Cornell University News Service Releases

October, 2002

Index to all months

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

Facial markings help paper wasps identify each other
N.Y. -- Paper wasps all look the same, right? Wrong. An animal behaviorist at Cornell University reports that the wasp's black-and-yellow uniform is not uniform at all. One wasp, she has discovered, can recognize another through facial and abdominal markings, all but displacing the scientific dogma that insects carry out identification and communication only by employing chemicals called pheromones. "Their faces are far more beautiful and different than you'd expect," says Elizabeth Tibbetts, a Cornell doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior. (October 31, 2002)

Fortified orange drink eases 'hidden hunger' in 3rd world
A dietary supplement in the form of a cheap, fortified, orange-flavored drink can reduce Third World deficiencies in micronutrients such as iron, iodine and vitamin A, a Cornell University physician and international nutritionist reports. The supplement, he says, eases the so-called "hidden hunger" that plagues more than 2 billion people worldwide and particularly affects pregnant and nursing mothers and young children. Studies by Michael C. Latham, professor of international nutrition at Cornell, and his research team three years ago showed that the drink improves the health, nutritional status and physical growth of children in the developing world. His latest research shows that the drink can also influence the nutrition and the health of pregnant and lactating mothers and their infants in the Third World, reducing the risk for disability, ill health, and consequently, low productivity. (October 29, 2002)

Did you break the law today? Center for Democracy and Technology lecturer will discuss digital copyright and fair use, Nov. 5
A battle is ongoing between consumers, who enjoy using their computers to copy, time-shift and trade multimedia entertainment, and the entertainment industry, which would just as soon such activities were not so easy. Alan Davidson, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), will discuss the issue in a talk titled "A Nation of Felons: The Impending Political Debate Over Digital Copyright," Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in 265 Statler Hall on the Cornell University campus. (October 29, 2002)

Frankenstein and the future of artificial intelligence discussed at Tompkins County Library forum Nov. 7
Communitywide and Cornell University Frankenstein reading-and-discussion activities continue Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at the Tompkins County Public Library with a special community forum. The focus of this fun and informative event will be artificial intelligence and its practical applications. A panel with a wide range of expertise will provide comments on the issue, and panel members will take questions from the audience. The forum, which is free and open to the public, should be of interest to students from middle school and up, and it will feature: (October 29, 2002)

Cornell trustees and University Council members meet Oct. 31-Nov. 2
Members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and Cornell University Council will arrive on campus Thursday, Oct. 31, for Cornell's annual Trustee/Council meeting. The meeting of the more-than-700-member Council and a quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees are scheduled on campus every fall so that the groups can attend joint sessions and hear President Hunter Rawlings' State of the University Address. The council is an advisory body made up of alumni and friends of the university who are elected by the trustees. (October 28, 2002)

Milk Rules! Road Trip national tour makes its last stop of the year at North Campus Nov. 1
Got mocha milk? Get it Friday, Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cornell University's Appel Commons Courtyard on the university's North Campus. This will be the last stop for the national Milk Rules! Road Trip, sponsored by the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board and Dairy Management Inc. (October 28, 2002)

Six Cornell professors named fellows of AAAS, world's largest science group
Six members of the Cornell University faculty have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They are among 291 researchers chosen to receive the prestigious award this year. The six are Paul L. Houston, the Peter J.W. Debye Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences; Donald P. Greenberg, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics and professor of architecture, computer science and management; Bruce V. Lewenstein, associate professor of science communication; Jeffrey W. Roberts, the Robert J. Appel Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology; Bart Selman, associate professor of computer science; and Quentin D. Wheeler, professor of entomology and director of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF). (October 28, 2002)

Segway HT inventor Dean Kamen offers a challenge: Can Cornell make engineering exciting?
As the main plenary speaker for the 2001 conference of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen reportedly gave the higher education community a D-minus for failure to engage the imagination and passion of young people for math, science and engineering. How he views Cornell University's efforts in that direction will be on the agenda when Kamen presents a public lecture Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. in Room B14 of Hollister Hall on the Cornell campus. His visit is part of the Culture and Diversity Lecture Series, sponsored by Engineering Minority and Women's Programs. (October 25, 2002)

