Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management is among 15 business schools that earned high marks this October from the Aspen Institute and the World Resources Institute for giving graduate business students a solid training in social-impact and environmental-management issues. The fourth such report by the two groups since 1998, "Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship," challenges business schools to better arm graduate business students with skills critical for effective leadership in a changing world. The report highlights 15 schools that are either "cutting-edge" or "with significant activity" in the teaching of such skills. It includes data reported from 100 business schools in 20 countries. (October 23, 2003)
For agricultural scientists in developing countries, scientific seclusion soon will give way to inclusion, thanks to an online system developed at Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The system, announced Oct. 14 at FAO headquarters in Rome, is the second major online portal for scientific literature aimed exclusively at the developing world. Called Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), the system will provide scientists in developing nations with free access to more than 400 journals in agriculture and related science. The Rockefeller Foundation and other donor agencies fund the project. Scientific publishers are providing the content without charge. (October 23, 2003)
ARECIBO, P.R. -- An asteroid that has eluded astronomers for decades turns out to be an unusual pair of objects traveling together in space, a planetary scientist using the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo Observatory radio telescope and his colleagues report. The asteroid Hermes was re-discovered last week after being lost for 66 years. Now Jean-Luc Margot, a researcher in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, has determined that the asteroid is in fact two objects orbiting each other. The two objects together would cover an area approximately the size of Disneyland. (October 23, 2003)
The National Science Foundation today announced an award of $322,000 to Cornell to train teachers in science and mathematics to work in some of the neediest school districts in New York state.
The distinguished psychiatrist Herbert Meltzer, a 1958 Cornell University graduate, will present a University Lecture on Oct. 23 at Cornell on the subject of "Molecules and the Mind: The Impact of Psychopharmacology on Self and Society." The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is at 4:40 p.m. in 200 Baker Laboratory on the Cornell campus. (October 22, 2003)
Richard Friend, a University of Cambridge physicist who recently was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, has been named the Mary Shepard B. Upson Visiting Professor at Cornell University. During his residence, Friend will give lectures and collaborate with Department of Materials Science and Engineering faculty on teaching and research. He will present his first free, public lecture Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. in 155 Olin Hall. His subject will be "Organic semiconductor heterojunctions: Electricity to light and light to electricity." Other lectures will be given Monday, Nov. 3, when he will discuss organic semiconductors, and Monday, Nov. 24, when he will talk on polymer electronics, both at 4 p.m. in B11 Kimball Hall. (October 22, 2003)
Cell membranes -- the sacs encompassing the body's living matter -- can assume a variety of shapes as they morph to engulf materials, expel others and assemble themselves into tissues. In the past it was possible for theoreticians only to analyze the thermodynamic forces behind membrane shape-shifting. But now a team of biophysicists from Cornell University, the National Institutes of Health and the W.M. Keck Foundation has been able to watch the sacs, or vesicles, reshaping themselves under the light of multiphoton three-dimensional microscopy. The forces behind the membrane morphing, the researchers say, is akin to a party entertainer shaping balloon animals by tensioning the surfaces. (October 21, 2003)
Downloading copyrighted music from the World Wide Web without paying for it is a violation of federal law. Is it unethical, too? A representative of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Pledging to make strong relations between Cornell University and the city of Ithaca "a hallmark of my presidency," Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman began his inaugural celebration in Ithaca today (Oct. 16) by announcing a proposal for a new memorandum of understanding that would significantly increase the university's monetary contributions to the city. "A strong university and a strong community go hand in hand," Lehman said this morning at a meeting with community leaders at the Tompkins County Public Library in downtown Ithaca. "A community with outstanding services, outstanding schools, and outstanding recreational and cultural opportunities makes Cornell attractive to outstanding students, faculty and staff members. Those students, faculty and staff members, in turn, help keep the community strong and contribute to the overall quality of life. We need to recognize the importance of our town-gown partnership. We need to celebrate it. And we need to strengthen it, especially in an era of budget constraints." (October 16, 2003)
Most of the work of Cornell ergonomist Alan Hedge focuses on applying ergonomic design criteria to make workplaces more productive, such as redesigning computer stations, keyboards and mice, chairs and lighting.
Bill Nye, noted television popularizer of science, will be coming to Cornell University, Oct. 19-25, for his final visit as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor. Nye will give a free public lecture, titled "Galileo's Grapes: A Cosmological Perspective," Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Auditorium of Kennedy Hall. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and will be distributed starting Oct. 16 at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office. Tickets are limited to two per person. (October 15, 2003)
Jamaica Kincaid, one of the most important and influential authors writing today, will give a reading Friday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. The event is free and open to the public. Kincaid is the third reader in the James McConkey Readings in American Fiction series sponsored by the Cornell Department of English's Creative Writing Program. The previous readers in the series have been Tobias Wolff, in 2001, and Tim O'Brien, in 1999. (October 15, 2003)
