The editors of Science Spectrum magazine and US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine have selected Kevin T. Kornegay, Cornell University associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Cornell Broadband Communications Research Laboratory, as one of the "50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science" for 2004. The award was presented Sept. 18 in Nashville, Tenn., during the Emerald Awards Conference, an event that celebrates the accomplishments of several minorities in science and promotes their greater representation among science professionals. (September 24, 2004)
Lee E. Teitelbaum, the Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell University Law School from 1999 to 2003, died Sept. 22 at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah, after a battle with cancer.
New York (September 23, 2004) -- Physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center will join roughly 50 other medical centers around the world in studying whether an experimental drug delivered directly into the brain can extend the lives of people with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor.Even after doctors surgically remove a tumor, cancerous cells inevitably remain in the area surrounding a tumor site. They are generally embedded in tissue and, especially in the case of GBM, tend to proliferate rapidly, leaving the patient with a high risk of recurrence.
NEW YORK (September 23, 2004) -- The small number of men who remain with their female partner and undergo microsurgical vasectomy reversalÃperformed because of the death of a child or a change of heartÃ-achieve a much higher natural pregnancy and live-birth rate than the overall group of men who undergo vasectomy reversalÃmost commonly due to divorce and remarriage. The reasons for this discrepancy, identified in a new study by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, are not yet fully understood. Of the 2.6 percent men who underwent vasectomy reversal while remaining with their female partner, 86 percent were able to achieve a natural pregnancy during a three-year follow-up period, compared to 54 percent for the cohort group. Additionally, the live-birth rate for the same-partner group was 82 percent, compared to 63 percent for the cohort group. Most impressively, among a subgroup of patients that experienced the death of a child (one-third of the same-partner group), the live-birth rate was 100 percent. The NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell study was published in the journal Fertility and Sterility."There are a few possible explanations for this discrepancy, although further study is necessary," says Dr. Marc Goldstein, the studyâs lead author, Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Surgeon-in-Chief of Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
New York, NY (September 23, 2004) -- Abnormally low blood sugar may raise an infant's risk for brain damage during delivery, according to a new study led by a NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center researcher. He believes early testing for neonatal hypoglycemia might potentially reduce neurologic morbidity."In full-term babies already at elevated risk for brain damage, low blood sugar increased that risk 18-fold," said Dr. Jeffrey M. Perlman, Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $6.5 million to Cornell University researchers to sequence the tomato genome, improve genetic manipulation of maize to learn how to make crops more aluminum tolerant and to develop and use innovative computational algorithms for the simulation of turbulent combustion. Specifically, $4.2 million over two years has been awarded to the research consortium directed by Steven D. Tanksley, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding, to sequence all 12 tomato chromosomes. Stephen Pope, the Sibley College Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and his research group have been awarded almost $1.4 million to develop computer algorithms to improve the ability to simulate combustion processes and, thereby, improve the design of combustion devices. In addition, a research group directed by Leon Kochian, an adjunct professor of plant biology and the director of the U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory at Cornell, has been awarded $933,000 over five years to generate better molecular and genomic resources to improve aluminum tolerance and crop performance in acid soils. (September 24, 2004)
New York, NY (September 22, 2004) -- For patients with a dangerous enlargement of heart muscle called left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the drug Losartan beats standard beta-blocker therapy in reducing hearts to a healthier size, according to researchers at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.The study, published in the September 14 issue of Circulation, finds that Losartan's effects on LVH go beyond its ability to lower blood pressure -- suggesting that added mechanisms may be at work.
New York, NY (September 21, 2004) -- As you read this, billions of synapses lying between the cells of your brain are using complex chemical signals to pass information from one neuron to the next.It's a process crucial to healthy brain function as well as drug development, drug addiction and neurological disease, and researchers at Yale University School of Medicine-Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Weill Cornell Medical College believe they now have a better understanding of how synaptic transmission works.
By the time journalists finish the hands-on workshop "Nanoscale Science Under the Microscope," Oct. 3-5, 2004, at Cornell University, they should know what nanotechnology is.
Technology Review magazine has named Alyssa Apsel, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, one of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators in 2004. Apsel and the other 99 honorees -- known as the TR100 -- were chosen by a panel of judges from a field of 650 final candidates under the age of 35 whose innovative work has transformed the nature of technology and business. (September 20, 2004)
The Cornell University chapter of Acacia fraternity has received five awards from its national fraternal organization, including the prestigious National Award of Merit to an outstanding alumnus. Steven L. Stein, Class of 1973, was presented the award by chapter president Thomas Balcerski, Class of 2005, at the Fall Scholarship Banquet of the Cornell chapter Sept. 12. The Award of Merit is Acacia's highest honor, recognizing individuals who have rendered outstanding service to the fraternity or attained a high position in their community or profession. The award is given only to alumni, and no more than 10 can be given at each biannual national conclave. This year, Stein was one of seven recipients nationally; he is one of only six Cornell Acacians to have received the award. (September 20, 2004)
New York, NY (September 17, 2004) -- Cholesterol-busting statin medications have revolutionized the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading killer of American men and women.But a recent move by the British government toward approval of low-dose, over-the-counter (OTC) simvastatin (Zocor®) has raised heated debate here in the U.S. Now, in his editorial in the September 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., Professor of Medicine and the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, says the proven effectiveness and good safety record of statin medications argues for a similar move in the U.S.