Photonics holds key to Rochester's economic future, Cornell researchers show area leaders
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A new industry -- photonics -- is beginning to emerge as the successor to the imaging and optical products industries that supported the Rochester, N.Y., economy well into the 1980s. What's more, the emerging industry has the strength of being exceptionally diversified, suggesting it will be far more successful in the global economy than the more traditional industries that dominated the region from the 1930s through the 1980s, exemplified by Kodak, Xerox and Bausch and Lomb. So says a preliminary report from Susan Christopherson, Cornell University professor of city and regional planning, and her team of graduate student planners. Results of the team's one-year study of Rochester's photonics industry were presented at a conference in that city, Oct. 18, attended by more than 60 industry, civic, community and labor leaders and venture capitalists. (October 25, 2002)

Revised 'Cornell Plantations Path Guide' is key to a foot-friendly campus with cultivated and wild sides
Whenever Cornellians and campus visitors confess they must have missed the fabled Cornell Plantations, planners of the newly revised "Cornell Plantations Path Guide" politely disagree. "If you're on the Cornell campus -- and it's green and you're not on a football field or a pool table -- chances are you're experiencing Cornell Plantations or you're a just few steps away from the Plantations Path," says Peggy Haine, chief writer of both the first "Path Guide" (1995) as well as the revised and much-expanded second edition (October 2002, $14.95). "That's how intertwined Cornell Plantations is with the campus. You can't hardly miss it! "But to discover some of the intriguing, 'secret' parts of Plantations and to learn the stories behind the stories, you'll want the new guide," says the writer of the map-filled, color-illustrated book, which is subtitled "Gardens, Gorges, Landscapes and Lore." (October 25, 2002)

Cornell graduate assistants reject union representation
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- An overwhelming majority of Cornell University's teaching assistants, research assistants, graduate research assistants and graduate assistants have voted to reject representation by the United Auto Workers union. The 1,351 to 580 vote against representation came after two days of balloting, Oct. 23 and Oct. 24, at two polling places on the Ithaca campus and at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. The polls closed at 7 p.m., Oct. 24, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which monitored the election, announced the results at 1:30 a.m. today, Oct. 25. An additional 118 challenged and voided ballots were cast by students but not counted in the outcome. The 2,049 ballots cast were 88.4 percent of the 2,318 graduate students on the final bargaining unit eligibility list. (October 25, 2002)

Tiny plant may yield big environment, energy payoffs
With the genomes of humans and several insects, animals and crop plants mapped or sequenced, biologists are turning their attention to single-celled algae no thicker than a human hair. Among the possible payoffs: crops requiring less fertilizer, a source of renewable energy and a new source for novel proteins. The algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, already are an important biological model for genetics research. Now, the complete genome of the plant's chloroplast has been sequenced by scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research located on the campus of Cornell University. The chloroplast is the area of the plant that harvests light energy. Details of the sequencing (that is, determining the base sequence of each of the ordered DNA fragments) appear in the latest issue of the journal The Plant Cell (November 2002). (October 25, 2002)

Space radio pioneer Harold Ewen to give inaugural Arecibo lecture
ARECIBO, P.R. -- Arecibo Observatory, the world's most sensitive and largest radar-radio telescope, is inaugurating an annual lecture series named for William E. Gordon, who was professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., when he conceived of an instrument to study the properties of the ionosphere, the Earth's upper atmosphere. The inaugural lecture will be given Tuesday, Nov. 12, by Harold Ewen, a retired engineer who was a doctoral candidate at Harvard University in 1951 when he designed and built a horn antenna that would make the first detection of a hydrogen radio emission from interstellar space. Ewen will speak at 3:30 p.m. in the Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center at the observatory. The lecture is open to the public without charge. (October 24, 2002)

