ITHACA, N.Y. -- Gardeners tending even the most modest pea patches know it's a jungle out there when it comes to managing weeds. But a new two-volume CD-ROM set, developed and produced by a Cornell University weed scientist, provides comprehensive, user-friendly instruction whether you're weeding a backyard garden or landscaping a golf course. The innovative program, now available to the public, is humbly titled "Weed Identification, Biology and Management," and it's an encyclopedic tour de plantes of more than 100 Northeastern weed species. "You don't have to be a botanist or a taxonomist to understand the program; it's practical and accessible to just about anyone," said Antonio DiTommaso, Cornell assistant professor of weed science in the university's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. "We're hoping this CD package helps people to learn more about these often strikingly beautiful plants, which at times interfere with our activities." (July 6, 2004)
Cornell Law School students scored a coup when they persuaded Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to comment in print on women's advances in the law profession. Ginsburg's "Remarks on Women's Progress at the Bar and on the Bench" was just published in Vol. 89 of the Cornell Law Review, a publication produced by law students at Cornell University. It includes, among other things, her lively, candid assessment of the bad old days when the prevailing view among "men of the bench and bar" was that "women and lawyering, no less judging, do not mix." Ginsburg's spunky reply: "It ain't necessarily so." (July 01, 2004)
David Wippman has been appointed associate dean of academic affairs at Cornell Law School, effective this June. Wippman is a professor at the Law School whose areas of expertise include public international law, human rights and the laws of war. Wippman received his B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude; his M.A. in 1978 from Yale University; and his J.D. in 1982 from Yale Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal. That same year he started his clerkship with Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Following a stint as an associate with the law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer and Murphy in 1982-83, Wippman joined a new Washington, D.C., law firm, Reichler and Appelbaum, in 1984, becoming a name partner in 1987. (July 01, 2004)
Karen Comstock has been named the first assistant dean for public service law at Cornell Law School. The new position and Comstock's appointment to it were announced recently by Stewart Schwab, the Allan Tessler Dean of the Law School.
Child care is such an important industry to New York state -- generating billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and allowing hundreds of thousands of parents to work -- that it should be part of the state's economic development strategy, a new report from a Cornell researcher recommends.
Just hours after Cassini-Hugyens rocketed into orbit around Saturn at 7:36 PDT (10:36 EDT) June 30, the spacecraft sent back 61 images of the giant planet's rings that researchers acclaimed as astonishing and mind-boggling.
Experts affiliated with a new institute at Cornell University will closely examine a radically evolving social institution -- the modern family, with a special focus on marriage and fatherhood. The Institute for the Social Sciences (ISS), established earlier this year at Cornell, has chosen "The Evolving Family: Family Processes, Contexts and the Life Course of Children" as its first interdisciplinary theme for the period 2004-07. Some of the questions that will be studied include: How do race, ethnicity and social class influence marriage and fatherhood? How has the meaning of marriage and sexual partnerships changed over the past 30 years, and how do these changes affect children? What factors influence the timing of fatherhood? What determines responsible fathering? How do the behaviors of non-human animals inform issues regarding marriage and fatherhood? (June 30, 2004)
When the Cassini-Hugyens spacecraft arrives at Saturn at 7:36 PDT (10:36 EDT) tonight (June 30), among the most anxious participants at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here will be Cornell University astronomer Joseph Burns.
Cornell researchers are playing an important role in yet another planetary space mission, this time to Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system. On June 30 at approximately 10:30 p.m. EDT, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will go into orbit around Saturn for an extensive tour.
Kristine M. DeLuca-Beach has been named director of the Cornell University office of the Cornell Commitment, which encompasses three universitywide undergraduate recognition programs. She has been acting director, and her position as director becomes effective immediately. "Kris brings considerable direct experience to this role, having served as acting director for the past eight months," says Susan H. Murphy, Cornell vice president for student and academic services. "Her dedication to students is long standing and she brings a professional expertise that will benefit all of the programs within the Cornell Commitment. Her long association with the university provides her with many strong connections across the campus and among alumni. We are fortunate to have her leadership." (June 29, 2004)
The viburnum leaf beetle is eating itself out of house and home in central, western and northern New York state and elsewhere, says Cornell entomologist E. Richard Hoebeke. After devastating large swaths of native viburnum as well as ornamental species in its larval stage this spring, the adult beetle.
