Cornell faculty members will present research on topics from how dragonflies stay aloft to the fight against world hunger at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Feb. 16-20 in St. Louis.
The gathering, which is the world's largest science meeting, will host more than 200 symposia, plenary lectures, topical lectures, seminars, and other sessions. Founded in 1848, the AAAS represents the world's largest federation of scientists and serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science from more than 130 countries.
Seven Cornell researchers are slated to give presentations and participate in press briefings. Participants include:
Barbara Baird, Cornell professor of chemistry and chemical biology, who will discuss how nanotechnology has led to recent progress in the study of cell membranes with "Patterned Lipid Bilayers for Spatial Control of Protein and Cell Interactions" at a session on hybrid interfaces and integrative nanobiotechnology, Feb. 16. Read the story.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell's H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy and the 2001 Food Prize laureate, who will speak about global poverty and hunger in a symposium, "Mobilizing Science to End Poverty in the Developing World," on Feb. 17. Read the story. Pinstrup-Andersen will also discuss new approaches by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the world's largest publicly funded international agricultural research organization, in "CGIAR's New Research Priorities to Fight Poverty and Pursue Sustainability," Feb. 18. Read the story.
Fred Schneider, Cornell professor of computer science, who will present "Societal Implications of Cyber Security Research in the 21st Century" in a session on information security research, Feb. 18. Read the story.
Anna Waldron, director of education for Cornell's Nanobiotechnology Center, who will discuss her work in outreach and education in "Too Small to See: Public Understanding of Nanotechnology," Feb. 18. Read the story.
Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of biogeochemistry, who will discuss new understandings of the super-fertile black soil of the Amazonian rainforest in "Terra Preta: The Future" in a seminar on "Amazonian Dark Earths: New Discoveries," Feb. 18. Read the story.
Z. Jane Wang, professor of theoretical and applied mechanics, who will reveal the intricacies of flight in a talk, "Falling Paper, Dragonfly Flight, and Making a Virtual Insect" on Feb. 19. Wang investigates how thin structures move in a fluid environment to better understand the most-efficient methods of flight. Read the story.
Cornell professor of communication James Shanahan and Cornell doctoral candidate John Besley, who will discuss their research into the public's growing skepticism about genetically modified foods in "The Agricultural Debate: Competing Messages and Diverging Views on Genetically Modified Organisms," Feb. 19. Read the story.
In addition, Dennis Gonsalves, now director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, Hawaii, and professor emeritus of plant pathology at Cornell, will speak about the challenges of bringing Hawaii's successful transgenic papaya industry to countries such as Venezuela, Thailand, Brazil, Jamaica and Bangladesh. Read the story.
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