James Joyce was a "bizarre, often infuriating, but irresistibly engaging genius" who today is one of the most highly regarded 20th-century writers in English, Professor M.H. Abrams told a gathering of alumni and friends.
A supermarket checkout computer can identify thousands of different items by scanning the tiny barcode printed on the package. New technology developed at Cornell could make it just as easy to identify genes, pathogens, illegal drugs and other chemicals of interest by tagging them with color-coded probes made out of synthetic tree-shaped DNA. A research group headed by Dan Luo, Cornell assistant professor of biological engineering, has created "nanobarcodes" that fluoresce under ultraviolet light in a combination of colors that can be read by a computer scanner or observed with a fluorescent light microscope.
The walls are up, the roof is on and the summer crew of Cornell's Solar Decathlon Team is working hard to finish its fully functional, self-sufficient, solar-powered house. Scheduled for completion by the end of June, the only solar-powered house from an Ivy League school to enter the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) international Solar Decathlon competition will be moved to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in time for the Oct. 7 to 16 competition.
More U.S. consumers are demanding that their brand-name sports sneakers, jeans and other apparel are manufactured in countries where workers are afforded basic rights. Concerned manufacturers have adopted social responsibility programs and codes of conduct for their overseas suppliers that can include the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions -- often called "freedom of association" (FOA). But how well are those codes working?
A study of five agricultural communities in New York state finds that Mexican immigrants comprise 95 percent of the fruits-and-vegetables agricultural workforce and that workers increasingly are choosing to settle with their families in these rural communities. In the recently published report, two Cornell researchers observe that while this newly forming population is a potential boon to areas struggling with economic downturn, their ability to integrate into their new communities is key to their long-term success.
President Jeffrey S. Lehman's State of the University address Saturday morning in Bartels Hall began as expected for a hot day in June. Newspapers used as fans in the stifling Newman Arena heat; jovial alumni, sorted by age -- 1940s and 1950s graduates in Cornell-red folding chairs; just-out-of-school 20-somethings in the bleachers behind. By the end of the address, the alumni would share sadness and shock as they digested the unexpected news: Lehman, the first Cornell alumnus to hold the university's highest office, had closed his speech by announcing his resignation after just two years as president.
Peter C. Meinig, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees, issued a statement June 11, 2005, to members of the Cornell community about the resignation of Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman.
Cornell University President Jeffrey S. Lehman has notified the university's chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees of his intention to step down as president of Cornell University effective June 30, citing differences with the board regarding the strategy for realizing Cornell's long-term vision. Hunter R. Rawlings III, president emeritus of Cornell and a current member of the faculty, has agreed to serve as interim president. Subject to approval by the board of trustees, Rawlings' appointment will become effective July 1, and he will serve in this role until the university names a new president.
Veteran civil rights activist Robert Moses encouraged educators, parents and students to join a national debate and a movement for change in public schools in a community forum held June 7 in the Ithaca High School cafeteria. The second Community Forum on Education and Society, titled "Equity and Excellence: Quality Education as a Civil Right," was presented by Cornell University in partnership with other local educational institutions.
The Pathology Teaching and Diagnostic Complex at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine has been upgraded for the first time since it was built in the 1950s.
Ristorante Banfi at Cornell's Statler Hotel has received its first Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine. The award will be listed in the Aug. 31 issue of the magazine.
High-tech gadgets like strategically placed ocean pressure sensors could be valuable tools for protecting residents of tsunami-prone areas. But the biggest need, says Cornell tsunami expert Philip Liu, is for sustained education so both residents and tourists understand the best ways to stay safe when a tsunami hits. In January, Liu led a team of scientists from the National Science Foundation's Tsunami Research Group and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to Sri Lanka, where he observed the devastation from last December's powerful Indian Ocean tsunami. He summarizes the team's findings in a paper in the latest issue (June 10) of the journal Science.
