A gala two-day event to celebrate the career and leadership of Dale R. Corson, Cornell's eighth president, will be held on campus Dec. 6 and 7. Corson was president of Cornell from 1969 to 1977.

Among the participants will be William G. Bowen, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; John Brademas, chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities; U.S. Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.), vice chairman of the House Committee on Science; Charlotte Kuh, executive director, office of scientific and engineering personnel, National Research Council; and Frank Press, presidential science adviser in the Carter administration.

The celebration will include two days of lectures, and on Monday evening a concert performed by Cornell chimesmaster Grace Jean '00 on the recently renovated Cornell Chimes, followed by an invitation-only gala banquet in the atrium of Sage Hall.

The symposium, under the rubric of "Strategy for a Great Research University," will examine subjects ranging from the role of the humanities in a research university to controlling college costs.

J. Robert Cooke, dean of the Cornell faculty, who is organizing the symposium with Robert C. Richardson, vice provost for research, said Corson "cares deeply about the issues that are shaping the future of this and other research universities. The faculty is delighted to have this opportunity to honor him while examining some issues that matter deeply to him."

Said Richardson: "We are on the verge of a new millennium. It's time to pause and look at what we have done well and what we need to continue doing. Dale was central to Cornell's success."

At the gala banquet and at Tuesday's closing luncheon (also by invitation only) in the Statler Hotel ballroom, a specially commissioned video of Corson's career will be shown, chronicling a life that began in Pittsburg, Kan., in 1914 and continued through undergraduate education at the College of Emporia and graduate studies at the University of Kansas and Ohio State University. In 1938 Corson was awarded his Ph.D. in physics by the University of California, Berkeley. As a post-doctoral student working under the famed physicist Ernest Lawrence, Corson discovered Astatine, element 85 in the periodic table of the elements, and with two associates worked out some of its physical and chemical properties.

He was a staff member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory from 1941 to 1943, where he played a key role on the team of American and British researchers that perfected the use of airborne radar. Corson later served as a technical adviser at U.S. Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he consulted on radar's deployment in Europe and the Pacific. At the close of the war he was invited by Robert Oppenheimer to join the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, and after the war he directed the establishment of the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.

In 1946, Corson joined the Cornell faculty as an assistant professor of physics and helped design the Cornell synchrotron. He was appointed associate professor of physics in 1947, became a full professor in 1952, was named chair of the physics department in 1956 and became dean of the College of Engineering in 1959. Corson served as provost from 1963 to 1969. Among many notable achievements, he played a leadership role in establishing Cornell's eminence in materials science and computer graphics and perceiving the importance of interdisciplinary research, he promoted the Division of Biological Sciences and the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

After stepping down from the presidency, he spent two decades chairing major national study groups that delved into such subjects as U.S.-Japanese scientific relations, introduction of modern technology into China, striking a balance between national security and open inquiry at international conclaves, and promoting a free exchange among American leaders of government, science and industry. He is the only person to receive both the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences and the Beuche Medal from the National Academy of Engineering, two of the nation's highest honors in science and engineering. Corson has also committed much time to studying and talking about the subject he cares most deeply about: the future of the research university -- the theme of the symposium.

The program will begin at 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6, in Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, with a welcome by Richardson. The opening presentation, "The Role of the Humanities in a Research University," will be given by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings. He will introduce Brademas, who also is president emeritus of New York University, who will speak on "The Research University: Some Observations and Admonitions." In the 1950s, Brademas was executive assistant to the late Adlai Stevenson. Later he served in Congress for 22 years.

Ehlers, the first physics professor to serve in Congress, will talk on "Science, Policy, and Politics." Another Monday participant will be Press, who was president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and chairman of the National Research Council and now is principal of the Washington Advisory Group.

On Monday afternoon, at a session in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall, the moderator will be Walter LaFeber, the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History at Cornell. The subject, "Graduate Education in Research Universities: A Look to the Future," will be addressed by the National Research Council's Kuh. She will be followed by Joe B. Wyatt, chancellor, Vanderbilt University, discussing, "The Government-University-Industry Research Nexus." Dr. Fred Plum, professor, Weill Medical College of Cornell, will discuss "Medical Neuroscience in the 21st Century." Computer graphics pioneer Donald P. Greenberg, Cornell professor of architecture and J.G. Schurman Professor in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, will talk on "Virtual Universities: Real Boundaries."

Tuesday's session, in Schwartz Auditorium, will be moderated by Cooke. The first speaker, on "Issues for the 21st Century," will be Frank H.T. Rhodes. Cornell president emeritus. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, will discuss "Why Can't Colleges Control their Costs?"

"Financing Cornell in the 21st Century" will then be the topic of a talk by Donald F. Holcomb, Cornell professor emeritus of physics. The Mellon Foundation's Bowen, who is president emeritus of Princeton University, will take part in the ensuing discussion.

The final two lectures will focus on genomics and materials science, areas that have been identified as two of Cornell's research priorities. Steven D. Tanksley, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding at Cornell, will discuss "The Genomics Revolution: What Role for

Cornell?" Joseph M. Ballantyne, Cornell professor of electrical engineering and former Lester B. Knight director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, will talk on "The Nanoscale Revolution." The ensuing discussion will be led by Rhodes.