Cornell University News Service Releases

September, 2001

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Search-and-rescue dogs at World Trade Center were helped by veterinarians from Cornell and Northeast region
When hundreds of search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers showed up at the site of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center collapse, not far behind were teams of veterinarians and veterinary technicians who volunteered their time and supplies to care for the hard-working canines. Footpad lacerations, eye irritation, dehydration and heat stroke were among the problems the veterinary medical personnel were prepared to treat. But a kind of canine depression, which set in when the usually eager dogs found all too few living survivors in the rubble, proved harder to remedy, according to one volunteer with the American Veterinary Medical Association's VMAT (Veterinary Medical Assistance Team), the official disaster response team. (September 28, 2001)

Cornell to join New York state researchers in two-day summit on technology transfer
Cornell University is joining New York state agencies and universities in sponsoring a Technology Transfer Summit at the Desmond Hotel, Albany, Oct. 4-5. Other sponsors are the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), Columbia University, the State University of New York and the state Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. (September 28, 2001)

Mike Tanner '80, former Cornell quarterback, is among Sept. 11 victims
Michael A. "Mike" Tanner, the quarterback who helped lead the Cornell University Big Red football team to a winning record in 1979 and who led his high school football team to a New Jersey state parochial school championship, is among the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He was 44. Tanner, who earned a bachelor's degree in consumer economics from Cornell's College of Human Ecology in 1980, worked as an investment officer and trader for the securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald. The firm's offices were on the top floors of the World Trade Center. Eamon McEneaney '77, who was Tanner's teammate on the Cornell football team and who also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, also is among the victims of the Sept. 11 attack. (September 28, 2001)

Minority education advocate John Brooks Slaughter to give College of Engineering lecture Oct. 4
The fact that thousands of capable minority students miss out on careers in engineering is a "massive brain drain," says John Brooks Slaughter, a former director of the National Science Foundation and now president and chief executive officer of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. The consequences of losing these students, and strategies for improvement, are the topics for discussion during Slaughter's visit to Cornell Univeristy Thursday, Oct. 4. Slaughter will deliver a lecture titled "Engineering Excellence and Equity" at 4 p.m. in Room 255 Olin Hall. The talk is free of charge and open to the public. A student-sponsored reception follows the lecture in McManus Lounge, Hollister Hall. (September 28, 2001)

Shibley Telhami to speak on Middle East situation
Shibley Telhami, well known expert on Arab-Israeli relations, will be guest speaker at the Peace Studies Program's lunchtime seminar Thursday, Oct. 4, at 12:15 p.m. in G-08 Uris Hall on the Cornell University campus. Telhami, former director of the Near Eastern Studies Program at Cornell, holds the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland-College Park, and his commentary on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is frequently sought by the media. His lecture, titled "Can the Arab-Israeli Peace Process be Revived?" is free and open to the public. (September 28, 2001)

Selma, Ala. and Ithaca mauors will discuss 'Governing Divided Communities,' Oct. 4
The Cornell Political Forum is sponsoring "Governing Divided Communities," Thursday, Oct. 4, a discussion featuring James Perkins Jr., mayor of Selma, Ala., and Alan Cohen, mayor of Ithaca. The forum, which is free and open to public, will begin at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of Anabel Taylor Hall on the Cornell University campus. Joining the discussion, which will address the challenges and possibilities of governing diverse and contentious cities, will be Cornell faculty members James Turner, professor of Africana studies and former director of the Africana Studies and Research Center, and Michael Jones-Correa, associate professor of government. There also will be opportunities for give-and-take between the panelists and audience members. (September 28, 2001)

Students go "Into the Streets" for community service, Sept. 29
This Saturday, Sept. 29, more than 500 Cornell University students will be volunteering in the greater Ithaca area for the 10th annual Into the Streets day of public service. The purpose of Into the Streets, a program of the Cornell Public Service Center, is to introduce students to the experience and values of community service and encourage them to volunteer on a regular basis. The Public Service Center's goal is to promote service-learning, in which students not only make a difference to their communities, but also learn and gain useful experience themselves from their efforts. Serving the community is a valuable learning experience that complements the students' academic work. (September 28, 2001)

Most rocks on 433 Eros ejected from a single crater
The first detailed global mapping of an asteroid has found that most of the larger rocks strewn across the body were ejected from a single crater in a meteorite collision perhaps a billion years ago. "One big impact spread all this debris," says Peter Thomas, senior researcher in Cornell University's Department of Astronomy. "This observation is helping us start answering questions about how things work on the surface of an asteroid." (September 25, 2001)

