Cornell University News Service Releases
April, 2001
Index to all months
Index to all monthsFor the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.
Gene therapy restores vision to dogs with inherited disease
Dogs blinded by an inherited retinal degenerative disease had their vision restored after treatment with genes from healthy dogs, marking the first successful gene therapy for blindness in a large animal. The treatment offers hope for humans with a similar condition. The achievement, with young dogs suffering from congenital stationary night blindness, which is similar to a childhood disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, is reported in the May 2001 issue of the journal Nature Genetics by Gregory M. Acland, Gustavo D. Aguirre, Jharna Ray, Qi Zhang and Susan E. Pearce-Kelling, all at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine; by Tomas S. Aleman, Artur V. Cideciyan, Vibha Anand, Yong Zeng, Albert M. Maguire, Samuel G. Jacobson and Jean Bennett, all at the University of Pennsylvania; and by William W. Hauswirth of the University of Florida, Gainesville. (April 27, 2001)
Watch your nest boxes for 16 'most wanted birds'
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has issued the 2001 list of "most wanted birds" to raise awareness of declining bird species and to encourage participation in a citizen-science project, The Birdhouse Network (TBN). Birds on the list represent the 16 avian species about which researchers have little nesting information. TBN asks people of all ages to put up nest boxes -- or birdhouses -- and collect essential information about each box: location, habitat characteristics and number of eggs and nestlings in the nest. This information will be reported over the Internet to Cornell University researchers, who will analyze the data to determine what, if any, environmental factors contribute to nesting success. (April 26, 2001)
Lee Teng-hui visit to Cornell postponed for medical reasons
The planned visit of former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui to Cornell University May 2-4 has been postponed for health reasons. His visit to Cornell is now planned for May 29-31. Lee, 78, underwent coronary medical procedures in Japan during the past week. His travel plans are being changed on the advice of his physicians. (April 26, 2001)
Provost Martin issues statement on Africana Studies and Research Center
Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin today (April 25, 2001) issued a statement concerning Cornell's plans for the renovation and improvement of its Africana Studies and Research Center: (April 25, 2001)
University completes decennial reaccreditation self-study in preparation for on-site evaluation team visit
After careful review and input from members of the campus community, Cornell University officials have completed a reaccreditation self-study, in preparation for an on-site visit from an outside evaluation team scheduled for the end of the month. The decennial self-study is required of all higher education institutions under the jurisdiction of the Middle States Association Commission on Higher Education (MSA/CHE). The Cornell on-site visit by the evaluation team, led by Nannerl O. Keohane, team chair and president of Duke University, will take place April 29 through May 2. (April 25, 2001)
Vietnam Moving Wall comes to Cornell campus May 1 through May 5
The Vietnam Moving Wall will be displayed on the Agriculture Quad at Cornell University from Tuesday, May 1, through Saturday morning, May 5. The public is invited to opening ceremonies for the Moving Wall on May 1 at 5:30 p.m. on the Ag Quad. Parking at no charge will be provided through Cornell Transportation Services in the parking garage next to Schoellkopf Field beginning at 4:30 p.m. Additonal parking will be available along Tower Road and the adjacent Alumni Fields parking lot. (April 24, 2001)
Mathematician Robert Connelly describes "How to Unfold a Carpenter's Rule in the Plane," April 28
Robert Connelly, professor of mathematics, will present the Cornell University Mathematics Department's annual Math Awareness Month lecture, "How to Unfold a Carpenter's Rule in the Plane," April 28 at 2 p.m. in 251 Malott Hall on campus. The lecture is free and is open to the public. Connelly will explain that carpenters often use a wooden ruler made of rigid sections hinged at their ends. Imagine such a ruler placed in the plane without any crossings, but with many turns and wiggles. Can it be continuously opened in the plane, without crossing over itself? Connelly will show that any such carpenter's rule can be continuously moved so that it becomes straight without crossing itself during the motion. (April 24, 2001)
Mandatory nutrition labeling reduces high-fat purchases
ITHACA, N.Y. --After more than six years of mandatory food labeling, consumers are becoming savvier about high-fat foods on grocery shelves, says a Cornell University economist. In a study, he found that sales of high-fat dressings significantly declined after mandatory labeling was instituted, providing evidence that the labels are influencing the sales of other high-fat foods as well. To study how nutrition labels affect consumer choices, Alan D. Mathios, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell, conducted a study of supermarket data of salad dressings purchased before and after the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) mandatory labeling law went into effect in 1994. Prior to the label law, all low-fat salad dressings carried nutrition labels, says Mathios, but the vast majority of high-fat dressings didn't. (April 24, 2001)
