Susan A. Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences, launched a monthlong trip in Asia by signing a memorandum of understanding with Dr. S.A. Patil, vice chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India, on Jan. 11. It is the third such agreement that CALS has established with universities in southern and western India. (January 17, 2005)
Cornell University's Department of Astronomy is inviting the general public and the media to witness, on NASA-TV, the historic first landing of the Huygens probe on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, at an open house tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 14. (January 13, 2005)
Cornell University researchers have created a video simulation of the deadly Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that shows in graphic detail how the massive wave system spread outward from the epicenter of an undersea earthquake northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia. The simulation makes it clear how the tsunami struck the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India with such devastating force, then continued as far as East Africa. (January 12, 2005)
William P. Thurston, professor of mathematics at Cornell University and a world-renowned mathematician in the area of topology, has won the 2005 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Book Prize. The award, which is given every three years, recognizes "an outstanding research book that makes a seminal contribution to the research literature, reflects the highest standards of research exposition, and promises to have a deep and long-term impact in its area." The prize was awarded Jan. 6 in Atlanta, Ga. The prize honors Thurston's book Three-dimensional Geometry and Topology, edited by Silvio Levy. The book describes Thurston's "geometrization program," a major event in modern mathematics that has the celebrated Poincaré Conjecture as a corollary. (January 12, 2005)
The annual Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) community program to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. will be Monday, Jan. 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public. The 11th annual event will include a buffet luncheon, performances by local choirs and a keynote speech by Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman. (January 10, 2005)
"The born-to-dechlorinate bug" is what Cornell researchers called Dehalococcoides ethenogenes Strain 195 when they found the bacterium obligingly detoxifying the pollutant PCE, or perchloroethylene (a chlorinated solvent used for dry cleaning), in sludge from an Ithaca, N.Y., sewage treatment plant.
Philip Liu, Cornell University professor of civil and environmental engineering, will lead a delegation of American scientists from the National Science Foundation's Tsunami Research Group and the U.S. Geological Survey into the tsunami-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka, Jan. 9-16.
NEW YORK (December 29, 2004) -- In any bioterror attack, vaccines that provide a rapid, effective defense against the pathogen will be key to saving lives.However, in the case of anthrax, vaccines available today can take weeks or even months to gain full effect.
James McConkey, Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature emeritus, didn't think he had another book in him. But his latest is "The Telescope in the Parlor: Essays on Life and Literature."
From 1980 to 2000, the foreign-born Hispanic, and largely Mexican, population in New York state grew significantly. In a study just released, two Cornell University researchers claim this growing population of immigrants can potentially contribute to community development in upstate New York, where population loss and economic stagnation or decline have been pervasive for decades. "The growing number of Hispanics is related to the changes in the agricultural workforce in New York and nationwide. Increasing numbers of these farm workers and their families settle in upstate New York communities where they work and then face various challenges and opportunities as they seek to become integrated in the social and economic life of the community," noted Max Pfeffer, Cornell professor of development sociology who co-authored the study "Immigrants and the Community" with Pilar A. Parra, a research associate in Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences. (December 21, 2004)
The demand for organic food in the United States has increased by approximately 200 percent over the past 10 years, a trend that is expected to accelerate in the coming decade. Organic farmers in New York state will be better able to capitalize on this trend thanks to three new grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture received by researchers in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Four Cornell University space scientists are on five of the eight teams that will begin planning the science program for NASA's next Mars rover mission, the mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled for launch in 2009. The space agency has chosen the eight proposals to provide instrumentation and associated science investigations for the mission, which is intended to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. (December 21, 2004)