Travel, tourism to see short-term pain, long-term gain
While the threat of terrorism will radically alter travel and tourism, the industry is likely to bounce back sooner, and smarter, than some have predicted -- with the added benefit of people just being nicer to each other for a long time to come. So said a panel of hospitality industry experts convened at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration's Statler Auditorium Friday, Sept. 14, to discuss the impact on the industry of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (September 25, 2001)

Symposium, Sept. 28-29, looks at landscapes from all angles
An interdisciplinary symposium, "Landscapes: Sublime/Popular/Ruined/Surreal," is being held on the Cornell University campus Friday, Sept. 28, and Saturday, Sept. 29. All events are free and open to the public. The symposium spotlights the research of Cornell faculty, who will discuss the concept of landscape from the points of view of their various disciplines, through papers, workshops and a photography exhibition. Participating faculty are from the departments of Anthropology; Architecture; Art; City and Regional Planning; Design and Environmental Analysis; History; History of Art; Landscape Architecture; Rural Sociology; and Romance Studies. (September 25, 2001)

China friendship award to Cornell geophysicist
Larry D. Brown, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, will receive the Chinese government's 2001 Friendship Award during celebrations of the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Sept. 27-Oct. 2. The award, which is conferred through China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, honors Brown for his geophysics work in Project INDEPTH (International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya). Under way since 1990, the Project is an interdisciplinary program of geophysical and geological studies to develop a better understanding of the deep structure and mechanics of the Himalaya-Tibet region. (September 25, 2001)

Hilchey to provide keynote address for Northeast Hops Alliance Dinner at SUNY Morrisville
Duncan Hilchey, agricultural development specialist with Cornell University's Farming Alternatives Program, will deliver the keynote address, "Hops and Terroir: A Sense of Place, A Sense of Community," at the Northeast Hops Alliance Dinner, part of the Sixth Annual Madison County Hops Fest. The Oct. 6 dinner will be at 5:30 p.m., Seneca Hall, the State University of New York at Morrisville. New York agriculturists want to revive the once-thriving hop industry in Central New York, which at one time produced 50 million pounds of hops annually. The Northeast Hop Alliance is a group established to explore the feasibility of reintroducing commercial hop production in New York and in the Northeastern United States. Hilchey will present historical statistics on hop production in Central New York and examine the possibility for reviving production. (September 24, 2001)

Wendt's Dairy of Buffalo selected for best milk in New York state
Cornell University's Department of Food Science has selected Wendt's Dairy (Niagara Milk Cooperative) of Buffalo as the producer of the highest quality milk in New York state for 2001. The selection is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. The analytical tests are run at Cornell. (September 21, 2001)

Fifth annual Environmental Film Festival set for Oct. 12-18
ITHACA, N.Y. --The Cornell Environmental Film Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary with more than 20 films exploring humanity's role in the natural world. The festival will run from Oct. 12 to Oct. 18 at Cornell University, with additional screenings at Ithaca College and Hobart-William Smith Colleges. Topics of this year's films include environmentally sustainable planning, citizens' roles in watershed preservation and the little known history of "peaceful" nuclear testing. The controversy surrounding the massive construction of China's Three Gorges Dam, and the decline of two of the American West's most important animal species, the buffalo and the prairie dog, also are examined. (September 20, 2001)

Program on 'A Commitment to Social Change' slated for Sept. 25
A panel discussion, "A Commitment to Social Change," is slated for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 25 in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University. It will feature three prominent guest speakers who are known for doing extraordinary work in their communities and whose initiatives represent a model for community participation. The program, which is free and open to the public, is the first event supported by the $1 million endowment from Jill and Ken Iscol for the Iscol Family Fund for Leadership in Public Service, an interdisciplinary program in the Department of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell. The goal of the program is to inspire and educate new generations of leaders in public service able to address the intractable problems that face society at any given time, such as hunger, poverty, ignorance, homelessness and violence. (September 20, 2001)

NSF Center for Nanoscale Systems in IT
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today (Sept. 19) that Cornell University will be the home of a Center for Nanoscale Systems in Information Technologies. The grant is $11.6 million over five years. The director of the center, Robert Buhrman, the John Edson Sweet Professor of Engineering in the Cornell School of Applied and Engineering Physics, will oversee a broad program of research in nanoscale electronics, photonics and magnetics, with direct impact on future high-performance electronics, information storage, communications and sensor technologies. (September 20, 2001)