Charles R. Fay named as vice provost for research administration
Charles R. Fay, deputy director of the Cornell University Center for the Environment, has been named the university's vice provost for research administration. Fay succeeds Jack W. Lowe, who is retiring as executive vice provost for research. The appointment is effective May 1, 2001. Announcing the appointment, Vice Provost for Research Robert C. Richardson said Fay will serve as senior administrator of the university's Office of the Vice Provost for Research. He also will serve as co-chair of the University Health and Safety Board, as an ex-officio member of the Radiation Safety Committee and as a member of the University Library Board, Richardson noted. In addition, the new vice provost will be the institutional official responsible for Cornell's animal care program, overseeing the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and the Center for Research Animal Resources. (April 24, 2001)
Steven Holl wins design competition for architecture school
Steven Holl's stunning cubic design, with its transparent and translucent facades and Cayuga Lake and Fall Creek gorge views, is the clear winner in Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning's design competition. "The decision of the jury was unanimous and enthusiastic, which almost never happens in this type of competition," said University Architect Peter Karp, echoing comments of the selection jury and university administrators. (April 24, 2001)
Three students win prestigious Goldwater scholarships
Three Cornell University undergraduates, all juniors in the College of Arts and Sciences, are winners of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for science and mathematics. The students are Joshua Goldman, from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., majoring in physics; Justin Kinney, from Pittsburgh, majoring in physics and mathematics; and Jeffrey M. Vinocur, from Bryn Mawr, Pa., majoring in computer science. (April 24, 2001)
Human ancestors expert Phillip V. Tobias will give firsthand account of fossil sites in East Africa
Phillip V. Tobias, one of the world's leading experts on human ancestors, will give a public talk about his experiences in the field, "Eureka Moments in My Career," Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Morrison Room (A106) of Corson Hall, Cornell University. The talk is free and open to the public. A visiting A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell, Tobias is professor of anatomy and human biology emeritus and honorary director of the Palæo-Anthropology Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. (April 20, 2001)
Yuri Berest and Christiane Linster are selected for Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships
Two members of the Cornell University faculty have been selected to receive Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships, the Sloan Foundation has announced. They are Yuri Berest, assistant professor of mathematics, and Christiane Linster, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior. The two were among the 104 outstanding young scientists and economists selected as Sloan fellows this year, representing faculty from 51 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The fellowships, totaling $4.16 million this year, allow scientists to continue their research with $40,000 each over two years. Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them. (April 20, 2001)
Co-author of "Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys" will speak April 23
Dan Kindlon, 1981 Cornell University Ph.D. and co-author of the best-selling book Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, will give a talk on the Cornell campus at noon Monday, April 23, in the Faculty Commons of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall. It is free and open to the public. Kindlon is a clinical and research psychologist specializing in the behavioral problems of children and adolescents. His talk, which is co-sponsored by Cornell's Department of Human Development and the Family Life Development Center, is titled "Male Gender as A Risk Factor for Adolescent Morbidity and Mortality: The Role of Emotional Illiteracy." (April 20, 2001)
Charles McClintock to leave Cornell to become a dean at Fielding Graduate Institute in California
Charles McClintock, professor of policy analysis and management and associate dean for state relations in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, will be leaving Cornell in July to become dean of human and organization development at the Fielding Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif. "McClintock was instrumental in the formation of the Department of Policy Analysis and Management," said Francille M. Firebaugh, dean emerita of the College of Human Ecology and director of special projects in the Office of the President and the Provost. "His long-time services as associate dean included undergraduate services, administration and, later, graduate studies and research," she said. "He assumed responsibilities at critical times in the college and contributed greatly to the college's initiatives." (April 20, 2001)
