Cornell University News Service Releases

April, 1999

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the filename at the end of the description. These stories are also available via anonymous FTP at cunews.cornell.edu. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Web database of bacterial gene fingerprints
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University food scientists have for the first time made publicly available on the World Wide Web a database of bacterial, genetic "fingerprints." The database includes food pathogens and so-called "probiotic" beneficial bacteria that are ingredients in many health foods and beverages. "Up to now, identifying certain types of beneficial bacteria for use in formulating products has been primitive at best," says Carl A. Batt, Cornell professor of food science and the director of Cornell's Laboratory for Molecular Typing, which devised the database. "The organisms are so ill-defined, they are hard to identify." Now, food processors and dairy food companies who wish to survey the database to make a genetic identification of specific strains of common bacteria such as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Lactococcus, Streptococcus and Pediococcus can do so on the web. "Our lab can now do a finite positive ID on the strains of these and other bacteria," Batt says. BattLab.bpf.html (April 30, 1999)

High school students drive Mars robot vehicle
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Students at Lansing High School, just north of Ithaca, are participating in the first field test of a robot vehicle that will explore the surface of Mars in the early years of the new century. Since April 19 the vehicle, known as FIDO (for Field Integrated Design and Operations Rover), has been undergoing field tests around an ancient lake bed in the Mojave desert in southern California, with scientists operating the controls from a desert command center. The vehicle is a prototype for NASA's 2003 and 2005 Mars missions. On Wednesday, high school students from Lansing, St. Louis, Phoenix and Los Angeles took over the controls as an integrated mission team and began commanding FIDO directly from their schools. FIDO.students.deb.html (April 30, 1999)

Robert O. Pohl and Jeffrey W. Roberts elected to National Academy of Sciences
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has elected two Cornell University faculty members, physics professor Robert O. Pohl and biochemistry professor Jeffrey W. Roberts, as new members. The April 27 election brings to 42 the number of Cornell faculty members in the organization of scientists and engineers, which is dedicated to the furtherance of science and its contributions to general welfare. In the 1999 election, a total of 60 new members and 15 foreign associates were chosen "in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research." The organization, established by Congress in 1836 as an official adviser to the federal government in science and technology, now has 1,825 active members. NAS99.hrs.html (April 30, 1999)

Food science professor Karl J. Siebert to receive Award of Distinction from American Society of Brewing Chemists
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Karl J. Siebert, Cornell University professor of food science, will receive the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) Award of Distinction at the society's annual meeting in Phoenix on June 23. This is only the fifth time that the award, the society's highest, has been given since its establishment in 1981. It acknowledges exceptional lifetime achievement in the science of brewing. Siebert.bpf.html (April 30, 1999)

McGraw Tower reopens its doors
ITHACA, N.Y. -- After almost a year and a half of interior and exterior renovations, Cornell University's McGraw Tower has been reopened to the public. Beginning this week, university chimesmasters will be offering tours of the tower every Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Visitors are invited to climb the steps and learn about the history, intrigue and restoration of this Cornell landmark, as well as admire the panoramic views of the campus and community. Tower.reopens.html (April 30, 1999)

Junior Elina Treyger receives 1999 Beinecke Scholarship
ITHACA -- Elina Treyger, a Cornell University junior studying government, has been awarded a 1999 Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship, a national award. Beinecke Scholars receive $2,000 upon completion of their undergraduate studies and $15,000 for each of two years in graduate school. Beinecke Scholarships recognize students of exceptional ability and achievement with some history of financial aid and they give preference to those who plan to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Beinecke.Scholar.html (April 29, 1999)

When to use consensus decision-making
ITHACA, N.Y. -- When small groups of workers gather to make decisions, all of them want a chance to share their opinions, and that's not a bad idea, says Randall Peterson, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management. Yet letting all group members have as much "air time" as they want can backfire, both for the decision-making process and the group's leader, according to a new study by Peterson, "Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing? The Limits of Voice for Improving Satisfaction with Leaders," published in the February 1999 issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology. The study suggests ways that all small groups, from business meetings to family dinner-table conferences, can function more efficiently. Peterson.jgsm.html (April 29, 1999)

New associate dean will help Graduate School attract and keep more minority students
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Terry Plater is the new associate dean for academic affairs in Cornell University's Graduate School. She assumed her position in January 1999, succeeding Eleanor Reynolds, who retired in the fall 1998 semester. As associate dean at the Graduate School, Plater is working to recruit and retain underrepresented minority graduate students. She also is involved with graduate student organizations and has broad responsibilities for graduate policy. Plater.dean.html (April 28, 1999)

Young "explorers" drive their own Mars rover
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Red Rover is just a playground game to most schoolchildren. But to fifth-graders at Caroline Elementary School in Ithaca, it is a name for serious scientific inquiry. Working with a Cornell astronomer who is the lead researcher on the Mars 2001 and 2003 missions, the class has designed a camera-carrying, motorized, miniature "Red Rover" robot to navigate the Martian-like terrain. Caroline is one of the elementary schools across the nation chosen to participate in the design program. Teacher Tom Demmo's class at Caroline is using a Red Rover Lego Dacta model vehicle kit and special control software to design and operate a tele-robotic rover in a model terrain of Mars. red.rover.ssl.html (April 28, 1999)

