News
Student standing in front of railing
Kathy Hovis Katrina Greene '27
Student excellence

A&S student chosen for civic engagement scholarship

A&S Communications

Katrina Greene '27 will be headed to Washington, D.C. as a John Robert Lewis Scholar, an award given by the Faith and Politics Institute.

Schmidt Sciences
AI in science

11 new researchers become Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows

Cornell Bowers CIS

Cornell researchers interested in diverse topics ranging from peptide engineering and cellular metabolites to quantum physics and sustainable computing are among the newest cohort selected by the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows program.

People observing a waterfall
Noël Heaney/Cornell University A trip to Taughannock Falls State Park for the past course “Gorgeous Gorges.”
Alumni

CAU Summer Courses: From wine pairings to town-gown history

Cornellians

Registration is now open for the two sessions of weeklong offerings, with the option to stay in a newly renovated Balch Hall

Two students connecting wires on a lab table
Provided The Center for Teaching Innovation will host the faculty panel "The Art of the Lab," the second installment in its annual "Art of Teaching" series, on Feb. 11.
Teaching innovation

CTI’s ‘Art of the Lab’ faculty panel to highlight creative approaches to instruction

Cornell Chronicle

CTI’s “The Art of Teaching” series returns Feb. 11 with “The Art of the Lab.” Faculty panelists will share creative instructional approaches for designing student-centered laboratory experiences.

Students walk past Goldwin Smith Hall in the fall
Distinguished Visiting Journalists

Three Distinguished Visiting Journalists head to campus

Cornell Chronicle

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, New York Times White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs and ProPublica investigative reporter Keri Blakinger ’14 will visit Cornell this spring.

Building with textured brick
Africana studies

Nigeria's Tinubu 'should be commended' for accepting US counterterrorism assistance, says Cornell expert

A&S Communications

Olúfémi Táíwò, professor of Africana studies, shares insight into Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu's deployment of an army battalion to central Kwara state after suspected jihadist fighters killed at least 170 people on Tuesday night, hours after the United States said it had a small number of troops in the country.

Michael Abels
Arts Unplugged

Composer Michael Abels, famous for work on Jordan Peele films, to visit March 6-7

A&S Communications

Events include film screenings, panel discussions and a concert by the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony.

Person in red hockey gear, puck near the stick
Cornell University Rory Guilday ’25 will become the first Cornell alumna to represent the United States in women’s hockey at the Olympics.
Alumni

Four women’s hockey alumnae to play at Winter Olympics

Cornell Chronicle

Players familiar to Cornell women’s hockey fans will take the ice when the puck drops at the 2026 Winter Olympics this week in Milan, Italy.

Three college campus buildings of various architectural types receed into the distance under a grey sky and a bare branch
Jason Koski/Cornell University Three Arts Quad buildings: Klarman Hall, Lincoln Hall and Sibley Hall
Klarman Fellows

College of Arts and Sciences announces 2026 Klarman Fellows

A&S Communications

The 12 early-career scholars will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Red flag against a white sky
Alejandro Luengo/Unsplash Chinese flag
Scholarship

Three Cornellians named Schwarzman Scholars for study in China

Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell student and two alumni have been named Schwarzman Scholars for the 2026-27 academic year and will spend it in a master’s program in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Movie poster: Rule Breakers
Provided Movie poster: Rule Breakers
Cornell Cinema

Film about Afghan girls’ robotics club, panel set for Feb. 11

Cornell Chronicle

Cornell Cinema will present a screening of the documentary “Rule Breakers,” chronicling the founding of Afghanistan’s first all-girls robotics team, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.

Cornell's central campus with lake beyond
Physics

Four on faculty to receive DOE early-career grants

Cornell Chronicle

Four Cornell faculty members are among 99 researchers across the U.S. who have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its Office of Science Early Career Research Program.

painting by Paul Gauguin showing the artist wearing a hat with a wall and some furniture behind him. On the wall is a framed painting of a person lying on a bed
Public domain Self Portrait, 1893 by Paul Gauguin
Moral psychology

Art offers access to true self

Cornell Chronicle

Psychology researcher Jordan Wylie and colleagues found that artistic excellence, rather than moral excellence, offers greater access to one’s true self.

