Five from Cornell named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows

Five Cornell faculty members are among 126 early-career researchers across North America who have won 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

11 new researchers become Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows

Cornell researchers interested in diverse topics ranging from peptide engineering and cellular metabolites to quantum physics and sustainable computing are among the newest cohort selected by the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows program.

CTI’s ‘Art of the Lab’ faculty panel to highlight creative approaches to instruction

CTI’s “The Art of Teaching” series returns Feb. 11 with “The Art of the Lab.” Faculty panelists will share creative instructional approaches for designing student-centered laboratory experiences.

Four on faculty to receive DOE early-career grants

Four Cornell faculty members are among 99 researchers across the U.S. who have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its Office of Science Early Career Research Program.

College of Arts and Sciences announces 2026 Klarman Fellows

The 12 early-career scholars will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

$1.5M grant boosts postdoctoral research across 4 colleges

In 2026, the from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will begin funding 10 two-year postdoctoral appointments including three in astronomy, chemistry and physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The people behind the telescope: How specialized expertise is supporting science at the edge of the universe

Behind a world-leading telescope bound for Chile is a team of engineers, machinists, electronics specialists and riggers at Cornell. Meet the specialized staff whose expertise is helping push cosmology to new frontiers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24

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

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.

Light causes atomic layers to do the twist

Using a Cornell-built instrument and Cornell-built high-speed detector, a team of researchers captured atomically thin materials responding to light with a dynamic twisting motion.

Physicist John Reppy wins Buckley Prize

Reppy was recognized along with David Bishop, Ph.D. ’78, for "groundbreaking experiments" they did on helium 50 years ago.

Nathan Seiberg explores frontiers of physics in 2025 Bethe Lecture

Seiberg, professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will explore string theory and other aspects of scientific progress.

Startup bets their superfast microbe can rewrite biotech

Researchers develop a new bacterium that can absorb DNA directly from its surroundings and incorporate it into its own genetic code.

Neural implant smaller than salt grain wirelessly tracks brain

Cornell researchers and collaborators have developed a neural implant so small that it can rest on a grain of salt, yet it can wirelessly transmit brain activity data in a living animal for more than a year.

Using AI to learn quantum complexity

Cornell physicists and computer scientists have developed a machine learning architecture inspired by the large language models (LLMs) behind ChatGPT to help them study the vastly complicated interactions that happen when nature's smallest particles interact.

Fuchs, Hartman elected to American Physical Society

Thomas Hartman is a professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Brad Ramshaw named Experimental Physics Investigator

The recognition goes to researchers pushing the boundaries of experimental physics.

Cornell physicists update catalog of binary black holes

These simulations, developed with significant input from Cornell researchers using code written at Cornell, help scientists analyze gravitational waves observed by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors located in the U.S., Italy and Japan.

Physicist: After 33 billon years, universe ‘will end in a big crunch’

After expanding to its peak size about 11 billion years from now, the universe will begin to contract – snapping back like a rubber band to a single point at the end, according to a Cornell physicist.

‘Bottling’ human intuition for AI-led materials discovery

A Cornell researcher and collaborators have developed a machine-learning model that encapsulates and quantifies the valuable intuition of human experts in the quest to discover new quantum materials.

Creating customized tools for scientists around the world

Physics Professor Robert Thorne's company just celebrated 20 years in business and its 25th patent.

Wang receives 2025 Stanley Corrsin Award from American Physical Society

Wang was honored for “original and innovative work on insect flight that provided fundamental insights into unsteady aerodynamics, flight efficiency, flight stability, and neural control, and for opening new dimensions of research in biological fluid dynamics.”

Celebrating “What Works” in creating engaging learning experiences

The Center for Teaching Innovation will host “What Works,” on Oct. 1, featuring presentations, the Canvas Course Spotlight awardees, and a poster showcase that will demonstrate engaged learning approaches from Cornell faculty teaching in a diverse range of courses and fields.

Revitalizing introductory physics labs with NSF support

Through The Introductory Physics Lab Institute, professor Natasha Holmes shares best practices in physics labs.

On 10th anniversary, LIGO verifies Hawking’s theorem

The LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA team has announced a black hole merger similar to its first detection; a decade’s worth of technological advances allow unprecedented tests of General Relativity to be performed.

Self-assembling magnetic microparticles mimic biological error correction

A Cornell-led collaboration developed microscale magnetic particles that can mimic the ability of biomolecules to self-assemble into complex structures, while also reducing the parasitic waste that would otherwise clog up production.

3D-printed superconductor achieves record performance

Nearly a decade after they first demonstrated that soft materials could guide the formation of superconductors, Cornell researchers have achieved a one-step, 3D printing method that produces superconductors with record properties.

2025 Nexus Scholars talk about academic growth, transformation

Ten students who participated in this summer's Nexus Scholars Program share their stories..

How Cornell became home to the world’s first outdoor electric lights

In the 19th century, a pioneering ‘dynamo’ not only lit up the campus—it sparked advances in engineering research on the Hill

National Science Foundation announces Cornell-led AI Materials Institute

The NSF, in partnership with Intel, will invest $20 million over five years.

Partnership helps Cornell student team build a winning bridge

Cornell’s Student Machine Shop at the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (LASSP), students have access to industry-standard equipment and expert guidance: “We have users from physics, chemistry, architecture, engineering, physical education — you name it.”

Cornell–IBM collaboration advances quantum computing

The researchers achieved two major breakthroughs, taking a step toward universal topological quantum computing (fault tolerant computing).

Physicists take step toward a holy grail for electron spins

Their breakthroughs came in part by interweaving two fields: 2D materials and spintronics, also known as spin electronics.

A&S honors 13 faculty with endowed professorships

The professorships are made possible because of gifts from alumni, parents and friends.

Better basketball through theoretical physics?

Cornell researchers are applying a theory about the movement of electrons to a much taller, human system – the National Basketball Association.

One tiny particle could complicate predictions of physics theorists

The international, interdisciplinary team measured the magnetic anomaly of the muon – a tiny, elusive particle that could have very big implications for understanding the subatomic world.

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."

'I love the whimsy of wave equations'

Sabrina McDowell is a physics major.

'I'm proud of my contributions to understanding the stability of insect flight'

Owen Wetherbee is a physics, mathematics & computer science major.

Klarman Fellow honored for outstanding achievement in physics

Paul Malinowski received the 2025 Martin and Beate Block Winter Award from the Aspen Center for Physics.

Don Hartill, longtime physics professor, Lansing mayor, dies at 86

Donald Hartill, a professor of physics emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences and a driving force behind decades of experimental research in particle physics, died on April 16. He was 86.

Alum still lives in the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed for him

Centenarian Roland Reisley ’46, BA ’45, an A&S physics alum, has resided in the Hudson Valley home for more than seven decades.

Cornell Celebrates Breakthrough Prize for LHC Collaborations

Cornell researchers are helping upgrade the CMS detector at CERN, as LHC collaborations win the 2024 Breakthrough Prize for fundamental physics discoveries.