Cornell President Hunter Rawlings elected chair of Association of American Universities
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings assumed the chairmanship of the Association of American Universities (AAU) at its annual fall meeting held Oct. 20-22 at Emory University, after serving a one-year term as vice chair of the group. He succeeds Robert Berdahl, president of the University of California-Berkeley. John T. Casteen, president of the University of Virginia, was elected vice chair. (October 24, 2002)

Maria Martin of NPR's Latino USA is guest speaker for Latino Studies Program Unity Dinner
Maria Martin, executive producer of National Public Radio's "Latino USA," is the guest speaker at the Latino Studies Program (LSP) at Cornell University's 10th Annual Unity Dinner, Friday, Oct. 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the Willard Straight Memorial Room on campus. Tickets are $6 and the event is open to the public. To purchase a ticket, or for more information, contact Victoria Burke or Marti Dense at the LSP office, (607) 255-3197. (October 23, 2002)

English department and guest scholars present conference on 'Some Futures for the Twentieth Century' Oct. 25 and 26
The Cornell University Department of English will host a conference "Some Futures for the Twentieth Century," Oct. 25 and 26 in Goldwin Smith Hall D. All talks, including a post-conference reception and Saturday luncheon buffet, are free and open to the public. "In the wake of the millennium, scholars of British and U.S. 20th-century literature and culture are exploring innovative ways to think about their period -- a period that now has not only a beginning but an ending," said Molly Hite, Cornell professor of English and conference coordinator. "They are basically asking: What exactly was the 20th century?" (October 23, 2002)

Cornell's ninth president, Frank Rhodes, to receive American Geological Institute's most prestigious award
Frank H.T. Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University, has been named winner of the American Geological Institute's (AGI) most prestigious award, the Ian Campbell Medal. Rhodes, an internationally renowned geologist and educator, will receive the award during the Geological Society of America (GSA) Presidential Awards Ceremony in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 28. Rhodes also is professor emeritus in the Cornell Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. (October 23, 2002)

Student charged in fire at Cornell fraternity house
After an investigation by the Ithaca Fire Department and Cornell Police, a Cornell student has been charged in connection with a fire that occurred in a fraternity house Oct. 18. Firefighters extinguished a fire in a mattress in the Zeta Psi fraternity, 534 Thurston Ave., at 11:53 p.m. on Oct. 18. The department's Fire Investigation Unit determined the cause of the fire as "incendiary." (October 22, 2002)

Cornell veterinarians hosting Nov. 9 event for Connecticut dog lovers
Whether you have just one beloved beagle or a kennel of borzois, if you're curious about the latest techniques in canine medicine, Cornell University veterinarians can help you bone up. On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine is sponsoring a one-day "Cornell Symposium for Dog Enthusiasts" from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich in Old Greenwich, Conn. A panel of faculty clinicians from the veterinary college will make presentations then be on hand to give expert advice on canine behavior problems, medical emergencies, geriatric care, nutrition, dental care and new cancer treatments. (October 22, 2002)

Premier hospitality journal's new editor offers tips on how to get published in the Cornell HRA Quarterly
N.Y. -- Michael Sturman, an associate professor of human resources management at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, was named editor of the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly as of July 2002. Now in its 42nd year of publication, the Cornell HRA Quarterly is considered the premier journal of applied research serving the hospitality industry. It is aimed at an audience of practitioners as well as scholars. Sturman, who replaces Cornell Hotel School Associate Professor W. Michael Lynn, earned a Ph.D. in human resource management from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1997 and is a senior professional of human resources, as certified by the Society for Human Resource Management. His current research focuses on the prediction of individual job performance over time, the influence of compensation systems and the effects of human resource management on organizational performance. At Cornell Sturman teaches courses to undergraduate and graduate students and to executives. He is widely published in academic journals and practitioner publications and has contributed chapters to books on human resources. (October 22, 2002)

Do Jewish leadership summer conferences make leaders?
Jewish leadership camps are big business today, with parents lining up to enroll their high school-age children in them, but the effectiveness of such programs has never been measured quantitatively -- until now. As part of a senior thesis research project, Noah Doyle, an undergraduate in Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) from Commack, N.Y., is measuring whether such programs actually create leaders. "To what degree do the participants transfer the skills learned over the summer to their everyday lives? And how do such programs specifically develop Jewish leadership?" he asks. (October 21, 2002)

