Mexican President Vicente Fox on Nov. 24 presented Mexico's most prestigious youth award, the Premio Nacional de Juventud (National Youth Prize), to Gerardo Chowell-Puente, a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, for his research in the mathematical modeling of communication in networks, which has provided new understanding of the way disease spreads through a population. In recent work as a visiting research assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Chowell-Puente and his Los Alamos colleagues modeled the transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong, Singapore and Ontario, Canada. The work validated the decision of Canadian health authorities to intervene with strict quarantines. Without that intervention, the model showed, the disease might have spread to some 200,000 people, instead of the few hundred who were infected. (November 26, 2003)
The vast majority of elderly Americans want to stay in their homes as long as possible, even if they become ill or disabled. But significant psychological benefits can be gained by planning ahead, well before the onset of infirmity.
Cornell University Director of Athletics Andy Noel announced today (Nov. 25) that Tim Pendergast has been dismissed as head football coach at the university. The Cornell football team posted a 1-9 record this season under Pendergast, including a 0-7 mark in Ivy League play. (November 25, 2003)
The average high temperature for the Fourth of July in Ithaca is a comfortable 79 degrees Fahrenheit, although it did hit 102 degrees once that day in 1911. Snow bunnies, skiers, sledders and skaters will love to hear that Ithaca's average high temperature for January is 31.2 degrees. Fun facts like these are available in the 2004 Ithaca Weather Calendar, prepared by Cornell University's Northeast Regional Climate Center and Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. In the calendar, the climatologists provide Ithaca weather data for every day of 2004, a leap year. (November 24, 2003)
While Thanksgiving falls late this year, the best chances for snow on Turkey Day occur in upstate New York and portions of New England, according to Keith Eggleston, a senior climatologist.
'Garden of Lights,' a design by Cornell undergraduate Sean Corriel and two others, was chosen as one of eight finalists in a competition for a memorial at the site of the former World Trade Center.
The highly endangered North Atlantic right whale population is facing a difficult journey to recovery. That recovery may become even more precarious if North Atlantic climate takes a turn for the worse, according to Cornell University ecologists.
Cornell University has created its first permanent, temporary-use office space that will accommodate various campus offices as needed. The housing is at Surge 1, at the entrance of the Cornell Plantations off Forest Home Drive. The first tenants are two centers displaced when the north wing of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, the home of the College of Human Ecology (CHE), closed in July 2001 due to structural problems. The two centers, the Family Life Development Center and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, were then temporarily housed in the original Mann Library building. (November 19, 2003)
Writer, teacher and public speaker Allan Johnson will give a presentation, "Unraveling the Gender Knot," Friday, Nov. 21, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the auditorium of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall on the Cornell University campus. The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served at 9:15 a.m. (November 19, 2003)
A train has derailed at the edge of a city, spreading toxic chemicals and fumes over a wide area. Before rescue and decontamination workers can enter the danger zone, they need more information: How widespread is the contamination?
Karen Katen, president of Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals, a division of the multinational health-care firm Pfizer Inc., will deliver the 2003 Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture on Nov. 20.
