How to cope with the despair caused by climate change? In the “Climate Change Comedy Hour,” environmental historian Aaron Sachs will use a combination of gallows humor, history and silly videos to show how we can shift our attitude about climate change -- and how that shift might help us get to the next stage of climate activism.
The presentation will be at 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 2, in Lewis…
From an examination of gender and sexuality in medieval natural histories to a historical look at a borderland province in WWII Eastern Europe, this year’s Society for the Humanities fellows are working on projects that touch on the focal theme of “Crossing.”
The Society’s upcoming fall conference on Friday, Oct. 27, will feature talks by seven of these multidisciplinary fellows. Free and open…
Poland’s Law and Justice party is slated to lose power as exit polling indicates opposition parties won enough votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election to oust it.
Bryn Rosenfeld, assistant professor of government in the College of Arts & Sciences, says that despite attempts to bolster supporter turnout, the Law and Justice party appears to have both lost its parliamentary majority, and…
Ukrainian forces reportedly used American-supplied, long-range missiles on the battlefield for the first time on Tuesday.
David Silbey, adjunct associate professor of history in the College of Arts & Sciences, specializes in military history, defense policy and battlefield analysis. He says that although the missiles put some of northern Crimea in attacking range, there likely won’t…
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The paper advances understanding of life in the context of other complex evolving systems. The image shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Darwin applied the theory of evolution to life on earth, but not to other massively complex systems like planets, stars, atoms and minerals. Now, an interdisciplinary group of researchers has identified a missing aspect of that theory that applies to essentially everything.
Their paper, “On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems,” published Oct. 16 in the Proceedings of the…
NASA, ESA, CSA, and R. Crawford/Provided
Artist’s rendering of WASP-17 b.
Cornell undergraduate students from all majors are invited to compete in The Cornell Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CMCM). This annual competition, slated for Nov. 10-13, allows students to work on open-ended real world problems, showcasing the multifaceted nature of applied mathematics.
During the event, students compete in teams of three to build a mathematical model, obtain a…
Megan Driscoll is a doctoral student in chemistry and chemical biology with a focus in polymer chemistry from Chelmsford, Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marine science from the University of Maine and now researches new ways to make and upcycle polymers under the guidance of Brett Fors at Cornell.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
From the cellulose…
World-renowned performer and composer Simon Shaheen will offer a lecture on Arabic music and a performance by the Simon Shaheen Quartet in late October. The Palestinian-American will speak on “Arabic Music” at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 in 132 Goldwin Smith Hall, and the Quartet will perform at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.
…
Widner Collection/National Gallery of Art
'Portrait of Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo’ by Anthony van Dyck
For years, art historian Ana Howie had been intrigued by Anthony van Dyck’s striking 1632 portrait of Italian noblewoman Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo – and was not satisfied with scholarly understandings of the work.
“It is an incredibly powerful painting to see in real life as it is over life-size, and I felt there was so much more to say about its composition, messaging and links to the histories…
Provided
A sampling of the instruments that Jesse Jones built for the Cornell ReSounds project.
An Oct. 24 concert in Barnes Hall will feature a rebuilt experimental keyboard originally created in the 1960s by David Rothenberg and Robert Moog Ph.D. ’65. It will be the first time the instrument will be played in public. The concert begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The Rothenberg-Moog 31-tone keyboard will be played by Xak Bjerken, professor of music in the College of…
Misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is flooding social media, in particular Elon Musk’s platform X, where users have been sharing false and misleading claims about the assault.
Gordon Pennycook, associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts & Sciences, studies misinformation. His research has investigated various interventions on social media, including accuracy…
Lindsay France/Cornell University
Chemist Song Lin
Two Cornell chemistry professors have received the 2024 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society.
They are: Tristan Lambert, the William T. Miller Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S); and Song Lin, Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical…
The haunting sounds of traditional Mongolian music come to campus in a month-long celebration hosted by the Department of Music in the College of Arts & Sciences and The Endless Steppe Project. Two more concerts of Mongolian music are coming up, highlighting the musical legacy of composer Byambasurengiin Sharav, Oct. 20 and 22 at Barnes Hall.
