Geoffrey W. Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has received the 2017 Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for the best paper published in Science each year. Papers are chosen based on scholarship, innovation, presentation, likelihood of influencing the field, and wider interdisciplinary…
Margaret Washington, professor of history, is featured in the new PBS documentary film, "'Tell Them We Are Rising': The Story of Black Colleges and Universities," directed by MacArthur Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson. The film documents the story of black colleges and universities, which began before the Civil War, and Washington was called on for her expertise in 18th and 19th century…
Mila, a chamber opera with music by Eli Marshall, postdoctoral associate and visiting faculty member in the Department of Music, recently received its world premiere in Hong Kong. The show has received international attention, including a review in Time Magazine, which praised it as “quirky, quintessentially Hong Kong, and bold…[it] must be one of the first of its kind anywhere to use opera to…
Despite the bad rap snakes often get, they are more central to ecology than most people realize. New research reveals that snakes might even play a key role in dispersing plant seeds.It’s long been known that some plants disperse their seeds by “hitchhiking” on animals, with the seeds clinging to fur or feathers, or stored in a cheek pouch or a bird’s crop. Sometimes, seeds are swallowed whole…
Mariana Wolfner ‘74, Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, has been awarded the 2018 Genetics Society of America Medal for her work on reproduction. The Genetics Society of America (GSA) awards the medal to investigators who have made substantial advances in genetics in the past 15 years. The prize will be presented at the 59th Annual…
The role of “counterfactual hope” in Alexander Kluge’s work, and his “incomparable dedication to the conjoined causes of survival and happiness,” writes Leslie Adelson, formed much of the inspiration for her new book, “Cosmic Miniatures and the Future Sense: Alexander Kluge's 21st-century Literary Experiments in German Culture and Narrative Form.” Adelson probes the intersection between past and…
David Feldshuh’s new play “Dancing with Giants” is a family affair. It stars his sister, award-winning actor Tovah Feldshuh; features cartoons projected on the set by his son Zach and the song “The Song of the Low Blow Champion” written by his son Noah, founding member of the band X Ambassadors. But the choice of Tovah was made as much for her acting skills as her family connection, says Feldshuh…
William Kennedy, the Avalon Foundation Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature was recognized for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies, awarded by the Modern Language Association. He has received an honorable mention, for his book “Petrarchism at Work: Contextual Economies in the Age of Shakespeare” (Cornell University Press).The award…
After Experimental Music, a symposium to explore current perspectives on experimental music studies, will bring scholars, performers, and artist-practitioners from across North America to Cornell University Feb. 8-11. In addition to academic presentations in Lincoln Hall, the symposium will feature two concerts of experimental music. All events are free and open to the public.
“This event is…
Is democracy at risk in America today? What are democracy’s prospects around the world? These questions and more will be examined in a semester-long, in-depth series of lectures on “The Difficulty of Democracy: Challenges and Prospects,” hosted by the College of Art and Sciences’ Program on Ethics and Public Life (EPL). The series features six eminent social scientists and will take place in…
A new performative sound kinetic installation by Assistant Professor Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri will premiere at the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart, Germany on February 3. Titled "Distanz," the work invites the audience to a refined and focused exploration of objects and sounds, carefully shaped and placed at different distances. The performative installation setting allows the performer to…
Annelise Riles, professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Jack G. Clarke ’52 Professor of Far East Legal Studies at Cornell Law School, has received the Anneliese Maier Award for lifetime achievement across the social sciences and humanities from the German government and the Humboldt Foundation.According to the committee, the Maier Award is in recognition of Riles’ …
In the center of a busy Calcutta roundabout stands a 12-foot bronze statue of a celebrated freedom fighter, hanged by the British in 1909. The British called this man, and others in a violent nationalist movement trying to force the British from India, “gentleman terrorists” because of their education and high caste status.In her new book, “Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the…
Why does misogyny persist, even in supposedly post-patriarchal parts of the world, like the U.S.? asks Kate Manne in her timely book, “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny” (Oxford University Press, 2018). Despite social progress toward equality, says Manne, the stories exposed during the #MeToo movement demonstrate that misogyny and wrongful, entitled male behavior is an enduring problem in our…
Economic inequality in advanced industrial societies has been growing in recent years, and so has the demand for recognition by stigmatized minority groups. Sociologist Michèle Lamont offers evidence of these intertwined facets of inequality and recommendations for public policy in her Feb. 2 talk, "Addressing the Recognition Gap: Destigmatization and the Reduction of Inequality." Her lecture,…
The 2017 winners of the Mabati Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature have been announced by Abdilatif Abdalla, chair of the prize’s board of trustees.The poetry prize winner is Tanzanian poet Dotto Rangimoto, for “Mwanangu Rudi Nyumbani.” The fiction category winner is Tanzanian author Ali Hilal Ali, for “Mmeza Fupa.”Rangimoto and Ali will each receive $5,000 awards. The prizes will be…
Therapy sessions can be dramatic, but normally take place behind closed doors with only the therapist and client as witnesses. “Therapy as Performance,” a new interdisciplinary series premiering Jan. 19 at The Cherry Artspace in Ithaca, turns that convention on its head. Performance artist and creator Leeny Sack will appear as the “Constant Client” in two public – and unscripted -- therapy…
Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, was selected as the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2017 Carl Sagan Lecturer. The lecturers chosen by the AGU, said the nominating committee, “represent some of the most innovative minds in their fields and are selected for meritorious work or…
“Global Africa: Into the Twenty-First Century” offers an image of Africa at odds with the Western narrative of an impoverished, backward continent. This Africa is a vibrant, diverse place, its 12 million square miles and 2,000 languages offering an “extraordinary” dynamism that has transformed the world’s music, cuisine, politics, art, technology and philosophies, say the editors in their…
Using the now-complete Cassini data set, Cornell astronomers have created a new global topographic map of Saturn’s moon Titan that has opened new windows into understanding its liquid flows and terrain. Two new papers, published Dec. 2 in Geophysical Review Letters, describe the map and discoveries arising from it.
