Cornell University's annual Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference will be held Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. in the foyer of the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, on the Cornell campus. William Lesser, chair of Cornell's Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM), will open the session. Speakers will include two Cornell associate professors of AEM, Steven Kyle, who will provide the national perspective on the economy and agriculture, and Gregory Poe, who, with Nelson Bills, professor of AEM, and Peter Wright, senior extension associate in animal science, will focus on "Agriculture and the Environment." (September 26, 2003)
Teenagers from all over New York state are talking their heads off on topics from beef cattle to babysitting. They have been competing for a place in this year's 4-H State Public Presentations, a public-speaking event to be held Saturday, Oct. 4, at noon in Morrison Hall on the Cornell University campus. Middle school and high school students have been giving talks and demonstrations at the local and regional levels, and those with the best gift of the gab have advanced to the state event at Cornell, where they will represent their counties. The speaking competition will award gold, silver and bronze medals to winners in the demonstration, speech, illustrated talk and dramatic interpretation categories. Participating will be 67 presenters from 38 counties with each county allowed to send up to three presenters in three categories. (September 26, 2003)
The world's largest single-dish radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory is focusing on a largely Spanish-speaking audience by creating an Office for the Public Understanding of Science. It will be headed by a native of Uruguay, Daniel Altschuler.
ARECIBO, P.R. -- Sixto González has been named director of Arecibo Observatory, the home of the world's largest and most-sensitive single-dish radio telescope. His appointment is effective Sept. 29. He is the first native-born Puerto Rican to head the observatory. Since 2001 González has been assistant director for space and atmospheric sciences at the telescope facility. He succeeds Daniel Altschuler, who will become the first director of the observatory's Office for the Public Understanding of Science (OPUS), which will provide a multicultural focus for education and public outreach activities in Puerto Rico. (September 26, 2003)
The force of global economics is changing the agricultural landscape in New York state, the Northeast region and the United States. These changes have created uncertainties for the American agricultural economy, according to a white paper released Sept. 19 by Cornell University agricultural scientists and economists. "We are seeing more and more large farms, and there are billions of dollars in subsidies for large, commercial farms. If there were an economic shake-up in agriculture and if the big farm holdings could not sell their goods, the United States would become protectionist immediately," says Thomas Lyson, Cornell's Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of development sociology and one of the paper's authors. "I think it is very precarious." (September 24, 2003)
"Americans have an ugly history of executing poor children. In the United States, we have been killing our children for more than three centuries," argues an award-winning Cornell University historian. To illuminate some important, but forgotten, history, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor of history, human development and gender studies, uses the prism of a single historical case in a new book, Kansas Charley: The Story of a l9th Century Boy Murderer (Viking, 2003). (September 24, 2003)
Cornell University Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner, among the world's best-known psychologists, has been publishing articles and books for 60 years on what really matters in the development of human beings. Now he has pulled his ideas together and published a new book that traces the historical development of his groundbreaking bioecological model of human development and detailing how it can be applied via programs and policies. Making Human Beings Human: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development (Sage Publications, 2004) is Bronfenbrenner's culminating work and statement that he hopes will shape the future of his field. Bronfenbrenner, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Human Development and of Psychology at Cornell, is a co-founder of the federal Head Start program and is widely regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in developmental psychology, child-rearing and human ecology -- the interdisciplinary domain he created. (September 24, 2004)
Returning for its seventh year with a slight name change and more venues, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is a showcase of films and performances with a message.
Stephen M. Campbell, director of planning and project development at Johns Hopkins University, has been named associate vice president for facilities services at Cornell University, effective Oct. 27. He will be a senior member of the staff of Cornell Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer Harold D. Craft Jr., to whom he will report. "I am very pleased that Steve has decided to come to Cornell," said Craft. "He is a very seasoned facilities professional with a deep understanding of large research universities. He has shown real skill in the areas of facilities leadership that will need special attention in the coming years." (September 22, 2003)
Serena Suewei Chan, a Cornell graduate student in statistical science, has been awarded a grant to research bioterrorism for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The announcement was made by U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, whose district includes parts of Cornell. Chan, who was chosen by the agency from among 2,500 applicants, will work with her adviser, Gennady Samorodnitsky, professor of operations research and industrial engineering, to develop an epidemiological computer model of how terrorists could create an epidemic, such as smallpox. (September 22, 2003)