Cornell University News Service Releases
April, 2002
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.
Three Cornell physics students heading to Europe as part of inaugural research-training program with EU labs
Three graduate students in the Department of Physics at Cornell University are among six U.S. students who have been selected to spend the summer doing research at leading European Union (EU) laboratories. The students, Joseph Choi, Luke Donev and Daniel Graham, are being sent in an inaugural test research-training program connecting U.S. research centers with labs in the EU. The program has been developed by Cornell's Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at the suggestion of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Materials Research. The program was spearheaded by Albert Sievers, Cornell professor of experimental condensed matter physics. (April 30, 2002)
Three students honored for community service efforts
The 2002 Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award was presented during a dinner and awards ceremony on campus, April 12, to three Cornell University students for their community service work. The award was established by Cornell alumni Gerald '54 and Margot '55 Robinson and Robert '53 and Helen '55 Appel to recognize and honor students who have had significant involvement in community service by providing support for their projects, which address a community's social needs or problems. Three students are selected annually, and each receives $1,500 to further a community service project that he or she has proposed and initiated. Listed below are this year's recipients, with their hometowns, colleges and majors, and the descriptions of their projects. (April 30, 2002)
Cornell chemist D. Tyler McQuade wins 3M award
D. Tyler McQuade, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, has won a Nontenured Faculty Award from 3M Co. The award carries a check for $15,000. This is McQuade's second major award since joining the Cornell faculty last year. Last fall he won a New Faculty Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. (April 30, 2002)
Mastiffs could aid treatment of retinitis pigmentosa
The English mastiff dog, a breed that sometimes carries the gene defect for the canine eye disease progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), has been revealed as a key animal model to help explain retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in humans. The dogs can be used to test possible therapies for the disease, according to researchers at Cornell University's Baker Institute for Animal Health and the University of Pennsylvania's Scheie Eye Institute. At least 100,000 people in the United States currently suffer vision loss and blindness from the disease. The determination, which follows the recent Cornell discovery of the genetic mutation leading PRA blindness in the English mastiff, is reported in the April 30, 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, Vol. 99 No. 9) as "Naturally occurring rhodopsin mutation in the dog causes retinal dysfunction and degeneration mimicking human dominant retinitis pigmentosa." (April 23, 2002)
Cornell Library seeks local minority high school students for new Library Junior Fellows summer training program
The Cornell University Library (CUL) is seeking talented minority high school students from Tompkins County to participate in its inaugural Library Junior Fellows Program. Six to eight students will be selected for the paid summer program, which runs from July 1st through Aug. 9th. Deadline for applications is May 10. Junior fellows are required to work 24 hours a week on specific projects and receive on-the-job training through workshops in information literacy, and technology and research skills. They can practice those new skills on their very own refurbished computer, given to them -- for keeps -- as part of their job. In addition Junior Library Fellows will receive career counseling. The library also provides a Cornell Dining Pass for the first week of employment and a TCAT Summer Fun bus pass. (April 26, 2002)
Selected coming events at Cornell University, week of April 29--May 4
A short summary of lectures and other events scheduled for the week of April 28-May 4. (April 26, 2002)<
Union Square's feisty past is subject of new musical play, May 1-12, marking Labor History Month
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Women's Voices From Union Square, an original musical play about the 14th Street square's role in American labor history, will be performed in New York City, May 1-12, in honor of Labor History Month. The play's author is Dorothy Fennell, a Cornell University labor historian, and its producer is the New York City extension office of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Performances, which feature several off-Broadway actors, begin May Day (May 1) at the Tenement Museum's Theater on Orchard Street in Lower Manhattan and continue there and at other venues in New York City through Mother's Day (May 12). (April 25, 2002)
Cornell Presidential Search Committee to hold open meetings
Cornell University's Presidential Search Committee, charged with conducting a search for the university's next president, will hold four open meetings over the next few weeks to receive input from the campus community. Edwin H. Morgens, vice chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, chairs the search committee. He released a report today (April 24, 2002) describing the search procedure. (April 25, 2002)
Hungry children: more depression, suicide, low grades
Hunger and poverty in the United States are severe enough to significantly impair the academic and psychosocial development of school-age children and adolescents, according to two studies at Cornell University. "The level of food deprivation in this wealthy nation puts millions of children at risk for multiple developmental problems," says Katherine Alaimo, who obtained her Ph.D. at Cornell in 2000 and now is a community health scholar at the University of Michigan. Alaimo conducted the studies for her doctoral dissertation, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics, with Cornell nutritional sciences Professor Christine Olson and Associate Professor Edward Frongillo. One study looks at how hunger is linked to depression and suicide attempts among adolescents. The other links hunger with the cognitive, academic and psychosocial development of school-age children. (April 25, 2002)
Udall Scholarships awarded to two Cornell undergraduates
Two undergraduate students at Cornell University, juniors Lara E. Douglas and Benjamin E. Wolfe, have been awarded scholarships for the 2002-03 academic year by the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation. Cornell's Udall Scholarships are among 80 nationwide awarded from an applicant pool of 447, and cover up to $5,000 in eligible expenses for the year. Another Cornell student, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences junior Peter Hosner, was named an honorable-mention recipient of $350 for educational expenses. (April 25, 2002)
Salamanders change spots: Was it environmental stress?
