In combating West Nile virus, information could be the ultimate repellant. In an effort to develop an early-warning system for potential West Nile virus outbreaks, Cornell University's Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) and the Department of Entomology will spend this summer collecting climate data in areas where disease-carrying mosquitoes are found. The U.S. government-funded research, it is hoped, will result in the first Web-based, degree-day calculator that warns public health officials when, where and under which conditions infectious mosquitoes can either thrive or die. The information is expected to be on line by next summer. (June 19, 2003)
Ronald R. Kline has been named the first holder of a new chair in the ethics and history of professional engineering in Cornell University's College of Engineering. Kline is professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and of science and technology studies. The chair, the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Jr. Professor in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering, was endowed in 2000 with a gift from alumnus Harry Bovay, civil and environmental engineering, Cornell class of 1936, and his wife, Sue. It will become part of a campuswide initiative that is teaching ethics throughout the disciplines, funded through a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Bovays have established a similar chair at Texas A&M University. (June 17, 2003)
The Cornell University Board of Trustees Executive Committee will meet in New York City Thursday, June 19. The meeting will be held in the Fall Creek Room of the Cornell Club of New York, E. 44th St.
A new imaging technique that could lead to optical biopsies without removal of tissue is being reported by biophysical scientists at Cornell and Harvard universities. The advance in biomedical imaging enables noninvasive microscopy scans through the surface of intact organs or body systems.
John Neuman, interim CEO of eCornell and a Cornell University alumnus, has been named CEO of the university's for-profit distance-learning subsidiary, it was announced today by Philip M. Young, chair of the board of directors of eCornell.
A biomedical-imaging technique that would highlight the cytoskeletal infrastructure of nerve cells and map the nervous system as it develops and struggles to repair itself has been proposed by biophysics researchers at Cornell and Harvard universities. Reporting in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS June 10, 2003), the researchers say that besides the new imaging technique's obvious applications in studying the dynamics of nervous system development, it could answer the puzzle about which errant pathways initiate damage to brain cells, a key question about the onset of Alzheimer's disease. (June 11, 2003)
Bird enthusiasts and their families are invited to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's community open house June 21 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 159 Sapsucker Woods Road. The open house is being held to celebrate the lab's new, $26.5 million Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity. The facility is home to almost 200 part- and full-time staff working in the lab's programs on citizen science, education, conservation and bioacoustics research. The building also houses the lab's Macaulay Library, home to the world's largest collection of natural sounds, and the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates, which is valuable to both researchers and educators. (June 09, 2003)
The Cornell University water system currently complies with all Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards, including the standards for haloacetic acids, based on May 2003 testing results, reports James Grieger of the university's Department of Environmental Health and Safety. The EPA maximum contamination limit for haloacetic acids is a rolling annual average (RAA) of 60 parts per billion (ppb). Cornell's current RAA is 49 ppb. The current quarterly average is 38 ppb. (June 09, 2003)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $600,000 to Arecibo Observatory and the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo to establish a three-year program to provide Hispanic students on the island with experience in conducting scientific research.
Researchers planning a feeding study at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine are looking for 60 clinically obese cats and some owners who can't say no.
Two members of the Cornell University Class of 1952 who were killed during military service in Vietnam will be honored at the rededication of the Korean/Vietnam War Memorial in the rotunda of Anabel Taylor Hall on the Cornell campus at 4:15 p.m. Friday, June 6.
Oscar Rothaus, a Cornell University professor of mathematics who, during the Cold War, helped develop a vital military mathematical tool that simulates physical processes, died in Ithaca on May 24. He was 75.
