Haowen Zheng, a doctoral candidate in sociology from Zibo, China, now studies why people move long distances within a country and how those moves shape their lives.
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A portion of this year’s Expanding Your Horizons volunteers
Over 300 graduate students came together to offer this year’s annual Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) conference, putting in countless hours of volunteer work to host middle and high school students from across the state for a day of hands-on learning experiences on April 5.
Simon Wheeler for Cornell University
Cornell’s 2025 Bouchet Society inductees. Back row (left to right): Don Long, Andrea Robinson, Salma Rebhi and her son, Zhuang Han, and Aspen Omapang. Front row (left to right): Jamila Walida Simon, Marguerite Pacheco, Libby Indermaur, and Belen Sotomayor
Salma Rebhi, doctoral candidate in Romance studies, is among Cornell’s Bouchet scholars inducted at the annual Yale Bouchet Conference on Graduate Education.
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Doctoral candidate Jonathon Thomalla and Professor Mariana Wolfner
Jonathon Thomalla, a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and Mariana Wolfner, distinguished professor of molecular biology and genetics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in Molecular Biology and Genetics, discuss their mentoring relationship in a Q&A.
Jingya Guo, a doctoral candidate in history, studies how historical actors contested and reconfigured the demarcation between pathology and health for female bodies in China.
Simon Wheeler for Cornell University
Meagan Sundstrom, Ph.D. '24, winner of Cornell's 3MT competition
Students from several graduate fields, including physics in A&S, will compete in the final round of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT) on March 19.
Provided/Cornell University Graduate School
Professor Natasha Holmes (left) and doctoral candidate Rebeckah Fussell
In a series of interviews with faculty-graduate student pairs, the Cornell University Graduate School spoke with Rebeckah Fussell, a Ph.D. candidate in physics, and Natasha Holmes, Ann S. Bowers Associate Professor of physics.
Danielle Obisie-Orlu, doctoral student in government with a focus on international relations, studies how memory and migration shape international relations and affairs under the guidance of Oumar Ba.
Susannah Sharpless, a doctoral candidate in English language and literature, studies 19th century American literature with a focus on women writers and the sea.
Oona Cullen, a doctoral candidate in English language and literature with minors in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies and media studies, studies questions of embodiment, narrative, and form as they relate to experiences of race and gender.
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The five 2024 Postdoc Achievement Award recipients, left to right: Jonathan Sogin, Ph.D. ’23; Andrew Orkney; Alexandra Easley; Reum Scott, Ph.D. ’19; and Sabrina Axster.
The Postdoc Achievement Awards recognize individuals who have made contributions to community and show commitment to promoting inclusion at Cornell and in society.
The Deanne Gebell Gitner ’66 and Family Annual Prize for Teaching Assistants was created to put TAs in the spotlight, celebrating and recognizing them for their contributions to education at Cornell.
Recognizing the importance of extended, in-country research, Amit Bhatia ’01 created a fund to help close gaps in funding for travel and other expenses.
A&S graduate students and faculty were among those honored with 2024 Distinguished Awards at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Celebration on May 14.
Virginia McGhee, doctoral candidate in chemistry and chemical biology; and Liana Shpani, doctoral candidate in physics, are two of three Cornell doctoral students selected for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (DOE SCGSR) Program’s 2023 Solicitation 2 Cycle.
Jason Ludwig, doctoral candidate in science and technology studies from Brooklyn, New York, studies the role of computing in reshaping politics of racial equality.
Simon Wheeler/Cornell University
Cornell’s 2024 Bouchet Society inductees
Eight Cornell doctoral candidates, including five connected to A&S, and two postdocs have been inducted into the Cornell chapter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.
Nora Brown, Ph.D. ’23, is an alumna of the genetics, genomics, and development doctoral program at Cornell, during which she was co-advised by Mariana Wolfner and Andrew Clark. She is now a postdoc at MIT.
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Meagan Sundstrom presents her winning Three Minute Thesis.
Meagan Sundstrom won Cornell’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. 3MT challenges graduate students to present their thesis research compellingly to general audiences in just three minutes.
Three A&S-affiliated graduate students are among the competitors advancing to the final round of the 2024 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT), having competed in a pool of 22 students in the preliminary round.
Dean’s Scholars are selected for their demonstrated commitment to academic excellence and advancing aspects of diversity, access, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the academy and other communities.
