News

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, Semi-Local Density Fingerprints (SLDFs), can predict molecular properties with up to 100 times more accuracy than the current most popular method for modeling molecules and materials.

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

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.

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 new book from anthropology professor Andrew Willford shows how patterns of psycho-social stress combined with modernity’s pressures can influence psychiatric practice.

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.

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

Manipulating mouse brains during sleep improved their ability to 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

The Global Radio Explorer telescope is a series of eight terminals being built and tested at Cornell and the California Institute of Technology, and installed at locations around the world.

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.

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.

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.

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

This month’s titles featured in Cornellians include poetry, a famed restaurateur’s memoir, and a chronicle of the 1929 stock market crash

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.

people having a conversation — Photo by Antenna on Unsplash

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.

Provided Book cover: Within the Shop of the Divine

Poetry

Summoning religion, mythology and memory ‘Within the Shop of the Divine’

11/3/2025 A&S Communications

A Saint Anthony statue that glows in the dark lights the way into poems that connect people beyond death, visit holy sites, consider Satanic bargains and consult astrology.

About 20 people pose as a group on a staircase. — Provided TIP executive board members

Language Resource Center

Symposium celebrates 25 years of bridging language barriers

11/3/2025 A&S Communications

“The Future of Language Advocacy” on Nov. 15 will feature Cornell Translator Interpreter Program founders Fatema Sumar ‘01 and alumna Joyce Muchan ‘97.

Hand holding a small American flag, a mail-in ballot — Janine Robinson/Unsplash

Politics

What this year’s off-cycle elections mean for the national mood

11/3/2025 A&S Communications

If Trump allies exceed expectations during Nov. 4 elections, despite his disapproval ratings, it will be a sign that Republicans can still benefit from Democrats’ continued unpopularity.

Grey square topped by a silver arrow-shaped object — Sunwoo Lee/Provided A neural implant developed at Cornell rests on a grain of salt. About 300 microns long and 70 microns wide, it’s the smallest neural implant capable of wirelessly transmitting brain activity data.

Neurobiology and Behavior

Neural implant smaller than salt grain wirelessly tracks brain

11/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell researchers and collaborators have developed a neural implant so small that it can rest on a grain of salt, yet it can wirelessly transmit brain activity data in a living animal for more than a year.

Open hands holding change — Katt Yukawa/Unsplash

Psychology and philosophy

To disclose or not to disclose good deeds, that is the do-gooder dilemma

11/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A new study explores how people feel about sharing their good deeds.

Two people work in a lab, looking up a a tube — Provided Bryce Brownfield, Ph.D. ’23 (left) and Cameron Kitzinger ’22 work in their lab for Forage Evolution, which was recently admitted into Cornell’s Center for Life Science Ventures incubator.

Physics

Startup bets their superfast microbe can rewrite biotech

11/3/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers develop a new bacterium that can absorb DNA directly from its surroundings and incorporate it into its own genetic code.

Chain link fence with yellow warning signs: CAUTION, UNDERGROUND RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL AREA — Dan Meyers/Unsplash Fence with warning signs, rural Idaho

International politics

Plan to conduct nuclear tests comes with enormous risks, says Cornell expert

10/31/2025 A&S Communications

Where and how the tests will happen are important questions, says military historian David Silbey, as last confirmed nuclear test by the United States was in 1992.

Hand holding a glass sphere up toward the sky so it reflects trees and clouds, making the ball look like a tiny planet Earth — Margot RICHARD/Unsplash

Molecular biology and genetics

Faculty win Bezos grants to use AI for environmental challenges

10/31/2025 A&S Communications

Cornell has won three of 15 major grants from the Bezos Earth Fund, awarded to leverage artificial intelligence in the fight against climate change and environmental challenges.

promotional image showing three faculty head shots and a picture of students taking an exam in a very large hall — Provided

Academic innovation

Academic integrity and generative AI focus of PWGIA event

10/31/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A keynote and faculty panel on Nov. 12 will focus on how faculty can communicate their generative AI-related expectations to students, how students can take accountability for their work, and what this looks like in practice.

Two people conversing on a stage during an event — Ryan Young/Cornell University Nobel Prize-winning economist and former Cornell professor Richard Thaler, left, speaks on stage with Thomas Gilovich, the Irene Becker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology, in the Statler Auditorium.

Psychology

Nobel laureate Richard Thaler delights in the human side of economics

10/31/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Richard Thaler, a Nobel laureate who was a professor at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management from 1978 to 1995, spoke Oct. 17 at the Alice Statler Auditorium.

Book cover: Domestic Nationalsim — Provided

Asian studies

Indonesian women created a political voice through gendered care work

10/29/2025 A&S Communications

In "Domestic Nationalism," Chiara Formichi argues that during the 1920s to 1950s, Indonesian women’s domestic activities contributed to nation-building as a political project.

two brown paper bags full of groceries — Maria Lin Kim/Unsplash

Government

SNAP benefit lapse: U.S. ‘officially losing’ war on poverty

10/29/2025 A&S Communications

The loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits November 1 if the government shutdown holds benefits will have profound repercussions for democracy, says government scholar Jamila Michener.

Black and white photo of a tale covered with books for sale from "Ithaca House" press — Cornell University Library A digitized image from Cornell University Library’s Ithaca House Press Publishing Files collection.