Salamanders with unusual, asymmetrical spots have been found in a pond in the middle of an Ithaca golf course. Cornell University biologists, who have compared the amphibians with symmetrically spotted specimens gathered from the same pond six decades earlier, believe they are seeing indications that changes in a salamander's spots can signal environmental trouble. "Salamanders and frogs are considered an early-warning system for environmental stress," says Kelly Zamudio, Cornell assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "With the dramatic change in these spots, this is an early-warning system for an early warning system." (April 24, 2002)
Josiah Ober, leading expert on origins of Greek democracy, to give Silbey-LaFeber public lecture April 25
Josiah Ober, professor of classics and human values at Princeton University, will deliver the Silbey-LaFeber Lecture in History at Cornell University on Thursday, April 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Goldwin Smith Lecture Room D. Ober's lecture, "Tyrant-killing and civil conflict, an Athenian political debate in texts and images," will focus on democratic dissent and the way in which public monuments reflect democratic values. The talk is free and open to the public. Ober writes and teaches on both ancient history and on contemporary political philosophy. His forthcoming book, A Company of Citizens (Harvard Business School Press), applies ancient democratic ideas to modern business practices. (April 23, 2002)
Cornell graduate student killed in car-bike accident
A Cornell University graduate student in physics was killed when the bicycle he was riding was struck by a car on Route 13 in the town of Virgil, N.Y., on Saturday, April 20. Raphael Kapfer, 24, was riding north on Route 13 between Dryden and Cortland at 10:30 a.m. when he was struck by a car driven by Joseph Cinquanti, 82, of Dryden. Cinquanti was driving south and was making a left turn when he hit Kapfer, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Cinquanti was ticketed for failing to yield the right of way and operating a motor vehicle without proof of valid insurance, officials from the Cortland County Sheriff's Office said. (April 23, 2002)
Roger Hart, Children's Environments Research Group co-director, takes part in campus-community events, April 25 and 26
Roger Hart, internationally known for bringing the voices of children and youth to environmental and community planning tables, will give a free public talk Thursday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Cornell University's Martha Van Rensselaer Auditorium. The topic: "Children and the Making of Civil Society: Rethinking the Democratic Development of Young Citizens."Hart will also participate in several other events over two days. Hart is co-director of the Children's Environments Research Group, a non-profit organization supporting low-income residents in neighborhoods in New York City as well as throughout the Third World to redesign living environments so that they nurture growth and creativity for children and their families. (April 23, 2002)
47 daily high temperature records smashed in Northeast
Creating temperatures more fit for the fourth of July, the mid-April heat wave that crossed the Northeast from April 16 to 18 smashed 47 daily high marks on the thermometer and tied six previous records, according to data compiled by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. "The influence of the Bermuda High brought those very unusual temperatures to us, as the upper-atmosphere circulation drove that warm weather up from the south," says Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist at the center. "While it was an unusual climate situation for the middle of April, the heat wave had nothing to do with the lack of snow we've had in the Northeast this season." (April 22, 2002)
Cornell Police step up enforcement of seatbelt law on campus
Cornell University Police will have "zero tolerance" for people who don't wear their seatbelts during an enforcement campaign on campus April 22-26. Officers will conduct random road checks and issue tickets to drivers and passengers who are not "buckled up." This action follows an awareness campaign by Cornell Police for the past two weeks, during which they handed out warning brochures to motorists. (April 22, 2002)
Selected coming events, week of April 22-30
Weekly highlights of upcoming lectures and meetings.
