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Creative writing

Author Jandy Nelson '87's 'magical, inspiring' creative writing experience

Jandy Nelson '87 decided at a very young age that she wanted to be a poet. "I was probably about 13," she says. "I don't know where it came from -- I still don't. My parents always thought I would grow out of it, and I didn't."

Mathematics

Math alum combines tech, creativity with Fly app

A&S Communications

If you hear Tim Novikoff, Ph.D. '13, speak and you're of a certain age, you might recognize him as the voice of Jeffy from MTV's "Daria" animated series from the mid-1990s.But if you look at his LinkedIn profile, you'll see that his career has followed a path that marries his love of the technical world with the joy he finds in being creative.

College Scholars

Editing genes to target disease: Katrine Bosley's work targets poorly served diseases, patients

A&S Communications

Although Katrine Bosley '90 doesn't get a lot of time to talk to patients as CEO of Editas Medicine, she relishes the opportunity."You only have to talk to one patient with one disease that you're working on to know why you go to work every day," says Bosley, whose company is working to translate genome editing technology into new drugs and treatments for poorly treated diseases and patients.

College Scholars

Alumnus's interactive technology takes the guesswork out of teaching

A&S Communications

Brian Lukoff '04 loves math.This is not true for many Americans (30 percent according to a recent survey), who say they're just "not good at math."Lukoff thinks there's a way to change that statistic, believing that part of the problem is the way students are learning in math and other disciplines as well. He has developed a tool that helps teachers and professors gauge what their students know and address gaps right away.

Creative writing

Sally Wen Mao: A honey badger of a poet

A&S Communications

The fearless honey badger steals lions' prey and gobbles cobras for dinner. Tenacious and determined, it devours honeycombs despite countless bee stings. This is the totem animal of Sally Wen Mao, MFA '13, and an inspiration for her first book of poems, "Mad Honey Symposium," published in May by Alice James Books.

Anthropology and Africana Studies

Africana alumna starts charter school in Arkansas

A&S Communications

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Economics & Government

Alumna maps how to navigate South America

Ezra Magazine

Dana Bottazzo '03 has done her share of traveling. Raised in London and Kuwait, she attended school in Ithaca, worked for a law firm in Paris and Milan, and then fell in love with South America.

Government

Government is excellent prep for rabbinic career, says Michaels '68

*//*-->*/James R. Michaels '68, a member of Cornell's 100th graduating class, always knew he wanted to be a rabbi. He dutifully chose a philosophy major when he entered Cornell but found that the department's emphasis then on linguistic evaluation wasn't a good fit.

History

Scarlet Fu brings Cornell devotion to financial journalism

Ezra Magazine

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History and Government

Savitt '85 dreams the impossible, tries to make it come true

A&S Communications

*//*-->*/Had it not been for the beauty of Cornell and a memorable weekend back in 1980, this story about Kathy Savitt '85, chief marketing officer for Yahoo, might very well be appearing in a publication for Harvard alumni.

Africana Studies

Alumna curates 'brilliant' art exhibit at Williams College Museum of Art

A&S Communications

"An art show, like a book, has to tell a story," says Salah Hassan, Goldwin Smith Professor in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies and professor of Africana studies, noting that when art produced by white artists is defined as "American" and art produced by African-Americans is defined as "ethnic," that story is one of exclusion.

Archaeology

Carol Griggs '77, Ph.D. '06, Cornell's Dendro Lab manager, finds clues to climate change in ancient wood

A&S Communications

The scene is straight out of a disaster movie: melting glaciers wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, and a tundra-like wasteland where once forest reigned. Thirteen thousand years ago or so the spruces, firs and birches of central New York state vanished; dendrochronology researcher Carol Griggs '77, Ph.D. '06, is using ancient wood to figure out what happened when they finally reappeared.

Chemistry

A passion for justice and concern for patients shape this alum's life

A&S Communications

A poor childhood in Guyana spent watching his mother get pushed around gave Frank Douglas, Ph.D. '73, M.D. '77, an early awareness of injustice. At age 12 he was challenging his school principal on fairness, despite the risk to his academic future.

Linguistics

Cornell grad working to give IBM's Watson computer ability to answer medical questions

As a recent college graduate, Marisa Boston, Ph.D. '12, was enjoying her new job teaching English to Mexican immigrants in 2001, but she really wanted to go deeper -- to know the science behind language.Why was it easier for some people to learn? What was going on in the brain when people were learning a new language? How could she make it easier for them?

Anthropology

Tall ship sailing is ongoing research project for Captain Lauren Morgens

A&S Communications

Captain Lauren Morgens '02 stands on the quarterdeck surveying her ship, red sash around her waist and a tall feather in her pirate hat. It is a cloudy August afternoon in Lewes, Del.; her crew has finished scrubbing the Kalmar Nyckel's deck, and the last sailor has come off the rigging. Once the tall ship clears the shallows, Morgens' command to "set the mizzen" rings across the ship in a sing-song cadence that seems as old as the sea itself.