CORNELL UNIVERSITY S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES \ 4 K *' ( o I 1 ( < / • M inside [ VOLUME 5 | ISSUE 3 | 2015 ] FORAGE AND FUEL: FEEDING THE GLOBAL APPETITES Pushing the envelope on sustainability with new sources of energy, from switchgrass to algae. UNDERSTANDING WHAT'S UNDERFOOT Explore the minutiae of CALS' dynamic subterranean science. A THE IMPACT OF INFLUENCE Social scientists on strategies for health and wellbeing. DEPARTMENTS 52 DEAN'S MESSAGE □ AROUND THE QUAD □ IN THE CAPITOL M IN THE MARKETPLACE SS STUDENT LIFE S ALUMNI NOTES ^6 CORNERSTONES ^9 FACTS IN FIVE M ENDNOTE Visit periodicals.cals.cornell.edu for web exclusives LEFT: Students can dive into aquatic research at the Cornell Biological Field Station at Shackelton Point. Located on the south shore of Oneida Lake, the 400-acre property was left to the university by Charles Brown, class of 1909, a Syracuse engineer and inventor with a strong interest in conservation and forestry. Managed by the Department of Natural Resources, today it is a hub for research on the fisheries and aquatic ecology of Oneida Lake, the Great Lakes and other New York state inland lakes. In addition to year-round research on fish, birds, zooplankton, mussels, plants and nutrient cycling, the station offers 11-week undergraduate research internships during the summer for a unique experiential learning immersion in fundamental and applied ecology. Photo: Robert Way Cover Illustration by Olivia McCandless ‘17 periodicals.cals.cornell.edu dean's message periodiCALS THE MAGAZINE OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY'S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES “I never thought of stopping, and I just hated sleeping. I can't imagine having a better life.” -Barbara McClintock '23, M.A. '25, Ph.D. ‘27 I recently came across this quote from Dr. McClintock, a CALS alumna, professor, geneticist, and Nobel laureate recognized for her work with maize chromosomes, and it struck me how much her sentiment pervades the culture of the college's faculty, students and staff. As dean, I have the opportunity to see firsthand how much effort and passion we put into each facet of our mission—teaching and learning, research, and extension. These three pur­ poses distinguish who we are and what we do as an institution, and that dedication to excellence in each, respectively and combined, strengthens what we deliver as part of our Land­ Grant Mission. This issue of periodiCALS provides fresh insights into the breadth and depth of our work across our four priority areas. The con­ nections between our work in agriculture and the food we eat and beverages we drink are perhaps obvious, and so this issue's look at innovations in the plant sciences in support of bioenergy (see page 12) takes a new perspective by illustrating how and why discovery and dissemination in these disciplines under­ pins many of the solutions to the great challenges we face as a global society. The initiatives led by faculty in the social sciences are also helping to improve our lives (see page 24), individually and as communities small and large. Under­ standing how technologies, policies and media influence our thinking and offer the potential to inform healthier choices will help shape the world around us in Dean Kathryn J. Boor (left) and Cornell President Elizabeth Garrett visited The Great New York State Fair on Dairy Day, Monday, August 31. There, they talked with growers, 4-H students, and policy and elected officials about how CALS’ research, education, and extension activities deliver on Cornell’s Land-Grant Mission. Photo: Robert Barker/University Photography new and ground-breaking ways. As I hope you'll see in the stories about our students and alumni in the opening and closing pages of this magazine, the dedication to knowledge with public purpose is central to who we are and what we do. With 15 departments, two schools, and 22 majors, CALS is unique, and our contributions have impact across the areas associated with an agriculture school and the life sciences, and well beyond into the environmental sciences, information and management sciences, social sciences, and more. As Dr. McClintock intimated, a pen­ chant for resting and CALS just don't match. We have too much to accomplish, and on behalf of my colleagues, we ap­ preciate your support and enthusiasm as we continue the essential education, research and outreach that are our legacy. