Larry P. Walker, a professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded $750,000 by a New York state research agency to explore the use of plant and microbial resources to produce biofuels, industrial chemicals, natural products and other consumer goods.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/Walker.NYSTAR.ssl.html

Displaced Tulane student Maggie Joyce has become intrigued by landscape architecture and the possibilities of eco-design and green approaches to development during her semester at Cornell. "Every professor I've had here is amazing," she said. "I've been ridiculously impressed by them. They've just been out-of-the-ballpark good."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/Joyces2.gl.html

The Lab of Ornithology launches a new search for the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker's roost: "Our big hope and goal is to find a roost hole or preferably a nest hole," said Lab of Ornithology Director John Fitzpatrick. "That's our holy grail."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/BrinkleyWoodpecker1.html

As Cornell's Lab of Ornithology staffers and volunteers gear up for a six-month search for the ivory-billed woodpecker, residents of Brinkley might be wondering why this bird is so hard to find. Unlike the townspeople, who say the bird is ubiquitous, Ron Rohrbaugh, director of the lab's Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Project, says the possibility exists that they may be searching for only one or two woodpeckers in an area of bottomland forest three-quarters the size of Rhode Island.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/SearchSidebar.kr.html

When young school-age children do not always have enough to eat, their academic development — especially reading — suffers, according to a new longitudinal study led by Edward Frongillo, associate professor of nutritional sciences.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/food.insecure.learn.ssl.html

On the one hand, farmed salmon has more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than wild salmon. On the other hand, it also tends to have much higher levels of dangerous chemical contaminants. Stick to wild salmon unless heart disease is a risk factor, concludes a risk/benefit analysis of farmed and wild fish by Barbara Knuth, professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/salmon.ssl.html

To help consumers make informed choices about fish, Professor Barbara Knuth serves as a scientific adviser to Seafood Safe, a new voluntary fish-labeling program for companies, retailers, and restaurants.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Dec05/seafood.safe.ssl.html

After years of effort, Cornell University, the State University of New York, and New York Gov. George E. Pataki have worked out an agreement on land-grant funding. Under a new arrangement, money appropriated to Cornell from the state for its federal land-grant responsibilities will be separate from funding allocated by the SUNY system to Cornell for higher education.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/StateBudget.kr.html

Wanted by Cornell and USDA researchers: a natural enemy to curb two invasive, poisonous vines, pale and black swallow-wort. Antonio diTommaso, associate professor of weed science, is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, which operates a federal laboratory at Cornell.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Swallow-wort.kr.html

Six students in Edward Mabaya’s course (AEM 497/700) in the Emerging Markets Program spent their winter break in east Africa, where they provided Tanzanian seed companies with “thousands of dollars” of technical and analytical assistance. "The course was fantastic!" said Megan Gutleber, a senior AEM major in the course. "I learned more in this 10-day trip than I have ever learned in a full semester of in-class work."
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Tanzania.seeds.ssl.html

A new professional organization with its own peer-reviewed journal is being launched by Mark Constas, associate professor of education, with a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. His purpose is to bring together people who are interested in applying the principles of scientific inquiry to examine the effectiveness of educational practices, interventions, programs, and policies.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/new.educ.society.ssl.html

Five CALS scientists — Professors Johannes Lehmann, Per Pinstrup-Andersen, and James Shanahan, doctoral candidate John Besley, and Professor Emeritus Dennis Gonsalves — present their research at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.advance.lg.html

The world neglect of hunger is “immoral and appalling” and feeds terrorism, says Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell's Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition, and Public Policy and the 2001 World Food Prize laureate, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.hunger.nochange.ssl.html

If science can send rockets to Mars and Pluto, it can reduce world hunger and poverty, asserts Cornell food policy expert Per Pinstrup-Andersen.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.priorities.ssl.html

Cornell biogeochemist Johannes Lehmann tells the American Association for the Advancement of Science how reproducing terra preta — the Amazon's black soil — could increase soil fertility and reduce global warming. Lehmann says the super-fertile soil was produced thousands of years ago by indigenous populations using slash-and-char methods.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.terra.preta.ssl.html

Genetic engineering saved Hawaii's papaya industry — so why aren't other countries following suit? Dennis Gonsalves, professor emeritus of plant pathology, addresses the AAAS.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.Gonsalves.papaya.sd.html

Is genetically modified food a risk or benefit? Americans are split but growing somewhat more skeptical, finds a study by James Shanahan, associate professor of communication, and doctoral student John Besley.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.agbiotech.ssl.html

AEM junior Travis Mayer is one of three Cornell students competing on snow and ice at Turin Olympics.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Olympians.ssl.html

Researchers led by Andre Kessler, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have found that the release of volatile organic compounds from a wounded sagebrush primes the defenses of wild tobacco.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/EavesdroppingPlants.kr.html

John Sipple, an associate professor of education, was awarded a 2005 Faculty Innovation in Teaching (FIT) project, which allows faculty to develop innovative instructional technology projects that have the potential to improve the educational process.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Teaching_technology.html

Thirteen Landscape Architecture students spent their winter break mapping long-term development and environmental conservation strategies for the Panama Canal region as part of a field-learning course taught by Professor Roger Trancik.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/CRPwinterprojects.dea.html

Q&A: Larry Walker calls for “Manhattan Project” for energy in biofuels.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Larry_Walker_Q&A.aw.html

Taxonomy expert E. Richard Hoebeke finds that the invasive woodwasp and Southern Hemisphere forest devastator sirex noctilio Fabricius is well established in upstate New York.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/woodwasp.threat.ssl.html

Ag Innovation Center helps an onion jelly maker market her products nationally and globally:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/onion.jelly.ssl.html

Cornell's Shoals Marine Laboratory has announced eight merit-based scholarships for Cornell undergraduates to study marine sciences at the laboratory's summer program. The scholarships, funded by Henry (Hank) E. and Nancy Horton Bartels, both of the Class of 1948, are all named to honor pioneers and past directors of Shoals.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/Bartels.shoals.html

CALS in Print

You wouldn't think that a plant pathology text with the title Diseases of Trees and Shrubs could double as a coffee-table book. But the handsomely designed and revised second edition of Wayne A. Sinclair's masterwork is quite fetching to the eye. Sinclair is a Cornell University professor emeritus of plant pathology.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/books.trees.fac.html