Power executirve E. Linn Draper to speak on deregulation
E. Linn Draper Jr., chairman, president and chief executive of American Electric Power Co., one of the world's largest energy providers, will address the question "Did Deregulation Cause the California Electricity Crisis?" when he speaks at Cornell University Monday, April 23. Draper's talk, in the Energy Engineering Seminar Series sponsored by the Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences, will be at 4 p.m. in 203 Thurston Hall on campus. The talk is free and is open to the public; however, seating is limited. (April 20, 2001)
Clothing company head Michael W. Crooke to speak on environmental effort
Michael W. Crooke, chief executive of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia Inc. and its parent Lost Arrow Corp., will give a talk at Cornell University April 24 at 5 p.m. in B-45 Warren Hall. (April 20, 2001)
Stephen Ceci receives APA's Bronfenbrenner award for contributions to developmental psychology
ITHACA, N.Y. --Cornell University Professor Stephen J. Ceci is the 2002 recipient of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society. Established in 1996 to honor Urie Bronfenbrenner, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Human Development at Cornell, the award will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Chicago in August 2002. "This award is a tribute to Steve for his outstanding record of research and his commitment to having science benefit society. It is also gratifying that the intellectual contributions of Urie continue to be reflected in the work of our faculty and students," says John Eckenrode, chair of the Department of Human Development at Cornell. (April 20, 2001)
Adolescence expert offers lessons from Columbine
Vicious videos, a subculture of adolescent terrorism and myths about adolescence. These are a few of the factors that contributed to the tragic Columbine shootings on April 20 two years ago. On this anniversary, we have lessons to learn from those devastating shootings, says adolescent violence expert James Garbarino at Cornell University. Garbarino, a professor of human development, and researcher Ellen deLara, both with the Family Life Development Center at Cornell, have written a paper for the occasion, "On The Anniversary of Columbine: Ten Lessons Learned and Forgotten." (April 20, 2001)
Rebecca Quinn Morgan HE '60 to be honored at celebration of Human Ecology Centennial in New York City April 20
ITHACA, N.Y. --Rebecca Quinn Morgan HE '60, who with her husband has endowed the deanship of the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, will be given the inaugural Martha Van Rensselaer Vision Award by the Human Ecology Alumni Association on April 20. The award ceremony is a key event at the national celebration of the Cornell University Human Ecology Centennial at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City. (April 20, 2001)
Public meeting April 26 on cleanup plan for former low-level radiation site
Cornell University has completed field investigations and evaluated options for cleaning up its former low-level radiation disposal site (RDS) in the town of Lansing, north of Tompkins County Airport. The proposed cleanup plan for the site, plus alternatives that were considered, will be described at a public meeting Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in DeWitt Middle School, Warren Road, Ithaca. The public will have the opportunity to comment through June 13. (April 19, 2001)
State awards $2.8 million to develop nanodevices for biomedical technology
The state of New York, through its New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), has awarded Cornell University $2.8 million over two years to establish a new Center for Advanced Technology (CAT). The award was the largest among five announced by Gov. George E. Pataki today (April 19) to institutions in Ithaca, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse. The five new CATs, which will share $10 million in state funding, are part of a state government effort "to create a comprehensive and long-term plan to foster the growth of high-tech and biotech industries across the state," Pataki said. (April 19, 2001)
Cornell administration reaches agreement with Cornell Kyoto Now! students
Harold D. Craft Jr., vice president for administration and chief financial officer at Cornell University, tonight (April 17, 2001) issued a statement affirming the university's commitment to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses: (April 18, 2001)
Former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui plans visit to Cornell
Lee Teng-hui, former president of Taiwan, is planning to travel to Cornell University, where he earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1968, on a personal visit in early May to see his granddaughter, a Cornell student, and to meet with students and faculty at his alma mater. Lee's visit to Cornell is planned for May 2-4. No public speeches or events are anticipated. The university will use the occasion of his visit to announce the establishment of the Lee Teng-hui Institute for scientific research in honor of its distinguished alumnus. (April 17, 2001)
