What constitutes a family? How should children be raised and educated? Who is allowed to marry, and what are permissible grounds for divorce? A new Cornell Law School project grapples daily with thorny questions on gender, sexuality, family and the law.
An idea that may lead to more-accurate mammogram readings -- and fewer breast cancer deaths -- took first place, and an award of $10,000, in a Cornell University contest for the best business idea. Now in its second year, the annual Business Idea Competition is sponsored by the Big Red Venture Fund at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. The contest is open to any team with a business idea and at least one member with a Cornell affiliation -- students, alumni, faculty or staff. The winners were announced at a special awards ceremony on campus Friday, April 26. (May 10, 2002)
Cornell University has launched the largest single scientific effort in its history: the New Life Sciences Initiative, a campuswide program that will forever change the way life-science research is conducted and taught at the university. Involving investments of up to $500 million, the initiative will require the largest fund-raising campaign for a single project ever attempted by Cornell. Announcing the new initiative, Cornell President Hunter Rawlings said the effort will engage "the most broadly respected faculty in the country" in what he predicted will be "great research, great teaching and great outreach" in all aspects of the life sciences. Key to the huge program of discovery and education is the integration of life sciences with physical, engineering and computational sciences. (May 8, 2002)
The recent rise in gasoline prices may end up causing significant losses in room sales for the U.S. lodging industry, according to a study conducted at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. The study, which was done at the Cornell Hotel School's Center for Hospitality Research, confirms that when gas prices rise, fewer people rent hotels rooms, particularly rooms at mid-market and economy hotels with suburban or highway-oriented locations. While a link between the cost of gas prices and hotel occupancy rates had long been suspected, the dramatic news is that gas price increases turn out to be far more harmful to the U.S. lodging industry than people had previously guessed. (May 8, 2002)
Cornell University mathematics professor Richard T. Durrett, an expert in probability, and Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and author, have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. They are among the 177 fellows and 30 foreign honorary members elected to join the class of 2002. The academy, founded in 1780, honors distinguished scientists, scholars and leaders in public affairs, business, administration and the arts. The two new fellows will be inducted during academy ceremonies to be held at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 5. (May 8, 2002)
How do the health and well-being of employees drive business productivity and profitability? How do depression, stress, musculoskeletal disorders, migraines, obesity and pain affect productivity, and what kinds of management practices can help? Are they cost effective? Does investing in people or technology reap larger productivity payoffs? These kinds of questions are the focus of a new research center, the Cornell University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS), which has been established in collaboration with MEDSTAT, a health-information company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich. (May 8, 2002)
Cornell University researchers say the discovery of the two different mutations for X-linked progressive retinal atrophy (XLPRA1 and XLPRA2) in dogs, as reported in the May 1, 2002, issue of Human Molecular Genetics (Vol. 11, No. 9).
The Pew Charitable Trusts have granted $2 million toward the renovation of White Hall on the Cornell University Arts Quad. Named after Andrew D. White, Cornell's first president, White Hall is a $12 million project now underway and slated for completion in the fall of 2002 and ready for occupancy in Spring 2003. It is the top capital funding priority for the College of Arts and Sciences and an important part of the university's initiative to enhance undergraduate education. (May 7, 2002)
Although Cornell University's former low-level radiation disposal site (RDS) in Lansing does not pose unacceptable health risks, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced a final, $10 million strategy for cleaning up the site. The state plan, known as a record of decision, calls for constructing an underground clay wall around the waste area, injecting cement grout into fractured rock to isolate the most highly contaminated groundwater and using recovery wells to remove paradioxane, the main contaminant at the site, from the groundwater. (May 7, 2002)
New York, NY (May 4, 2002) A study done at the Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons by Dr. Meridith Sonnett, associate director of pediatric emergency medicine, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, and principal investigator, showed that children and older teenagers presenting to the Hospital's emergency department (ED) with psychiatric emergencies differed in types of illnesses and the need for care between age groups.Dr. Sonnett said that the results of this study were extremely important in highlighting the future direction of psychiatric care for children. "It is clear that psychiatric emergencies in children have reached epidemic proportions," she says. "It is also clear that younger children have unique needs that must be addressed separately from older children and adults. For example, 25 percent of children diagnosed with "diseases usually diagnosed in childhood-- such as attention deficit disorder-- may require a more specialized approach, given that their problems may not strictly be psychiatric in nature, but more behavioral in origin."