Terry Plater is the new associate dean for academic affairs in Cornell's Graduate School. She assumed her position in January 1999, succeeding Eleanor Reynolds, who retired in the fall 1998 semester.
Members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and Cornell University Council will arrive on campus Thursday, Oct. 16, for Cornell's 53rd annual Trustee-Council meeting and the inauguration of the university's 11th president, Jeffrey S. Lehman. The meeting of the more-than-700-member council and a quarterly meeting of the board of trustees is scheduled on campus every fall so that the groups can attend joint sessions and hear the Cornell president's 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 09, 2003)
Add this universal truth to biology textbooks: the mass of a plant's leaves and stems is proportionally scaled to that of its roots in a mathematically predictable way, regardless of species or habitat. In other words, biologists can now reasonably estimate how much biomass is underground just by looking at the stems and leaves above ground. Up to now, plant biologists could only theorize about the ways stem and leaf biomass relate to root biomass across the vast spectrum of land plants. Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Arizona spent two years poring over data for a vast array of plants -- from weeds to bushes to trees -- in order to derive mass-proportional relations among major plant parts. (February 19, 2002)
The complete genome sequence of a leading bacterial plant pathogen offers new ways to stave off agricultural loss and perhaps foil animal or human infection, says a Cornell University researcher. According to Alan Collmer, Cornell professor of plant pathology, the sequencing (that is, determining the base sequence of each of the ordered DNA fragments in the genome) could help farmers repress tomato speck and other plant diseases. Medical researchers could be aided in comparing a related bacterium that causes fatal lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. And environmentalists could be provided with a new tool in understanding how another related bacterium can live in soil and dine on toxic waste. (August 19, 2003)
Scheduled this year for Feb. 16-19, the 4th annual Great Backyard Bird Count asks volunteers to log on to the BirdSource web site at and tell scientists where the birds are.
Much of the world of technology, says Trevor Pinch, is built on trust: Trust that the engineers have done their job responsibly, trust that they have the right expertise to do the job properly. "
On Jan. 25, students will come together for Global Seminar ALS 480, a spring semester course that examines international food issues and formulates positions on worldwide agricultural sustainability.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The sea may soon concede more of its seismic secrets. In this week's journal Science, university researchers report that a network of instruments will soon be deployed and placed on the ocean floor, giving humanity a precious tool to predict and track tsunamis in real time. Tsunamis -- giant seismic sea waves, sometimes as high as a five-story building -- can crash against coastal communities, kill thousands of people instantly and devastate property. They are produced by undersea earthquakes, or landslides or volcanic eruptions.
Staring and squirming by infants might not be as random or meaningless as they seem, says a Cornell developmental psychologist. Rather, the link between the two could prevent infants from getting visually stuck, and allow them to "visually forage" the environment.
A $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the Electronic Packaging Program at Cornell University will support the design and construction of a novel fabrication and characterization tool for industry -- a PICT (precision interconnect cluster tool) capable of attaching integrated circuits with at least 10 times more connections than today's most powerful chips.