First Great American Bluebird Count
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Researchers at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the North American Bluebird Society (NABS) are asking bird-lovers to log on to and put their birdhouses on the map for the first-ever Great North American Bluebird Count, May 14-17. bluebird_count.aw.html (April 27, 1999)

Women's Resource Center to hold breast cancer fundraiser
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell Women's Resource Center (CWRC), a student organization, will hold a fund- raiser on campus to support the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance April 27-29. Volunteers from the student group will sell "Cards that Care" on those three days on Ho Plaza on the Cornell campus from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Donated by Finger Lakes Press, the $3 cards feature a quilt on the outside cover and read, "A donation has been made in your name to the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance in honor of Mother's Day 1999. Have a happy and healthy year." CWRC.fundraiser.adv.html (April 27, 1999)

Finding a way through Internet traffic jams
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Traffic is getting worse every day. Not just on city streets and freeways, but also on the Internet, cellular phone systems and other communication networks. Not only is it hard to get where you're going, it's sometimes hard even to figure out where to go. Cornell University computer scientist Jon Kleinberg hopes to make the networks more efficient. He has received a three-year, $305,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to study the way information moves around in networks and methods for mining data from them. kleinberg.onr.bs.html (April 27, 1999)

Third annual Latino Street Festival in Ithaca May 1: Un Sábado Gigante!
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Hermanos of La Unidad Latina/Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity Inc. of Cornell University and the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County are hosting the third annual Latino Street Festival, Saturday, May 1, in downtown Ithaca. The event will take place in the 300 block of West Court Street, across from the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), from noon to 6 p.m. The day's activities will include music, games and learning activities for children, a talent show with group and individual performers from Cornell, Ithaca College, Beverly J. Martin Elementary School and Ithaca High School, local vendors selling typical Latino dishes, information booths manned by local service agencies, and a fashion show presented by Da' Spot, a youth-managed clothing store on the Commons. Latino.Festival.html (April 27, 1999)

Skeletons studied in forensic human biology
ITHACA, N.Y. -- There's mystery afoot in Cornell University's Human Biology Laboratory, where an X-Files clock hangs on the wall and every drawer is filled with human bones or the special instruments used to measure them. The clock was a thank-you gift to forensic anthropologist Kenneth A.R. Kennedy from former students who had the time of their lives examining the dead. Kennedy's current students in Biological Sciences/Anthropology 474 will know what killed the skeletal subjects of their term-projects -- or at least what traumas and illnesses were suffered -- by the time the spooky clock reaches the end of the semester. The unusual class is Laboratory and Field Methods in Human Biology, and the stated intent is to teach the skills practiced by human biologists and biological anthropologists who examine skeletons to determine the evolution and physical diversity of Homo sapiens. But any class taught by Kennedy, professor of ecology and systematics and one of only 57 Diplomates of the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists, has an aura of X-Files about it. Bio_Anthro474.hrs.html (April 23, 1999)

Largest steel industry health and safety study
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations is involved in the most comprehensive survey on health and safety issues ever done in the steel industry -- and perhaps the most comprehensive in industry altogether. The results will improve worker safety in the steel industry and may help prevent injury and death in other industries, as well. The survey is being conducted at National Steel's four plants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. The plants, which are wholly owned by a Japanese company, had poor health and safety records -- with five job-related deaths and numerous injuries in a single year. The workers challenged the firm to improve. What followed is something almost unheard of in the industry. The firm not only agreed to pinpoint and correct the most flagrant problems immediately, but it also is supporting a group of concerned employees, most of them chosen by their union, United Steelworkers of America (USWA), while they work full time on health and safety issues and administer the in-depth survey to all 7,000 of the company's U.S. employees, not just a sample group. Bronfenbrenner.steel.svy.html (April 23, 1999)

'Occupational markers' provide clues to a life
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's forensic anthropologists know what you did last summer -- or they would if they could examine your skeleton for the distinctive marks caused by jobs and recreational pursuits. Dog-walker's elbow, cowboy thumb, snowmobiler's back and miner's knee are among the nearly 150 conditions described in a new book, Atlas of Occupational Markers on Human Remains (Edigrafital SpA-S. Atto, Teramo, Italy, 1999) by Luigi Capasso, Kenneth A.R. Kennedy and Cynthia A. Wilczak. Capasso is the head of Italy's National Survey of Anthropology and Paleopathology Archaeological Museum. Kennedy is a forensic anthropologist and professor of ecology at Cornell University. Wilczak was a doctoral student in Kennedy's laboratory when the book was written and is now an assistant professor at Maryland's Villa Julie College. occu_markers.hrs.html (April 23, 1999)