(April 19, 2002)
National consortium proposes 20-mile-long collider
More than 50 physicists from universities and laboratories around the nation are meeting at Cornell University today (April 19, 2002) to take the first step toward a proposal for federal development funding for what would be the largest research machine ever built: a multi-billion-dollar, 20-mile-long electron-positron linear collider. Cornell is taking the lead in drafting research and development plans for the accelerator itself and for the detector that would that would reconstruct the trajectories of the charged particles discovered in the next major step into inner space. The university's Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics, or LEPP (previously the Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies), is organizing a national consortium to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in September for about $1 million in funding to support the research. LEPP's director Maury Tigner today called the effort "a grass roots collaboration." (April 19, 2002)
Cooking tomatoes boosts disease-fighting power
Cooking tomatoes -- such as in spaghetti sauce -- makes the fruit heart-healthier and boosts its cancer-fighting ability. All this, despite a loss of vitamin C during the cooking process, say Cornell food scientists. The reason: cooking substantially raises the levels of beneficial compounds called phytochemicals. Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry (April 17), Rui Hai Liu, M.D., Cornell assistant professor of food science, notes, "This research demonstrates that heat processing actually enhanced the nutritional value of tomatoes by increasing the lycopene content -- a phytochemical that makes tomatoes red -- that can be absorbed by the body, as well as the total antioxidant activity. The research dispels the popular notion that processed fruits and vegetables have lower nutritional value than fresh produce." (April 19, 2002)
Terzian asks Congress for Space Grant funding
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An appeal to Congress to raise fiscal 2003 funding for NASA's National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program was made Tuesday (April 16, 2001) by Yervant Terzian, a Cornell University astronomy professor and director of the program in New York state. Terzian noted that the 2003 federal budget recommendation of $19.1 million for the program, which operates in every state plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, was a reduction from the $28 million requested by the Space Grant program and below fiscal 2002 funding of $24.1 million. The reduced appropriation, he noted, would set back the program to funding levels that had lasted for several years before fiscal 2002. (April 19, 2002)
Ford grant for African presence in Venice Biennale exhibit
ITHACA, N.Y. --A Ford Foundation grant of $195,000 to Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center will support the second phase of "Africa in Venice," a project under the direction of Professor Salah Hassan, chair of Cornell's Department of History of Art. The grant will be used to support outreach activities generated from the unprecedented success of African artists in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), as well as to support preparations for African artists in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. The 2001 exhibition -- capstone of phase one of the project -- was funded in large part by a Ford Foundation grant of $300,000; Ford originally began funding the project in 1999. Titled "Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa In and Out of Africa," phase one included publication of a scholarly companion book Authentic/Ex-centric: African Conceptualism in Global Contexts, a significant and enduring chronicle of contemporary African artists and their works. (April 19, 2002)
President Hunter Rawlings reports substantial progress in faculty salaries improvement plan
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Cornell University has made substantial progress in its multi-year faculty improvement plan, with salaries for continuing faculty increasing 8.1 percent in 2001-02, compared with the university's overall goal of 8 percent, President Hunter Rawlings announced today (April 17, 2002). Endowed college salaries increased 7 percent in 2001-02, the single largest increase in its selected peer group, Rawlings said. The peer group average was 4.4 percent, according to preliminary data from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (April 19, 2002)
Copyright expert to speak on fair use and the law
GE Fund awards $200,000 for math projects to encourage women and minorities
Applicants sought for Civic Leaders Fellowship Program
Weill Cornell Prevention Program Can Cut Binge Drinking in Inner-City Youth
Two Cornell computer scientists receive Sloan Fellowships
Cornell trustee committee to meet in New York City
A map of 'protein space' could predict structure, function
Comet hunter Carolyn Shoemaker to speak April 21
Tomato catch-up: discovery of ripening gene could make store-bought tomatoes as tasty as homegrown
Radar reveals five double asteroid systems near Earth
Four students win national Goldwater Scholarships in science and mathematics
Infrared telescope may give clues to galactic mystery
University schedules events, April 18-30, to discuss diversity in America
Tisch gift will help keep distinguished professors in the classroom beyond retirement
Forum on U.S.-China business relations April 12
Entrepreneur and author Rob Ryan to speak April 15 on "What Goes Wrong in Start-up Companies"
Deteriorating Civil War landmarks in Queens to be rescued
Conference April 13 will examine the effects of wars in the former Yugoslavia on international relations
President announces plans to lift Cornell hiring freeze