Creating the map took about a year, according to doctoral student Paul Corlies,…
With the new emphasis on hands-on, active learning throughout higher education, lab courses would seem to have an advantage – what could be more active than doing experiments? But surprising new research reveals traditional labs fall far short of their pedagogical goals.In a paper published Jan. 2 in Physics Today, “Introductory Physics Labs: We Can Do Better,” Natasha Holmes, Cornell assistant…
The collaboration between Cornell’s Jewish Studies Program and the Center for Jewish History in New York City continues with two upcoming events on January 8 and March 26.“Cornell Jewish Studies is thrilled to be working with the major independent Jewish research institution in the United States, and to be part of the university’s growing presence in New York City,” said Jonathan Boyarin, Paul…
Roberto Sierra, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Music, has been awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin, by the Society of Spanish Composers (SGAE) Foundation. The prize, which includes a 20,000 Euros award, will be presented to Sierra in the spring in Madrid, Spain; a…
Geoffrey W. Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is one of 155 new members elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced Dec. 12. The 2017 NAI fellows will be inducted April 5, 2018, at the NAI annual conference in Washington, D.C.Election as an NAI fellow is bestowed on academic inventors who have …
Serge Petchenyi / Cornell University
Students participate in an in-class discussion.
Innovative approaches to pedagogy are changing the future of Cornell, and the College of Arts and Sciences has launched a web feature to spotlight new developments throughout the college. The site includes stories about teaching methods, education research, curriculum redesign and more.“The College of Arts and Sciences’ commitment to active learning and education innovation is impressive, and its…
The final painting historian Mostafa Minawi shared in his Nov. 29 talk on the Ottoman Empire’s struggle for survival said it all: In the foreground, European delegates stand energetically discussing the partitioning of the African continent. The sole representative of the Ottoman Empire in the painting is hunched over in a chair, hand covering his face and identified only by the fez he wears. The…
Teachers of European and world history can draw on well-regarded textbooks to understand the history of science and technology, but such works usually present this history from the point of view of a particular specialty. The recently released “Scientific Practices in European History, 1200–1800” by Peter Dear takes a different approach. Rather than providing an over-arching historical framework,…
Kanzi the bonobo (pygmee chimpanzee) hunches over, banging the rock in one hand against the rock in his other hand, determinedly whacking it until a piece slices off: making and using the same kind of tool as our Stone Age ancestors.The scene from that video, and others showing Kanzi’s language abilities, opened “Eloquence of the Apes: a Trans-Disciplinary Workshop on Apes, Language and…
Reporters pecked on typewriters, smoked in elevators and used rotary-dial telephones. But despite the anachronisms, the 1976 film “All the President’s Men” offered uncanny resonances with current U.S. politics, according to a panel following a Nov. 8 screening at Cornell Cinema.Jeff Cohen, director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, said the main similarity between the…
The ancient world had very different ways of looking at mental distress than we do today.What if we returned to ancient literature to understand mental distress as a matter of ethics or of spiritual anguish instead of neurological misfirings? asks Michael Fontaine, professor of classics. He examines what we can learn from antiquity in “A New-Old Look at Mental Distress,” a new episode in the …
Fiery supernovae, delicate rings of ice, planet-hopping comets – visitors to Fuertes Observatory have seen them all. For 100 years, Fuertes Observatory has opened a window to the cosmos for the Cornell and Ithaca communities.On Nov. 17, the Cornell Astronomical Society and Department of Astronomy invite the community to celebrate Fuertes’ centennial. “A Century of Observing at Fuertes” features…
“Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the 20th century,” declares Timothy Snyder in his new book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” On Oct. 30, Cornell students, faculty and members of the Ithaca community gathered to discuss Snyder’s work as part of a community book read, which drew more than 100 people.
The book was chosen not…
Frank Drake ’51 has been searching for evidence of intelligent life in the universe for 57 years. In an astronomy colloquium talk Oct. 19, “New Frontiers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Drake described the search efforts made so far and new opportunities provided by recent technological – and philanthropic – advances.