Crustaceans invaded super-polluted lake
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Thinking like military historians, limnologists at Cornell University have documented the invasion by an exotic species Daphnia exillis in one of North America's dirtiest lakes -- an invasion that ultimately failed when a polluting industry cleaned up its act. Their report in the May 1999 issue of the journal Limnology and Oceanography describes how diapausing (or dormant) eggs of the crustacean Daphnia exillis were: onondaga_egg.hrs.html (April 23, 1999)

How to prevent youth violence in new book
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Neglect, shame, spiritual emptiness, alienation, anger and access to guns are a few of the elements common to violent boys, says James Garbarino, professor of human development at Cornell University, in his new book, Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them. "There is an epidemic of youth violence, and no community is immune," says Garbarino, the co-director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell and the author of 15 other books. "The boys who commit these acts are our sons, and if we look carefully, deeply and without prejudice, we can identify their risk factors." lost.boys.ssl.html (April 23, 1999)

USAF funds study of 'hard' computer problems
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The world is full of multiple-choice problems in which each choice leads to still more choices in an ever-expanding tree of possibilities. Human beings are able to tackle these problems with intuition, but computers are stuck with trial and error, trying every possible combination until one works. Cornell University computer scientist Carla Gomes (pronounced "GO-meysh"), has found ways to solve these "combinatorial" problems more quickly. She has received two three-year grants totaling $700,706 from the U.S. Air Force to expand the research, along with a third grant of $158,076 for a new high-performance computing facility that will test new ideas in parallel processing. combinatorial.bs.html (April 22, 1999)

Web site explores deaths of patriarchal rulers
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Benito Mussolini died in shame, his battered corpse hung upside down dangling beside his lover in a public square. Josef Stalin was treated to a massive ceremonial funeral attended by thousands of mourners. Societies under totalitarian regimes, like children in families, experience the death of powerful patriarchal figures in different ways. How such leaders die and even the very nature of their deaths are significant. But traditional studies of political regimes often terminate with the demise of the men who "fathered" them and rarely explore how societies seek posthumous closure. Now a new Cornell University web site will allow faculty, students and researchers from around the world to explore the socio-political fallout that followed the death of six 20th-century patriarchs, including Hitler, Hirohito, Stalin, Ceausescu, Mussolini and Tito. death.father.html (April 22, 1999)

Undergraduate David Kaplan wins a prestigious Hertz Foundation award
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University senior David L. Kaplan, of Swampscott, Mass., is the only Cornell student this year to win the prestigious Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship. The fellowship is a merit-based award for graduate work leading to a Ph.D. in an applied physical science. The Hertz Fellowship provides $25,000 a year for five years. The Hertz Foundation holds a highly selective national competition for students with very high scholastic records, including at least a 3.75/4.00 grade point average during the last two years of undergraduate work . Students also are judged on factors such as extraordinary accomplishment in technical or related professional studies, creativity, perseverance, energy and innovativeness. Of qualified applicants, only about one in 15 nation-wide wins a fellowship, and only 25 fellowships were awarded this year. The foundation is named for John Hertz, the founder of Hertz Rent A Car, an Austrian immigrant who was also a founder of Yellow Cab. kaplan.hertz.ssl.html (April 22, 1999)

Ecologist, writer Anne LaBastille on campus for book reading April 29
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Anne LaBastille, Cornell University alumna (B.S. '55, Ph.D. '69), adjunct professor of natural resources at Cornell and author of more than a dozen books, will be on campus Thursday, April 29, for a public reading and signing of her new book. The reading will occur during a reception scheduled from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in 304 Fernow Hall on the Cornell campus; it is free and open to the public. While on campus, LaBastille also will meet with various faculty and students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Labastille.visit.ssl.html (April 22, 1999)

Brad Olson is new director of Program in Real Estate
ITHACA, N.Y. -- C. Bradley Olson will be the new director of the Program in Real Estate at Cornell University. He will assume his duties in July. Hosted by Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning, the real estate program sponsors an interdisciplinary two-year master's degree program that draws faculty from colleges, schools and departments throughout the university. The program's core courses and electives touch on such diverse subject areas as landscape architecture, environmental design, housing economics, civil and environmental engineering and facilities planning, in addition to the more traditional subjects of management, finance and investment, market analysis and real estate law. Olson.Real.Estate.html (April 22, 1999)

Fortified drink for pregnant, lactating women
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A fortified orange-flavored powdered drink has proved so successful in improving the health of Tanzanian children that the Cornell University and Tanzanian teams who tested it now want to see if it will do the same for pregnant and lactating women in developing countries. The Micronutrient Initiative of Canada has provided a $165,000 grant to Michael C. Latham to conduct a two-year study of 350 pregnant women. He will seek to determine the effectiveness of a simple drink in improving the iron and general nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women in Tanzania. The drink is made by mixing about two tablespoons of powder, fortified with 11 vitamins and minerals, in a glass of water. orangedrink.pregnant.ssl.html (April 22, 1999)

