Cornell University alumnus Fred Young, a retired Racine, Wis., businessman and longtime follower of astronomy, has given $250,000 for the study phase of a proposed infrared telescope, planned for the Atacama desert in the high Andes of northern Chile. Young said he will provide a further $250,000 for the Atacama project if by next year substantial progress has been made toward establishing a firm partnership that will lead to the construction of the telescope within a decade. The telescope, estimated to cost more than $100 million, would be built entirely with private funds from Cornell and other sources, although it is expected that its operation will involve federal funds. (November 13, 2002)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $1.5 million over three years to help support early development of a massive new radio telescope by a Cornell University-led U.S. consortium of 10 universities and institutions. The proposed telescope would have 100 times the sensitivity of today's best radio telescopes, enabling it to "see" back to a primeval epoch by detecting galaxies in the early universe and hydrogen gas before it formed in the galaxies. The telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), would cost in the area of $1 billion and would be among the largest scientific instruments ever assembled. Eight national consortia from around the world are competing for the winning design and the site, which are not likely to be chosen until about 2007. (November 12, 2002)
ITHACA, N.Y. --Cornell University's annual Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference will be held Tuesday, Dec. 10, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. On-site registration will begin at 9 a.m. in the foyer of the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. The morning session will begin with a welcome by Andrew Novakovic, chairman of Applied Economics and Management (AEM) department; Steven Kyle, associate professor of AEM, will provide the national perspective on the economy and agriculture; Charles Nicholson, senior research associate in AEM, will discuss New York dairy plants; Brian Henehan, senior extension associate in AEM, will address agricultural strategic marketing; and Bruce Anderson, associate professor of AEM, will focus on agribusiness trends and developments. (November 12, 2002)
John Neuman, a Cornell University alumnus and president and chief executive officer of 1492 Consulting Group, has been named interim CEO of eCornell, the university's for-profit distance-learning subsidiary, it was announced today, Nov. 11, by the eCornell office. Neuman succeeds Francis P. Pandolfi, who joined eCornell as its first CEO in September 2000. Pandolfi resigned recently for health reasons. (November 11, 2002)
A new book by a Cornell authority on early Islamic law shows that Muslim societies today have grown out of a rational, balanced legal tradition dating back at least to the 14th century. The book, Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500, by David Powers, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in Cornell's Department of Near Eastern Studies, has just been published by Cambridge University Press as part of that publisher's series on Islamic civilization. Powers' book suggests that Islamic law as it was applied in the 14th and 15th century involved reasoned thought and argument by Muslim judges and jurists, who were highly sensitive to society and culture and how the law shaped, and was shaped by both. That finding refutes claims by an earlier generation of Western scholars who asserted that Islamic law lacked a body of legal doctrine and was, therefore, irrational. It also calls into question the popular assumption that Islamic legal practice can only be extremist. (November 08, 2002)
Two lectures at Cornell University, the first by noted whale biologist Roger Payne, accompanied by his wife, the actress Lisa Harrow, and the second by entomologist May Berenbaum, will be open to the public, free of charge. The lectures are part of the Cornell class, The Naturalist's Way. (November 8, 2002)
The First Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research, administered by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, is awarded to four scientists who made revolutionary contributions to the discovery and implementation of Oral Rehydration and Maintenance Therapy (ORT) in the 1960s and early 1970s in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and India. Recipients are Dilip Mahalanabis, MBBS, Norbert Hirschhorn, M.D, Nathaniel F. Pierce, III, M.D, David Nalin M.D (see attached biographies)The prize will be presented Friday, November 15, 2002, at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Milstein Hospital Building, following a Symposium on "History of Oral Rehydration Therapy."
Virtually hairless, venerably wrinkled and very nearly blind, naked mole-rats - those homely rodents from underground Africa - remind some zoo-goers of little old men.
The public will get its first look Nov. 13 at a new facility that will produce test amounts of therapeutic anti-cancer agents for clinical trials. The facility was developed through a partnership between Cornell and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Cornell University's Kids Growing Food program is accepting grant applications from elementary and secondary schoolteachers in New York state. The grants will help teachers establish or maintain a food garden on school grounds.
A conference, "Achieving Sustainable Communities in a Global Economy," will be held Friday, Nov. 8, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall, Cornell University.
Arlie O. Petters, a mathematician at Duke University, is the first recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize, an award that specifically honors a mathematical scientist from underrepresented minority groups, including African Americans and Hispanics.
