Power play: Arts & Sciences alum is a long drive golfing champ

After competing in track and field for the Big Red, Troy Mullins ’09 parlayed her athleticism into success at smashing the ball.

Mészáros elected to American Mathematical Society

Mészáros’ research focuses on algebraic and geometric combinatorics.

Unexpected allies: DNA packaging aids gene expression

Researchers discovered that DNA packaging structures called nucleosomes, which have been traditionally seen as roadblocks for gene expression, actually help reduce torsional stress in DNA strands and facilitate genetic information decoding.

2025 Year in Review

In 2025, Cornell produced cutting-edge AI research, inaugurated a president and advanced agriculture and sustainability. The university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni made the world a better place, welcomed back two Nobel laureate alumni and conducted research that matters.

AI gives scientists a boost, but at the cost of too many mediocre papers

A new study shows that using large language models like ChatGPT boosts paper production, especially for non-native English speakers, but the overall increase in AI-written papers is making it harder to separate the valuable contributions from the AI slop.

TikTok user long-term experience will ‘depend’ on regulators in new framework

Tiktok has signed a deal to spin off its U.S. business, but it remains unclear how effectively the new framework will address the initial national security threat concerns, says government professor Sarah Kreps.

In Bukovina, European empires built new worlds out of inherited materials

Now divided between Romania and Ukraine, the region never fit easily among its neighbors, as regimes including the Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union tried to remake it in their image.

‘Songs In Flight,’ inspired by Cornell-based project, earns Grammy nod

Based on poems by A&S alumna Tsitsi Ella Jaji, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’08, the songs by Shawn Okpebholo bring to life individual stories preserved by the Cornell-based Freedom on the Move project.

Quantum mechanical molecular ‘fingerprints’ solve machine learning mystery

The new method, Semi-Local Density Fingerprints (SLDFs), can predict molecular properties with up to 100 times more accuracy than the current most popular method for modeling molecules and materials.

Book explores ‘modernity and malevolence’ in Indian clinical care

The new book from anthropology professor Andrew Willford shows how patterns of psycho-social stress combined with modernity’s pressures can influence psychiatric practice.

Astronomer paints vivid history of Arecibo Observatory

In a new book, Donald Campbell, Ph.D. ’71, professor emeritus of astronomy, recounts the history of Arecibo from construction to its last days under Cornell’s management in 2011.

In lab mice rehomed to fields, anxiety is reversed

When postdoctoral researcher Matthew Zipple releases lab mice into a large, enclosed field just off Cornell’s campus, something remarkable happens.

The mystery of the Seneca Drums persists

Researchers are plumbing the depths of the largest and deepest of New York’s Finger Lakes to explain the source of its famous booming sounds.

From better sleep to stronger communities: The benefits of gratitude

Gratitude not only makes you feel good, but it helps you live up to your best self and be a better member of society, psychology professor Thomas Gilovich has found.

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82

Salvatore taught at the ILR School and in the American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences for 36 years, retiring in 2017 as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Emeritus Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Your December 2025 reads

This month’s featured titles include fiction from A&S alum Thomas Pynchon ’59, an award-winning poetry collection and a study of a small town.

Celebrating the journey with our December A&S grads

December graduates walk the stage this month, so we sat down for a talk with three A&S grads who’ve taken different pathways through Cornell.

Brain stimulation during sleep boosts weak memories in mice

Manipulating mouse brains during sleep improved their ability to remember new experiences that would normally be forgotten – a finding with important implications for treating Alzheimer’s disease.

Cake-pan telescope searches the sky for fast radio bursts

The Global Radio Explorer telescope is a series of eight terminals being built and tested at Cornell and the California Institute of Technology, and installed at locations around the world.

Undergrads launch magazine featuring in-depth stories

A new student-run magazine focuses on long-form journalism that reflects the culture of Cornell and Ithaca.

At age 90, a singer, collector, and scholar of folk music goes digital

After a long career onstage and off, Ellen Stekert ’57 is focused on preservation—releasing songs from her vast archive on Bandcamp.

Domestic politics driving Thailand-Cambodia border tensions says Cornell Southeast Asia expert

Thailand and Cambodia have long had fraught relations, professor Tom Pepinsky says after Thailand’s military launched air strikes along the Thailand-Cambodia border.

Campana wins MLA’s Scaglione Prize for book on Japanese poetry

“Expanding Verse: Japanese Poetry at the Edge of Media" is study of work by poets who push the genre in unexpected directions.

Workshop, talk focused on applying lessons learned from COVID

Scholars converged at Cornell to talk about lessons policymakers and elected officials could glean from their research into the COVID pandemic to help deal with the next public health emergency.