Bill Nye unveils sundial for 2001 Mars mission
ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the first time in history, humanity will send a sundial to another planet. Inscribed with the motto "Two Worlds, One Sun," the sundial will travel to Mars aboard NASA's Mars Surveyor 2001 lander. Pictures of the sundial, taken by the lander's panoramic camera after its arrival at Mars in January 2002, will reveal the passage of the hours and seasons as the sun moves across the Martian sky. And the sundial's central black, gray, and white rings and corner color tiles will act as a calibration target -- a kind of test pattern -- to adjust the brightness and tint of pictures taken by the camera. Sundial.Apex.Nasa.html (April 16, 1999)

American Express leader Harvey Golub to speak April 23
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Harvey Golub, chairman and chief executive officer of the American Express Co., will be speaking at Cornell University Friday, April 23, at 4:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall. His talk is titled "Leadership and Change" and is free and open to the public. Golub became chairman and CEO of American Express in early 1993. At that time the financial services company was facing serious organizational challenges as well as increased global competition. Under Golub's leadership, American Express has regained U.S. card market share, significantly increased earnings and market capitalization and, perhaps most important, become a company with a keener focus on achieving results and a culture based on principles and values. Golub.Amex.talk.html (April 20, 1999)

Poet Li-Young Lee to read April 29
ITHACA -- Poet Li-Young Lee will read from his work Thursday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m. in Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, on the Cornell University campus. The reading is free and open to the public. Lee, the 1990 winner of the prestigious Lamont Poetry Prize, is author of three volumes of poetry: Rose, The City in Which I Love You and The Winged Seed. Among his honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Mrs. Giles Whiting Writer's Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. Lee.poet.fc.html (April 20, 1999)

We should promote dissent, not just tolerate it
ITHACA, N.Y. -- While flag burning, bra burning and Robert Mapplethorpe's racy photographs have tested the limits of free speech over the past few decades, a Cornell Law School professor applauds these active demonstrations of dissent and explains why we should too. Steven H. Shiffrin, an authority on First Amendment rights, argues in his new book Dissent, Injustice, and the Meanings of America (Princeton University Press, 1999) that free speech and dissent are core American values that we should encourage, not merely tolerate. Shiffrin contends, however, that our nation's major institutions -- including the Supreme Court and the mass media -- wrongly limit dissent. He faults "corporate domination and the role of money in the political process" for interfering with our First Amendment rights, and he asserts that we'd be better off as a nation if we were able to ensure that everyone with a stake in our nation had an equal voice. Shiffrin.book.dissent.html (April 20, 1999)

Cornell Political Forum wins national award for student magazines
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell Political Forum's quarterly magazine, a nonpartisan political journal produced by undergraduate students, has been honored with a Silver Crown Award by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). The award recognizes the magazine as one of the top five college publications in the country. Political.Forum.awd.html (April 19, 1999)

Tcat celebrates Earth Day with 25-cent bus fares, April 24
ITHACA, N.Y. -- While the national observance of Earth Day '99 officially falls on Thursday, April 22, this year, many Ithaca events are scheduled for Saturday, April 24. So, to coincide with local celebrations marking Earth Day's 29th anniversary, Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (Tcat ) is offering 25-cent fares on all bus routes, all day Saturday. "We thought it would be a good way for folks to get to all of the festivities in the true spirit of Earth Day," explained Tcat General Manager Rod Ghearing. TCAT.Earth.Day.html (April 19, 1999)

Feminist Gloria Steinem to speak April 22
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Gloria Steinem, a leader of the feminist movement since the 1960s, will speak at Cornell University Thursday, April 22, at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Her lecture topic, "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions," is also the title of one of her books, which include Moving Beyond Words and Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. Steinem.adv.html (April 16, 1999)

Samuel Fleming of Decision Resources to deliver 1999 Thorpe Lecture
ITHACA, N.Y. --Cornell University alumnus Samuel C. Fleming '62, chairman and chief executive officer of Decision Resources Inc., will deliver the 1999 School of Chemical Engineering Raymond G. Thorpe Lecture Tuesday, April 20. His talk, "Business Implications of Technology: An Entrepreneurial Engineer's Perspective," will be presented in 255 Olin Hall at 3:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public. Decision Resources is an international research, publishing and consulting firm that evaluates the commercial impact of developments in health care and other technology-intensive fields. It assists organizations in anticipating and responding to a changing environment. In 1990 Fleming led a buy-out of the firm from Arthur D. Little Inc., where he was a senior vice president, a member of the management group and president of Arthur D. Little Decision Resources, which he founded in the mid-1970s. thorpe.fleming.deb.html (April 16, 1999)

Two BTI researchers to receive law group's Inventors of the Year Award
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Charles J. Arntzen, president and chief executive officer of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, and Gregory D. May, a plant scientist at the institute and adjunct professor of plant biology at Cornell University, will receive the 1998 Inventors of the Year award April 23. The award, presented by the Central New York Patent Law Association, is being given for the researchers' development of an agrobacterium-mediated transformation system for bananas. This system is one of the keys in Arntzen's and May's current project to develop an edible vaccine through bananas. The patent was issued last August. BTI.ArntzenInventor.bpf.html (April 15, 1999)

