A few years ago, Cornell doctoral students Mario Molina and Mauricio Bucca, Ph.D. ’18, were playing President, a card game, when they noticed winners attributing the game’s outcome to skill and losers blaming their defeat on the rules.
A half-century after the idea of energy-recovering accelerators was proposed at Cornell, the university is showing that high-energy physics can also be renewable-energy physics.
The little-known fact that philosopher Martin Heidegger was a fan of European football and an admirer of famed West German player Franz Beckenbauer launches Grant Farred’s latest exploration of philosophy through sport in his new book, “Entre Nous: Between the World Cup and Me.”
When Shoshana Swell ’20 learned in March that NASA had scrubbed plans for an all-female spacewalk because it lacked women’s spacesuits, she got frustrated.
Natalie Nesvaderani, a doctoral candidate in anthropology, was recently selected as a recipient of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Administered through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Nesvaderani is one of 23 recipients for the 2019-20 academic year.Nesvaderani is studying the intersection of documentary film, migration and children’s labor in Iran.
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division for Planetary Sciences will honor Cornell astronomy professor Phil Nicholson with the 2019 Harold Masursky Award, a prize for meritorious service to planetary science.
As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft threaded its way through Saturn’s rings to acquire the last drops of data before its fatal plunge into the planet nearly two years ago, it collected spectral information about the enchanting C ring and its bright plateaus.Instead of uncovering definitive scientific answers, the spectral images from the Cassini flyby triggered more questions, according to new research published June 13 in Science.
The Cornell community is invited to celebrate the retirement of Henry Crans, director of facilities for the College of Arts and Sciences, after 50 years at Cornell. The drop-in reception will be on Tuesday, June 25, 1-4 pm in the Groos Family Atrium in Klarman Hall.
The 2019 Free Summer Events Series at Cornell features a diverse lineup of local and international musicians, speakers and performers on campus every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from June 28 through Aug. 2. All events are at 7 p.m. and are open to the public.
Just 10 taxis equipped with mobile sensors can survey a third of Manhattan’s streets in a day, inexpensively gathering valuable data about factors such as air quality, street conditions and bridge stability to provide an accurate and timely snapshot of a city’s health, according to a new study.
Former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley ’69, right, in conversation with former Rep. Steve Israel, left, director of Cornell’s Institute of Politics and Global Affairs, at the Olin Lecture June 7 in Bailey Hall.
Following 10 years working in Cornell’s telecommunications department, Henry Crans has been the director of facilities in the College of Arts and Sciences for 40 years, overseeing the construction of buildings from conception to occupancy. He especially is proud of Klarman Hall, which he considers one of the most beautiful buildings on campus. Crans has also worked part time with Cornell Outdoor Education teaching rock climbing, wilderness camping and cross-country skiing.
Four collaborative, cross-disciplinary faculty projects have received funding support through the New York City Visioning initiative. The projects were selected by President Martha E. Pollack from a group of finalists recommended by the President’s Visioning Committee on Cornell in New York City. The awards, totaling $265,000, were announced June 6 by President Pollack.
Eighteen Cornell doctoral students have received 2019-20 Engaged Graduate Student Grants totaling $269,397, which will support community-engaged research relevant to their dissertations.
Nearly 30 faculty members gathered recently to share what they’ve learned about teaching in Canvas, Cornell’s new learning management system.Many of the reasons Cornell chose to switch from Blackboard to Canvas – its streamlined interface, student-centered design and ease of integrating outside tools – were highlighted in faculty presentations as well as a student panel, held May 15 in the Biotechnology Building.
As an environmental activist and lobbyist, Rafe Pomerance ’68 played an early, pivotal role in raising awareness about the threat of climate change in the late 1970s. He connected scientists with government policymakers and the media, efforts that led to congressional hearings.
Just two weeks after classes end and students disperse for the summer, alumni and their families will return to campus for Reunion 2019. This year’s event – from Thursday, June 6, through Sunday, June 9 – is on track to set a new record for attendance, with more than 7,000 alumni and their guests registered.
Erin York Cornwell has been awarded the 2019 Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists, and Ananda Cohen-Aponte and Khena Swallow have been awarded the 2019 Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Academic Advising Award. They were among the Arts & Sciences faculty honored at a May 25 trustee-faculty dinner recognizing university-wide teaching and advising.
Cornell’s Class of 2019 is entering one of the most extraordinary times in human history, William S. Nye ’77 told graduates at Senior Convocation, urging them to stay optimistic as they tackle unparalleled challenges.
As students began to line up for Cornell’s 2019 Commencement May 26, the morning skies that threatened rain gave way to rays of sunshine wriggling between the clouds. Families noshed on bagels, cream cheese and coffee in Collegetown before heading to Schoellkopf Field for the pomp and circumstance.
Marsha Jean-Charles was 15 years old when she read a novel that would start her on the path to making Cornell history.“Breath, Eyes, Memory” is a semi-autobiographical novel by Edwidge Danticat. Like Jean-Charles, Danticat is Haitian-American and grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood known as Little Haiti.