Keisha N. Blaine
Provided Keisha N. Blaine
Black History Month

Historian Keisha N. Blain to speak on Black women and the history of human rights

A&S Communications

In the public lecture culminating the Black History Month series, Blain will trace how Black women from Ida B. Wells to contemporary Black Lives Matter leaders have used the language and practice of human rights to confront racism and white supremacy.

Bad Bunny
© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com/Creative Commons license 4.0 Bad Bunny
Performing and Media Arts

Bad Bunny breaks through: Cornell expert on the Grammys

A&S Communications

The first artist to win Album of the Year with a Spanish‑language album, Bad Bunny reflects the mainstreaming of Spanish language music and artistry, says professor Karen Jaime.

College campus buildings with lights on at dusk
Cornell University file photo
Teaching awards

Weiss and Provost awards honor outstanding faculty

Cornell Chronicle

Four faculty from A&S have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching.

Two people conversing at a black round table, talking into microphones
Garth Avery/Cornell University Jessica Salerno, left, associate professor in the College of Human Ecology and Cornell Law School, speaks with Cornell Chronicle writer Laura Reiley for the “Research Matters” podcast.
Psychology

Research Matters’ video podcast debuts, translating ideas into impact

Cornell Chronicle

Launching Jan. 27 with three episodes, “Research Matters” spotlights Cornell scholars whose research directly engages with real-world challenges, from climate change and public safety to mental health.

Actor on the set of a lab, wearing a chic trench coat, among a collection of burned or corrupted objects
Provided In the lab as intern Daisy on “Bones"
Alumni

You'll recognize this alum from 'Undeclared,' 'Bones,' and more

Cornellians

Veteran actor Carla Gallo ’97 has a long list of credits on TV and in movies — and now, she’s co-starring in the hit comedy "Platonic."

two black holes approach each other with a dark background of space
SXS Lensing/Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Collaboration A visualization from a computer simulation of two black holes
Astrophysics

Gravitational wave signal tests Einstein’s theory of general relativity

Cornell Chronicle

When two black holes merge, the collision rings like a bell, emitting specific tones characterized by two numbers.

three people talking
Jesse Winter Students and alumni met for a summer networking event June 26 in New York City.
Career Development

Events boost student opportunities for career exploration

A&S Communications

More than 150 students took advantage of winter break to jump start the career and internship process through A&S events.

A red star and an earth-like planet with purple lines between them (illustration)
Danielle Futselaar/Artsource.nl Artistic illustration of the magnetic interaction between a red dwarf star such as GJ 687, and its exoplanet.
Astronomy research

Novel way to detect signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems unveiled

A&S Communications

Thanks to this innovation, scientists have discovered new radio bursts originating from dwarf stars and possibly from exoplanets.

Song Lin
Jason Koski/Cornell University Song Lin
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Chemist Song Lin wins Snapdragon Prize

A&S Communications

The award recognizes innovation in modern pharmaceutical discovery and manufacturing.

Several people standing around and sitting on porch steps in the shade, playing drums, guitars and maracas
Provided Garifuna Collective
Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

Garifuna Collective featured on Dallas Morse Coors Concert Series

A&S Communications

Rooted in the Afro-AmerIndian heritage of communities along the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, Garifuna music blends West African rhythms, indigenous Carib influences and the Arawak language.

Yuon Jue Bae
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Scialog award will help Cornell chemist research quantum entanglement

A&S Communications

Eunice Bae is part of the three-person group researching “Quantum Entanglement of Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion Pairs.”

yellowed musical instrument keyboard keys
Joe Wilensky/Cornell University Cornell's Center for Historical Keyboards is a world-renowned repository of vintage instruments, from pipe organs to fortepianos.
Alumni

Fossiles to fortepianos: The Hill's 'mini-museums' and collections

Cornellians

The next time you visit Ithaca, check out exhibits on Chimes history, astronomical instruments, historical keyboards and so much more

people dancing
Courtesy of Janus Films Still from 8 ½ (1963, dir. Federico Fellini)
Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema unveils diverse, collaboration-driven spring lineup

A&S Communications

From midcentury melodramas to speculative visions of technology and the human body—and even a French coming of age story about crafting world class cheese—Cornell Cinema’s spring season offers a varied plate.