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Volume 5 • Issue 3 • 2015 periodiCALS is published three times a year by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, a unit of the State University of New York, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Diversity and Inclusion are a part of Cornell University's heritage. We're an employer and educator recognized for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities. THE RONALD P. LYNCH DEAN Kathryn J. Boor SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEANS Beth A. Ahner Max J. Pfeffer ASSOCIATE DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT Margaret Ann Bollmeier ASSOCIATE DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Elizabeth Braun INTERIM DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Aaron Fowler EXECUTIVE EDITOR Amanda Garris Ph.D. ‘04 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Hayes CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Ellen Leventry '95 COPY EDITOR Holly McIntyre Hartigan ALUMNI INFORMATION EDITOR Chloe K. Starr DESIGNER Brian Dudla, CObP Design periodiCALS ONLINE Rob Way SEND ADDRESS UPDATES TO: periodiCALS Address Updates, 274 Roberts Hall, Ithaca, N.Y., 14853-5905, or email alsaa@cornell. edu (Please include “periodiCALS Address Up­ date” in the subject line). Help the Big Red go green by opting out of receiving the print edition, at periodicals.cals.cornell.edu/go-green/ The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has sustainability as a core value. This magazine was printed regionally using soy-based inks, on post-consumer fiber paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, in an eco-friendly process that recycles virtually all chemical, paper, and metal waste. periodicals.cals.cornell.edu/go-green/ •5 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences a around the quad STATE SUPPORTS FOOD PROCESSING TECH WITH $600,000 IN FUNDING By Amanda Garris Ph.D. '04 A t a Sept. 14 press conference, New York State Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-54th Dist., announced $600,000 in state funds to bring a new food processing technology to Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, N.Y. The Hiperbaric 55, which captures fresh taste and extends shelf life while ensuring food safety, will make Geneva a critical part of the validation of this cutting-edge system. “Bringing this complex high-pressure processing equipment to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and to Cornell University is an extraordinary opportunity to promote innovation in Geneva and job growth for New York food processors, especially in the Finger Lakes region,” Nozzolio said. Traditional food processing relies on high temperatures to kill foodborne pathogens, like Listeria, E. coli and Salmonella. According to Randy Worobo, professor of food science, extreme heat is particularly hard on fresh products. It can alter the texture and taste and reduce the nutritional quality. The Hiperbaric 55 uses pressures over 80,000 psi—fivefold greater than the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench—to eliminate pathogens in a quick two- to three-minute treat­ ment. And because the foods are treated inside their final packaging, there's no risk of contamination of food during packaging. The acquisition is a boon for food producers who want to use the new technology, because FDA and USDA requirements for food safety mandate the process be tested for specific food products prior to manu­ facturing. Geneva will become the technology's validation site for the entire country. Much of the work ahead, Worobo said, will be to aid companies by establishing “microbial safe harbors,” the safe process­ ing parameters for amount of pressure, length of treatment, the specific food and the type of packaging. The purchase and installation was made possible by a coalition of public and private funds. In addition to the state funds, private compa­ nies who contributed to the purchase include Wegmans, LiDestri, Suja and the unit's manufacturer, Hiperbaric. “This exciting partnership represents the best of Cornell Univer­ sity's Land-Grant Mission, supporting economic vitality for those who grow and sell food products in the state of New York while ensuring the safety of those products for con­ sumers throughout the United States and beyond,” said Kathryn J. Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “CALS has long been a pio­ neer in food safety, and the addition of Hiperbaric's high- pressure processing equipment firmly establishes the col­ lege as the leader in this vital field of research.” iversity iversity New York State Sen. Michael Nozzolio ILR ‘73, M.S. '77, R-54th Dist., with Kathryn J. Boor (left), the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Susan Brown (right), the Goichman Family Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y. diners FACr DEFEAT STRIKES A SOUR NOTE A A A Defeat may not just cause a sour attitude: A new study from the lab of Robin Dando, assistant professor of food science, shows it can make sour food taste more sour, but winning enhances sweetness. Graduate student Corinna Noel studied how emotional states affect the