Cornell experts contribute to NIH report on college drinking
Joseph Veverka named Aviation Week 'laureate'
Ford Foundation grant to study 'crisis' in social sciences
David Linhart headlines Lauren Pickard '90 Emerging Artist Series show, April 15, at Willard Straight Hall
Fourth annual Powwow and Smoke Dance Competition will be April 13
Sex, peace and planet Earth: Roger Short, Haris Silajdzic and Jane Goodall are Professors-at-Large in April
Michael Shuler named to lead program to integrate life sciences into engineering education
Vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories to give annual Julian C. Smith lectures April 15-17
Cornell officials release review of arrest of student
Cornell reaffirms continued membership in Worker Rights Consortium and Fair Labor Association
2002 Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony goes campus group BLEND
Role of unions in economic, political justice is Union Days theme April 10-12
Investment giant John Bogle, Vanguard founder, to discuss holistic leadership style April 10
Medical-legal ethics expert Lori Andrews speaks on 'Property rights' of our bodies at Law School April 10
Global perspectives on women in politics highlight Cornell alumnae conference April 12-14
Conference on healthcare information technology April 20
Cornell presidential search committee is formed
"Someone owns just about everything. Fair use lets you use their things -- but not as much as you'd like to. Sometimes you have to ask for permission. Sometimes you are the owner -- think about that! Any questions?" So begins Georgia Harper's popular and highly regarded online tutorial on copyright and fair use at
The GE Fund, the philanthropic foundation of General Electric Co., has awarded $200,000 to Cornell University to support an integrated range of projects in the fund's Math Excellence initiative over two years. The projects are aimed at encouraging female and under-represented minority students studying math in high school and college. According to Cornell computer science professor Charles Van Loan, the program's leader, "With resources provided by the GE Fund, we will be able to define new programs and approaches that will increase the number of women and under-represented minorities who study computer science. Moreover, the GE Fund is able to provide us with an evaluation framework that permits us to track our progress and make mid-course corrections as necessary so that stated goals are achieved." (April 17, 2002)
The Cornell University Public Service Center is seeking applications for its Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program for the second year. The Civic Leaders Program aids community-building projects and the people who carry them out. (April 16, 2002)
New York, NY (April 12, 2002) -- A large, randomized study of more than 3,000 New York City schoolchildren has shown for the first time that a school-based prevention program that teaches early adolescents drug refusal skills and other essential behaviors can significantly decrease binge drinking for as long as two years after the initial intervention. The program is the LifeSkills Training (LST) program developed by Weill Cornell Medical College."This is the largest and most rigorous prevention study conducted with inner-city youngsters, and one of the first to examine binge drinking in these youth," said the study’s lead investigator, Gilbert J. Botvin, Ph.D., an internationally known expert on drug abuse prevention, who is Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Director of Weill Cornell’s Institute for Prevention Research. Dr. Botvin is also Chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior in Weill Cornell’s Department of Public Health and Attending Psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Two members of the Cornell University faculty have been awarded Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships. They are Lillian Lee and Andrew Myers, both assistant professors of computer science. The two are among 104 young scientists and economists selected as 2002 Sloan fellows, representing faculty from 53 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The fellowships, totaling $4.16 million this year, allow scientists to continue their research with awards of $40,000 each over two years. Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them. (April 15, 2002)
The Executive Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees will hold a brief open session when it meets in Manhattan on Thursday, April 18, at 2 p.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 15, 2002)
Golan Yona, assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program award to support his research into creating a map of all known proteins. Such a map might be akin to the periodic table of the elements. Yona, a computational biologist, will receive a five-year grant of $1,103,915 to support his research. The NSF-funded research grant, "Global Self-Organization of All Known Proteins -- Toward a Complete Map of the Protein Space," has the goal of organizing and categorizing the hundreds of thousands of known proteins into a multi-dimensional map. By locating a new protein on the map, researchers might be able to guess its function by looking at others that fall nearby. Also, when a gene is sequenced, by comparing that sequence with others on the map, researchers might be able to predict the structure and function of the protein for which the gene codes. (April 11, 2002)
