Introducing New Members of the Faculty

To help introduce to the Cornell community the new members of the faculty, the Cornell Chronicle is publishing brief new-faculty profiles through December.

Thaler

Van Clief-Stefanon

Weatherson

Jennifer Thaler

Assistant professor, entomology
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Thaler's research focuses on insect ecology, specifically chemical ecology and linking the mechanistic basis of species interactions with ecological consequences in field experiments. She is interested in the interactions between bottom-up forces (plant defenses) and top-down control (predators and parasitoids) of herbivores; the influence of plant defenses on a community of organisms; and the coordination of defenses against insects and pathogens. Currently, she is examining the consequences of these responses for tritrophic interactions in a behavioral and community context.
Previous positions: Assistant professor of botany, University of Toronto, 2000-04; postdoctoral researcher, entomology; Wageningen Agricultural University, 2000; postdoctoral researcher, plant pathology, University of California-Davis, 1999.
Academic background: B.A., biology, Wellesley College, 1993; Ph.D., entomology, University of California-Davis, 1999.
Last book read: Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Assistant professor, English
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Creative writing, poetry.
Previous position: Teacher, Girls' Probation House, Fairfax, Va., 2001-04.
Academic background: B.A., English, Washington and Lee University, 1996; M.F.A., Penn State, 1999.
Last book read: Symptomatic by Danzy Senna.

Brian Weatherson

Associate professor, philosophy
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Reasoning under ignorance and uncertainty, a priori knowledge, theories of vagueness.
Previous position: Assistant professor, Brown Univ.
Academic background: B.A., 1994, and Ph.D., philosophy, 1998, both from Monash University.

Last book read: Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

December 16, 2004