Poet Ruth Stone to read from her works April 19
Celebrated poet Ruth Stone will read from her works at Cornell University for the Creative Writing Program's biannual Chasen Poetry Reading Thursday, April 19, at 4 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. The reading is free and open to the public. Stone, now in her 80s, is professor of English emerita at the State University of New York at Binghamton and author of 11 books of poetry. Her last book, Ordinary Words, won the Book Circle Critics Award and the Eric Mathieu King Award from the Academy of American Poets in 1999. (April 17, 2001)
Former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman to give inaugural Belnick government studies lecture on April 26
Warren Rudman, former U.S. senator from New Hampshire, will deliver the inaugural Ben and Rhoda Belnick Fund for Government Studies Lecture Thursday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall at Cornell University. The lecture is free and open to the public. The Belnick fund was created by Cornell alumnus Mark A. Belnick ('68, B.A in government), in honor of his parents. The new fund seeks to enhance the teaching and undergraduate experience in government studies at Cornell by inviting political leaders and political scientists to campus to stimulate intellectually challenging dialogue beyond the classroom. (April 17, 2001)
Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble wins 2001 James A. Perkins Prize
The 2001 James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony at Cornell University will be awarded to the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE). The award, carrying a $5,000 cash prize, was created and endowed seven years ago by Cornell alumnus and trustee Thomas W. Jones. The presentation will be Wednesday, April 18, during a ceremony at 4 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall on the Cornell campus. CITE, one of 17 nominees considered by a panel of students, faculty members and administrators, employs interactive theater to explore issues of responsibility for the establishing and maintaining of a productive educational and workplace climate across differences in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age. (April 17, 2001)
Robert Langer, head of FDA science board, to speak April 23 and 24
Robert S. Langer, chairman of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) science board, the federal agency's highest advisory panel, will deliver the 2001 Julian C. Smith Lectures in the School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University Monday, April 23, and Tuesday, April 24. Langer also is the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (April 17, 2001)
Trustee executive committee to meet in New York City
The Executive Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees will hold a brief open session when it meets in Manhattan on Thursday, April 19, at 11:30 a.m. at the Cornell Club of New York, 6 E. 44th St. The public session will include a report from President Hunter Rawlings and an update on the State University of New York (SUNY) budget. (April 17, 2001)
Public workshop to launch Cornell's cutting-edge Internet art journal Ctheory Multimedia
A collaborative workshop drawing from the disciplines of art, science, and computing will be held April 20 and 21 to launch Cornell University Library's sponsorship of the Internet art journal Ctheory Multimedia , a semi-annual collection of electronic art and theory to be published this spring. Ctheory Multimedia's first issue, titled "Tech Flesh: The Promise and Perils of the Human Genome Project," will be published later this month. << href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April01/Ctheory.html">http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April01/Ctheory.html (April 17, 2001)
Herbert F. Johnson Museum receives $25,000 NEA grant
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded $25,000 to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art for its popular Objects and Their Makers: New Insights (OMNI) educational kits for area schools. The program introduces schoolchildren and their teachers to the arts of other cultures, including those of China, Africa, South America and Japan. "These kits go to schools throughout the Southern Tier [of New York state] every year, and thousands of schoolchildren visit the museum as part of the program," said Franklin Robinson, museum director. "Through OMNI, these schoolchildren are introduced to distant cultures through fascinating and engaging activities." (April 16, 2001)
Students run the show for Hotel Ezra Cornell event
It's a student takeover of the most welcome variety -- the annual fete called Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) on the Cornell University campus. On Friday, April 20, Statler Hotel managers will hand over the ceremonial key to the on-campus facility to HEC directors, and for the rest of the weekend all hotel services and events will be handled by more than 400 student managers and volunteers from the university's School of Hotel Administration. (April 16, 2001)
Weingarten and Levy, New York City school bargaining foes, to be feted at alumni event
