cornell professors will be holding a community read and public discussion of Snyder’s book that has been described as presenting “twenty lessons from the twentieth century adapted to the circumstances of today.”
Snyder’s book looks at the…
Carlos Andrés Gómez, an award winning poet, actor, speaker, and writer from New York City, will be visiting Cornell for a public performance sponsored by the Latina/o Studies Program, at 5:30 p.m., Nov. 2, in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorum (132 Goldwin Smith Hall).A former social worker and public school teacher, Gomez recently partnered with John Legend for “Senior Orientation,” a program to…