NASA awards N.Y. Space Grant $99,000 to train aerospace workforce
The New York Space Grant Consortium has been awarded $99,421 by NASA in one-year funding to help train and prepare the space agency's future workforce. The NASA award, one of 45 made nationally, is aimed at strengthening the collaboration between academia and space research and engineering companies in the state. Cornell University is the lead institution in the New York consortium, a group of 14 institutions in New York state whose goal is to enhance education and research in space-related fields. Yervant Terzian, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell, is the group's director. (October 21, 2002)

MBA students get lessons in nonviolent protest
What can corporate-bound MBA students learn from trainers with the Ruckus Society, which normally teaches nonviolent social action techniques to anti-corporate activists? Apparently plenty. On Sept. 22, 40 students in senior lecturer Jan Katz's World Geopolitics class at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management spent five hours learning from three staff members of the Oakland, Calif.-based organization. The Ruckus Society, which grew out of a drive to protect federal forests from corporate interests in 1995, teaches environmental and human rights groups how to run effective social action campaigns, including such high-visibility techniques as hanging from billboards to get their message heard. (October 21, 2002)

Internet access to nature sounds and bird videos
The contents of the world's largest collection of nature sounds and videos of birds in their natural habitats soon will be accessible to the general public via the Internet, thanks to a gift of computer equipment to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology by EMC Corp. When the new system goes online in 2003, Internet visitors to the Cornell lab's Macaulay Library web site will be able to hear any of hundreds of thousands of digital sound recordings, view video clips and order custom-recorded DVDs of their favorite birds. Scientific researchers, conservationists and citizen-scientists involved in ornithology projects will have Internet access to recordings they need for their work. And broadcasters and other users of high-quality video will get material via Internet2 lines. (October 21, 2002)

$2 million federal grant to study cancer drug action
Gene Network Sciences (GNS), a fledgling cancer-research company started by Cornell University graduate students and financed by Cornell business students, has been awarded a $2 million federal Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant. ATP is administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and makes annual grants that are matched by industry. GNS was founded two years ago, and just 10 months ago it received funding of $125,000 from the Cornell Big Red Venture Fund, a venture capital group operated by students of Cornell's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. The investment was the fund's first in biotechnology. (October 21, 2002)

New comprehensive gastrointestinal health center to be established at Newyork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell
New York, NY (October 15, 2002) -- The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital today announced plans to establish the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at the Hospital's NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center site. Opening in early 2004, the Center -- providing all services under one roof -- will be specifically and comprehensively dedicated to gastrointestinal health, from detection and treatment to education, prevention, and research. The Center is named in honor of Jay Monahan, the late husband of NBC "TODAY" show co-anchor Katie Couric, who died of colon cancer at age 42 in 1998. Since then, Couric has actively worked to raise awareness about colon cancer and has committed -- along with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) -- to help the Hospital raise a substantial portion of the approximately $9 million needed to create the Center.Vision for Monahan Center

Cornell Police make arrest after five-month investigation
Cornell University Police, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cortland Police Department, the Tompkins County District Attorney's office and the New York State Police, have completed a five-month investigation into the possession of child pornography. Robert E. Mosher, 39, of 3 Garfield St., Cortland, was arrested Oct. 17 at the New York State Police barracks in Owego, N.Y., and charged with two counts of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, an E felony. Mosher was issued an appearance ticket to return to Ithaca Town Court on Monday, Nov. 11, at 9 a.m. (October 18, 2002)

Architect Glenn Murcutt, Pritzker laureate, to speak at State Theater Oct. 24
Glenn Murcutt, an architect from Down Under who has a one-person practice, is billed as an "ecological functionalist" and doesn't use a computer, took the architectural community by surprise last spring when he was named the winner of the Pritzker Prize, a lifetime achievement award that is architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Now Murcutt has another surprise: The designer of houses on Australia's rugged promontories and bluffs, who runs his Sydney practice alone and works mainly on private commissions, is coming to Ithaca to deliver a public lecture at the State Theater Thursday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to all, is part of the Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture series sponsored by Cornell University's Department of Architecture in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. (October 18, 2002)