Cornell University graduates Harold O. Levy, '74, '79 JD, and Randi Weingarten, '80, are more accustomed to meeting over bargaining tables than dinner tables. But on April 19, these two distinguished alumni -- and friends -- will meet as guests of honor at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) alumni award celebration in the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue in New York City. Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in the New York City public school system, will receive the Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award, given annually by the ILR to honor graduates who are exceptional professionals in the field of industrial and labor relations, as well as outstanding supporters of the Cornell school. Levy, chancellor of the New York City Board of Education, will receive the Jerome Alpern Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes extraordinary service and support to the ILR School by alumni whose professions are primarily outside the field of industrial and labor relations. (April 16, 2001)
Wireless browsing in class can lower grades
Look, Professor, no wires! More and more colleges are installing wireless networking, so that a student sitting in a lecture hall, a classroom or even outside the building can pop open a laptop computer and connect to the Internet at high speed. Is this a resource students will use to enhance their education by looking up relevant information, or will it distract them as they browse? (April 13, 2001)
'Conservation at Home' is theme of Zoo and Wildlife Society's special species symposium April 20-22
The Zoo and Wildlife Society at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine will present its sixth Special Species Symposium April 20 to 22 for veterinary students, technicians, and veterinarians. The theme will be, "The Role of Veterinarians in Conservation at home." Registration is $35 for students and $175 for professional veterinarians, which includes enrollment in two wet labs. (April 13, 2001)
Singer-songwriter Sam Shaber starts new Willard Straight series, April 24
To kick off the Lauren Pickard '90 Emerging Artist Series at Cornell University, the campus's Willard Straight Hall will be showcasing a rising star, Sam Shaber, who has been called "the soul of New York folk." Pretty good start. (April 13, 2001)
Israeli ambassador Alon Pinkas to speak April 16
On Monday, April 16, Ambassador Alon Pinkas, the Counsel General of Israel, will give two talks titled "The Middle East After Israeli Elections: Thoughts on the Past and Prospects for the Future" in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. The first talk will be delivered in Hebrew, at 5:30 p.m.; the second will be presented in English at 6:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. The ambassador also will meet with students, faculty and Cornell President Hunter Rawlings during his visit. (April 13, 2001)
May 4 art show, auction, banquet and distinguished lecturer will help kick off Mental Health Month
The toll of mental illness is staggering, afflicting some 20 million Americans. The costs of schizophrenia alone are $33 billion a year, according to the National Association in Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. The problems are so overwhelming that one-quarter of all hospital beds in this country are filled by psychiatrically ill patients; that's more beds than are filled by patients with heart disease, cancer and respiratory diseases combined. Yet, the federal government spends less than $15 per patient for research on mental illness while it spends $130 per heart disease patient, $203 per cancer patient and $1,000 per patient with muscular dystrophy, according to Dr. Jack Barchas, the Barklie McKee Henry Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College and psychiatrist-in-chief at the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. Barchas will be giving a talk in Ithaca on May 4 to highlight Mental Health Awareness Month. His lecture, "Perspectives on Research on Major Mental Illness," is part of a special fund-raising event that will include a dinner, the lecture, an art exhibit and an art auction, all beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Women's Community Building, 100 W. Seneca St.. (April 13, 2001)
Apollo 13 commander James Lovell to speak April 16
James Lovell Jr., commander of the perilous Apollo 13 mission in 1970, will speak at Cornell University April 16 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. In his talk, "Apollo 13: A Successful Failure," Lovell will share a behind-the-scenes account of what was to be the fifth U.S. mission to the moon -- until a technical failure had the spacecraft crew battling for survival. The incident was recreated in the popular movie "Apollo 13," in which Lovell was portrayed by Tom Hanks. (April 13, 2001)
Population biologists Paul Ehrlich and wife, Anne, to visit Cornell for Center for Environment series
ITHACA, N.Y. "Human Natures: Genes, Culture and the Human Prospect" is the topic for Stanford University biologist Paul R. Ehrlich in a public lecture Wednesday, April 25, at 4:45 p.m. in Cornell University's Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Howland Ehrlich, are the 2001 Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecturers in the annual series presented by the Cornell Center for the Environment. Paul Ehrlich, who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in Stanford University's Department of Biological Sciences, also will present a scholarly lecture on Tuesday, April 24, at 4:30 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium on the topic "Tough Problems in Human Evolution." Both lectures are free and open to the public. (April 13, 2001)
