G. Roger Livesay, professor emeritus of math in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Aug. 1 in Ithaca after a long illness. He was 95. Livesay received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1948 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and his Ph.D. in 1952 from the same institution.
How contagious is COVID-19, and how severe is the virus for those who’ve caught it? Everyone wants firm numbers as schools make decisions about in-person versus remote learning, as local and state governments grapple with reopening, and as families care for sick loved ones.
Harold A. Scheraga, the George W. and Grace L. Todd Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, who had a profound impact shaping the understanding of protein structure, died Aug. 1 in Ithaca. He was 98.
Scholars discussed the deep roots of health inequalities in the U.S. during a webinar, “Systemic Racism and Health Equity,” moderated by Jamila Michener, associate professor of government.
This summer was going to be crucial for Areion Allmond ’21. With a major in biology and society, she had planned to live on campus in student housing to continue her research on the effect of the nutrient choline on children’s cognitive development. This kind of research can make or break a student’s chances of getting accepted into a M.D./Ph.D. program – which is Allmond’s goal.
Zachary Prizant ’18, MPS ’19, and his identical twin brother, Maxwell, are crossing the continental United States on foot – running and hiking 3,000 miles – to support COVID-19 relief work.
The Politics of Race, Immigration, Class and Ethnicity (PRICE), a new initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences, will bring together scholars, researchers and the public for conversations that just might make everyone a little uncomfortable.
Cornell-based Freedom on the Move (FOTM), a database documenting the lives of fugitives from American slavery through newspaper ads placed by slave owners in the 18th and 19th centuries, has received a $150,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Mars is about to become a little more red, thanks to the Cornellians who helped develop and calibrate instruments soon bound for the planet. Early on July 30, the NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab’s Mars 2020 spacecraft will roar away from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, bound for Earth’s rusty red neighbor.
In 1946, the Minneapolis Tribune’s Minnesota Poll billed itself as “an impartial, scientific weekly survey of what Minnesotans think on leading topics of the day.”
An interdisciplinary group of scholars is exploring “Unsettled Monuments, Unsettling Heritage,” through a grant from the provost's Radical Collaboration task force focused on the arts and humanities.
As technology begins to transform farming, a team of Cornell researchers is exploring how digital agriculture could affect small and midsized farms, as well as its likely effect on the environment, to inform the design of these developing technologies.
Maps are more than two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional terrain. They are also powerful political tools to control territory, as Cornell sociologist and science studies scholar Christine Leuenberger explains in her new book, “The Politics of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine,” co-written with Izhak Schnell of Tel Aviv University.
Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) has received a $275,000 Luce Foundation award to strengthen graduate education in Southeast Asian studies by developing new mechanisms for sharing expertise and resources among major Southeast Asia centers across the United States.
Two doctoral alumnae have been named 2020 Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Public Fellows. They are Yagna Nag Chowdhuri, Ph.D. ’20, a recent graduate of the Asian literature, religion and culture doctoral program, and Valeria Dani, Ph.D. ’19, a graduate of the romance studies doctoral program. Chowdhuri and Dani are two of 22 fellows selected in 2020.
A new edited volume, “Classics and Media Theory,” features participants from a Cornell media studies conference exploring the interactions between media and antiquity.
For decades, Cornell’s Adult University (CAU) has hosted Cornell alumni, their families and friends on the Ithaca campus for faculty-led programs for adults and youth during the summer months. COVID-19 made these weeklong “education vacations” impossible this year.
Unlike many stories about technological revolutions and industry disrupters, this one begins in a mall. Originally from Guyana, South America, Andrea Madho had a successful career as a stockbroker on Wall Street before transitioning to tech-sector public relations and business development. On this particular shopping trip in 2015, she just wanted to buy clothing that fit.
The decision to reactivate Cornell’s Ithaca campus for residential instruction this fall was a difficult one. Now comes the even harder work of making it happen.
The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability has awarded seven Academic Venture Fund (AVF) interdisciplinary seed grants, totaling $1.1 million, for projects that engage faculty from eight Cornell colleges and 16 academic departments.
Tudorita Tumbar, professor of molecular biology and genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received a Humboldt Research Award “for outstanding academics at the peak of their careers” to pursue a promising collaboration with researchers in Germany.
Gender differences in plans emerge very early in students’ academic careers, “even among students who do well in math and science and have similar orientation to work and family.”
Like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, critical spin fluctuations in a magnetic system haven’t been captured on film. Unlike the fabled creatures, these fluctuations – which are highly correlated electron spin patterns – do actually exist, but they are too random and turbulent to be seen in real time.
Lara Fresko Madra, a doctoral candidate in the field of history of art, archaeology and visual studies, has been selected as a recipient of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Administered through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the fellowship has been awarded to 23 recipients for the 2020-21 academic year.
Influential scholar, writer and editor David I. Grossvogel, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Studies Emeritus and member of the Cornell faculty since 1960, died June 14 in Chicago. He was 94.
Weeks of protests across the nation, signs supporting Black Lives Matter in more conservative neighborhoods, and reforms enacted since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis all signal “a defining moment” and an opportunity for systemic change, four black lawmakers said June 15 during a Cornell-sponsored forum.
The Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus perform on a new CD of works composed by Roberto Sierra, the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities.
A new animation about two innovative telescopes being developed at Cornell has just been released by the research group led by Michael Niemack, associate professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. The two-minute video explains how researchers are “measuring the oldest light in the universe with the highest telescopes on Earth.”
Fourteen teams of faculty and community partners have received Engaged Research Grants from the Office of Engagement Initiatives to increase undergraduate involvement in research that strengthens the well-being of communities.
Covering 1,300 years, the book documents the historical moments when active contributions of knowledge and practice flowed between regions and cultures.
Antonie Blackler, professor emeritus of zoology and an expert on developmental biology, died June 3 in Ithaca. He was 88. He was known for groundbreaking fundamental work on the origin of sex cells in vertebrates. His experiments with African claw-toed frogs yielded important insights into the development and reproduction of amphibian embryos, with implications for other animals and humans.
When astronomer Joan Schmelz met then-postdoctoral researcher Lisa Kaltenegger a decade ago at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the hottest cosmic theme to study was exoplanet exploration.
COVID-19 may help us “think of a new turning point” in overturning established power structures and compelling people to reconsider borders, N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, professor of Africana studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, said May 13 during a United Nations online forum.
In a group decision-making process such as the one happening in the U.S. this November, swing voters are crucial. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. Whether it’s a presidential election, a Supreme Court vote or a congressional decision – and especially in highly partisan environments, where the votes of the wings are almost guaranteed – the votes of the few individuals who seem to be in the middle could tip the scales.
Sixteen faculty and professional staff members in three state contract colleges at Cornell have been selected for the 2019-20 State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.