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Discover CALS

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

You want to change the world. So do we.

We are a community with an uncommon sense of a common goal: to leave the world better than we found it. Ambitious? Sure. But Cornell CALS has been changing the world for over a century and will be doing so for a century more.

Founded in agriculture and focused on life, we are pioneers who have shaped contemporary science and eagerly embraced international opportunity, while always serving the people in the state of New York.

The Wall Street Journal/Times of Higher Education 2020 College Rankings ranked CALS #1 in agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences.

Our purpose

This is the charge that motivates us: CALS tackles the challenges of our times through purpose-driven science that advances understanding and improves life.

CALS at a glance

16

Departments

7 departments shared with other Cornell colleges and schools

2

Schools

The Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management
and the School of Integrative Plant Science

$275M

Total research expenditures

FY 2023

4,020

Undergraduate students

As of May 2023

950

Graduate students

As of May 2021

350

Faculty

As of May 2021

We seek answers in order to find the next questions.

Our mission

These are our objectives and how we accomplish them: As a premier institution of scientific learning, we connect the life, agricultural, environmental and social sciences to provide world-class education, spark unexpected discoveries and inspire pioneering solutions.

people discussing plants

Teaching passion-driven minds

Scientist and student with computers

Purpose-driven science in action

researchers in field

Sharing knowledge with the community

Latest news, discoveries and breakthroughs

Explore the work we’re doing today and discover how it’s reshaping tomorrow.

two hands hold dry manure

News

Manure boosts hidden ecosystem beneath our feet
Manure is a great source of nutrients, but recent studies show there is something even more magical about it. Read on to learn more about the importance of soil health to yield, the ways that manure can influence this and how the Nutrient...
  • Animal Science
  • Agriculture
  • Field Crops
Young clear American eels on a felt-like brown surface.

News

The Hudson River Eel Project – which has netted, counted and released roughly 2 million juvenile eels since its inception in 2008 – owes its success to a cadre of nearly 1,000 high school, college and adult citizen scientists donating time and...

  • New York State Water Resources Institute
  • Environment
Stylized sperm cells swimming on a pink background.

News

A cross-college collaboration is opening new doors in the study of male infertility by breaking down a key step in sperm formation. Isolating the intricacies of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation, will now enable researchers to identify what...

  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
  • Genetics