Physicist to ponder fate of universe in Bethe lectures
Wick Haxton, director of the National Institute for Nuclear Theory in Seattle, will discuss neutrinos -- nature's mysterious particles -- and the ultimate fate of the universe when he delivers three Hans A. Bethe lectures in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall at Cornell University, April 16-23. A distinguished theorist in physics and astrophysics, Haxton was on the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is now professor of physics. He became director of the nuclear theory institute in 1991. (April 13, 2001)
Former attorney general Janet Reno to address Cornell convocation May 26 during Commencement weekend
Janet Reno, the nation's first female attorney general, will address Cornell University's convocation for graduating students and their families May 26 during the university's commencement weekend. A member of Cornell's Class of 1960, Reno was selected as the convocation speaker by this year's senior Class Council, which polled students on their choices. Claire Ackerman is class president and Nageeb Sumar is chair of the convocation committee. (April 13, 2001)
Chocolate-coated snack stick wins dairy contest prize
No whey! Whey? Cornell University food science students have developed a mocha-flavored, chocolate- coated snack that uses an unusual ingredient: whey. The students call their concoction Café Crunch, and the product has won the $5,000 top prize at the Dairy Management Inc.'s annual Discoveries in Dairy Ingredients contest. (April 13, 2001)
Cornell vice president describes environmental goals
Harold D. Craft Jr., vice president for administration and chief financial officer of Cornell University, today (April 11, 2001) released the text of a letter he has sent to Cornell students concerning the application of the Kyoto Protocol's environmental principles to the operation of the university. The letter follows: (April 11, 2001)
National Academy of Engineering president to speak on diversity and on fast pace of computing growth
Diversity in engineering is not just about fairness, but about creativity, according to Wm. [William] A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering, who will visit the Cornell University campus to deliver two lectures on April 11 and 12. Both lectures are free and open to the public. Wulf's visit is co-hosted by the Faculty of Computing and Information (FCI) and Women's Programs in Engineering. (April 9, 2001)
TCAT trolley-bus displayed on the Ithaca Commons
A replica trolley-bus was unveiled to the media and several local dignitaries in a ceremony at the Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) facility today. The trolley will be on public display in "bank alley" on the Ithaca Commons, Saturday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. While the trolley-bus resembles century-old technology, a cutting-edge, extremely low-emission engine -- fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) -- is at its heart. In another improvement over its predecessors, the trolley is equipped with a wheelchair lift. (April 9, 2001)
Argentina's 'Mothers of the Disappeared' speak at Cornell and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, April 10
Nora de Cortiñas and Margarita Peralta de Gropper, founders of the Madres of Plaza de Mayo -- also known as the "Mothers of the Disappeared" -- will give their personal accounts of the movement during a talk titled "Participatory Democracy in Argentina: Perspectives from the Madres of Plaza de Mayo" Tuesday, April 10 at 12:15 p.m. in 153 Uris Hall on the Cornell University campus. The women also will speak off-campus April 10 at 8 p.m. in the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, 318 N. Albany Street, in Ithaca. Back on campus, Wednesday, April 11, a documentary film titled Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo will be shown followed by a discussion led by the visiting speakers at 8 p.m. in Uris Hall Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. (April 9, 2001)
Cosmologist Thomas Gold explains dust in Eros craters
More than just dust was kicked up when NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, NEAR Shoemaker, made a successful landing on asteroid 433 Eros on Feb. 12. Also disturbed were the memories of an experiment carried out more than three decades ago by a student of Thomas Gold, professor emeritus of astronomy at Cornell University. Images of small craters on 22-mile-long Eros, sent back to Earth by the NEAR spacecraft's camera, revealed a fine-grain material that has somehow found its way to the bottom of the craters. The members of the NEAR imaging team, including the team's leader, Cornell astronomer Joseph Veverka, expressed puzzlement over the movement of the dust that had created flat, smooth floors in craters. There is, they said, some unknown mechanism that moves the dust around so that it slides down the craters' sides, "ponding" in the bottoms. (April 9, 2001)
