NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has established the Cornell Institute of Robotic Urological Surgery within the Brady Department of Urology. Robotic prostate surgery for prostate cancer patients will be the centerpiece of the new program.
A career diplomat and United Nations official, a British economist, a Caltech astronomer, a regional development expert, and a Colombian novelist and political activist began six-year terms in 2007. (Feb. 28, 2008)
As part of Cornell's Africa Initiative, students at Weill Cornell Medical College organized a forum on neglected diseases that included some of the most important names in global health. (Feb. 23, 2007)
Forty-seven Cornellians from the classes of 1927 to 1971 were honored during Reunion in 1993 at the dedication of the Korean/Vietnam War Memorial in the rotunda of Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell University. Since then, two additional alumni who were killed during the Vietnam War have been identified. Their names will be added to the memorial at a rededication ceremony June 6 during this year's Reunion events. Members of the rededication committee, chaired by alumnus Joseph Ryan '65, are determined that no alumnus who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to his or her country will be overlooked. With the aid of students in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), they are searching alumni lists and contacting Cornellians around the world to ask if they know of any alumni who were killed in service during the Korean War, Vietnam War, the Cold War or Desert Storm. This includes anyone who died even years later of injuries incurred during service. (February 12, 2003)
President David Skorton recently returned from a 10-day, four-city tour of India, seeking to extend Cornell's mission as the world's land-grant university by building stronger bridges between Cornell and India, and to reinvigorate ties with alumni.
Eight Cornell undergrads and their staff leader were caught in the cross hairs of post-election violence in Kenya over the winter break, forcing them to leave the country in a tense, 40-mile journey to the Ugandan border. (Jan. 18, 2008)
James E. Turner, the founding director of Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center, was reappointed to the post for a five-year term by the provost, effective July 1. A professor of Africana Studies whose first stint as director lasted 17 years, Turner is a political sociologist specializing in African-American social movements and is a leading expert on Malcolm X.
NASA has given the go-ahead for the Cornell University-led Comet Nucleus Tour, or Contour, mission. The agency said the mission has passed a critical review and the building of the spacecraft can begin.
Nobel Prize winner Hans A. Bethe, Cornell University professor emeritus of physics, has a new award named in his honor established by the American Physical Society (APS). The APS will announce the award at a reception on the occasion of Bethe's 90th birthday on July 2.