Tyler McQuade wins state award for biomimicry research
D. Tyler McQuade, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, has won a $200,000 early career award from the New York State OfÞce of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) for research that strives to create polymers that mimic biological materials. The award is one of 10, totaling $2 million, given by the research agency to scientists across the state who are performing their research in the life sciences, biomedical sciences or in other life science-enabling disciplines, such as materials science and chemistry. (October 18, 2002)

'Ambassador' wolves to visit campus Oct. 29
Rami, Luna, Raven and Magpie, four "ambassador" animals from the Colorado-based Mission: Wolf program, will visit the Cornell University campus Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in Robert Purcell Union for an educational presentation sponsored by Ecology House. The program about the natural history and current status of wild wolves is open to the public, free of charge, and children are particularly welcome. In their 15th annual fall visit to the Ithaca area, Mission:Wolf wolves and educators also will visit Dryden High School Oct. 28 at 7 p.m., in a visit sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and the Dryden Youth Commission. (October 18, 2002)

Tiny atomic battery could run for decades unattended
While electronic circuits and nanomachines grow ever smaller, batteries to power them remain huge by comparison, as well as short-lived. But now Cornell University researchers have built a microscopic device that could supply power for decades to remote sensors or implantable medical devices by drawing energy from a radioactive isotope. The device converts the energy stored in the radioactive material directly into motion. It could directly move the parts of a tiny machine or could generate electricity in a form more useful for many circuits than has been possible with earlier devices. This new approach creates a high-impedance source (the factor that determines the amplitude of the current) better suited to power many types of circuits, says Amil Lal, Cornell assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. (October 17, 2002)

Democratic reform, poverty alleviation in Africa
A major symposium at Cornell University on democratic reform and poverty alleviation in Africa will take place Oct. 24-26. The event is sponsored by Cornell's Institute for African Development in collaboration with the university's Poverty, Inequality and Development Initiative and Binghamton University's Center on Democratic Performance. Justice Johann Kriegler of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, that country's highest court, is the keynote speaker. His talk, "Democratic Reform in Africa," will take place Thursday, Oct. 24, at 6 p.m. in the Biotechnology Building's first-floor conference hall on Cornell's campus. It is free and open to the public. (October 17, 2002)

Cornell swimmer Scott Paavola died of medical condition, police say
Cornell University student Scott J. Paavola, 19, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and member of the men's swim team, died Oct. 15 of a medical condition, according to the Ithaca Police Department. Paavola died unexpectedly at 525 Stewart Ave., the house of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, where he was a member. Cornell Police and the Ithaca Police Department conducted a joint investigation. The Ithaca Police Department issued a news release Oct. 16 stating, "A forensic postmortem examination conducted at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton has found ... Scott Paavola's cause of death to be a medical condition associated with an enlarged heart." (October 16, 2002)

19th-century machine models in online science library
Cornell University's collection of 220 mechanical teaching models from the 19th century, the largest such collection in the world, soon will be available on the Internet to students and teachers. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Cornell University Library a $725,088 grant to create a digital collection of the historical machines for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). (October 16, 2002)

Special counseling services offered in wake of student's death
Counselors at Cornell University are offering special services to groups and individual students following the death of a sophomore student Tuesday, Oct. 15. Scott J. Paavola, 19, a student in the College of Engineering and a member of the men's swim team, died unexpectedly at 525 Stewart Ave., the house of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, where he was a member. Cornell Police and the Ithaca Police Department conducted a joint investigation. The Ithaca Police Department issued a news release Oct. 16 stating, "A forensic post mortem examination conducted at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton has found ... Scott Paavola's cause of death to be a medical condition associated with an enlarged heart." (October 16, 2002)