Circle on textured paper that says 'Federal Reserve'; an extreme close up of a one-dollar bill, US
Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash
Economics

Threats to Fed independence already taking an economic toll

A&S Communications

While market movements have been modest so far, they signal declining trust in the ability or willingness of future FOMC members to achieve the Fed's inflation objectives, says Cornell economist Ryan Chahrour.

The U.S. Capital.
Photo by Quick PS on Unsplash U.S. Capitol
Artificial Intelligence

AI chip exports bill an “attempt to reclaim congressional agency”

A&S Communications

Prof. Sarah Kreps comments on proposed legislation giving Congress power over artificial intelligence chip exports.

Two people sitting on a couch, conversing
Samsung UK/Unsplash Humans possess a remarkable ability to talk about almost anything, readily improvising new sentences – but how?
Psychology

Discovery challenges assumptions about the structure of language

Cornell Chronicle

Researchers believe that mental representations of language patterns make humans adept at improvising new sentences.

Illustration of underwater scene with three faculty head shots superimposed on it
Provided The "Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action, and Reflection" event on Wed. Jan. 28, a collaboration between the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, will include a faculty panel, workshop, and tour of “Naples: Course of Empire,” the new Alexis Rockman exhibit that opens Jan. 20 at the Johnson Museum.
Teaching innovation

Faculty event to highlight how teaching about climate change can move beyond discourse and despair

Cornell Chronicle

On Jan. 28, the Center for Teaching Innovation and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will co-host “Teaching About Climate Change: Art, Action and Reflection,” a faculty panel, teaching workshop and exhibit tour exploring how instructors can engage the humanities, climate change and community in their teaching.

person reading on a bench in a large, sunny, modern room
Cornell University file photo
Alumni authors

Your January 2026 reads

Cornellians

This month’s featured titles include poetry, an anthropologist’s memoir, and a chronicle of the Nazi’s massive looting of European artworks.

Book cover: The Oak and the Larch
Provided The Oak and the Larch
Comparative literature

Recounting Russia’s history through its forests

Cornell Chronicle

The fate of Russia’s forests will affect the whole world, according to a new book by a Cornell researcher.

John Doris
Provided John Doris
Moral psychology

Doris wins Gittler Award for contributions to social psychology and ethics

A&S Communications

A leading proponent of interdisciplinary approaches to moral psychology exploring questions of character, virtue and agency, John Doris writes about a movement to inform moral philosophy with psychological research, as well as the other way around.

Mendi and Keith Obadike
Anson Teague Wigner/Provided Mendi and Keith Obadike
Performing and Media Arts

Artist team Mendi + Keith Obadike named USA Fellows

A&S Communications

The Obadikes have exhibited and performed their interdisciplinary work at The New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include four books, two albums, and a series of large-scale public sound artworks.

Colorful interior of a chapel with a vaulted ceiling; people sit in the pews facing a person speaking at the front
Noël Heaney/Cornell University A “Soup & Hope” event from 2024
Cornell history

In Praise of Sage Chapel, East Hill’s beloved house of worship

Cornellians

Built in an era when the University was under fire for being nonsectarian, it offers respite from a bustling campus.

Ambre Dromgoole
Ryan Young/Cornell University Ambre Dromgoole
Africana studies

How music galvanized the fight for civil rights

Cornell Chronicle

Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches tapped into a Black musical tradition that animated the Civil Rights Movement, says Ambre Dromgoole, assistant professor of Africana religions and music.

Overlooking a college campus under a yellow sky at dawn
Sciences

$1.5M grant boosts postdoctoral research across 4 colleges

Cornell Chronicle

In 2026, the from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will begin funding 10 two-year postdoctoral appointments including three in astronomy, chemistry and physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Danielle Russo
Isaac Vazquez/Provided Danielle Russo in her studio at Yaddo
Performing and Media Arts

Yaddo residency shapes long-term dance research

A&S Communications

During her Yaddo residency, Danielle Russo developed a dance piece, enriching the work by drawing on ideas of ritual movement, personal memories and family history, and more.

Sanae Takaichi in dark suit jacket sits at a table with microphones between two men, and more men sitting in the room behind her
Japan's Cabinet Public Affairs Office, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a meeting of the Population Strategy Headquarters
History

Tensions with China give Japanese PM an opening for snap elections

A&S Communications

Prof. Kristin Roebuck comments on the plans of Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to dissolve parliament next week and call a snap election.

