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News

Plantationocene conference to examine plantations’ legacies

On April 15–16, scholars, activists and practitioners from around the world will meet to explore plantations’ deep-rooted legacies – including racial inequality, dispossession and climate change – in a Conversation on the Plantationocene.

  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Field Crops
Fungus extending long filament-like structures far out into soil

News

Soil bacteria could improve crop yields, via fungi
Researchers know that a type of fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi establishes symbiotic relationships with the roots of 70% of all land plants. In this relationship, plants trade fatty acids for the fungi’s nitrogen and phosphorus...
  • Boyce Thompson Institute
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
Two students sitting indoors and working at a table

News

Three CALS students to receive SUNY Chancellor’s Award
The award acknowledges outstanding achievements that demonstrate excellence in areas including academics, leadership, campus involvement, community service, or the arts, according to SUNY. A virtual recognition ceremony for around 130 awardees...
  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Biology
  • Evolution
Five people talk on a Zoom webinar

News

Faculty examine racism ‘embedded’ in US health care
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the ways structural racism and inequality are “baked into” the American health care system, said Akilah Johnson, national reporter for the Washington Post, moderating “ Racism in America: Health” on March 29...
  • Department of Communication
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Disease

News

Program offers graduate student research support

The First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca has funding opportunities available to graduate students who intend to help improve food security in developing countries. Grants are made without regard to an applicant’s religious beliefs or absence...

  • Global Development

News

Meet our new faculty - spring 2021

  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
A sweep of early-season flower bulbs sprout from the lawn adjacent to a park walkway

News

‘Naturalized’ bulb plantings bloom around Ithaca
All around Ithaca, long swaths of flower bulbs are popping up through the still-dormant grass to provide some extra early-season color, thanks to Bill Miller and his Cornell Flower Bulb Research Program team. Miller is a professor in the School...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture Section
  • Plants
A grain field

News

Climate change has cost 7 years of ag productivity growth
The future potential impacts of climate change on global crop production has been quantified in many scientific reports, but the historic influence of anthropogenic climate change on the agricultural sector had yet to be modeled. Now, a new...
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Agriculture
tree canopy

News

Local planners play key role in conserving biodiversity
One survey respondent reported persuading a local planning board to limit development on a 52-acre parcel with significant wetlands, preserving forest canopy and a biodiversity corridor for animals. Another negotiated a proposed 150-unit...
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Global Development Section
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
A rooftop solar thermal system

News

Sustainability efforts shine with new solar collectors
The center on Caldwell Road – which houses research and teaching labs, growth chambers, controlled atmosphere storage rooms and greenhouse facilities – has installed 50 new solar collector panels. The system uses an innovative mirror technology...
  • Cornell Botanic Gardens
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
A student standing with five children outside in Africa

News

Service, connection, leadership: Cornellians in the Peace Corps
In 2010, Freund volunteered for a two-year position in Zambia, where she focused on food and agriculture – familiar terrain following her studies in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and her work on her family’s dairy farm in Connecticut...
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Agriculture
A group on stage in ceremonial robes

News

Egesi earns highest honors for biotechnology work in Nigeria

  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
A large golden field of wheat with a blue sky and trees on the horizon

News

Study: genomic selection approach paves way for faster plant breeding
The ultimate challenge for crop breeders is to increase genetic gain of a crop: literally, to increase the crop’s yield on farmers’ fields. Wheat and maize breeders from Cornell University, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
maple sugar, maple syrup and sugar maple candy molds on a table

News

NY maple producers tap Cornell experts to diversify
On Feb. 15, the weather in Lodi, New York, hovered in the low 20s and it snowed, but that didn’t stop chocolatier Claire Benjamin from setting up a table to greet customers outside her store. Benjamin owns Rue Claire Lavender Farm and Artisan...
  • Arnot Teaching and Research Forest
  • Uihlein Research Forest
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section

News

New bird emerged from genetic shuffling

New research published March 25 in the journal Science challenges the typical model of speciation by documenting how a recently discovered songbird in South America traveled a very rare evolutionary path. The study delves into the origins of the...

  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Biology
COVID-19 vaccine

News

Cornell experts working to increase vaccine acceptance
Cornell experts – including Neil A. Lewis Jr. ’13, assistant professor of communication and social behavior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences – have been part of several efforts to increase access and increase vaccine confidence...
  • Department of Communication
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Communication

News

Three Emerging Scholars to Lead New Research Partnerships

Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability has awarded postdoctoral fellowships to three emerging scholars in sustainability. The two-year fellowships provide the opportunity to bridge academic research and non-academic external organizations to...

  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Environment
Two women harvest greens; photo shot from above looking down on their hands

News

Innovative Cornell program offers experiential learning on NYS farms

  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Agriculture

News

Grad Teaching Fellows lead inclusive teaching effort in SIPS

Inclusive learning environments help students thrive. The School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) is one of many units all across Cornell working to build more inclusive, equitable learning experiences.

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture Section
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
A bald eagle flying over water

News

Bald eagle count quadruples, thanks in part to eBird data boost
The latest USFWS Bald Eagle Population Update report estimates more than quadruple the eagle population noted in the 2009 report, or 316,708 eagles across the contiguous United States. The rising number of bald eagles undoubtedly reflects the continuing conservation success story that stretches back to the banning of DDT in 1972.
  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Animals
  • Environment