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian to give Becker lectures April 15 and 16
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Harvard University historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, the only person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize in history for a work on women, will deliver two Carl Becker Lectures at Cornell University, Thursday, April 15, and Friday, April 16. The lectures are free and open to the public, and each will be delivered at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. Becker.Lecture.Ulrich.html (April 13, 1999)

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" translator to speak April 21
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Suzanne Jill Levine, a leading translator of the fictional works of Argentine writer Manuel Puig, will speak about her current research on a biography of the author Wednesday, April 21, at 4:30 p.m. in 122 Rockefeller Hall on the Cornell University campus. The lecture, "From Translation to Biography, or Reading on the Fringe: My Life with Manuel Puig," is free and open to the public. Comp.Lit.Lecture.html (April 13, 1999)

Community Partnership Board reception honors 1999 grant recipients
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The annual reception of the Community Partnership Board (CPB), a program of the Cornell Public Service Center, will be Wednesday, April 14, at 5 p.m. in the Corson-Mudd Hall atrium on the Cornell University campus. The CPB assists Cornell students in developing grassroots community action projects and administers grants to make these projects possible. CPB.honors.sfm.html (April 13, 1999)

Collegetown cleanup by residents and students is set for April 24
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University students, including members of fraternities and sororities, and Collegetown residents will clean up the streets of Collegetown on Saturday, April 24. Activities include cleaning neighborhood sidewalks, streets, utility poles and open spaces. Volunteers will gather in shifts beginning at 10 a.m. in front of The Nines at 311 College Ave. From there, teams of students and year-round residents will begin their clean-up effort on the streets of Ithaca's Collegetown section. They also will remove posters that have been placed illegally on utility poles. Ctown.cleanup.99.html (April 13, 1999)

Multicultural Living Learning Unit wins 1999 Perkins Prize
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The fifth annual James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony at Cornell University was awarded to the campus Multicultural Living Learning Unit (McLLU) at a ceremony April 7 in Willard Straight Hall. Two other applicants for the $5,000 prize, established in 1994 by Trustee Thomas W. Jones, won honorable mentions. One went to a course titled "Race, Power, and Privilege in the United States," taught jointly by Donald J. Barr, professor of policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology, and James E. Turner, professor in the Africana Studies and Research Center, College of Arts and Sciences. The other honorable mention was awarded to the Noyes Council's Cultural Night Series, at the Noyes Community Center, and was accepted by the program's coordinator, Thomas Dunne. Perkins.prize.html (April 13, 1999)

Lee Teitelbaum is named new dean of Law School
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University Provost Don M. Randel announced April 9 that Lee E. Teitelbaum, an expert in family law who currently is the Alfred C. Emery Professor of Law at the University of Utah College of Law, has accepted Cornell's invitation to be the next dean of Cornell Law School. Teitelbaum, whose formal title at the Law School will be the Allan R. Tessler Dean, will assume his duties as the 14th dean of the Law School on July 1. He will replace Charles Wolfram, who has been interim dean since July 1998. Wolfram plans to retire from the Law School after 18 years of service when he steps down from the deanship this summer. Teitelbaum.law.dean.html (April 13, 1999)

Mariott hotel slated for Business and Technology Park
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Rochester developer has announced plans to construct a 106-room hotel at the corner of Route 13 and Warren Road in the Cornell Business and Technology Park. Plans for the business-oriented Courtyard Hotel, part of the Marriott International chain of hotels, will be submitted to the Village of Lansing for review and approval. The four-story hotel, which should be ready for occupancy by the end of 1999, will serve both the park and Tompkins County Airport. A hotel has been part of the park's master plan since it was adopted by the Village of Lansing in 1989. The new hotel is projected to cost about $6 million and is expected to create 30 new jobs. BandT.Park.hotel.ds.html (April 9, 1999)

"Power of Choice" is theme at engineering conference on electric power supply
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell Society of Engineers (CSE) annual Engineering Conference will be held at the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University campus April 15-17. The theme of this year's meeting is "The Power of Choice: Technical, Regulatory and Financial Issues Surrounding the Restructuring of the Electric Power Industry." The program will feature a number of prominent speakers, including Alfred Kahn, former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board and adviser to President Jimmy Carter and the Robert Julius Thorne Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Cornell, who will speak on "Airlines, Trucking and Telecommunications: Similarities and Differences"; E. Linn Draper, Ph.D. '70, chairman of American Electric Power Co., the nation's second largest publicly held electric utility, who will speak on "Engineering -- The New Electricity Market"; and Jack MacDonough, '66, chief executive of Miller Brewing Co., the second largest brewer in the country and a subsidiary of Philip Morris Companies, who will speak on "Brewing in the 21st Century." conf.eng.deb.html (April 9, 1999)