perception of taste using a sample of 550 zealous Cornell men's hockey fans. At the end of each home game, fans were given a salted- caramel pretzel ice cream and a lemon-lime sorbet. Although caramel was generally preferred to sorbet, fans reported enjoying the sorbet as well after a win. While the flavors salty, umami (savory) and bitter were not affected by wins or losses, for embittered fans the sorbet tasted more sour. The study shows that emotions can make a less palatable food even more unappealing to taste— implying a mechanism for emotional eating and why when we lose, we reach for the sweet. j k k k Harnessing a combination of weather data, GIS technology and pathogen samples, research has identified a low-tech intervention that can help reduce food-borne illness from fresh vegetables: Produce farmers should wait 24 hours after a rain or irrigating their fields to harvest crops. Rain and irrigation create conditions that are more hospitable to Listeria monocytogenes, which when ingested may cause the human illness listeriosis. Researchers in the lab of Martin Wiedmann Ph.D. ‘97, professor of food science, tested fields in New York and found that after rains or irrigation, the chances of finding Listeria were 25 times greater. But after the fields dried at least 24 hours, the chances of detecting Listeria dropped dramatically, to levels similar to baseline. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed rules allowing farmers to apply “wait periods” after application of irrigation water. SHORT WAIT ENHANCES FOOD SAFETY 1 Millions of people turn to the internet and social media for health and food-related information, but stereotypes can distort their assessment of the information: People perceive the same foods as less healthy when they are recommended online by a heavier versus thinner person. Communication professors Jonathon Schuldt and Geri Gay conducted two online experiments, asking participants to judge the overall health quality of 10 meals that were ostensibly posted to a site like Pinterest or Facebook by a fictional woman named Elizabeth Jones. Some participants saw a small thumbnail image of the woman portrayed as thin, while others saw a thumbnail with her heavier. A meal posted by the heavier Jones led participants to judge the meals as significantly less healthy, a finding that held true even when objective measures of nutritional quality—calories and fat content—were also provided to the participants. 1 1 F STYMIED BY STEREOTYPES Soda, candy and fast food are often painted as the prime culprits in the national discussion of obesity, but these foods are not likely to be a leading cause in the United States, according to David Just and Brian Wansink, professors in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. In a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, consumption of soda, candy and fast food was not significantly different in overweight and healthy weight individuals. The exceptions were found on the extreme ends of the spectrum: the chronically underweight and the morbidly obese. They concluded that the overwhelming majority of weight problems are not caused by consumption of junk food alone. According to Just, diets and health campaigns aimed at reducing and preventing obesity may be off track if they hinge on targeting specific foods rather than physical activity and overall consumption patterns, such as snacking. F F F F F F IS JUNK FOOD TO BLAME? Bryan Danforth, professor of entomology, inspects apple blossoms and native pollinators at Cornell Orchards, which is home to at least 26 wild bee species. Photo: Jason Koski/University Photography JOINERS STRENGTHEN STARTUPS A high tolerance for risk, a need for autonomy, and a desire to bring new ideas to life—sound like criteria for an entrepreneur? New research by Michael Roach, the J. Thomas and Nancy W. Clark Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, shows that “joiners”—peo- ple drawn to startups as employees rather than founders—share these entrepreneur­ ial characteristics but to a lesser degree than those who want to be a founder. In LEAP OF FAITH PROVES POLLINATION CAN BE HONEYBEE FREE A s the state's Land-Grant institution, Cornell University was born to explore sci­ ence for the public good—a mission that can sometimes require a leap of faith. Just such a leap paid off this year at Cornell Orchards. While crisp apples and fresh cider are no strangers to fans of the 37-acre research and outreach site, this year's crop provides an extra bonus for New York apple growers: proof that pollination can be done commercial honeybee free. “This is a food security issue,” said entomology professor Bryan Danforth. “We need to know if growers can continue to produce food in the absence of honeybees.” Populations of imported European honeybees, relied