The walls are up, the roof is on and the summer crew of Cornell's Solar Decathlon Team is working hard to finish its fully functional, self-sufficient, solar-powered house. Scheduled for completion by the end of June, the only solar-powered house from an Ivy League school to enter the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) international Solar Decathlon competition will be moved to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in time for the Oct. 7 to 16 competition.
To understand the collision of continents and to better monitor the birth of earthquakes, Cornell geologists have been awarded a $400,000 grant by the National Science Foundation.
G. Peter Lepage has been appointed the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman announced today (Dec. 17). Lepage, former chair of the university's Department of Physics, had been serving as interim dean of the college since July 1, 2003. "Peter Lepage personifies the greatness of the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a true intellectual, a researcher whose work has deepened understanding of the fundamental structure of the material world," said Lehman. "He is a great educator, dedicated to the ideals of a liberal education. And he is a natural leader, a person whose generous spirit and determined vision have contributed to the ongoing progress of his department and the college itself." (December 17, 2003)
When a serious illness strikes, people often ask why there is no effective drug to treat it. What they don't know, says Cornell University Professor Bruce Ganem, is that while important new biotechnology drugs, particularly in the field of genomics, are emerging every day, investors often lack the tools to evaluate them as startup business ventures.
Events on campus this week include: the Jazz Festival, the Runway Show, readings at the Cornell Store and Mann Library, a film festival, emerging artist concert and IT open forum. (April 14, 2011)
Cornell Provost Biddy Martin has announced that two distinguished vice provosts who inaugurated their positions will be stepping down and returning to the faculty, making way for two accomplished faculty members to step into those vice provost positions, effective July 1.
Plans for Duffield Hall, a new research center facility aimed at keeping Cornell a leader in nanotechnology, have been submitted to the city of Ithaca, beginning the environmental and site-plan review processes.
On April 14, Armstrong, a former Catholic nun who has written numerous books on religion, presented this year's Frederick C. Wood Lecture in Sage Chapel as part of the 75th anniversary of Cornell United Religious Work.
Cell membranes -- the sacs encompassing the body's living matter -- can assume a variety of shapes as they morph to engulf materials, expel others and assemble themselves into tissues. In the past it was possible for theoreticians only to analyze the thermodynamic forces behind membrane shape-shifting. But now a team of biophysicists from Cornell University, the National Institutes of Health and the W.M. Keck Foundation has been able to watch the sacs, or vesicles, reshaping themselves under the light of multiphoton three-dimensional microscopy. The forces behind the membrane morphing, the researchers say, is akin to a party entertainer shaping balloon animals by tensioning the surfaces. (October 21, 2003)