New York Times editor Gail Collins will discuss women and journalism as the Kops Freedom of the Press lecturer
Gail Collins, the editorial page editor of The New York Times, will present the 2002 Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture at Cornell University Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. The lecture, titled "How Women Got Their Voice," is free and open to the public. Before being appointed to her current position with The New York Times, Collins was a columnist for the Times' op-ed page from 1999 to 2001 and a member of the Times editorial board. Before joining the Times in 1995, she had been a columnist at New York Newsday and at the New York Daily News. She also was a financial reporter for United Press International in New York. (October 15, 2002)

Findings from dig at Ezra Cornell estate will be revealed to public at Oct. 21 lecture
Archaeologists from the Public Archaeology Facility of Binghamton University will present a slide-illustrated lecture Oct. 21 that describes recent excavations on land that was part of the Ezra Cornell estate, located on what is, today, the West Campus of Cornell University. The event is scheduled for 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Tompkins County Museum, 401 E. State St., Ithaca. Excavations uncovered a mid-to-late-19th century site consisting of artifacts associated with the Christopher Carney family, who lived at 111 University Ave. Carney was an Irish immigrant who worked as a laborer for Ezra Cornell and his family. (October 15, 2002)

Federal agency awards Annunzio prize to molecular biologist Ray Wu
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, a federal agency, today (Oct. 14) will present Ray Wu, professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University, with a $50,000 Frank Annunzio Award in science and technology. The prize honors Wu's pioneering work in genetic engineering, especially in discovering the first method of sequencing DNA and in the production of new cereal crops. The awards ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C., following the capital's 90th annual celebration in honor of Christopher Columbus. Wu is one of four recipients of the 2002 Frank Annunzio Awards, which have been presented annually by the foundation since 1998. (October 14, 2002)

Benjamin Barber, author of 'Jihad vs. McWorld,' to discuss globalization, terrorism and democracy in Nov. 1 lecture
Benjamin R. Barber, author of the book Jihad vs. McWorld, will examine international terrorism in the second annual Polson Lecture, "Globalizing Markets? Globalizing Terror? Or Globalizing Democracy?" at Cornell University on Nov. 1. The lecture will be at 3 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. Barber will examine how terrorism affects the United States and how "democracy rather than terrorism may become the principal victim of the battle currently being waged." His lecture, which is free and open to the public, is presented by Cornell's Polson Institute for Global Development. (October 14, 2002)

University-business alliance to improve hotel profits
What makes some hotel companies more profitable than others? Do strategies for investing in employees actually improve a company's bottom line and, if so, which strategies do this best? Soon hoteliers will get answers to key questions like those and others affecting their profitability thanks to a new strategic alliance between the top hotel school in the United States and PKF Consulting, a firm that manages the most comprehensive proprietary database on the financial performance of U.S. hotels. The new alliance between the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and PKF is the only one ever made between the consulting firm and a research university. (October 10, 2002)

Noted speakers address 'The Idea of the University' at Society for the Humanities conference, Oct. 18-19
The university system increasingly resembles a corporate or business enterprise for a variety of reasons, largely economic but also societal. While this shift has benefited many academic units in terms of resource allocation, it has tended to marginalize the humanities and social sciences, say leading academic humanists. These issues, among others, will be addressed by some of the foremost thinkers in academic humanities today during a two-day conference on the Cornell University campus, "The Idea of the University," sponsored by the Society for the Humanities at Cornell (SHC). (October 10, 2002)

New study shows efficacy of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease
Auckland, New Zealand and New York, NY (October 11, 2002) -- In a study published today in the journal "Science," scientists from the University of Auckland and Weill Cornell Medical College report on the effectiveness of a new gene therapy approach to Parkinson's disease, and the potential for this therapy to affect the overall progression of the disease itself. Based on this study and other data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given its approval to begin testing this therapy in a small Phase I clinical trial. This will be the first time in the world that gene therapy will be used in patients with Parkinson's disease.The "Science" publication is authored by lead investigator, Dr. Matthew J. During, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Auckland, first author Dr. Jia Luo, and co-investigator Dr. Michael G. Kaplitt, Director of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. During and Dr. Kaplitt are also co-principal investigators on the upcoming clinical trial of this therapy.

