Meet our faculty: Ian Owens

Spotlight

Academic focus: Large-scale patterns in biodiversity and conservation Research summary: I study the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive differences between species and ecosystems, and the implications for conservation planning. I’m...
  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Animals
  • Biodiversity
  • Ecosystems
A headshot of Ian Owens

Meet our faculty: Mario Herrero

Spotlight

Academic focus: Sustainable food systems, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food systems futures, systems analysis, livestock, sustainability, food security, environmental impacts Research summary: My research focuses on increasing the...
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Food
  • Global Development
A headshot of Mario Herrero

Meet our faculty: Laura Gunn

Spotlight

Academic focus: Synthetic biology, structural biology and biochemistry Research summary: I study nature’s vital, but notoriously inefficient, carbon fixing enzyme called Rubisco. The aim is to target Rubisco function to enhance the efficiency of...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Biology Section
  • Biology
  • Plants
  • Crops
A headshot of Laura Gunn

Meet our faculty: Jingyue (Ellie) Duan

Spotlight

Academic focus: My academic focus is in understanding how epigenetics drives embryonic reprogramming, X chromosome dosage compensation, genetic imprinting and heat-induced responses. Research summary: Our research group uses genomics and...
  • Animal Science
  • Animals
  • Genomics
  • Genetics
A headshot of Jingyue (Ellie) Duan

Lund fellows program supports undergrads and organic agriculture

Spotlight

A new summer internship enables undergraduates across disciplines to learn about organic, restorative and agroecological practices while working at diversified, small-scale farms around New York state.
  • Global Development Section
  • Agriculture
  • Organic
  • Animals
  • Environment
  • Food
  • Global Development
Jeremiah Lazo and fellow interns working in an agriculture field

Cornell celebrates 65 years of leadership in biogeochemistry

Spotlight

For 65 years, Cornell CALS has been a leader in biogeochemistry, an interdisciplinary field that studies elemental cycles through Earth’s air, land and water, and is critical to understanding climate change. The first journal in the field was founded by Professor Bob Howarth in 1984.
  • Environment
  • Climate Change
A river from above.

Global action to save wheat

Spotlight

When Norman Borlaug said, “Rust never sleeps,” he was warning of the emergence of a highly virulent stem rust pathogen that threated wheat crops around the world. First identified in the wheat fields of Uganda, the fungal pathogen known as Ug99...
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Global Development
A man and a woman stand in a field of wheat, examining the growing plants

Meg McGrath battles the 'pesto pest' basil downy mildew

Spotlight

Nothing spells disappointment more during pesto-making season than visiting your basil patch only to find your carefully tended crop ravaged. But that is exactly what happened to Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist based at Cornell’s Long Island...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture Section
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Plants
  • Horticulture
  • Pathology
Basil leaves with orange between veins, symptomatic of basil downy mildew

Where Land Meets Water

Spotlight

Jamie L. Vanucchi, assistant professor of landscape architecture, is interested in the merger of science and design—taking into account natural processes when planning a landscape. Her research is situated within the region, with an emphasis on New York State, NY's Great Lakes, and the Susquehanna watershed and focuses on the role of uncertainty in design related primarily to floodplains and climate change.
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Water
  • Landscape
  • Land
  • Climate Change
Body of Water Near Green Trees Under Cloudy Sky

Celebrating the CALS Class of 2021

Spotlight

With the end of the semester in sight, we'd like to take a moment to recognize the CALS graduating class of 2021. During their time at Cornell, members of this exceptional class have explored the corners of purpose-driven science, traveled the...
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Food Science
Yellow daffodils outside on campus with McGraw Tower in the background

Extension Online Fitness Classes Bring Seniors Together

Spotlight

They Zoom in from New York City, across upstate and downstate New York, the North Country, and states all across the U.S. Four mornings a week at 9 a.m., thousands of seniors join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County Executive Director Mary Breyette’s online fitness classes looking for exercise and connection.
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
CCE Clinton County Senior Exercise with Mary Breyette

Meet Jack Elstner '21: Advancing research in oceanography and climate change

Spotlight

These experiences had a lasting impact on him — imparting both the beauty and value of marine ecosystems and the ways in which these resources are exploited. “Even from a young age, I saw how we currently live in a world undergoing massive...
  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Biology
  • Environment
  • Water
  • Climate Change
A lighthouse on ocean cliffs

Meet our faculty: J. Brooks Crickard

Spotlight

Academic focus: My academic focus is in understanding how cells protect the integrity of their genome. This includes how chromosomes are repaired during DNA damage events and how they are even maintained during normal cell growth. Research...
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Biology
  • Genetics

Meet our faculty: Lori Huberman

Spotlight

Academic focus: Fungal genetics and genomics Research summary: I study how fungi sense and respond to their environment. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how fungi sense available nutrients and efficiently utilize them. Accurate...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Plants
  • Pathology
  • Genetics
  • Organisms
  • Environment
  • Nature
A headshot of Lori Huberman

Meet our faculty: Heather Feaga

Spotlight

Academic focus : Molecular microbiology, bacteriology, biochemistry and genetics Research summary: My lab studies how bacteria translate the genetic code into protein. We use genetic screens to identify new factors that interact with the...
  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Medicine
  • Biology
  • Bacteria
  • Genetics
  • Microbial biology
  • Microbiology

Meet our faculty: Matt Marx

Spotlight

Academic focus: Innovation & entrepreneurship Research summary: I focus on reducing barriers to the commercialization of science and technology, which I experienced firsthand during a decade as an executive and engineer at two startups in the...
  • Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
  • Applied Economics

Meet our faculty: Joyce G. Chery

Spotlight

Academic focus: My lab focuses on the evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) of plants. We integrate classical plant anatomical and developmental techniques with systematics, phylogenetic comparative methods, and cell and molecular...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Biology Section
  • Plants
  • Evolution
  • Environment
  • Nature
  • Ecosystems
Joyce sitting on a rock in the forest