Nutrition professor heads delegation to national nutrition education program's 30th anniversary
ITHACA, N.Y. -- To celebrate how Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) has helped more than one million New Yorkers through its Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) over the past 30 years, five selected New Yorkers will attend the organization's national 30th anniversary celebration Wednesday, April 14, in Washington, D.C. EFNEP, which began in 1969 and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through land-grant universities in all 50 states and the four U.S. territories, uses trained paraprofessionals to teach limited resource families how to make the most of their grocery purchases. Topics cover planning meals and shopping, nutrition, food labels, food safety and feeding young children. The vision of New York State EFNEP, says Jamie Dollahite, associate professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell and the director of New York's EFNEP, is to enable families and youth with limited resources to improve their diet, health and well-being. efnep.celebration.ssl.html (April 9, 1999)

Four undergraduates win national Goldwater scholarships
ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the second year in a row, all four of Cornell Universities nominees to the national competition for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship have won the prestigious award. The four Cornell winners in the 1999 scholarship competition are: Joshua Ladau, a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Michael Seidman, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences; Christopher Solomon, a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Debra Urken, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. "We are extremely pleased that four of our students have won Goldwater scholarships this year, the second consecutive year for this distinguished honor," said Cornell President Hunter Rawlings. "The awards are testimony to the high quality of Cornell students and to the superb mentoring they receive from Cornell's faculty." Goldwater.Scholars.sfm.html (April 9, 1999)

An asteroid is named for astronomer who helped save NEAR mission
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Cornell University astronomer who helped save a $150 million space mission last December was rewarded at a surprise party this afternoon with a truly heavenly gift: A minor planet named in her honor. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the world's authority on celestial nomenclature, announced that minor planet 4896 P-L now will be known as Asteroid 9251 Harch. It is named for Ann P. Harch, a research specialist at Cornell's Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, whose efforts helped save the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft mission. PlanetHarch.bpf.html (April 9, 1999)

Models to save wildlife could stop child abuse
ITHACA, N.Y. -- We have pulled the bald eagle from the brink of extinction, we've saved the California condor, and even the alligator and the buffalo have made a comeback. Now, as reports of child abuse climb, Cornell University experts recommend applying the successful wildlife preservation model to protect young people. Rather than focusing on individual cases, they suggest addressing the heart of the problem by restoring what they call safe family habitats. ChildAbusePolicy.bpf.html (April 8, 1999)

Hotel Ezra Cornell 1999
Students in Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration will pull out all the stops for hospitality industry executives April 9--11. As they do every spring, the students will transform the 150-room Statler Hotel in the center of Cornell's campus into "Hotel Ezra Cornell," or HEC, a tour de force of culinary events, entertainment and managerial know-how designed to show off the students' considerable skills as hoteliers and restaurateurs. The audience is composed of the most demanding clientele in the business -- 225 people who run the world's best hotels and restaurants. HEC.99.Hotel.html (April 8, 1999)

F. Sherwood Rowland is first Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecturer April 20-21
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The chemist who linked chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to ozone layer depletion, F. Sherwood Rowland, will inaugurate the Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lectureship at Cornell University April 20 and 21 with lectures on science and public policy. "Our Changing Atmosphere: Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and Global Warming" is the title of Rowland's general-interest lecture on Wednesday, April 21, at 5 p.m. On Tuesday, April 20, at 4:40 p.m. he will deliver a scientific lecture, "True, False and Side Steps toward Understanding -- the Case of Ozone Depletion by Chlorofluorocarbons." Both lectures are open to the public free of charge. iscol_lec99.hrs.html (April 8, 1999)

Four faculty members are selected as Sloan Fellows
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Four Cornell University faculty members have been selected to receive Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships, the Sloan Foundation has announced. They are: Geoffrey W. Coates, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology; Irena Peeva, assistant professor of mathematics; Bart Selman, associate professor of computer science; and Michelle D. Wang, assistant professor of physics. sloan.99.deb.html (April 8, 1999)

Thernstroms will speak on racial preferences at Cornell Law School
ITHACA, N.Y. -- On Monday, April 12, noted Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom and Manhattan Institute fellow Abigail Thernstrom will visit Cornell Law School. The two scholars, who are husband and wife, wrote America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible (Simon and Schuster). The controversial book about race in the United States was described in the New York Times Book Review as one of the most notable books of 1997. It presents comprehensive statistics on black progress since the 1960s, then argues against the continuing use of affirmative action policies and other preferential treatment for minority groups. Commenting on America in Black and White, the Times reviewer wrote: "The baseline for the book is Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma, É published in 1944." The political parallel, noted the reviewer, is that both books were written by exemplary scholars with a mission and underwritten by foundations with agendas, in Myrdal's case a liberal one and in the Thernstroms' case a conservative one. Thernstroms.spkrs.html (April 8, 1999)