Nobel chemist Richard Ernst will give four public lectures
Richard Ernst, 1991 Nobel laureate in chemistry and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, will visit Cornell University Sept. 23 through Oct. 7 as an A.D. White Professor-at-Large. The co-author of Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in One and Two Dimensions, Ernst is the recipient of many honors, including numerous honorary doctorates and the Wolf Prize for Chemistry, the Ampere Prize and the Benoist Prize. (September 20, 2001)

Veterinary students will wash dogs for education Sept. 29
A dog wash on Saturday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the courtyard in front of Schurman Hall on the Cornell University campus will benefit the Cornell Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association (SCAVMA). Proceeds from the SCAVMA dog wash help underwrite students' travel expenses to educational events, such as symposia and professional meetings. (September 20, 2001)

Cornell panel to discuss Microsoft antitrust case Sept. 27
Will business, or the rules, change in the wake of the high-profile Microsoft antitrust case? A panel featuring Cornell law, business and computer science professors will talk about the case and its aftermath Thursday, Sept. 27, on Cornell University's campus. The event is free and open to the public. Titled "The Microsoft Case: Information Technology and a New Era of Anti-Trust Law," the discussion will be held in B17 Upson Hall from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The panel features these Cornell faculty members: Kenneth Birman, professor of computer science; George Hay, the Edward Cornell Professor of Law and professor of economics; and Michael Waldman, the Charles H. Dyson Professor in Management and professor of economics. Tracy Mitrano, policy adviser for Cornell's Office of Information Technologies, will moderate the discussion. Mitrano also is co-director of the office's Computer Policy and Law (CPL) program. (September 20, 2001)

Author Tobias Wolff to give public reading Sept. 21
Master story writer Tobias Wolff will give a public reading Friday, Sept. 21, at 8 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium at Cornell University. Wolff, author of such brilliant short story collections as The Night in Question, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs and The Barracks Thief, is the latest guest of the 2001 James McConkey Reader in American Fiction series at Cornell. The event is free and open to the public. Wolff, the Melvin and Bill Lane Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, also is the author of two highly acclaimed memoirs, This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army. Earlier this year he was admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has received numerous awards for his work including: the 1985 Pen/Faulkner Award, the Whiting Foundation Award in 1990, and Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award in 1993, among others. (September 18, 2001)

Studying the biomechanics of the human thumb
Francisco Valero-Cuevas, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, has been awarded a $239,992 research grant by the Whitaker Foundation to study the human thumb. He is principal investigator at the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory at Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, which is dedicated to understanding the biomechanics, neuromuscular control and clinical rehabilitation of hand function. The funding will advance Valero-Cuevas's research on the biomechanics of the thumb in which he marries anatomical studies with mathematical analysis. (September 18, 2001)

Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel is Hatfield speaker Sept. 20
Sidney Taurel, chairman, president and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, will deliver this year's Hatfield address at Cornell University Thursday, Sept. 20, at 4:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall. Taurel is the 2001 Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, the highest honor Cornell bestows on outstanding individuals from the corporate sector. His talk is titled "The Future of Aging: Social Consequences of the Biomedical Revolution" and is free and open to the public. (September 18, 2001)

Eamon McEneaney, Cornell lacrosse champion, dies in attack on World Trade Center
Eamon McEneaney, who was an All-American lacrosse player at Cornell University in the 1970s and considered one of the best ever to play the game, is among the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. A member of the Class of 1977, McEneaney was an employee of the securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were on the top floors of the World Trade Center. (September 18, 2001)

Used computers needed: Teens refurbish and donate them to area low-income families
Rather than pack used computer parts away in the closet, you can donate them to the Ithaca Youth Bureau, where local teen-agers will refurbish them and donate them to low-income families in the area. "We accept any computer or computer component," says Marty Schreiber, the program coordinator of the Computer All Stars program at the Ithaca Youth Bureau. "Local Ithaca City School District middle-school and high-school students learn how to rebuild the computers after school and may receive one of them. In addition, applications for computers are accepted from local families who have school-age children and who would not otherwise have a computer." (September 18, 2001)