A doctoral student in chemistry and chemical biology with a focus in polymer chemistry from Chelmsford, Massachusetts Driscoll researches new ways to make and upcycle polymers.
Roger William Photography for Cornell University.
From left to right: Xuan Chen, Zachary Ulibarri, Sarah Gilbert, and Samantha Sanft. Not pictured: Alyssa Kaganer and Anusha Shankar.
Cornell employs 790 postdoctoral scholars who are appointed across nearly 90 departments where they actively participate in the university’s research, teaching, and extension missions.
Eighty-four students have been selected as National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellows in 2023, comprising the largest group of new fellows Cornell has ever fielded in one year.
A doctoral candidate in romance studies Sarena Tien studies representations of female friendship in literature and film from French-speaking Africa and Asia.
The Graduate School spoke with Darren Pereira, a doctoral candidate in physics, about his summer research at the University of Florence in Florence, Italy.
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MyKayla Williamson on Estate Little Princess
MyKayla Williamson's archaeological excavation takes place on Estate Little Princess, a plantation where people of African descent lived and worked starting in circa 1740.
Jason Koski/Cornell University
The A. D. White Reading Room in Uris Library.
Beltrán is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature from the Bronx, N.Y.
Roger William Photography
Some of the recipients of 2023 Distinguished Awards at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Celebration, May 16 in G10 Biotech
On May 16, several Arts and Sciences affiliated graduate students were among those honored for leadership and commitment to diversity, inclusion, outreach, and student engagement.
A doctoral student in music with a concentration in music and sound studies, Vigilante studies how music, sound, and performance are used to create “unreality."
A doctoral candidate in science and technology studies with a focus on the anthropology of science, Domingues studies how investigators use scientific methods and humanities theories to reconstruct the lives of past humans.
This flexible, on-campus summer internship gives students the chance to experience firsthand what is involved in becoming an acquisitions professional at a university press,
Fangming Cui, psychology, and Susannah Sharpless, English language and literature, are among eight doctoral students advancing to the final round of the 2023 Three Minute Thesis competition.
A doctoral candidate in government from central Florida, Torres-Beltran studies how women’s political participation is influenced by gender-based violence and interactions with state institutions.
The National Science Foundation offers approximately 2,000 fellowships per year to research-based master’s and doctoral students pursuing STEM studies.
Roger William Photography
postdoctoral scholars honored with Postdoc Achievement Awards
Sophia Veltfort, MFA ’20, a doctoral candidate in English language and literature, studies the representations of speech and thought in 20th-century fiction.
"As a poet with the heart of a historian, I’m interested in attending to the interrelated histories of European colonialism and industrial warfare through the lyric."
Angela Nankabirwa, doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology, will collect and analyze harmful algal bloom samples taken from Africa’s Lake Victoria.
The Graduate School awarded over 100 Research Travel Grants totaling $204,196 in 2021-22, the largest group of grants awarded since the pandemic began interrupting travel.
Bruno Shirley presented his dissertation research in just three minutes to a panel of judges and a virtual audience from across campus and around the world.
This year’s Proposal, Thesis, and Dissertation Writing Boot Camp, hosted by Cornell University Graduate School, went virtual and broke records, drawing 400 writers from 50 institutions.
2022 Wu Scholarship recipients. Top row, left to right: Shiping Cao, Yue Deng, and Zihan Hu. Bottom row, left to right: Hui Ji, Yubo Su, Yongjian Tang, and Hui Zhou. Not pictured: Shan-Chi Hsieh.
A team of researchers including Conrad Smart, physics doctoral candidate, interviewed 45 stakeholders from academic institutions about their perspectives on career development for doctoral students. Smart used his skills in data visualization techniques to develop the stakeholder tool.
Humanities doctoral students begin their programs with an area of interest. This focus narrows as dissertation research progresses until, by the end of a doctoral program, it narrows to the point that students see only a path to a faculty or research career. To broaden their view, the Graduate School’s Careers Beyond Academia has expanded its programs to illuminate many more possible careers.
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Esparza chose Cornell for his Ph.D. because of its commitment to evidence-based teaching methods, its continued support of undergraduate field science education, and the friendly culture at Cornell EEB.
Ngoc Truong chose to study at Cornell because of its tradition of faculty/staff/student involvement with spacecraft missions and its many notable planetary scientists and astrophysicists such as Carl Sagan and Edwin Salpeter.