Successful real estate entrepreneur honored April 15
ITHACA, N.Y. -- If you've ever had a 3 a.m. idea that was going to change the world and make you successful in the process, then you've had the heady experience of thinking like an entrepreneur. While most of us don't act on our ideas, a few people do. One such risk-taker is William Sanders, who is being honored for his accomplishments Thursday, April 15, as Cornell University's 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year. Sanders also will deliver the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year address on Friday, April 16, at 2:30 in Sage Hall, Room B-08. Sanders was savvy enough to capitalize on a unique opportunity in the real estate business 31 years ago -- and just as savvy when he began an entirely different kind of real estate company in 1991. Both companies prospered far beyond initial expectations. Wm.Sanders.html (April 8, 1999)

Microsoft case to be discussed at April 10 antitrust symposium
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Microsoft case, Clinton administration policy and intellectual property rights all will be discussed at a Cornell Law School symposium Saturday, April 10, titled "Antitrust Meets Intellectual Property." The forum, which will be at the Weiss faculty lounge, Myron Taylor Hall, Cornell Law School, is free and open to the public. It was organized by the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy (JLPP), a student-run journal. Among the participants are David Boies, the lead trial lawyer for the U.S. government in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., and Stephen Houck, who heads New York state's antitrust bureau. antitrust.symposium.html (April 7, 1999)

Black Americans experience more poverty
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The great majority of African Americans experience poverty during adulthood, Cornell University and Washington University researchers report. Their startling new findings show that nine out of every 10 black Americans, or 91 percent, who reach the age of 75 spend at least one of their adult years in poverty. This compares with the study's equally startling findings that "on average 60 percent of all American adults will experience at least one year of living below the poverty line, whereas one third will experience dire poverty." However, the statistics on black American poverty contrast sharply with the findings that by age 75, slightly more than half (52.6 percent) of white Americans will have spent one of their adult years below the poverty line, very close to results the researchers expected. Age 75 is the average American life expectancy. Poverty.bpf.html (April 7, 1999)

Southeast Asia Program hosts acclaimed Indonesian writer
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Southeast Asia Program will host the visit of Indonesia's most accomplished prose writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, to Central New York, April 15-20. The author will present a reading from his recently published memoir, The Mute's Soliloquy (Hyperion Press) on Monday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, on the Cornell campus. Pramoedya will read in Indonesian with an English translation to follow. A public reception and book signing, coordinated by Cornell Campus Store, are scheduled to take place immediately following the reading at 5:15 p.m. at the Andrew Dickson White House. These events are free and open to the public. However, tickets will be distributed at the reading for those who wish to have a book signed by the author. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Pramoedya.fac.html (April 7, 1999)

Secretary-general of the World Conference on Religion to speak
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Among the peace negotiators forced to depart from the borders of Kosovo when NATO bombing began in March was William Vendley, secretary-general of the World Conference on Religion and Peace/International (WCRP). Vendley will speak at Cornell University April 9 and in Valois, N.Y., April 10. He is the founder of the Inter-Religious Council, under WCRP, which maintains multimillion-dollar programs in the former Yugoslavia, funded through the European Union, all Scandinavian countries and the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. WCRP is a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations. Religion.Vendley.html (April 7, 1999)

$88 million from NSF to maintain CESR
ITHACA, N.Y. --The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Cornell University $88,183,000 for the operation of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) accelerator over the next 54 months. The funding recommendation was made by the NSF's Division of Physics and approved by the National Science Board. CESR.funding.deb.html (April 6, 1999)

Native American students plan powwow April 11
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Native American students at Cornell University (NASAC) are hosting a powwow Sunday, April 11, that will feature Iroquois dancers from across the state, nationally known singer Joanne Shenandoah, exhibition drumming, Native artists and food vendors. The powwow will be held in the Ramin Room of the Cornell Field House and is free and open to the public. Donations to NASAC will be accepted. powwow.lgk.html (April 6, 1999)

Board of Trustees task force recommends athletics improvements
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A task force of the Cornell University Board of Trustees has made recommendations to President Hunter Rawlings that are aimed at improving the university's competitive position in intercollegiate sports and maintaining the high quality of its other athletic and recreational programs. The "Report of the Trustee Task Force on Athletics" was presented at the March trustee meeting by task force Chair Robert D. Kennedy. (Full text of the report will be available electronically at ). Athletics.report.jp.html (April 5, 1999)

Baird lectures on how to make spaces vibrant
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Noted architect and Harvard professor George Baird will be at Cornell University in April to discuss what constitutes "public" space in postindustrial America and how such space might be made vibrant. This year's Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures -- a series of four talks -- will take place in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall April 5--16 at 5:30 p.m. The dates and topics of the lectures are: Baird.lectures.html (April 5, 1999)

'Art Church' in Danby project among Cornell Council for the Arts awards
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The creation of an "Art Church" in Danby and a "Corn Street Garden" in downtown Ithaca are among the 1999 community outreach projects to be funded through new grants awarded by Cornell University's Council for the Arts (CCA). Four grants of $2,000 each were awarded for the first time in January under a joint project with CCA and the Cornell Faculty Fellows in Service Programs and with the support of the Rose Goldsen Fund. The grants help fund creative public service efforts of Cornell faculty and students who collaborate on off-campus projects that benefit communities in our region, nationally or abroad. CCA.Awards.fac.html (April 5, 1999)