To protect against foot-and-mouth disease, animal science department bans visitors and unauthorized personnel at two facilities
Taking precautions to ensure that the cloven-hoofed animals at Cornell University remain safe from foot-and-mouth disease, which has decimated herds and flocks in Britain, the university's Department of Animal Science has implemented a ban on guest visits to two animal research facilities. The new plan, which went into effect on March 28, requires that only authorized Cornell employees can go into the dairy, beef and sheep units at the Teaching and Research Center in Harford, N.Y., and to the Cornell Swine Farm in Ithaca. Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious to cloven-hoofed animals. "This ban will remain in force until further notice. It will not be removed until we are convinced that the present European outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been controlled," said Alan Bell, chairman of animal science, in Cornell's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in a memorandum to department employees. (April 9, 2001)
Finalists in architecture competition to present design proposals to jury and campus community April 18
Four internationally acclaimed architects who are finalists in an invited architecture design competition for Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning will present their proposals for a $25 million building project to a selection jury of prominent architects and the campus community Wednesday, April 18. The project involves Milstein Hall, which will provide classrooms, studio space, a major auditorium and other related services and offices for the Department of Architecture. The envisioned facility will be a highly visible building at a prominent entrance to the university, adjacent to historic Sibley Hall. (April 9, 2001)
Cornell University to establish medical school in Qatar
New York, N.Y. -- In an unprecedented expansion of the international presence of American higher education, Cornell University and a private foundation organized by the Emir of Qatar announced today (April 9, 2001) the establishment of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The new medical college will offer a complete medical education in Qatar leading to a Cornell University M.D. degree, based on the same admission standards and curriculum as the New York campus. During the first 10 years, the operating costs of Cornell's medical college in Qatar are projected at $750 million. Cornell's new medical college is the latest of several ambitious projects initiated by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, a charitable foundation established in 1995 by Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Qatar's Emir and Head of State. During the past six years, the foundation has redefined the standards of quality for education in the Gulf region by building prestigious, high-quality primary and secondary schools in Qatar. The Qatar Foundation envisions the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar as a central feature of a planned "education city" in Qatar's capital, Doha, that also will include schools for pre-kindergarten to post-graduate students, specialized training in design arts and languages and sports facilities. (April 9, 2001)
Tree biomass is the same in tropical or temperate zones
Does the Amazon River basin thrive with more tree biomass than that along the shores of Opeongo Lake in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park? Is the Congo Basin more tree biomass-rich than the Argonne Forest in northeastern France? Conventional wisdom answers yes, believing that equatorial and tropical regions have far more tree biomass than places like North America, Europe and Asia. Conventional wisdom seems to be wrong. The amount of tree biomass in any two given similar-sized areas, whether in a tropical or temperate clime, is virtually identical, according to a new study in Nature (April 5, 2001) by Karl J. Niklas, Cornell University's Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of plant biology, and Brian J. Enquist, a biologist from the University of Arizona. (April 2, 2001)
Hanan Ashrawi, a chief advocate for Palestinian independence, to speak at Bailey Hall April 11
New process makes near atomic-scale "nanobumps"
Harvard's Lucie E. White will deliver Law School's Stevens Lecture, April 11
Can computers be tamed? Hewlett-Packard engineer asks in Henri Sack Memorial Lecture, April 11
Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador, lectures April 11 and 12 as A.D. White Professor-at-Large
Senior Kris Saha will study at Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar
New class of rubbery plastic materials promise economies
Marital road to retirement is bumpy
Daniel A. Carp, Eastman Kodak CEO and president, is Park speaker, April 9
Hanan Ashrawi, one of the chief advocates for Palestinian independence, will deliver a talk titled "Peace: Current Crisis and Future Prospects," Wednesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall, at Cornell University. The talk, sponsored by the International Students Programming Board (ISPB) and the Arab Club at Cornell, is open to the public. Admission is $3. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Willard Straight Hall box office, from ISPB members, or at the door. For more information, contact ISPB president Rebecca Abou-Chedid by e-mail at