Genetically engineered foods' risks and benefits to be discussed Oct. 5 at meeting of Cornell breast cancer group
Possible risks and benefits of genetically engineered foods and crops will be reviewed when Cornell University's Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State (BCERF) holds an ad hoc discussion group meeting Oct. 5, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m in 178 Stocking Hall of the Ithaca campus. The meeting is open, by reservation, to the public and is free with a charge for parking and lunch. For reservations, call BCERF at (607) 254-2893 by Sept. 21. (September 18, 2001)

Rawlings describes relief efforts on campus
N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings today (Sept. 13, 2001) issued a statement describing relief efforts under way for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist acts: (September 13, 2001)

University will hold campus wide memorial Friday
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings issued this statement today (Sept. 13, 2001): We have just learned that President Bush has designated this Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, as a national day of prayer and remembrance for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. He has requested that the people of the United States and places of worship mark this national day of prayer and remembrance with noontime memorial services, the ringing of bells at that hour and evening candlelight remembrance vigils. We will certainly participate in this endeavor. An all-university memorial convocation will be held at noon on the Arts Quad. Midday classes tomorrow that overlap the 11:15 a.m. to 1:25 p.m. time period are cancelled, and supervisors are expected to permit their non-essential staff to take time off during that period to join in these solemn observances. All other classes will be held as scheduled. (September 13, 2001)

Cornell Cooperative Extension mobilizes statewide resources
Cornell Cooperative Extension's statewide network has been mobilized to help New Yorkers cope with Tuesday's tragedy and its aftermath. (September 13, 2001)

Cornell athletic events for the weekend are cancelled
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings and Director of Athletics J. Andrew Noel Jr. have announced the cancellation of all of the university's intercollegiate athletic events for this weekend in consideration of the recent national tragedy. Athletic events in which Cornell's participation has been canceled include: (September 13, 2001)

NTI workshop is cancelled; FTA mobile showcase is still on
ITHACA, N.Y. --An NTI Fellows Workshop hosted by Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (Tcat) scheduled for Friday, Sept. 14, has been canceled due to air travel problems encountered by the workshop facilitator, Catherine Bradshaw Boon. The Federal Transit Administration's Advanced Public Transportation Systems Mobile Showcase scheduled for Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Tcat Facility located on 737 Willow Ave. in Ithaca is still on, however. It, too, is hosted by Tcat. (September 12, 2001)

Planning history pioneer John Reps leads off Cornell symposium Sept. 14-15
N.Y. -- A symposium Sept. 14 and 15 on campus will honor John W. Reps, Cornell University professor emeritus in the Department of City and Regional Planning, as he approaches his 80th birthday. Reps was called the father of American planning history by the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1996. (September 12, 2001)

Noted cultural historian Roger Chartier to speak Sept. 17 and 24
Roger Chartier, one of the world's foremost cultural historians, returns to Cornell University this month for his final visit as an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large. Chartier will give two public lectures during his stay. The first is titled "Don Quixote in the Printing Shop," and will be Monday, Sept. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Guerlac Room of the A.D. White House on campus. The final public talk, "From 'Histoire des Mentalités' to Cultural History. A Trajectory," will be Monday, Sept. 24, at 4:30 p.m., also in the A.D. White House. In addition, Chartier will hold two seminars on the subject of "Textual Materiality and Literary Meaning: Naming and Denaming," Sept. 18 and 25 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the A.D. White House. (September 12, 2001)

President Hunter Rawlings praises campus response to terrorist bombings in statement
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings issued a statement today (Sept. 12, 2001) to members of the campus community. (September 12, 2001)

Tcat hosts NTI workshop and FTA mobile showcase, Sept. 14-15
Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) will host a National Transit Institute Fellows Workshop and the Federal Transit Administration's Advanced Public Transportation Systems Mobile Showcase Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 15, at the TCAT Facility located on 737 Willow Ave. in Ithaca. The NTI Fellows Workshop will be led by Catherine Bradshaw Boon, senior research engineer with the Washington State Transportation Center, University of Washington. The main focus of the workshop will be how to plan and deploy a real-time, Internet-distributed, public transit information system. Such a system enables people to know the location of buses using the Internet, electronic displays at bus stops and wireless devices. The workshop will be Friday. (September 11, 2001)

