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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.

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Research

We accelerate purpose-driven science by supporting inquiry that crosses disciplinary boundaries and stretches from discovery to invention.

Purpose-driven science? We literally wrote the book on it.

The first undergraduate textbooks in mammology, ornithology and food science? Check. The first successful integration of botany and zoology in 1967’s Biological Science? Check. A 1925 handbook of nature study that is still a primary resource on the subject? Check.

The research of Cornell CALS scientists, students and staff hasn’t just informed discovery and innovation, but it is also the foundation upon which fields of study have been built.

In this section

Undergraduate research

Discovering new genes

Cameron Xu ’26 is using biometry and statistics to help Cornell CALS animal science professor Vimal Selvaraj identify new genes. Together, they’re investigating how steroid hormones regulate the body’s processes, uncovering new knowledge that could advance cancer research and solve other human health challenges.

Explore synthetic biology at CALS
Play CALS Undergraduate Research Experience: Cameron Xu '26

Latest news, discoveries and breakthroughs

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

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News

What social media creators can’t say about their job

Online content creator burnout is, in part, “unspeakable” – a product of a confluence of factors, including the informal nature of platform labor and the privileged status of creative work, seen by many as a “dream job.”

  • Communication
Tree swallow

News

Climate change leaves northern tree swallows most vulnerable

Tree swallows in the northern U.S. and Canada face the greatest risk from climate change despite responding to temperature the same way as tree swallows in the southern U.S.

  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Animals
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Spotlight

Cornell small grains breeding strengthens local and global food systems
For 12,000 years, wheat has been the bread of life; its discovery sparked the beginnings of agriculture, which enabled human flourishing across the globe. For farmers in New York’s humid climate, growing small grains like wheat, oats, barley and...
  • Campus Area Farms
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
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Research in lab

Undergraduate opportunities

Plant Science researchers working in a lab.
Graduate student grants

Opportunities include Andrew W. Mellon Student Research Grants, Arthur Boller Research Fund, Kieckhefer Adirondack Fellowships and Grant Proposal Application Instructions

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Faculty research support