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See how our current work and research is bringing new thinking and new solutions to some of today's biggest challenges.

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Strategic Priorities

Constantly evolving to meet real-world needs.

Evolving to Meet 21st Century Needs

From a note to the college:

"As life changes, so too does Cornell CALS. Evolution and adaptation aren’t just concepts we teach, but embrace. For more than a century, we have met the world’s changing needs with evolving strategic directions and priorities. 

In 2013, I asked a group of administrators, faculty, staff and students to develop a new strategic plan for the college. One that supports our distinction as an institution of academic excellence, pioneering discovery and innovative outreach, while being mindful of the need for the college to evolve to meet the needs of today's students, scientists, and communities.

The latest strategic plan, Knowledge with Public Purpose in a Changing World, is a result of nearly a year of thoughtful and productive discussion. Our implementation of this new strategic plan has been ambitious, transparent and measured. Because of its range and magnitude, execution of the plan has been a multi-year effort, annually identifying priority objectives, developing implementation strategies and planning detailed actions to achieve our goals.

I invite you to read the full plan as well as the priorities one-pager. On behalf of the CALS leadership team, I thank the entire Cornell CALS community for bringing these aspirations to bear."

-Kathryn J. Boor, Ph.D.
The Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Faculty Hiring and Scholarship Goals

Excerpted from the CALS strategic plan (pg. 4):

In the next five to ten years, CALS will continue its long tradition of excellence and existing strengths by propelling discovery and promoting the synergy of disciplinary knowledge in the agricultural, biological, management, physical and social sciences. To reach this goal, CALS will prioritize faculty hiring and scholarship in the following theme areas:

  • Food and nutrition security enhanced through scientific discovery and the application of state of the art knowledge 
  • Climate change — its causes and consequences and adaptation and mitigation to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystems, sustainable farm and food systems and human well-being 
  • Social and socio-ecological system resilience under climate change, globalization and technological change, with a particular focus on economic and community dynamics 
  • Biological systems and their evolution across all hierarchical scales, from the sub-cellular level to complex ecosystems 
  • “Big data” analysis and interpretation to support cutting edge research in biological, agricultural, social, communication, management and information sciences 
  • Media and communication technologies