“Sharav is a household name in…
Provided
The collaborators who created the concert "Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind": (seated l-r) playwright Virginia Grise, novelist Helena María Viramontes, and composer Martha Gonzalez. Standing is Kendra Ware, the production's director.
The legacy of Professor Helena María Viramontes, novelist and foundational voice in Chicana feminism, will be honored in “Lest Silence Be Destructive,” a two-day celebration of Chicana feminism and Viramonte’s creative work and influence, Oct. 20-21. Scholars, former students, and Viramontes herself will present and give readings Oct. 21 in the A.D. White House starting at 9:30 a.m.
“Helena…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday declared that his country was “at a war,” a day after Hamas fighters breached the border from Gaza in an unprecedented surprise attack.
Uriel Abulof, a visiting professor of government in the College of Arts & Sciences and a professor of politics at Tel-Aviv University, commented on the situation. He said the sense of collective…
Simon Wheeler/Cornell University
Author N.K. Jemisin speaks at the Bartels World Affairs Lecture Oct. 4 in in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium.
N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Limited, will offer the keynote address during an India Conference at Cornell Oct. 13-15 that will span economics, politics and policy.
“India’s Economy in a Changing Global Landscape" will include leading economists and corporate leaders assessing the state of India's economy. They will explore India's historical, present and future trajectories and…
Ryan Young/Cornell University
Amit Vishwas ’10, M.Eng.,’14, Ph.D. ’19, research scientist in the College of Arts & Sciences, works on the ALPACA instrument, with Donald Campbell, professor emeritus of astronomy (A&S), looking on.
The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia will soon see a radical transformation of its survey capabilities, thanks to a decade-long effort at Cornell to build the Advanced L-Band Phased Array Camera for Astronomy (ALPACA). Currently the GBT’s single-dish radio telescope can see only one or at most a few pixels in the sky at any given time; ALPACA will enable the GBT to observe the sky with…
Network engineer-turned-professor of English Tung-Hui Hu will offer insight into the rapidly expanding field of the digital humanities as this year’s Digital Humanities Lecturer. His talk, “The Grid vs. the Set: Early Attempts at Classifying Data,” will be on Wednesday, October 18, at 5 p.m. in the A.D. White House’s Guerlac Room. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by…
NATO/Creative Commons license 2.0
Speech by the NATO Secretary General at a Joint Meeting of the US House of Representatives and Senate
This week, Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his role as Speaker of the House—a move made successful by eight hard-right members of McCarthy’s own party.
Mabel Baerezin is a comparative sociologist whose work explores the intersection of political institutions with an emphasis on challenges to democratic cohesion. She says that with our government stalled, our democracy is threatened like never…
This summer, Jim Wikel, a member of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ diaspora who now lives in Oregon, traveled to his ancestral homeland in New York for the first time, to learn his ancestral language with 40 other diaspora members at a Cornell camp.
Just being in the region was profound, Wikel said.
“One night as we were singing, I realized that this was the first time that land had heard those…
Alberico Bartoccini/Unsplash
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
This week, delegates of the Roman Catholic Church will gather in Rome for the “Synod of Synodality” initiated by Pope Francis in 2021.
Daniel Gallagher, a professor of practice in the classics department in the College of Arts & Sciences, spent eight years at the Vatican translating the pope’s messages into Latin. He says that the synod will provide an opportunity for delegates to discuss…
Neuroscientist Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz has received a New Innovator Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The Director’s Awards “support highly innovative scientists who propose visionary and broadly impactful behavioral and biomedical research projects,” said the NIH announcement.
“The HRHR program is a pillar for innovation here at…
Mary Crawford, awaiting the nine-day voyage to France in 1914
“There has been a call for nurses and doctors to the Red Cross, for work abroad,” Mary Crawford 1904, MD 1907, wrote shortly after World War I began. “Tomorrow I’m going to find out if any women doctors need apply, and if so, what sort of work they’d be allowed to do. If only laboratory work, it doesn’t appeal, but if practical caring for the sick or injured, I’m getting on the list.”
When…
On the dream list of many condensed matter physicists is observing fractionalization, the phenomena of a collective state of electrons carrying a charge that is a fraction of the electron charge, without a magnetic field.
