Authorities in Puerto Rico are continuing their investigation into what happened during a June 21 hike near the Arecibo Observatory that led to the deaths of two students -- one from a college in Florida and the second, whose body was found in the Tanama River June 24, from a college in Minnesota. Both are believed to have drowned. At Cornell University, where the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) operates the Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope on behalf of the National Science Foundation, President Hunter Rawlings expressed sympathy and concern for families of the students. (June 26, 2003)
Is affirmative action a good thing? A healthy majority of New York state's residents believe it is. But New Yorkers are fairly evenly divided in their opinions on the use of affirmative action policies in the hiring of employees as well as in college admissions, and views can differ sharply by gender, ethnicity and location. The findings were among of the results of the first Empire State Poll, an ongoing opinion poll of New York residents conducted by Cornell University's Survey Research Institute (SRI). (June 25, 2003)
Peggy Beach, director of marketing and support services for Cornell's Department of Campus Life, has been named director of Campus Information and Visitor Relations in the Division of University Relations.
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)