An engineer and a chemist, working together on a corporately funded research project at Cornell University, are reporting a fundamentally new way to fabricate nanoscale structures on silicon that promises the development of devices ranging from biological sensors to light-emitting silicon displays. The new process, called controlled etching of dislocations (CED), has produced an array of features on a silicon surface with tiny columns -- the researchers call them "nanobumps" -- just 25 nanometers across (about 75 atoms) six times smaller than the width of the most minuscule component of a commercial microprocessor. (A nanometer is equal to the width of 3 silicon atoms.) (April 4, 2001)
Anti-poverty law specialist Lucie E. White, the Louis A. Horvitz Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, will deliver Cornell Law School's Robert S. Stevens Lecture, April 11. White's lecture, titled "That's What I Growed Up Hearing: On Race, Memory and Emancipation," will be at 4 p.m. in the Stein Mancuso Amphitheater of Myron Taylor Hall. It is free and open to the public. (April 3, 2001)
"The Domestication of Computers" will be the topic for Joel S. Birnbaum, senior technical adviser at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), in the Henri Sack Memorial Lecture Wednesday, April 11, at 4 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall at Cornell University. The lecture is free and open to the public and is hosted by Cornell's School of Applied and Engineering Physics. A reception will follow in 700 Clark Hall. (April 3, 2001)
Itamar Rabinovich, the president of Tel Aviv University and former Israeli ambassador to the United States, will give two public lectures during his April visit as a Cornell University Andrew Dixon White Professor-at-Large. On Wednesday April 11, Rabinovich will give an address titled "Arab-Israeli Relations in the Aftermath of the U.S. and Israeli Elections" at 4:30 p.m. in Goldwin Smith D (lecture hall) in Goldwin Smith Hall. On Thursday April 12, he will speak at a Peace Studies seminar on "The Failure of Camp David II: A Case Study in Conflict Resolution" at 12:15 p.m. in G08 Uris Hall. Both lectures are free and open to the public. (April 3, 2001)
Krishanu "Kris" Saha, a senior majoring in chemical engineering at Cornell University, has been named a Churchill Scholar by the Winston Churchill Foundation. The Churchill scholarship provides for a year of graduate study in engineering, mathematics or science at Churchill College of the University of Cambridge. Only 11 scholarships are awarded per year nationwide, and Saha is the seventh Cornellian to win since 1992. Saha also was offered a 2001 Fulbright scholarship for study in the United Kingdom, but declined to accept it in order to accept the Churchill award. (April 3, 2001)
An entirely new class of rubbery plastics has been produced in the laboratory by a Cornell University researcher and two co-workers. Because the material uses two common and inexpensive petroleum products, ethylene and polyethylene, for its feedstock, the research has the promise of greatly reduced production costs. The development is the result of a chance discovery by Geoffrey Coates, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell, of a long-sought catalyst that enables the new polymer to be "grown" from molecules of ethylene and propylene. A catalyst -- in this case, based on titanium -- is a substance that increases the rate of chemical reaction without itself changing chemically. "We didn't predict this. It was an example of serendipity," says Coates. (April 3, 2001)
The transition to retirement is particularly stressful, especially when one spouse retires before the other, says a new study by researchers at Cornell University. During this time, couples fight much more and are significantly less satisfied with their marriages. Once both spouses are comfortably settled into retirement, however, couples report the highest levels of marital satisfaction with the least conflict, compared with their still-working or newly retired peers. "It's not being retired but becoming retired that seems most stressful for marriages," says Phyllis Moen, a professor of sociology and human development at Cornell. (April 3, 2001)
Daniel A. Carp, chairman, president and CEO of Eastman Kodak Co., will be the Johnson Graduate School of Management's Park speaker on Monday, April 9, at 4:30 p.m. in B09 Sage Hall at Cornell University. The title of Carp's talk is "Crossing the Digital Divide." The event is free and open to the public. Carp received a B.B.A. degree in quantitative methods from Ohio University and an M.B.A. degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He later earned an M.S. in management as a Sloan fellow at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career at Kodak as a statistical analyst in 1970. In 1986 he served as assistant general manager and, later, as vice president and general manager of Kodak's Latin American Region . In 1990, Carp became the London-based general manager of the European Marketing Companies. He was appointed general manager of the European, African and Middle Eastern Region in 1991, and in 1997 he was elected its president and chief operating officer. (April 2, 2001)