Cornell-China trip celebrates 20 years of Levinson Program

Leaders celebrated the Levinson Program and joined other Cornell delegates at the Cornell-China Forum.

Electrons stay put in layers of mismatched ‘quantum Legos’

Electrons can be elusive, but Cornell researchers using a new computational method can now account for where they go – or don’t go – in certain layered materials.

Cornell Center for Social Sciences awards fall grants targeting $50M in external research support

The Cornell Center for Social Sciences offers multiple grants to help Cornell faculty maximize their research impact. These awards help seed ambitious projects and provide support to teams of faculty applying to major external funding and collaboration opportunities.

Chile latest test case in South America’s far right shift

“Chile's vibrant democracy faces a new challenge in a highly polarized second-round presidential election" Dec. 14, says Ken Roberts, professor of government.

Forever young? Extracellular vesicles may be key to halt aging

Scientists have outlined exactly how embryonic stem cells protect other cells from the effects of oxidative stress, thus preventing cellular aging.

CTI grants enable faculty to research how students think and learn

With a 2024-2025 Innovative Teaching & Learning Grant, A&S professors collaborated with others to develope an AI tool to foster student metacognitive skills around teamwork in STEM classes.

‘Households in Context’ wins Wiseman Book Award

Based on a 2018 conference co-organized by Caitie Barrett, professor of classics, and Jennifer Carrington, Ph.D. ’19, the book focuses on houses and households during a period when Egypt was ruled by Greeks and then by Romans.

Is Silicon Valley driving Trump’s policy on Honduras?

Trump’s interest in Honduras is more about U.S. business interests, than democracy, says professor Raymond Craib, a historian of modern Latin America.

Cornell Navy ROTC midshipman earns top honor

Kylie Williamson ’26 has been named Navy/Marines Student of the Year by Navy Federal Credit Union, a top honor in the Reserve Officers Training Corps system. Williamson is the first Cornell student to win the award.

Spaceflight-tested menstrual cup offers choice on long missions

To equip astronauts with health choices for future missions, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow is leading research with AstroCup, a group that recently tested two menstrual cups in spaceflight as payload on an uncrewed rocket flight.

As higher ed looks to the future, it's vital to understand the past

Praveen Sethupathy ’03, an A&S computer sciences alum who co-chairs a faculty task force exploring Cornell’s role in a changing educational, research, and social landscape, serves as co-chair of the Committee on the Future of the American University, a group of 18 faculty appointed by the provost to explore how Cornell can evolve to best serve future generations while pursuing its core mission of education, scholarship, public impact, and community engagement.

Ancient dirty dishes reveal decades of questionable findings

An interdisciplinary team of researchers determined that organic residues of plant oils are poorly preserved in calcareous soils from the Mediterranean, leading decades of archaeologists to likely misidentify olive oil in ceramic artifacts.

Grants to support research at nexus of AI, climate science

New grant funding will support eight research projects seeking to reduce AI’s energy use and integrate AI in environmental research.

Your November 2025 reads

This month’s titles featured in Cornellians include poetry, a famed restaurateur’s memoir, and a chronicle of the 1929 stock market crash

Talk examines Civil Rights Act’s unintended consequences

Legal scholar Gail Heriot will describe a chain of unintended consequences of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in her talk "Why We Walk on Eggshells," Dec. 8.

Professor emerita Stephanie Vaughn, ‘writer’s writer,’ dies at 81

Vaughn taught creative writing and literature at Cornell for 39 years, retiring in 2022 as professor of literatures in English emerita.

Career Development targets resources for students in tech fields

Tech students need to target specific organizations that match their interests, skills and values.

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24

"Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research."

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Jacqueline Allen ’23

"I got a taste of what neuroscience research is really like."

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nicole Hao ’24, MEng ’25

“Nexus, to me, was also a professional development experience."

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Rachel Craig ’24

"I had the opportunity to present what was exciting to me, and what I learned.”

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Nnenna Ochuru ’25

"I want to further study the politicalization of education."

U.S.-Russia peace plan should be ‘non-starter’ for Ukraine

The leaked peace initiative, which would allegedly require Kyiv to surrender territory and significantly reduce the size of its army and some types of weaponry, is largely an attempt to put pressure on Zelensky, says David Silbey.

Portraits honor 8 Cornell faculty as ‘new heroes’

The portraits are part of a series by Christopher Michel, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence.

Student spotlight: Raul Armenta

Raul Armenta, a doctoral student in sociology from Los Angeles, studies the intersection of education and the criminal legal system under the guidance of Bryan Sykes.

Nearly 60 students recognized at pinning ceremony

A&S-affiliated graduate students were among nearly 60 welcomed by the Graduate School as new Dean’s Scholars at an event to honor students selected for this distinction for academic excellence, leadership, and service.