Artist's illustration of the Pandora spacecraft with an exoplanet and two stars in the background
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from exoplanets’ atmospheres – worlds beyond our solar system – and their stars.
Astronomy

Pandora satellite launches for exoplanet observation

A&S Communications

Tasked with studying exoplanet systems around small stars, the refrigerator-sized satellite is the first in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program – small-scale missions designed to train early-career scientists, including Trevor Foote, Ph.D. ’24, a former member of the research group led by faculty member Nikole Lewis.

Scott Lincicome
Provided Scott Lincicome
Freedom and Free Societies

Trade expert discusses misconceptions about trade Jan. 29

A&S Communications

Scott Lincicome will talk about imports, tariffs and globalization during his talk, “What You Think You Know About Trade is Probably Wrong."

Anna Ho sitting at desk, pointing at computer screen with image of star exploding
Jason Koski, Cornell University Anna Ho
Astronomy

Cornell astronomer honored for achievement in observational research

A&S Communications

With the 2026 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, the American Astronomical Society recognizes Anna Y. Q. Ho’s pioneering investigations of extreme explosions powered by stellar death.

Book cover: National Liberation
History

Women in exile shaped South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement

Cornell Chronicle

Women played a major role in debates surrounding the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Rachel Sandwell writes in a new book, “National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile: Sex, Gender, and Nation in the Struggle against Apartheid.”

Hill with dozens of colorful houses on it, backed by a bleak landscape with snow
Annie Spratt/Unsplash Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland
International politics

Europe has little leverage to push back if Trump moves to take Greenland

A&S Communications

A Cornell historian and military expert doubts a NATO military response to the US annexation of Greenland would not happen, Despite tough talk from European leaders.

A coach with a white board in front of several hockey players in red and white jerseys
Cornell Athletics Derraugh coaching during the 2011–12 season
Alumni

'Remember they’re playing for the love of the game’

Cornellians

A former Big Red star himself, women’s ice hockey coach and A&S alum Doug Derraugh ’91 has led the squad to five ECAC championships.

Person pushing, on a dolly, a large red frame wrapped in plastic
Rick Ryan/Cornell University Lead rigger Ed Foster guides the movement of the Prime-Cam support raft, a carefully choreographed step in preparing the telescope for shipment.
Astronomy

The people behind the telescope: How specialized expertise is supporting science at the edge of the universe

Cornell Chronicle

… Telescope ( FYST ) prepares for first light in 2026, its journey to the high Atacama Desert of Chile’s …

Person holding a golf club casually, smiling
Cy Cyr/Golf Channel Mullins competing at the World Long Drive Championship in 2016
Alumni

Power play: Arts & Sciences alum is a long drive golfing champ

Cornellians

After competing in track and field for the Big Red, Troy Mullins ’09 parlayed her athleticism into success at smashing the ball.

Karola Meszaros
Mathematics

Mészáros elected to American Mathematical Society

A&S Communications

Mészáros’ research focuses on algebraic and geometric combinatorics.

a piece of fabric with a design on it
Ryan Young/Cornell University HelioSkin is a lightweight, stretchable architectural fabric that is aesthetically attractive and can wrap around complex shapes.
Cornell University

2025 Year in Review

Cornell Chronicle

In 2025, Cornell produced cutting-edge AI research, inaugurated a president and advanced agriculture and sustainability. The university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni made the world a better place, welcomed back two Nobel laureate alumni and conducted research that matters.

Illustration showing RNA Polymerase II interacting with Chromatin
Provided This cartoon illustrates how RNA polymerase generates torsional stress in DNA during transcription. Chromatin, composed of nucleosomes with DNA wrapped around histone proteins, buffers this stress, enabling the polymerase to transcribe through nucleosomes.
Physics

Unexpected allies: DNA packaging aids gene expression

Cornell Chronicle

Researchers discovered that DNA packaging structures called nucleosomes, which have been traditionally seen as roadblocks for gene expression, actually help reduce torsional stress in DNA strands and facilitate genetic information decoding.

Hand holding a smart phone showing the TikTok icon
Solen Feyissa/Unsplash
Government

TikTok user long-term experience will ‘depend’ on regulators in new framework

A&S Communications

Tiktok has signed a deal to spin off its U.S. business, but it remains unclear how effectively the new framework will address the initial national security threat concerns, says government professor Sarah Kreps.