First book on certified eco-friendly paper
ITHACA, N.Y. -- On March 5 when A Living Wage by Lawrence Glickman rolled off the bindery, it made history at Cornell University Press. Never mind the content. What makes the book special is the paper. The book is the first in the world to be published on paper carrying the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) logo, the newest draw for tree-hugging consumers. The FSC is an international, nonprofit accreditation organization based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Its logo in a book signifies that the owner of the timber used to make the book's pages has met strict criteria for sustainable timber management. CU.press.paper.html (April 5, 1999)

Citigroup's Thomas Jones is1999 Durland Memorial lecturer
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Citigroup's strategy for flourishing in an era of increased competition from all corners of the world is the topic of Thomas W. Jones' Durland Lecture on April 8. Jones, who earned an A.B. from Cornell in 1969 and a master's degree in regional planning in 1972, is the co-chair and CEO of Citigroup's SSB Citi Asset Management Group, one of the largest asset management firms in the world, with over $325 billion assets under management. The Durland Memorial Lecture is the most prestigious invitational lecture at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. This year's talk, titled "Citigroup Asset Management: Positioning for Strength in the Global Economy," will be at 4:30 p.m. in Rockefeller Hall's Schwartz Auditorium. Jones.99.html (April 5, 1999)

David Macaulay, The Way Things Work author, is this year's Olin speaker
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ever wonder how the pyramids were constructed? Or the great cathedrals of Europe? Or the castles that housed royalty in medieval England. David Macaulay, who began wondering about such things when he was a boy, has made a career of writing and illustrating books that show in intimate detail the ins and outs of these intriguing historical marvels. On Wednesday, April 7, Macaulay will come to the Cornell University campus to deliver the spring 1999 Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium. His talk is titled "Seeing Things: Confessions of a Bookmaker." Macauley.Olin.html (April 5, 1999)

An elegant memoir on learning to scull at 40
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Sometimes a mid-life crisis can teach a man how to keep both oars in the water for the rest of his life. Barry Strauss was 40 when he became obsessed with sculling after a summer rowing course at the Cascadilla Boat Club in Ithaca. Unlike his other short-lived mid-life diversions -- yoga, saxophone lessons and fly fishing among them -- rowing captured Strauss' imagination and summoned the born-again will of an inner jock who'd never gotten to fully flex his muscles. Strauss, a Cornell professor of history and classics and director of the university's Peace Studies Program, threw himself into the difficult new sport and then wrote a book about it. Rowing Against the Current: On Learning to Scull at Forty (Scribner, $20 hard cover) is a memoir that navigates through mid-life rites of passage as it meditates on the techniques and history of rowing. Strauss.Book.html (April 5, 1999)

Theory Center hosts workshop May 20 and 21 on virtual worlds
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Want to build your own world? It's only $69.95. That will get you 40,000 virtual acres in cyberspace, where, using computer graphics, you can build any sort of world you like, then invite others to visit. You'll have plenty of neighbors; there are already hundreds of virtual worlds out there on the Internet, offering education, art or just play to hundreds of thousands of regular visitors. virtual.workshop.bs.html (April 5, 1999)

Cornell Plantations welcomes wildflower aficionados
ITHACA, N.Y. --Wildflowers of all colors, shapes and sizes soon will be in bloom at Cornell Plantations' Mundy Wildflower Garden. "Spring brings a variety of wildflowers to our region, and this eight-acre woodland site is one of the best places to see them," says gardener Nancy Adams. "This collection features plants that are native to the Cayuga Lake Basin as well as plants that have escaped from cultivation." wildflower99.hrs..html (April 5, 1999)

Disabilities don't raise insurance costs
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A new survey of human resource managers has found that companies' health, life and disability insurance costs rarely rise because of hiring employees with disabilities, but that attitudinal stereotypes about people with disabilities are still pervasive in the workplace, causing them to be hired less and fired more than workers without disabilities. The survey was conducted by Cornell University's Program on Employment and Disability and other research groups. Most HR professionals surveyed also reported that: Wkplce.disabil.html (April 5, 1999)

Cook, eat and chat and improve your diet
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Women who cook, eat and chat together also improve their diet together, according to a Cornell University study of a cooperative extension program. In fact, women on limited income who participated in the six-week Sisters in Health program reported they ate 40 percent more fruits and vegetables. sisters.health.ssl.html (April 1, 1999)

Junior Jonathan Adler wins a 1999 Truman Scholarship
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Jonathan Adler of Albany, N.Y., a junior student in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University, is one of 75 students selected from a national pool of 657 candidates nominated by 332 colleges and universities for a prestigious Truman Scholarship. Truman scholars receive up to $30,000 -- $3,000 for their senior year of undergraduate education and up to $27,000 over three years for graduate studies. In addition, they have the opportunity to participate in leadership development programs and have special opportunities for internships and employment with the federal government. Truman.Scholar.fac.html (April 1, 1999)