Cornell Junior Bryan J. Lowrance, a Presidential Research Scholar and College Scholar majoring in English and classics, has been named one of 18 Beinecke Scholarship winners nationwide for 2005.
Scientists have discovered compounds nearly ubiquitous in fire that have amazingly eluded detection in spite of 150 years of research on how flames burn. According to a paper in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (May 12), co-authored by a Cornell professor, enols, technically in the family of alcohols, are part of the chemical pathway that occurs when a wide variety of fires burn.
Rudyard Kipling, who famously wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," obviously never met Lisa Nishii. Negotiating cultural differences is something she has had to do from birth. Now an assistant professor of human resource (HR) studies and international and comparative labor at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), Nishii has a most unusual heritage: Her Japanese father is descended from Buddhist monks, while her mother traces her ancestry back to the original Mayflower settlers.
A public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in eastern United States.
Counselors at Cornell University are offering special services to groups and individual students following confirmation of the death of Cornell freshman student Daniel A. Pirfo, Thursday, May 12. "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Dan Pirfo," said Susan H. Murphy, Cornell vice president for student and academic services. "Our thoughts and prayers go to his family and his many friends. During this time, the university is offering support and counsel to all who have been touched by this tragic event." A candlelight memorial will be held Saturday, May 14, at 10 p.m. on Rawlings Green.
Until recently, the ivory-billed woodpecker was like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster -- a famed creature that for years eyewitnesses claimed to see but that science could not substantiate. This impression runs through "The Grail Bird" (Houghton Mifflin, 2005), a new book by Tim Gallagher, an editor at the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell who played a primary role in the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, once considered extinct.
Cornell's third annual Dump & Run collection began this week on May 9. Students moving out after a hectic finals week can dump items they no longer want or cannot fit into their cars or suitcases into Dump & Run collection boxes located all over campus. Staff, faculty and community members are also encouraged to donate. Dump & Run accepts almost all donations: non-perishable food, clothing, shoes, books, electronics, kitchenware, toiletries, decorations, school supplies and more. Items not accepted are trash, foam mattress pads, underwear and socks.
Each year, CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, singles out universities for awards in several areas of communications, alumni relations and fund-raising. In this year's CASE Circle of Excellence competition, Cornell Alumni Magazine received a gold medal in the Best Articles of the Year category for the feature story "Dr. Eponymous" by Brad Herzog '90, published in the March/April 2004 issue. Herzog is a regular contributor to the magazine and the author of several books. The article is a profile of Henry Heimlich '41, MD '43, the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver.
What is, typically, the most challenging part of an EzraNet project? Surprisingly, it's not the construction. It's not meeting the wide-ranging needs of multiple departments in the same building. It's not even the painstaking work of mapping out, reviewing and revising network plans. It's finding space for the telecommunications rooms.
Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) announces that a new version of the e-mail program Eudora is now available for Windows users. With its improved user interface, version 6.2.1 also fixes a security hole that could enable a specifically crafted mail message to cause Eudora to crash or to execute virus-like code simply by opening or previewing the message. If you use Eudora to access your e-mail through uPortal.Cornell, you've already been prompted to upgrade. (If you haven't yet accepted, do so.)
A "Masters in Excellence" weekend, held May 6-8 on campus, featured a symposium commemorating 350 years of Jewish history in America (and 140 years of Jewish history at Cornell) and was capped with a regale May 8 that featured the chief rabbi of the State of Israel, HaRav Yona Metzger, as speaker. It is believed to be the first visit by an Israeli chief rabbi to a U.S. university campus.
Albert Einstein was not only a great physicist, but also a lover of violin music. As part of a celebration of the World Year of Physics, which has been timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the publication of three of Einstein's most significant discoveries, the Cornell Department of Physics will present a combined lecture and concert Saturday, May 14, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Barnes Hall on the Cornell campus.