American poor suffer more from environmental hazards
It has long been known that Americans living in poverty are at a much higher risk than the more affluent for exposure to such health-threatening environmental hazards as air pollution and landfills. A new study by a Cornell University environmental psychologist, however, finds that the exposure of the poor to environmental risks is far greater and more intense than previously thought. "The poor are most likely to be exposed not only to the worst air quality, the most noise, the worst water, and to hazardous wastes and other toxins, but also of particular consequence, to lower-quality environments on a daily basis at home, in school, on the job, and in the neighborhood," says Gary Evans, a professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. (October 09, 2002)

First site plans for proposed athletic fields at paddocks area to be presented to Town of Ithaca Planning Board, Oct. 15
Initial plans for the construction of two athletic practice fields at Cornell University's paddocks area -- at Ellis Hollow and Pine Tree roads in the Town of Ithaca -- will be presented by Cornell officials at the Tuesday, Oct. 15, Town of Ithaca Planning Board meeting. The town planning board will meet at 7 p.m. at Ithaca Town Hall, 215 N. Tioga St., in the city of Ithaca. Cornell's sketch plan review is scheduled to begin at 7:45 p.m. (October 9, 2002)

Stephen Ceci receives prestigious Psychological Association award
Cornell University developmental psychologist Stephen J. Ceci is the co-winner of the 2003 American Psychological Association's (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology. "This award is an outstanding accolade for scientific achievement," says Harry Reis, head of scientific affairs for the APA. The award -- a plaque and $1,000 to be shared with Elizabeth F. Loftus of the University of California, Irvine -- will be presented at the APA's annual meeting in Toronto, August 7, 2003. (October 9, 2002)

Physicist James York wins coveted Heineman Prize
James W. York, a professor of physics at Cornell University who theorizes about universal time, space and gravity, has been awarded the prestigious Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics. The prize is regarded as one of the world's major scientific awards, and at least six Nobel prize winners are among previous recipients. York, a theorist in the rarified field of mathematical physics, shares the prize with Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat of the Faculté des Sciences de Paris, who in 1979 became the first woman elected to the 300-year-old French Academy of Sciences. The value of the prize is $7,500. (October 8, 2002)

Watch bird feeders for impact of West Nile virus
Thousands of volunteers have a new assignment from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology -- documenting the impact of West Nile virus while counting birds for the 2002-03 season of Project FeederWatch. This is the second time the volunteers have been asked to help scientists track an epidemic. Previously they kept notes on the spread of house finch conjunctivitis. Since 1987 the Cornell lab has run the winter FeederWatch survey, asking bird enthusiasts of all ages, skill levels and backgrounds to record the numbers and kinds of birds that visit feeders across North America from November through early April. Cornell researchers then analyze the data to determine changes in population, distribution and abundance of some 100 species of birds. (October 7, 2002)

Airport noise impairs long-term memory and reading
Excessive noise, such as jet aircraft flying overhead, impairs children's reading ability and long-term memory, a Cornell University environmental psychologist and his European colleagues conclude in a study of schoolchildren living near airports. "This is the first long-term study of the same children before and after airports near them opened and closed. It nails down that it is almost certain that noise is causing the differences in children's ability to learn to read," says Gary Evans, an international expert on environmental stress, such as noise, crowding and air pollution. (October 7, 2002)

Caregiving for spouse prompts women to retire earlier
Working wives in late midlife are five times more likely to retire early to care for ill or disabled husbands than wives who are not caregivers, according to a new study by Cornell University sociologists. However, the study found, when men are caregivers, they are slower to retire than those who are not taking care of their wives. (October 4, 2002)

