Cornell Expert Quotes

Cornellians weigh in on current events in the news
“Besides, InSight has perhaps the coolest sequence for setting up its instruments: delicately lifting two of its instruments over the side and gently lowering them onto the surface, like a robot stevedore unloading its cargo on an alien world.”    
Jonathan Lunine

Jonathan Lunine

David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences

To find an expert, please contact the Media Relations Office.

Topic Name Date
Computing & Information Sciences , Agriculture and Life Sciences
Drew Margolin
Drew Margolin

Assistant Professor
“After Congress struggled to understand how Facebook operated, and thus what its responsibilities ought to be, we should expect even more confusion in testimony from Google. Social networks sites are a recent invention, but the basic concept of what they do is intuitive to human beings, whereas search engines are much more complex, which makes their public responsibility much harder to gauge."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Right-left political bias in the spotlight with Google testimony (12/06/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Engineering
Mason Peck

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
“The good news, of course, is that the crew landed safely. And that’s part of an important story here: the failure responses of the hardware and the operations team were successful."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Soyuz rocket failure and emergency landing signals ‘mature’ spaceflight tech (10/11/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Energy, Environment & Sustainability , Engineering
Thomas O'Rourke

Professor of engineering

O’Rourke says:

“The high sustained wind speeds of nearly 150 mph will cause massive damage to overhead electric power lines, causing widespread power outages. Of great significance will be mutual aid agreements with other power utilities in the Gulf states, such as Entergy in New Orleans. Mutual aid is of extraordinary importance in recovering from hurricanes. Its absence in Connecticut after Hurricane Sandy led to lengthy losses of power and problems related to the loss of electricity (ATMs, service stations, credit card processing as well as water supply pumps, cooling units, and power for telecommunications).

“Surge is expected to be as high as 9 to 12 feet. Waves add inundation depth to the surge. Surge is the most life-threatening aspect of most hurricanes, and contributed substantially to the more than 1700 deaths following Hurricane Katrina.”
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Power utilities and state government to be tested post-Michael (10/10/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Arts and Sciences , Engineering
Steven Adie

professor of biomedical engineering
“I’m extremely delighted to hear that Arthur Ashkin has won the Nobel Prize in Physics! His work on the development of optical tweezers has had a transformative impact on the biological sciences at the nano-to-microscale." 
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Nobel winner Arthur Ashkin’s pioneering work inspires leading physicist, biomedical engineer (10/02/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Arts and Sciences , Engineering
Mason Peck

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
“The Opportunity rover has proven to be extraordinarily resilient in the harsh environment of Mars. It has far outlived its original design life of 90 days and has returned vast quantities of science that have rewritten the textbooks."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Mission leader, colleagues await signal from Opportunity rover (08/21/18)
Energy, Environment & Sustainability , Physical Sciences & Engineering , Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future , Engineering
Max Zhang

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
“By freezing fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks in 2020, the Trump administration essentially kills off the most important regulatory driver to innovations in the American automotive industry."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: More than a climate issue: American auto industry may lose competitive edge with lower emissions standards (08/02/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Engineering
Mason Peck

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
“We’ve known for decades that orbital debris threatens space science and exploration. It represents a hazard that will ground us, keep us from becoming a spacefaring people in the decades to come if we don’t address it now."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: The price of space clutter: Debris threatens cosmos exploration, Washington’s wallet (06/19/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Arts and Sciences
Don Banfield

Senior research associate
"When we have people on Mars, being able to better predict dust storms at Mars will be important because dust coating everything could wear bearings down, break down seals, and probably isn’t good for human consumption."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Martian dust storms ravage rovers, impact future mission models (06/14/18)
Physical Sciences & Engineering , Engineering
Mason Peck

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
“The Opportunity rover has proven to be extraordinarily resilient in the harsh environment of Mars. It has far outlived its original design life of 90 days and has returned vast quantities of science that have rewritten the textbooks."
Media: Jeff Tyson jeff.tyson@cornell.edu (607) 793-5769
Related Tip Sheet: Opportunity fights for life, but its success is cemented in history (06/15/18)
Agriculture and Life Sciences , Arts and Sciences , Engineering
Christine Leuenberger
Christine Leuenberger

Senior Lecturer
“Given the new administration’s priorities, international scientists are increasingly hesitant to collaborate with U.S. scientists, with some even boycotting U.S. conferences in response to the travel ban. America’s open, innovative and globalized science enterprise has attracted the best scientists, engineers and innovators for years. For example, Silicon Valley is one such model of international science, with 44 percent of its innovators having an international background. Yet it is just such international experts who are now being harassed and threatened on city streets across the country.”
Media: Joe Schwartz bjs54@cornell.edu 607-882-3774
Related Tip Sheet: Cornell faculty experts join March for Science April 22 (04/06/17)