Science is central to research universities, but what are the implications of its growing importance and costs, and who should pay for it? A national conference convened by a Cornell University-based higher education group looks at those issues next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20 and 21. The conference, "Science and the University," is sponsored by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI). Most sessions will take place in 115 Ives Hall on the Cornell campus and are free and open to the public. (May 13, 2003)
Cornell University will celebrate its 135th Commencement Sunday, May 25, with more than 6,000 graduates receiving degrees at a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. on Schoellkopf Field. President Hunter Rawlings, who will present the commencement address and confer degrees, will preside over his eighth and final commencement ceremony as Cornell's president. He is retiring from the presidency June 30 and will assume a professorship in the university's Department of Classics. The commencement ceremony caps two days of celebratory events at Cornell. (May 13, 2003)
G. Peter Lepage, chair of the Cornell University Department of Physics since July 1999, will serve as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for a one-year term, beginning July 1. The appointment was announced by Provost Biddy Martin, in consultation with President Hunter Rawlings and President-elect Jeffrey Lehman. Martin informed the College of Arts and Sciences faculty today (May 12) that Robert Fefferman, the Louis Block Professor and former chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, had decided, after what he has described as a difficult decision-making process, to accept the position of dean of physical sciences at the University of Chicago, where he has spent his entire academic career. (May 13, 2003)
Education is more effective when students feel their efforts make a difference in the real world, says Jack Elliott, who teaches a Cornell University course on environmental issues in design. That's why his students are helping a new National Park Service (NPS) building in the Grand Canyon get its "green" certification. His Ecological Literacy and Design class, the first such full-semester course in the nation, is teaching students how to implement the new environmental building standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a sustainable building-industry advocacy group. Pennsylvania State University has now followed with a similar course. (May 13, 2003)
The connections of polymer science to biology will be examined when a major academic research conference with industrial participation, the 14th annual Polymer Outreach Program (POP) symposium.
The Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S. Ag.) degree program in public garden management, a new academic specialty announced in 2002 by the Cornell University Department of Horticulture and Cornell Plantations, has just enrolled its third crop of fellows. One hundred and five years earlier, that department was founded by the "Dean of American Horticulture," Liberty Hyde Bailey, who subsequently conferred the cryptic name, "Plantations," on the Cornell unit that now administers the university's arboretum, botanical garden and natural areas. (May 9, 2003)
Ninth- and 10th-grade biology students in Seneca Falls, N.Y., are investigating social and scientific issues behind a controversial proposal to expand an existing landfill in their town. High school students in Ithaca are evaluating the relative toxicity, effectiveness and cost of different highway de-icing compounds to find the most environmentally friendly alternatives to road salt. And in 11 cities around the country, young people are working with elders to study plants, people and cultures in urban community gardens. Now, Environmental Inquiry, the Cornell University program that inspired these efforts, has earned the Environmental Quality Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is the agency's highest honor. (May 9, 2003)
Two Cornell University faculty members are among the 187 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in honor of their distinguished contributions to their professions. The two Cornell honorees, who will be inducted into the academy in October, are Peter Uwe Hohendahl, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of German and Comparative Literature, and Paul L. Houston, professor of chemistry and chemical biology and senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. (May 12, 2003)
Michael Steinberg, professor of history at Cornell University, is the recipient of a 2003 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to conduct research abroad during his 2003-04 sabbatical leave. In addition, Steinberg was awarded the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin. The latter prize will allow Steinberg to study in Berlin next fall as a member of the academy. The latest Guggenheim fellowship winners -- 184 artists, scientists and scholars -- were awarded a total of $6.7 million. They were selected from more than 3,200 applicants and chosen for distinguished achievement and exceptional promise. (May 9, 2003)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite the remarkable advances in earthquake prediction and mitigation that have been made over the past 25 years, the risk to the United States still "remains unacceptably high," a prominent Cornell University engineer told a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing today (May 8). Speaking before the subcommittee on basic research, part of the House Committee on Science, Thomas O'Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y., said that at current federal funding levels he and his colleagues believe that it will take "100 plus years to secure the nation against unacceptable earthquake risks." (May 08, 2003)
New York, NY (May 7, 2003) -- An innovative treatment for the deadliest brain cancer -- consisting of pharmaceutical wafers applied directly to the brain in lieu of traditional intravenous chemotherapy -- has recently been shown to extend the lives of patients with early-stage disease, according to a physician-scientist at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Susan Pannullo, Director of the Division of Neuro-Oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, will discuss the treatment today (May 7), at The Delaware Valley Brain Tumor Support Group in Philadelphia, as part of National Brain Cancer Awareness Week, May 5-12.The FDA-approved treatment, which involves the implanting of dime-sized GLIADEL¨ wafers in the brain cavity following surgical removal of the glioma tumor, has shown to have a dramatic benefit for early stage brain tumor patients. A study published this year shows that patients with early-stage gliomas treated with GLIADEL live, on average, 26 percent longer than patients with traditional intravenous therapy (13.5 months vs. 10 months).
A scholarly gathering, with visitors from around the world, will be held at Cornell, May 10, to celebrate the 80th birthday one of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology's most eminent members, Professor Emeritus Fred W. McLafferty.
