"Hats Off to Hunter, a Campus Salute to President Hunter Rawlings" will kick off a day of events on Monday, April 28, to celebrate Rawlings' eight years as president of Cornell University. "Hats Off to Hunter," an ice cream social with entertainment, will be held under a tent on the Arts Quad from 1:10 to 2:30 p.m. A chimes concert will start the program, open to all members of the Cornell community. Entertainment will include performances by student vocal groups, a poetry reading, jugglers and musicians. A large Grecian urn will be provided so that participants can write down their recollections and good wishes for Rawlings and place them in the urn. (April 21, 2003)
Rebel Þghters blow up a Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Jack's beanstalk grows taller and taller, allowing him to climb to the giant's kingdom in the clouds. But what is the likelihood that an exploding star would result in the bright ßash and loud roar of destruction that George Lucas' audience sees and hears on the screen? How high can a beanstalk really grow and still support its own weight? Science fantasy? Not to three Cornell University academics -- Alan Giambattista, Betty Richardson and her husband, Robert. They pose the questions in their recently published textbook, College Physics (McGraw Hill, 2004). Their intent is to draw readers into the text and to help explain difficult physics concepts for pre-med students and others not planning to further their education in the subject. (April 18, 2003)
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The leading North American conference on derivative financial markets takes place in New York City's financial hub this April 25 and 26. The opening speaker is Stephen Ross, the inventor of arbitrage pricing theory (APT) and other findings that have helped change the way people think about investing. One Nobel laureate in economics said of Ross: "Listen carefully. Everything he says is like gold." Ross' latest ideas and other empirical results in futures, options, new forms of pricing models and risk management will be shared at the 13th Annual Conference on Derivatives. It is sponsored by Cornell University's Theory Center and Johnson Graduate School of Management and The Mathworks, and takes place at the New York Information Technology Center, 55 Broad St., 4th floor. (April 18, 2003)
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and most recently the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, will be the 2003 Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellow at Cornell University, April 21 and 22. Robinson, who served as the high commissioner from 1997 to 2002, will present the Bartels Fellowship Lecture Monday, April 21, at 8 p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium of Statler Hall on campus. Titled "Human Rights and Ethical Globalization," the lecture is free and open to the public. (April 17, 2003)
Jack Freed, director of the National Biomedical Center for Advanced ESR Technology (ACERT) at Cornell University, will be honored at an international symposium in Baker Lab on April 26. The event will celebrate Freed's 65th birthday and his 40 years devoted to research and teaching at Cornell. The symposium, "ESR, New Developments," will highlight new developments in electron spin resonance (ESR), with emphasis on its applications to biophysical and biomedical research. (April 17, 2003)
The recipients of Cornell University's 2003 Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award were announced during a dinner and awards ceremony April 4 on campus. The award recognizes and honors students at Cornell who have had significant involvement in community service by providing support for their projects, which address a community's social needs. Seven semifinalists for the award attended the ceremony held in the Yale-Princeton Room of Cornell's Statler Hotel, and four of them were named finalists and award winners. The finalists were Lauren Jacobs '05, Ifunanya (Funa) Maduka '04, Jennifer Harber '03 and Rebecca Vichniac '04. Semifinalists included Kerry Neijstrom '03, Edward Pettitt '04 and Bethany Tong '05. Finalists receive $1,500 each, to further a community service project that they have proposed and initiated. (April 17, 2003)
The 2003 Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture, scheduled for April 24 at Cornell University, has been canceled. Laurie Garrett, the Newsday medical writer, who was to speak on "Coming Plagues," will be in China covering the SARS epidemic. -30- (April 17, 2003)
Neil Ashcroft, professor of physics at Cornell University, has been named winner of the 2003 Bridgman Award in high pressure physics, awarded by the International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology. The award is named for Percy Bridgman, winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in physics. Ashcroft's expertise is in theoretical condensed-matter physics, speciÞcally in interacting many-particle systems as they occur in condensed matter. Among his research interests is metallic hydrogen and matter under extreme conditions, as might be found in the interiors of the giant planets. (April 17, 2003)
Jed P. Sparks, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development program grant from the National Science Foundation. He will receive five-year funding of $500,000 to support research into foliar uptake of atmospheric nitrogen from the molecular to ecosystems levels. Early Career awards are NSF's most prestigious honor for new faculty members, recognizing and supporting teacher-scholars who are considered most likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century. (April 15, 2003)
A five-year study has found that lead is harmful to children at concentrations in the blood that are typically considered safe. Reporting in the latest issue (April 17) of The New England Journal of Medicine, two Cornell University scientists say that children suffer intellectual impairment at a blood-lead concentration below the level of 10 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dl) -- about 100 parts per billion -- currently considered acceptable by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We also found that the amount of impairment attributed to lead was most pronounced at lower levels," says Richard Canfield, lead author of the journal paper and a senior researcher in Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences. (April 14, 2003)