Samantha Wesner is a doctoral candidate in history from Dallas, Texas. After attending Harvard University as an undergraduate, she chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the field of history’s reputation as well as the library’s resources.
Lyrianne González is a doctoral student in history from Los Angeles, California. After attending California State University, Northridge as an undergraduate, she chose to pursue further study at Cornell for the opportunity to work alongside her mentors and the flexibility of the field of history.
Hannah Cole chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the freedom to explore interdisciplinary interests through the comparative literature program as well as its faculty.
Reika Tei is a doctoral candidate in chemistry and chemical biology from Kyushu island in Japan. She chose to pursue further study at Cornell for the supportive environment, enthusiastic professors, and beauty of campus.
Lingzi Zhuang is a doctoral candidate in linguistics with a minor in cognitive science from Maanshan, a small city in Anhui, China, and Shanghai. He chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the linguistics program, program offerings, and feeling of community.
Charlotte Logan, a doctoral student in linguistics, was recently selected as a Cobell Graduate Summer Research Fellow. Administered on behalf of the Cobell Board of Trustees by Indigenous Education, Inc., Logan is one of six fellows for 2021.
Charlotte Logan is a doctoral student in linguistics from Syracuse, New York. She chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to its location in the Haudenosaunee homelands and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.
Stella Ocker, a doctoral candidate in astronomy and space sciences, chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the intellectually rigorous research and supportive environment.
After earning an undergraduate degree from New York University, David Dunham, doctoral student in Germanic studies from Springfield, Virginia, chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the strength of the Germanic studies field and the university’s location in Ithaca.
Cornell’s English Language Support Office (ELSO) has expanded to support all multilingual graduate students – both from the U.S. and abroad. Previously available only to international students for whom English was not their first language, now multilingual graduate and professional students from anywhere in the world can participate in ELSO programs, including tutoring, workshops, and classes.
Yagna Nag Chowdhuri, Ph.D. ’20, is a recent alumna of the Asian literature, religion, and culture program at Cornell from which she holds a Ph.D. Now, she will be starting a new position as Manager of Strategic Research at Asian Cultural Council in New York as a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow. What is your area of research and why is it important?
The COVID-19 pandemic halted plans to host annual on-campus summer research experiences for undergraduates from institutions across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Cornell faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate student mentors, however, quickly pulled together to shift course and move these programs online, allowing about 90 undergraduates to experience virtual research at Cornell.
Seven graduate students were recently awarded Hsien and Daisy Yen Wu Scholarships. These awards provide recipients with funds to help with any aspect of doctoral study, from research expenses to personal living expenses.
Emily Donald is a doctoral student in history from Brisbane, Australia studying modern southeast Asian history; feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; and queer history. After attending the University of Queensland as an undergraduate, she chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to its scholars, library collections, and commitment to graduate student learning. What is your area of research and why is it important?
Emily Donald, a doctoral student in history, planned to go to Thailand this summer. Instead, she remained in Ithaca. Like many scholars at Cornell and around the globe, Donald’s research was interrupted by the pandemic. “I’m lucky to be in a position where I can be flexible and shift things around to make it work,” she said.
Youngmin Yi, Ph.D. ’20 is a recent alumna of the sociology program at Cornell from which she holds a Ph.D. Having earned her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College and her doctorate at Cornell, she will be joining the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an assistant professor of sociology.
Manisha Munasinghe is a doctoral candidate in computational biology from Troy, Michigan. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University, she chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to the variety of engaging research and its community of scholars.
The Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement (OISE) and the Graduate and Professional Student Diversity Council presented the 2020 Distinguished Awards on June 12 at the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Celebration, held over Zoom.
Amnon Ortoll-Bloch is a doctoral candidate in chemistry and chemical biology from Colima City, Colima, Mexico. After earning his bachelor’s degree at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico, he chose to pursue further study at Cornell due to its faculty, research opportunities, and collaborative and supportive nature. What is your area of research and why is it important?
Aditi Sahasrabuddhe is a doctoral student in government with a focus on international relations from Goa, India. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Edinburgh University and master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science, she chose to attend Cornell due to the ability to work with faculty across fields, friendliness of those in the field of government, and available resources.
Victoria Pihl Sorensen is a doctoral student in performing and media arts with a concentration on media and feminist studies. After earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and her master’s degree from the City University of New York Graduate Center, she chose to pursue a doctoral degree at Cornell due to its faculty and welcoming community.