Qualcomm founder Jacobs to lecture at Cornell Oct. 10
Cornell University engineering graduate Irwin Jacobs '54, founder and chief executive of telecommunications giant Qualcomm, will deliver the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Distinguished Lecture Thursday, Oct. 10. The lecture is the first in a series to commemorate the centennial of the establishment of the local chapter of IEEE. His talk will focus on "The Third Generation of Wireless Communications." The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be at 5 p.m. in 101 Phillips Hall on the Cornell campus. (October 3, 2002)

Urban development, public policy and new communities to be addressed at Cornell conference in Chicago, Oct. 4-5
CHICAGO -- Prominent national architects and city planners will lay out their visions of public places and private spaces in the 21st century at a conference, "Public Places, Private Spaces and People's Lives," in Chicago on Oct. 4-5 sponsored by the President's Council of Cornell Women, a Cornell University alumnae group. One of the highlights of the meeting will be a presentation by New York architect Jill Lerner, co-chair of the Civic Alliance Memorials Committee and the New York Visions Memorial Committee, an open process to develop a plan for the memorials at the World Trade Center site in New York. She will speak Friday afternoon on the debate over rebuilding the trade center or building a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The conference also will address many other issues -- from urban development and public policy to America's new communities. (October 3, 2002)

$125M telescope sought to detect near-Earth asteroids
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Cornell University astronomer told a House of Representatives space subcommittee today that Washington should spend $125 million for a new type of ground-based telescope that could detect hundreds of asteroids and numerous comets that pose a potential threat to the Earth from space over the next century. Reporting on a government-commissioned review of solar system exploration by some of the nation's leading scientists, he said that the new wide-field telescope is needed to produce a weekly digital map of the visible sky in order to track space rocks called near-Earth objects (NEOs), the great majority of which have yet to be discovered. There is, he said, a 1 percent probability of an impact with Earth by a 300-meter-diameter (350 yards) body in the next 100 years, resulting in many deaths and widespread devastation. (October 3, 2002)

Bethe lecturer to discuss matter at lowest temperature in universe
Carl E. Wieman, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, will discuss a new form of matter that occurs at record cold temperatures in a nontechnical talk on the Cornell University campus Oct. 9. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be given at 7:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall. Wieman, a Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, will be presenting the second of his two Bethe Lectures at Cornell. (October 2, 2002)

Cornell's Department of Food Science will celebrate its centennial with symposium Oct. 13-15
To commemorate its centennial, Cornell University's Department of Food Science will hold a symposium, "Building on a Century of Excellence: Food Science at Cornell University," on Oct. 13-15. The symposium opens Oct. 13, at noon, in 204 Stocking Hall on campus with poster presentations. At 3 p.m. there will be an overview of the past century's work and achievements, discussed by David K. Bandler, Cornell emeritus professor of food science. (October 2, 2002)

Historic exhibition of 20th-century art works at Herbert F. Johnson Museum beginning Oct. 12
One of the most important exhibits in the history of Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will be on display from Oct. 12 through Jan. 12, 2003. "The David M. Solinger Collection: Masterworks of Twentieth-Century Art" includes the promised gift of nine masterpieces of modern art to the museum's permanent collection from Betty Ann Besch Solinger, Lynn Stern and the family of the late David M. Solinger, Cornell Class of 1926. The exhibition includes 98 works of art, including a monumental nude by Pablo Picasso, nine watercolors by Paul Klee, major sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and Alexander Calder and "much, much more," said Frank Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum. (October 2, 2002)

EMC's Michael Ruettgers is Park Leadership speaker Oct. 9
Michael C. Ruettgers, executive chairman of EMC Corp., will speak at Cornell University Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 5 p.m. in Barnes Hall auditorium. As CEO of EMC from 1992 to 2001, Ruettgers presided over enormous growth, driving the company to become the world leader in computer information storage systems. He was named one of the world's top 25 executives by Business Week and one of the best CEOs in America by Worth magazine. His company, which has built a reputation for being fanatically devoted to customer service, was named "world's most customer-centric company" in Fast Company magazine. Ruettgers' talk, "Managing Trust: The Acid Test of Leadership," is part of the Johnson Graduate School of Management Park Leadership Speaker series and is free and open to the public. (October 2, 2002)