Carolyn S. Shoemaker, the world's most successful living "comet hunter," will speak at Cornell University Sunday, April 21, at 1 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. The talk is free and is open to the public. The subject of the talk, which is aimed at science educators, will be asteroid and comet collisions within the solar system. The talk is sponsored by NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour) and the central and southern sections of the Science Teachers Association of New York State. Contour, which is scheduled for launch July 1, is managed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University, with Cornell's Department of Astronomy leading the science team. (April 11, 2002)
The fruits of genetic research are about to ripen: Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc. (BTI), located on the campus of Cornell University, have discovered a gene that controls ripening in tomatoes. This means that tastier, more-nutritious grocery-store tomatoes are not far behind, say the researchers in an article in the latest issue of the journal Science (April 12, 2002), titled "A MADS-box gene necessary for fruit ripening at the tomato ripening-inhibitor (rin) locus." (April 9, 2002)
Binary asteroids -- two rocky objects orbiting about one another -- appear to be common in Earth-crossing orbits, astronomers using the world's two most powerful astronomical radar telescopes report. And it is probable, they say, that these double asteroid systems have been formed as a result of gravitational effects during close encounters with at least two of the inner planets, including Earth. Writing in a report published by the journal Science on its Science Express web site (April 11, 2002), the researchers estimate that about 16 percent of so-called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) larger than 200 meters (219 yards) in diameter are likely to be binary systems, with about a three-to-one relative size of the two encircling bodies. To date, five such binary systems have been identified by radar, says lead researcher Jean-Luc Margot, an O.K. Earl postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. (April 9, 2002)
Four Cornell University undergraduates -- two sophomores and two juniors -- are winners of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. The students are sophomores Peter M. Clark of Flemington, N.J., majoring in biology, chemistry and mathematics, and Matthew Moake of Cedaredge, Colo., majoring in biology; and juniors Adam Berman of Bethesda, Md., majoring in physics, and Yolanda Tseng of San Jose, Calif., majoring in biological engineering. (April 11, 2002)
With the recent delivery of the telescope and scientific instruments for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), the last of NASA's four Great Observatories, to Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif., for assembly and testing, astronomers at Cornell University are eagerly anticipating the almost certain discoveries that the new telescope will make beginning early next year. Some of the most exciting discoveries are likely to come from the first, close-up infrared look at galaxies formed in the early universe -- relatively nearby blue compact dwarf galaxies. Ranging in distance from 3 to 30 million light years and composed largely of helium and hydrogen, these dwarf galaxies are so deficient in heavy elements that they contain as little as 2 percent of the solar system's share of heavy elements. (April 10, 2002)
"Diversity Dialogues," a campuswide discussion at Cornell University on diversity in America, is scheduled for April 18 through 30, with events both on campus and in downtown Ithaca. The week-and-a-half series, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education, and Robert L. Harris Jr., vice provost for diversity and faculty development. (April 10, 2002)
Enabling excellent teachers to remain in the classroom beyond retirement -- and allowing them to devote their talents to teaching undergraduates -- is a major challenge for universities today. Thanks to the generosity of two of its alumni, Andrew H. Tisch '71 and James S. Tisch '75, Cornell University is prepared to meet that challenge. The Tisch brothers have established a unique, distinguished professorship at Cornell that honors excellence in teaching and extends the undergraduate teaching role beyond retirement. (April 10, 2002)
A workshop on U.S.-China business relations, featuring a Cornell University benefactor who is one of China's most-successful entrepreneurs, will take place on Cornell's campus Friday, April 12. It is free and open to the puqblic. "China-U.S. Business Relations: Lessons that Stand the Test of Time" will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, B-08 Sage Hall. The event, the Moses and Loulu Seltzer Forum, is sponsored by Cornell's East Asia Program and Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise program (EPE). (April 10, 2002)
Rob Ryan, a 1969 graduate of Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences and founder of Ascend Communications, will speak on campus Monday, April 15, at 4:30 p.m. in 155 Olin Hall on "What Goes Wrong in Start-up Companies?" The talk, sponsored by Cornell's College of Engineering, is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. It is geared for engineering students and faculty members who might be interested in starting their own businesses. (April 10, 2002)
BAYSIDE, N.Y. -- Civil War-era landmarks cared for by New York City's Parks Department will be protected for future generations thanks to a spring volunteer project initiated by students in historic preservation planning at Cornell University. The students and other volunteers will stabilize neglected historic buildings and battery walls at Fort Totten Battery, in Bayside, Queens, from Friday, April 12, through Sunday, April 14. They hope that preserving the structures now and improving their appearance will lead to city support for their eventual restoration and use by the public and nonprofit groups. (April 10, 2002)