“This is not to say the electron itself can be split into pieces,” said Eun-Ah Kim, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). “Rather, a group…
Chris Kitchen
Anderson, left, and Peraino, right traced the arc of Anderson's multi-decade career.
Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson took a captivated Cornell audience on a trip through the arc of her career during a Sept. 26 talk at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.
The talk was recorded and is now available to view on eCornell.
Part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts Unplugged series, Anderson’s conversation with music Professor Judith Peraino ranged from her…
Grace Aiono ‘26 has been awarded this year’s Giuseppe Velli Prize by the American Boccaccio Association (ABA) for the best undergraduate student essay on the works of Giovanni Boccaccio.
The prize honors the extensive contributions of Giuseppe Velli (1928-2013), a renowned Boccaccio scholar whose work remains fundamental in Italy and North America today. It is awarded for the best essay…
Stella Ocker, Ph.D. ’23 won a Brinson Prize fellowship, which she began Sept. 1 at the California Institute of Technology and Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California
Cornell is now able to welcome Brinson Prize postdoctoral fellows, joining a select group of institutions that host the prestigious astronomy fellowship program.
A collaboration between The Brinson Foundation and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Brinson Prize supports postdoctoral scholars in carrying out novel research in observational cosmology. The program emphasizes…
Kuzzat Altay/Unsplash
A 2021 demonstration, "Stop Uyghur genocide," in Washington, D.C.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority children have been seized by the Chinese government, detained, and beaten if they speak their native language, according to numerous human rights groups.
These reported violations of children’s rights will be explored in a symposium entitled “Uyghur Children in China’s Genocide” on Fri., Oct. 27, from 1-5 p.m. in 76 Goldwin Smith Hall. The symposium…
Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform nearly every aspect of our world, including the economy. In this year’s George Staller Lecture, economist Jens Ludwig will explore how “big data” and AI tools help us understand and improve human decision-making. His talk, “Economics and AI” will be on Thurs., Oct. 12 at 4:30 p.m. in 185 Statler Hall. The talk is free and the public is…
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.
by :
Katya Hrichak
,
Cornell University Graduate School
Six postdoctoral scholars have been honored with Postdoc Achievement Awards as part of Cornell’s participation in National Postdoc Appreciation Week, celebrated Sept. 18-22.
Cornell currently employs 790 postdoctoral scholars who are appointed across nearly 90 departments where they actively participate in the university’s research, teaching, and extension missions. The Postdoc Achievement…
ideepakmathur/Wikimedia Commons
Ahmedabad, site of India's first Heat Action Plan, a comprehensive extreme heat early warning and preparedness plan.
At the age of 90, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has died. In recent months, many of her colleagues had called for the Senator to step down due to her declining health.
Elizabeth Sanders, professor emerita at Cornell University, is an American politics and government expert. She says we need to recognize and remember Feinstein’s abilities and intelligence, but that it’s also time for…
The Biophysical Society has named physicist Michelle Wang a 2024 Society Fellow. Wang is the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor of the Physical Sciences in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. The Fellows will be honored at the Biophysical Society’s 68th Annual Meeting, being held in Philadelphia in February…
The first woman to win a consecutive Southeast Asian Writers Award, Veeraporn Nitiprapha, will discuss her newest novel, “Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat,” on Oct. 5.
Beginning at 4:45 p.m. in the A. D. White House Guerlac Room, Nitiprapha will talk about how her work explores Chinese migration and identity in Southeast Asia throughout the 20th century.
“We will…
Provided
The Cornell University Wind Symphony performs "A Place That Is Yours" by Catherine Likhuta
On Nov. 13, 2022, Bailey Hall filled with the resonant debut of “A Place That Is Yours,” a piece of music written by Catherine Likhuta in memory of composer and professor Steven Stucky. Likhuta was able to rehearse beforehand with the student musicians in the Cornell University Wind Symphony and to speak to the audience during the concert thanks to Banding Together, a collaboration amongst…
Tudorita Tumbar, professor of molecular biology and genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received three related grants for the next five years, totaling $7.7 million, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).
The work aims to understand how stem cells function to fuel normal tissue maintenance and to…