As Cornell’s director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto…
Ranging between ancient Greece and Rome and contemporary America, Barry Strauss discussed “Populism Through the Ages: A Challenge for Democracy” as the fall distinguished faculty invitational lecturer for Phi Beta Kappa Oct. 25.“While democracy respects the rule of law, adheres to constitutional limits, and seeks a balance between classes and groups, populism is ambiguous. It promotes the people…
“This Is Going to Be Big,” proclaimed Doug McKee’s Teach Better blog post on Feb. 13.The Cornell economics department had just received an Active Learning Initiative (ALI) grant to transform its entire undergraduate core curriculum over the next five years. It was the culmination of eight months of planning, writing and consensus-building in the department that started before McKee arrived at…
A 21st century learning approach requires more than rows of fixed seats, says Jon McKenzie. In a new transdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages active learning, McKenzie has combined the kinds of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical learning found in seminar, studio, and lab spaces into an approach he calls “StudioLab.”“In traditional liberal arts, different learning spaces are siloed into the…
The limited racial and ethnic diversity among people in biology-related careers has long roots, according to a new study.As undergraduates, underrepresented minority students face challenges on campus and in the classroom, which can discourage them from pursuing science careers. Research has shown that the use of active learning techniques – such as working in groups and participating in…
Animals, neuroscience, consciousness and medicine: Associate Professor of English Elisha Cohn’s interests range far and wide, all seen through the lens of narrative, her driving passion.Cohn’s specialty is Victorian literature, because, she says, “it was the first period that consistently saw itself as modern and tried to theorize its own values and its own moment. There’s a great sort of pathos…
A new initiative by Cornell’s Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) to provide continuing education opportunities for local K-12 teachers launched Sept. 26. The collaboration with Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (TST-BOCES) offers teachers a six-session professional learning opportunity focusing on the relationship between the United States and the Middle East…
In his opening remarks at the second annual Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium Sept. 22, Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff said: “The goals of Cornell Neurotech are vital ones, with life-changing implications, and I am grateful to Stephen Mong and the Mong Family Foundation for enabling Cornell faculty and staff to strive toward them. Cornell Neurotech fosters connections across…
How have systems of communication evolved among the great apes? How did language arise? How can humans and apes best communicate? On Oct. 20-21, Cornell will host a trans-disciplinary workshop on apes, language and communication to explore these and other questions. “The Eloquence of the Apes” will feature renowned primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Cornell researchers across multiple…
In the spirit of the ancient bards, Joe Goodkin will perform an original musical adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey for solo acoustic guitar and voice on Oct. 24 in Klarman Hall, KG70, at 5 pm. The performance is sponsored by the Department of Classics. Part lecture, part musical performance, and part interactive discussion, the event draws on Goodkin’s bachelor's degree in classics from the…
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three physicists for the momentous first observation of the gravity waves predicted by Albert Einstein. Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne, and Barry C. Barish led the research done by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The experiment confirmed that the gravity waves came from a black hole merger by comparing the data with a…
Only one human-touched object has ever entered interstellar space: NASA’s Voyager 1, bearing with it greetings to extraterrestrials in the form of a Golden Record. The university is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Voyagers 1 and 2 and Cornell’s central role in the missions and the Golden Record with a weekend of events that began Thursday, Oct. 19. All events are free, and the public is…
Ever since the invention of the laser more than 50 years ago, scientists have been striving to create an X-ray version. But until recently, very high power levels were needed to make an X-ray laser. Making a practical, tabletop-scale X-ray laser source required taking a new approach, as will be described by physicist Margaret Murnane in this fall’s Hans Bethe Lecture.Her talk, “Harnessing Quantum…
General chemistry can be challenging, particularly for students whose high schools didn’t offer sufficient preparation. In response, the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology has incorporated recent pedagogical advances into a number of classes to teach students the quantitative reasoning necessary to succeed in the physical sciences.Two general preparatory classes are open to all…
Can science alone deliver us from environmental catastrophe? Purely scientific, economic, and incentive-driven management solutions to problems like climate change, water security, and environmental justice no longer seem adequate, giving rise to a new interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities. The 2017-18 Environmental Humanities Lecture Series will bring to campus four pioneering…
Are humans special creatures, uniquely endowed with reason? Or are we simply animals who can talk and build?“What Makes Us Human,” a new podcast and essay series from Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences, created in collaboration with Cornell Broadcast Studios, will showcase the newest thinking from across the disciplines about what it means to be human in the 21st century…
The United States’ unique electoral system sets up congressional contests in frequently-redrawn regions. While the shapes of districts are expected to be somehow reasonable, this is very hard to formulate in a way that is mathematically robust, aligns with our ideals about representative democracy, and can persuade legislators, judges, and the public. Mathematician Moon Duchin of Tufts University…
Walk into the lab section of any science course and you’ll see students busy with beakers, microscopes, calculators and more. But what’s really going on in their minds?“Although one may think that labs are inherently active, there’s some research showing the traditional ways that labs are structured – following rote procedures to get a proscribed outcome at the end -- , means students may be…