Illustration showing an outline of a brain in white electronic-looking wiring
Steve Johnson/Unsplash
Physics

AI gives scientists a boost, but at the cost of too many mediocre papers

Cornell Chronicle

A new study shows that using large language models like ChatGPT boosts paper production, especially for non-native English speakers, but the overall increase in AI-written papers is making it harder to separate the valuable contributions from the AI slop.

Record album cover: Songs in Flight
Cedille Records/Photo by Elliot Mandel Record album cover: Songs in Flight
History

‘Songs In Flight,’ inspired by Cornell-based project, earns Grammy nod

A&S Communications

Based on poems by A&S alumna Tsitsi Ella Jaji, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’08, the songs by Shawn Okpebholo bring to life individual stories preserved by the Cornell-based Freedom on the Move project.

Book cover: Bukovina
Provided
History

In Bukovina, European empires built new worlds out of inherited materials

Cornell Chronicle

The region never fit easily among its neighbors, as regimes including the Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union tried to remake it in their image.

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

A&S Communications

The new method can predict molecular properties with up to 100 times more accuracy than the current method.

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

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.

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

Cornell Chronicle

When postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zipple releases lab mice into a large, enclosed field just off Cornell’s campus, something remarkable happens.

Book cover: Modernity and Malevolence in the Psychiatric Clinic
Anthropology

Book explores ‘modernity and malevolence’ in Indian clinical care

Cornell Chronicle

The book shows how patterns of psycho-social stress combined with modernity’s pressures can influence psychiatric practice.

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

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

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

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

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.

Nick Salvatore
Cornell University file photo
American Studies Program

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82

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

Cornell Chronicle

The mice could 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

Cornell Chronicle

One of the world's smallest telescopes, it is part of a series of eight terminals installed around the globe.

magazine cover
Student creative works

Undergrads launch magazine featuring in-depth stories

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

Cornellians

After a long career onstage and off, Ellen Stekert ’57 is focused on preservation—releasing songs from her vast archive on Bandcamp.

Book cover: Expanding Verse
Provided Book cover: Expanding Verse
Asian studies

Campana wins MLA’s Scaglione Prize for book on Japanese poetry

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

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.

person speaking
eCornell Frances Lee
Public engagement

Workshop, talk focused on applying lessons learned from COVID

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.

man speaking at a podium
China and Asia-Pacific Studies

Cornell-China trip celebrates 20 years of Levinson Program

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’

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

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

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.

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

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.

cells
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Forever young? Extracellular vesicles may be key to halt aging

Cornell Chronicle

Scientists have outlined exactly how embryonic stem cells protect other cells from the effects of oxidative stress, thus preventing cellular aging.

Seen from the back a person wearing large hooded sweatshirt faces a computer screen
Ashley Osburn/Cornell University
Psychology

AI chatbots can effectively sway voters – in either direction

Cornell Chronicle

Two new papers – with experiments conducted in four countries – demonstrate that chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are quite effective at political persuasion, moving opposition voters’ preferences by 10 percentage points or more in many cases.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cornellians

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

Gail Heriot
Provided Gail Heriot
Freedom and Free Societies

Talk examines Civil Rights Act’s unintended consequences

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.

candle
Creative Writing Program

Professor emerita Stephanie Vaughn, ‘writer’s writer,’ dies at 81

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

A&S Communications

Tech students need to target specific organizations that match their interests, skills and values.

book cover: The Story in Fiction and Film of French Collaboration in the Occupation
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

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.

person smiling
Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Jacqueline Allen ’23

A&S Communications

"I got a taste of what neuroscience research is really like."

person smiling
Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nicole Hao ’24, MEng ’25

A&S Communications

“Nexus, to me, was also a professional development experience."

person smiling
Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24

A&S Communications

"Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research."

person smiling
Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nnenna Ochuru ’25

A&S Communications

"I want to further study the politicalization of education."

person smiling
Nexus Scholars

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Rachel Craig ’24

A&S Communications

"I had the opportunity to present what was exciting to me, and what I learned.”

Raul Armenta
Provided Raul Armenta
Graduate student research

Student spotlight: Raul Armenta

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

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

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

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’

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

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.