NEW YORK (June 8, 2005) -- Each year, thousands of children from orphanages abroad are adopted by families in the United States. Yet the long-term impact of the early experiences of these children is unknown. Researchers at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are currently conducting a study that employs tools -- including computer games used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans -- to better understand the cognitive and emotional development of these children, as well as their unique experiences.
Harry Charles Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining and director of the Institute of Collective Bargaining at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, has been named dean of the school.
Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman issued a statement June 8 concerning the parking lot that is under construction as part of the West Campus Residential initiative.
As many as 6,000 Cornellians and their families will be on campus Thursday, June 9, through Sunday, June 12, for Cornell's Reunion 2005. The earliest alumni class planning special events this year is the Class of 1930. Two returning alumni -- Roger Abell of Clarence, N.Y., and Sidney Kaufman of Houston -- will be attending their 75th reunion. Kaufman plans to make the trip by driving, from Houston, noted an impressed Margaret Gallo, director of class and reunion programs in the Office of Alumni Affairs.
The most effective way to curtail the worsening obesity epidemic is to prevent weight gain with small behavioral changes before people become overweight or obese, said James O. Hill, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, speaking at Cornell, June 6. Addressing obesity and energy balance at Cornell's conference, "Ecology of Obesity: Linking Science and Action," Hill stressed that dieting doesn't work: Most people regain lost weight because once a person is overweight, it's more difficult to keep off lost weight. Instead, prevent weight gain in the first place. All it would take, he said, is an additional 2,000 steps -- walking about a mile or 15 minutes -- and 100 fewer calories a day.
Author James Joyce will be well-received in the namesake of the original Ulysses' hometown, when more than 180 Joyce scholars from around the world gather at Cornell University starting Tuesday, June 14. "Return to Ithaca," the 2005 North American James Joyce Conference, will feature academic panels and papers on topics including censorship, language, psychoanalysis, sexuality, music, film, chaos theory and the literary significance of a cup of cocoa. The conference runs through June 18.
It would be easy to sum up Harold D. "Hal" Craft's career at Cornell as a series of building and facilities projects. During his 34 years here, he has led close to $1 billion in campus construction, from the Sage Hall renovation to Lake Source Cooling. But as Craft enters retirement and looks back at his three decades at Cornell, he doesn't talk about buildings or projects, business matters or finance. He talks about people.
An exhibit of four boulders with oak trees growing out of them are on loan indefinitely from New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage -- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
Five current and former university presidents and a Stanford scholar will meet to assess the nature and value of diversity on American campuses at a July 30 symposium at Cornell University organized by the Future of Minority Studies Research Project (FMS), an academic think tank and research team composed of scholars from more than 25 campuses in the United States and abroad.
Astronomers led by Cornell research associate Lei Hao find new evidence of a dusty torus surrounding active galactic nuclei. The evidence, published in the June 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, supports the unified theory of active galactic nuclei.
Letters, first drafts and more from James Joyce's formative years as a writer are going on display after years in the Cornell University Library vaults, in "From Dublin to Ithaca: Cornell's James Joyce Collection." The exhibition opens June 9 and continues through Oct. 12 in the Hirshland Exhibition Gallery in Carl A. Kroch Library.
Given the monumental task of completing the most ambitious project in Cornell's history -- the $650 million New Life Sciences Initiative -- it makes sense that decision makers would want all the help they could get. One unique source of wisdom comes from the External Life Sciences Advisory Council, a blue-ribbon team of five scientific leaders from prominent institutions around the country. With insights on advances in the sciences, the team has the expertise to address subject areas within the biological sciences offered at Cornell. They also complement a local Cornell faculty group, the Internal Life Sciences Advisory Council.