Cornell University Library

New digital collections preserve, examine Cornell history

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Newly published digital collections at Cornell University Library explore areas of Cornell history. Freely accessible online, the three new collections were digitized from materials held in Cornell University Library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Golden sphere (a planet) against a black backdrop (space) — NASA/JPL-Caltech/Provided WASP-18b, a gas giant known as an “ultra-hot Jupiter"

Astronomy

Now in 3D, maps begin to bring exoplanets into focus

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Astronomers have generated the first three-dimensional map of a planet orbiting another star, revealing an atmosphere with distinct temperature zones – one so scorching that it breaks down water vapor, a team co-led by a Cornell expert reports in new research.

Person speaking at a lecturn with a black and white photograph displayed behind — Patrick Shanahan Cornell historian Corey Earle shared stories of remarkable women throughout Cornell’s history during an Oct. 25 brunch as part of the Trustee Council Alumni Meeting.

Cornell history

TCAM brunch highlight’s women’s history at Cornell

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Cornell historian Corey Earle shared stories of remarkable women throughout Cornell’s history during an Oct. 25 brunch as part of the Trustee Council Alumni Meeting.

Person standing on a rocky hill, looking out over a huge, green plain — Jordan Picket, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/Provided Benjamin Anderson, associate professor of history of art and visual studies, surveys the walls on the acropolis in Sardis, Turkey.

Archaeology

The long, deep dig: Collaboration excavates the ancient city of Sardis

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A collaboration between Cornell and Harvard has continuously excavated the ancient city.

Book cover: Haunted by the Civil War — Provided

Literatures in English

Civil War still haunts American attitudes toward democracy

10/28/2025 Cornell Chronicle

A new book by Shirley Samuels examines the story behind today’s divided America in literature and art created during and soon after the Civil War.

underside of a tadpole, in great detail — Jackson Phillips/Provided The Pacific tailed frog tadpole is lungless and sucker mouthed and is found in the Pacific Northwest in clear, cold mountain streams where they cling to rocks.

Ecology and evolutionary biology

Once tadpoles lose lungs, they never get them back

10/27/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Tadpole species that lost their lungs through evolution never re-evolve them, even when environmental change would make it advantageous.

White spheres and lines float in a grey space — D koi/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

New view of electrocatalytic intermediates could boost hydrogen production

10/27/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers used single-molecule super-resolution reaction imaging in the study.

Economics

Hidden markets unveiled in talk by Wharton economist Nov. 4

10/24/2025 A&S Communications

Wharton economist Judd Kessler will pull back the curtain on the hidden markets that determine who gets what in everyday life.

Philosophical debate

Which discipline should survive the end of the world?

10/24/2025 A&S Communications

Five professors from across campus will advocate that their discipline is the most important to save for the future in the annual Apocalypse Debate Nov. 6.

People reading on benches that overlook a grand view of a lake and autumnal trees — Simon Wheeler for Cornell University Reading on Libe Slope

Alumni

Your October 2025 reads

10/23/2025 Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include short stories, a fantasy book for tweens, and a scholarly look at Carmen adaptations – all by Arts & Sciences alumni and faculty.

Lumpy, tawny, textured surface with one smooth bead embedded in it — Kelly Presutti/Provided Ferrous agglomeration with porcelain shards and a French trading bead, 1788–2003. Musée Maritime de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, LAP.030.52

History of Art and Visual Studies

Objects from famous shipwreck tell deeper stories

10/22/2025 A&S Communications

La Pérouse’s expedition, wrecked in 1788, was intended to rival those of British explorer Captain James Cook and to bring the French renown in scientific knowledge. Through the visual materials related to the voyage and its wreck, Kelly Presutti tells a larger story about the enterprise of empire.

three people; two in lab coats, looking at the third, who is pointing instructively — Devin Flores/Cornell University Quantera founder Terry Bates, Ph.D. ’23, explains the operation of the startup's spectrometer to undergraduate interns Nick DeMayo ’26 and Alexis Sherman ’26, both from Cornell Engineering.

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

New Cornell startup targets faster, cheaper greener testing

10/22/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Newly admitted into the Praxis Center business incubator, Quantera aims to improve scientific sample collection.

Cabinet Public Relations Office, Cabinet Secretariat/Creative Commons license 4.0 Sanae Takaichi, 2025

History

Election of Japan’s first female PM isn’t a win for women, says Cornell historian

10/22/2025 A&S Communications

Sanae Takaichi’s election may seem surprising in a country that ranked lowest among OECD nations in women’s political representation as recently as 2023, but it is not a victory for gender equality, says professor Kristin Roebuck.

cells, appearing as brightly colored dots against a black background — National Cancer Institute/Unsplash

Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Cornell team finds new way to cut cancer’s lipid lifeline

10/21/2025 Cornell Chronicle

Researchers have uncovered molecules that can preserve crucial cellular processes while blocking malignant proteins, indicating a new approach to fighting cancer.

Government

Event considers political lessons learned from COVID

10/21/2025 A&S Communications

A Nov. 13 event sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences will feature reflections on the political and social context and consequences of the Covid epidemic.

Graduate student research

Student spotlight: Aleesha George

10/20/2025 Cornell University Graduate School

Aleesha George, a doctoral candidate in chemistry and chemical biology, studies the optical and electronic properties of organic and hybrid materials under the guidance of Andrew Musser at Cornell.

Three people sitting in arm chairs during an on-stage event — Jason Koski/Cornell University At a 2018 panel discussion, “Celebrating 150 Years of Ezra Cornell’s Promise.”

Alumni

Alum and former Law School dean named president of Georgetown

10/20/2025 Cornellians

An A&S College Scholar who clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court, Eduardo Peñalver ’94 currently leads Seattle University.