A conference titled "International Relations in a New Key" Saturday, April 13, at Cornell University will examine whether the latter part of the Bosnian war of 1992-95 and the entire course of the war of 1999 in Kosovo saw the beginning of fundamental changes in the nature of international relations. The conference, which will have a morning and an afternoon session, will take place in G-08 Uris Hall on the Cornell campus beginning at 10 a.m. It is free and open to the public, but preregistration is required. (April 9, 2002)
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings announced today (April 9) that the university has decided to lift the hiring freeze for externally funded positions April 15 and for all other positions June 30. Rawlings said the decision was made, based on the recommendation of the Workforce Planning Team and in conjunction with Provost Biddy Martin and Harold Craft, vice president for administration and chief financial officer, because the freeze has achieved its three primary objectives. (April 9, 2002)
The first report on college drinking conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was released today (April 9, 2002) at a news conference in Washington, D.C. The report, "A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges," is the result of a three-year effort conducted by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Philip W. Meilman, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University, and Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, contribute chapters that explore the complexities of various factors that lead to binge drinking and the challenges for campus officials as they try to develop policies relating to alcohol use and abuse. (April 9, 2002)
Joseph Veverka, professor and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University and a leading mission scientist for NASA, has been named a 2001 "laureate" by the magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology for his accomplishments in space sciences. The magazine, which is published by McGraw-Hill, will present a trophy to Veverka and the other laureates during ceremonies April 16 at the National Air and Space Museum. (April 8, 2002)
Social scientists are turning to their own methods in order to study themselves. The Ford Foundation has awarded $197,000 to Cornell University's Institute of European Studies for a project to enhance academic policy research and scholarship about the social sciences, a diverse area of study struggling in an increasingly competitive academic environment. The project is called "The Social Sciences at Risk: The Differential Impact of Changing University Environments on the Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities." The Ford Foundation grant will fund a workshop and a symposium through 2003, under the direction of Davydd Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of anthropology at Cornell. The workshop will be used to develop, and partly execute, a long-term research agenda and to organize a symposium composed of senior scholars, university administrators and foundation officers, and policymakers. (April 8, 2002)
A musician whose career blossomed in Ithaca and who is a favorite of area audiences will be the featured performer for this year's Lauren Pickard '90 Emerging Artist Series at Cornell University. David Linhart, a Cornell alumnus (B.S. '99 in agricultural and biological engineering) and the guitarist and lead vocalist with the well-known roots reggae band the Uplifters, will bring his acoustic-guitar driven music to Willard Straight Hall's Memorial Room on Monday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. The show is free and open to the public. (April 5, 2002)
ITHACA, N.Y. --The fourth annual Powwow and Smoke Dance Competition will be held on Saturday, April 13, in Barton Hall at Cornell University. The "grand entry" begins at noon and the powwow, hosted by the Native American Students at Cornell organization, will continue until 8 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. "The Native American students at Cornell extend a warm welcome, to native and non-native people alike, to come and be a part of this exciting family event," said Jason Corwin, a graduating senior in communications and co-chair of the Native American Students at Cornell group. "The smoke dance competition is always a highlight. T his event is an annual crowd-pleaser and is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Native American culture," he said. (April 5, 2002)
ITHACA, N.Y. --- This month, Cornell University Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-Large Roger Short, Haris Silajdzic and Jane Goodall will deliver public lectures on subjects ranging from human sexuality to international peacekeeping to saving the planet. Short is an eminent reproductive biologist making his first visit to Cornell as a professor-at-large; Silajdzic, a former prime minister of Bosnia, is making his final professor-at-large visit, as is Goodall, who is one of world's most widely recognized and distinguished primatologists. (April 5, 2002)
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Michael Shuler, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University, has been named to lead a newly established program to integrate the life sciences into engineering education, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Shuler's appointment as director of the cross-campus program in biomedical engineering (BME) at Cornell is effective immediately, and he will step down on July 1 as director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, a post he has held since 1998. (April 4, 2002)
Sangtae Kim, vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories(LRL), a division of Eli Lilly & Co., will visit Cornell University Monday, April 15, through Wednesday, April 17, to deliver the 15th annual Julian C. Smith Lectures in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His talks, both at 4 p.m., will be "Informatics in Pharmaceutical R&D" on April 15 in 165 Olin Hall and "Microfluidics of Sharp Corners and Edges" on April 17 in 255 Olin Hall. Both lectures are free and open to the public. (April 4, 2002)
Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations at Cornell University, today (April 3, 2002) issued a statement concerning the university's review of events involving the arrest of a student by Cornell Police at Lambda Upsilon Lambda fraternity, at 3:30 a.m. on January 27, 2002. (April 3, 2002)
Cornell University will continue its membership in both the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and the Fair Labor Association (FLA), two organizations aimed at ending sweatshop conditions in the apparel industry. The university's continued membership and support for these anti-sweatshop organizations is the fulfillment of a commitment Cornell President Hunter Rawlings made two years ago when he announced the university's membership in the WRC. At that time, Rawlings expressed hope that these organizations would have a positive impact on the anti-sweatshop movement. He also indicated that the university would review the effectiveness of both the FLA and WRC and look for measurable progress toward the elimination of sweatshops. (April 3, 2002)
A campus organization at Cornell University that promotes and celebrates the multi-racial experience at the university and in the Ithaca community will be the recipient of the 2002 James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony. The group BLEND (Bi-/Multiracial Lineages, Ethnicities, and Nationalities Discussion) and its founder and president, Cornell senior Tamika Lewis, will be presented with the eighth-annual Perkins Prize, including an award of $5,000, by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings during a ceremony Tuesday, April 9, at 4:15 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall on campus. (April 3, 2002)
The leader of the Los Angeles County Home-Care Workers Union, the second largest local in the nation, and a labor reporter for the Chicago Tribune who was a Pulitzer prize nominee are part of Union Days 2002 at Cornell University. This year's theme, "Unions, Democracy and Civil Society," looks at the role of the labor movement in achieving political and economic justice. Union Days, which aims to make students aware of the issues at the forefront of labor organizing, takes place at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), Ives Hall, April 10-12. Events are free and open to the public. (April 3, 2002)
John Bogle, founder of the pioneering Vanguard Group, now one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world, will speak on his holistic "servant leadership" style at Cornell University Wednesday, April 10. His talk, at 4:30 p.m. in Barnes Hall auditorium, is free and open to the public. Bogle, who was named one of the top four investment giants of the 20th century by Fortune magazine in 1999, will discuss the holistic approach to organizational effectiveness that he favors. It involves the concepts of serving others, sharing decision-making and promoting a sense of community within an organization. Initially developed by an AT&T senior executive in the 1970s, it has been championed recently by management gurus Ken Blanchard and Warren Bennis. Bogle's talk is part of the Park Leadership Speakers series sponsored by Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. (April 3, 2002)
Should hospitals be allowed to sell your blood to researchers? Should researchers be permitted to patent your genes without your consent? Those are among the compelling questions Lori B. Andrews will address Wednesday, April 10, when she delivers the second annual Bernard S. Yudowitz Lecture at Cornell University Law School. The talk will be at 4 p.m. in the Stein Mancuso Amphitheater in Myron Taylor Hall on Cornell's campus. Admission is free and open to the general public. (April 2, 2002)
The President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) will focus on issues involving women in politics during its spring conference on campus April 12-14. "As women are increasingly successful in gaining elective office and participating at national and international levels in the United States and around the world, we want to focus attention on the roles women play in the political sphere domestically and internationally, and explore the barriers that remain to full participation. We are delighted with the involvement by the Cornell community -- faculty, students and alumnae -- in this effort," said Martha Coultrap, PCCW chair. (April 1, 2002)
How can new information technologies (IT) improve healthcare? Which technologies and web-based software are most worthwhile and cost effective? What are the capabilities of web-based IT tools to improve physician productivity and decision making? To help executives and clinicians through the maze of competing technologies, the Sloan Program in Health Administration at Cornell University will host a conference, "Transforming Healthcare: Information Technology's Contribution," Saturday, April 20, at the IBM Conference Center in Palisades, N.Y. (April 1, 2002)
The composition of the Presidential Search Committee to nominate a successor to Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings was announced today, March 30, by Harold Tanner, chair of the Board of Trustees; Peter C. Meinig, chair-elect; and Edwin H. Morgens, vice chair. Rawlings announced March 15 he would step down from the presidency on June 30, 2003. Morgens will chair the search committee, which will include representatives from several Cornell constituencies, including trustees, faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, employees, the Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and alumni. (April 1, 2002)