Tyler Barr learned about leadership under pressure while attending a summer program at officer candidate school as a midshipman in the Marine Corps ROTC program at Cornell.He called it “by far the most difficult six weeks of our lives,” as he recounted sleeping and eating very little while being pushed to his physical limits.
Thirty-three university staff members were recognized for earning academic degrees at the 23rd annual Staff Graduate Reception, May 20 in the Hall of Fame Room in Friends Hall.Two Cornell staff members are receiving bachelor’s degrees from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Nineteen are receiving Cornell master’s degrees, two are receiving doctorates, and 10 are receiving degrees in higher education from other colleges and universities.
The arc of educational continuity and inspirational teaching was celebrated May 22 at the 31st annual Merrill Presidential Scholars convocation in Willard Straight Hall. Thirty-four seniors – among the very best of the Class of 2019 – honored beloved, guiding-light high school teachers and inspirational Cornell faculty members.
Meredith Chagares ’19 began her senior thesis in history, literally, with a footnote – one that led her to do investigative work for “Anatomy of a Cover-Up: How and Why the United States Covered Up Japanese World War II Biological Warfare Experiments.”“I discovered about Japan’s experiments via a footnote while researching Nazi experiments,” she said.
Active learning strategies transformed what could have been a class of slides and lectures this past semester into one in which students debated, created and thought critically about what statues mean, from antiquity to today.
Writer Toni Morrison, M.A. ’55, has been chosen to receive the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ highest honor for excellence in the arts. Three Cornell architecture alumni have also been named to receive 2019 Architecture Awards.Morrison earned the Gold Medal for Fiction. Two Gold Medals, in rotating categories in the arts, are awarded each year to those who have achieved eminence in an entire body of work.
Cornell student and faculty researchers and their community partners will use this year’s Engaged Cornell research grants to study Cornell’s socio-economic impact on Tompkins County, whether mobile research labs effectively engage underrepresented populations, and whether farmer-led research in Malawi influenced student learning and development.This year’s grants, 15 in all, were announced earlier this month by the Office of Engagement Initiatives.
Fresh off winning a Guggenheim fellowship, democracy scholar Suzanne Mettler, Ph.D. ’94, has just received another honor: a Radcliffe Institute fellowship.
Mary McDonald ’78 discovered her voice at Cornell.Originally a French horn player, McDonald joined the Cornell University Chorus, the women’s vocal ensemble, during her sophomore year and won an audition for free voice lessons.“I had never had formal voice lessons,” she says. “One day, I asked, ‘What about these notes up here?’”
Cornell astronomer Jonathan Lunine suggested to Congress reasonable, practical steps – including baby steps back to the moon – to help Americans one day put boots on the oxidized dust of Mars.
Yunqui (Kelly) Luo has long been intrigued by the laws of nature.“As a kid, I loved to play with tools and understand the ways in which the physical world works around us,” she said. The physics labs at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology cemented her passion for research.
It’s a simple task for humans: Sort plants by the colors of their pots. For robots, though, it’s a much more arduous undertaking.In a project blending technical savvy with lofty ambitions, a multidisciplinary team of Cornell undergraduates designed and built an autonomous robot capable of recognizing and handling potted plants.
Each new observable provides different ways of confirming the theory of general relativity and offers insight into the intrinsic properties of gravitational waves.
Fake news is a threat to American democratic institutions, whether through online election interference or, in extreme cases, inciting violence. New research offers a roadmap for dealing with false information.
With more than 5,000 international students, Cornell is a vibrant global community. The Office of Global Learning honored international students’ achievements May 2, sending the Class of 2019 off in style.Wendy Wolford, center, vice provost for international affairs, congratulates international graduates.
Before Clinton Ikioda ’19 came to Cornell, students and staff at his high school said he’d been admitted only to fill a diversity quota. Once he arrived, he felt constant pressure to prove he belonged – as well as a persistent worry that he didn’t.
Maria Harrison, the William H. Crocker Professor at Boyce Thompson Institute and adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, and Mariana Wolfner, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences, are among 100 new members of the National Academy of Sciences, the academy announced April 30.
The Provost’s Seminar on Teaching and Learning brought nearly 75 faculty and instructors together to share and celebrate innovations in teaching at Cornell.
Hailed as “transformative” and “a historic achievement” by faculty members, a strategic investment of close to $2 million directed by Provost Michael Kotlikoff has improved Cornell’s capabilities in flow cytometry, which is pivotal in cell research.
Classics scholar David Mankin, beloved by Cornell students for his inspiring and idiosyncratic teaching style, compassionate mentorship and the signature black sunglasses he wore to class, died April 24 after a brief illness. He was 61.
Winnie Ho ’19 has received the 2019 Campus-Community Leadership Award. The annual honor, given by the Division of University Relations, is presented to a graduating senior who has shown exceptional town-gown leadership and innovation.