Contract colleges to hold Open House and Transfer Day for prospective undergraduate and transfer students
Cornell University's contract colleges will hold an Open House for prospective freshman students Saturday, Oct. 20, and a Transfer Day for prospective undergraduate transfer students Friday, Nov. 2. Students interested in learning about admission to the state-assisted colleges at Cornell are encouraged to attend. The open house will provide high school juniors, seniors and their parents the opportunity to visit Cornell's New York state colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology and School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Visitors will receive an overview of the university and academic programs in the three colleges. High school students and their parents are invited to campus to meet admissions staff, faculty and current Cornell students. The program will include admissions and financial aid information. (September 11, 2001)

Math Explorers Club will host first meeting for high school students and open house for parents Sept. 15
Cornell University's Math Explorer's Club will meet for the first time during this school year Sept. 15 in the fifth floor lounge of Malott Hall on campus, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It also will be an open house for the parents of area high school students. (September 11, 2001)

How to help children cope with news of terrorist attacks
James Garbarino, professor of human development and co-director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University, offers advice to parents on how they can help their children cope with the news of terrorist attacks that occurred today in the United States. He is a nationally recognized expert on child development and youth violence. (September 11, 2001)

President Rawlings issues statement on U.S. attacks
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings today (Sept. 11, 2001) issued a statement to all students, faculty and staff on the attacks on the United States. (September 11, 2001)

New paperback offers tips on report writing
How to acquire the art and science of report writing is the focus of a new paperback reference book, Guide to Report Writing. Co-authored by senior lecturer Craig Snow, who teaches managerial communication in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, Guide to Report Writing (Prentice-Hall, 2001) is short -- 87 pages -- easy-to-read and straightforward. (September 7, 2001)

Cornell Police to participate in "Buckle Up" enforcement Sept. 7-16
Buckle up, Cornellians. During the week of Sept. 7 - 16, law enforcement agencies throughout the state, including the Cornell Police, will be participating in the "Buckle Up New York" campaign coordinated by the New York State Police. (September 6, 2001)

Cell-cell communication in the flower is unlocked
Familiarity breeds contempt. Nonfamiliarity produces seed. Just as humans have a natural aversion toward marrying kin, some food crop plants have genes that allow them to avoid being fertilized by "self-related" pollen. Now Cornell University's biologists have solved one more piece of the puzzle of how plants' self-incompatibility works on the molecular level. (September 6, 2001)

Simple Blood Test to Detect Disease Promised
New York, NY (September 4, 2001) -- The day will come when people will be screened for hundreds of diseases through a simple blood test if the vision of the newest faculty recruit under the Strategic Plan for Research at Weill Cornell Medical College is fulfilled. Through new technology in "proteomics," which he is developing, conditions like pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed at a stage early enough so that there will be a good chance they can be treated and cured.Dr. Samie R. Jaffrey, 29 years old and now an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell, says that the word "proteomics" is used in different ways, but, he says, "The aspect that I am interested in is the global profiling of protein expression. I see it as the study of all the proteins in a cell, or in blood, or in some other biological sample. Proteins are the mediators of all biological functions. Proteins are responsible for metabolism, for growth, for the differentiation of cells, for the way cells communicate with other cells."

The Rev. Kenneth I. Clarke named director of Cornell United Religious Work
The Rev. Kenneth I. Clarke, formerly director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs at the Pennsylvania State University, has been named director of Cornell United Religious Work (CURW), the first interfaith program on a major American campus. Clarke, who also was the primary administrator for the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel at Penn State, was named director effective July 9 of this year, said Susan H. Murphy, Cornell University vice president for student and academic services. (September 5, 2001)

Neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks visits campus as A.D. White Professor-at-Large Sept. 9-20.
Dr. Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, will hold two lectures among other events during his first campus visit to Cornell University as an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large, Sept. 9-20. Sacks, whose engaging literary voice is an artful blend of hard science and profound human feeling, will participate in a Knight freshman writing seminar in which his book on deafness, Seeing Voices, is required reading. He will discuss monsters in Greek mythology in a classics course and also participate in cognitive neuroscience and clinical neurobiology classes. In addition, Sacks will visit plant science and veterinary college laboratories while on campus. (September 4, 2001)

Welfare benefits may not keep people healthy
While unemployment payments can help protect recipients against health deterioration during forced unemployment, welfare benefits don't, finds an international study by a Cornell University epidemiologist. Examining data from the United States, Britain and Germany, she says, "In all three countries, unemployed persons who received welfare or similar benefits reported negative health effects since losing their jobs, even when factors such as previous health, education and household income were controlled for in the analysis." (September 4, 2001)