News | A&S Departments

Leslie Babonis in front of a microscope in her lab

The College Welcomes New Faculty for 2020-21

Twenty-seven new faculty join the College of Arts & Sciences this year.

Norton honored with top alumni award from Harvard

The Centennial Medal recognizes alumni who have made fundamental and lasting contributions to knowledge, their disciplines, their colleagues and society

Dollar bills, some of them folded and crumpled, resting on a white surface

‘Expectations matter’: Cornell expert on today’s economic turmoil

Ryan Chahrour studies how people’s beliefs drive economic events and what makes the U.S. dollar special – and dominant – in world trade.

Person in academic robes shakes the hand of another person in academic robes

Ph.D. graduates overcame obstacles to find success

Cornell’s newest Ph.D.s found success even through the unexpected events of the last few years, President Michael I. Kotlikoff reminded nearly 400 doctoral graduates at the 2025 Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony on May 23 at Barton Hall.

Several people gathered around a table with computer games

Students got game at annual video game showcase

The showcase was the final exam for students in Cornell’s game design courses

A lacross player in white and red uniform holds a trophy aloft; he's surrounded by celebrating teammates

Cornell lacrosse wins national championship, first in 48 years

The Big Red defeated Maryland 13-10 in the NCAA title game held at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

People on a stage; one in military uniform stands at attention

Cornell graduates aim to ‘lead from the front’ as military officers

During a May 23 ceremony in Statler Auditorium, more than 25 members of Cornell’s Reserve Officers' Training Corps Tri-Service Brigade were commissioned as second lieutenants or ensigns in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Space Force.

Person sitting on a bench under a tree, reading a book

Your May 2025 reads

This month’s featured titles include essays on womanhood by A&S alumna Nicole Graev Lipson ’98.

Music professor named new director of Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity

Roger Moseley, associate professor of music, will begin in the new role July 1.

Happy together: Peroxide binds incompatible polymers for recycling

“The dream is, if you can make a really rigid polymer that’s also really tough, then you can make packaging that uses less material, yet has the same sort of properties."

two plank-shapes, one with a stripe and one with a white root shape hover over neon color feather shapes

Moving pictures: Researchers use movies to diagnose EV battery failure

The technique enables them to watch chemistry in action and collect real-time movies showing what happens to energy materials during temperature changes.

Med student Grace Staes ’22 feels prepared for the work

Staes said her major in anthropology has proven to be an asset in medical school.

Illustration showing an outline of a brain in white electronic-looking wiring

Brain-inspired AI model learns sensory data efficiently

With brain mechanisms as a guide, Cornell researchers are designing low-energy robotic systems inspired by biology and useful for a wide range of potential applications.

Roper Center announces 2025 student fellows advancing public opinion research

This year’s cohort includes the W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow and three Kohut Fellows. These emerging scholars will advance data-driven research by contributing original scholarly work that uses Roper iPoll’s extensive survey archive.

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Seventeen Receive Awards Recognizing Inclusive Excellence

Awardees were recognized for the significant impacts they have made to advance access, engagement and belonging through their service and leadership.

Brad Ramshaw, smiling, with very short mustache and beard, in a polo shirt in front of a tree

Physicist Brad Ramshaw awarded $2M as Brown Investigator

“This grant will allow us to pursue some high-risk, novel ideas for how to measure material properties like elasticity and high-frequency conductivity that have previously been inaccessible in 2D materials.”

One person wearing graduation cap helps another with hers

They fled Afghanistan together – and now they're graduating

After escaping the Taliban, nine women matriculated on the Hill; the first to complete their degrees are in the Class of ’25

Rectangular glass award set among model planets on a table

Changemaker Award goes to SPIF and Zoe Learner Ponterio

The Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways say Ponterio’s support “has been invaluable."

Abruña receives 2025 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences

The biennial prize, announced May 15, “recognizes an individual for exceptional and original research in a selected area of chemistry that has advanced the field in a major way.”

A&S senior honored for work that impacts the community

For her work supporting the Ithaca community and people struggling with incarceration and drug addiction across New York, Netra Shetty ’25 earned the 2025 University Relations Campus Community Leadership Award.

View of a city (Berlin) from above: river and red-roofed buildings

Two A&S professors awarded the Berlin Prize

The highly competitive Berlin Prize is awarded annually to U.S.-based scholars, writers, composers and artists from the United States who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields

Pink flowering tree and a stone colonade with people on the steps

Outstanding faculty win 2025 teaching and advising awards

Among those being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are faculty members Begüm Adalet, Claudia Verhoeven, and Marcelo Aguiar.

Graduating seniors in the A&S Class of 2025

Extraordinary Journeys: The Class of 2025

The Class of 2025 leaves campus at a time of global uncertainty, but they say they feel prepared for the challenges that will come their way. In this feature, we celebrate their Cornell journeys.

Carbon dioxide key to making a precise polymer safely

Cornell chemists have developed a user-friendly, scalable process for methacrylate that’s precisely controlled and mediated by carbon dioxide.

crystal ball reflects a view of a river, upside down

In a first, system uses sunlight to power carbon capture

Inspired by the mechanisms plants use to store carbon, researchers found that sunlight can power the capture and release of carbon dioxide, which could vastly lower costs and net emissions.

Doctor's stethoscope and blood pressure cuff

Surgeon General nominee is a prescription for ‘pseudoscience’

The nomination of Dr. Casey Means is the latest example of the administration’s disregard for scientific expertise and evidence-based policy, says a Cornell University expert.

Cornell undergraduate students diagnosing wine grape diseases in a plant pathology laboratory in Chile.

Cornell STEM education expert weighs in on NSF funding cuts

"Students across the country are going to miss out on innovative improvements to their science education – innovations that would have critically prepared them for the competitive 21st century technological workforce."

New method explores dormancy in TB, other organisms

A new computational method developed by researchers at Cornell sheds light on how going dormant – sometimes for multiple generations – has affected the evolution of the tuberculosis bacterium and other organisms that can temporarily drop out of the gene pool.

Kaushik Basu wearing a tweed jacket with hand upraised as he delivers a talk.

Economist Kaushik Basu named co-chair of UN panel

The “High-Level Expert Group” will develop recommendations for measures that complement or go beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Pope Leo XIV bridges Catholicism's geographic divide

The historic selection of Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago-born U.S. citizen and naturalized Peruvian, reflects Catholicism's evolving global identity.

Milstein students show off projects at expo

The showcase reflected the Milstein Program’s mission, helping students in the College of Arts & Sciences pursue ambitious, cross-disciplinary work.

People cluster together in an outdoor shelter, looking at papers and flowers

Cornell writers inspire kids’ poetry at Ithaca Children’s Garden

A crew of Cornell creative writers lent their time and experience to guide young poets during Nature Poetry in the Garden, an event held May 3 at the Ithaca Children’s Garden.