upon for centuries in American agriculture, continue to decline under pressure from an array of pathogens, parasites and other problems. After years of surveys through which Danforth's team found more than 100 wild bee species in 20 Upstate orchards—26 species at Cornell Orchards alone—Danforth and farm manager Eric Shatt conceived of a plan to fly through this springs' apple blossom season on the wings of wild bees alone. While he's quick to concede wild bees will never replace honeybees in massive ag­ ricultural settings, Danforth said research and fieldwork is proving wild bees can play a critical role in saving growers money, easing pressure on vulnerable honeybee hives, increasing sustainability and, most importantly, enhancing food security. “If you're an apple grower and you want to make sure you can produce apples for the next 50 years, having the insurance that you have a diverse wild pollinator fauna in and around your orchard will be important,” Danforth said. “Making this industry more profitable and at the same time demonstrating the economic benefits of conserving wild pollinator diversity is a win-win situation for New York agriculture.” addition, joiners tend to be attracted to functional job roles within startups rather than the managerial role of the founder. And there are a lot more joiners than founders. Among the 4,200 doctoral can­ didates surveyed, 46 percent reported an interest in joining a startup as an employee, while only 11 percent expect­ ed to found their own company. Moreover, joiner interests tended to emerge in settings that encourage entre- preneurship, while founder interests appear to be more innate. Roach thinks this is valuable information for university entrepreneurship programs. “Most university programs designed to foster entrepreneurship focus on training people to become founders. But founders make up a small share of the entrepre­ neurial workforce,” Roach said. “And we do little to train the larger share of people who will work in startups as employees.” DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGY CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF IMPACT T he Department of Development Sociology kicked off a yearlong centennial celebration in September with the theme “Looking Back to Move Forward.” For the past 100 years, the department has influenced the trajectory of research, teaching and outreach on development and social change. The department was founded in 1915 as the Depart­ ment of Rural Social Organization in the College of Agricul­ ture at a time when New York and most of the United States were rural and agricultural. Over time, its name and focus have evolved with changing demographics and development needs. The department was renamed Rural Sociology in 1939, reflecting the establishment of the national Rural Sociologi­ cal Society. In 2003, the department changed its name once more, to Development Sociology. This change recognized the importance of urban and rural transformations to the broader development process, expanding the focus to encompass global population and development, the politics and econom­ ics of development, environment and development, and the social organization of food systems. The department offers an undergraduate major and two minors and has produced more than 330 Ph.D.s who have gone on to distinguished careers in and out of academia. There is only so much genetic diversity to go around. If you shuffle that deck of cards so many times, at some point, you get the same hand dealt to you twice. —Michael Sheehan, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior, speaking to LiveScience on why you have a decent chance of having a doppelganger, or look-alike. REFURBISHED WARREN HALL CERTIFIED LEED PLATINUM By Blaine Friedlander S teeped in economic and social science history, Cornell's Warren Hall—refurbished, renovated and reinvigorated for teaching and research long into the new century— has added a sustainable trophy to its storied resume: LEED Platinum certification. Featuring salvaged stone flooring, energy efficiency, corridors of daylight, natural ven­ tilation and even gardens in the sky, the updated Warren Hall brings a modern sense to granite walls. On the Cornell campus, two new buildings have achieved platinum status, but this is the first campus renovation to reach the Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) level, the highest certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. “The project team's goal from the start was to deliver a modern building with a zero increase in the energy use. They accomplished this task by making some brave decisions,” said Matt Kozlowski, associate manager of Cornell's Green Building Program. “To make a meaningful impact on energy use as a whole, we need to tackle the renovation and renewal of our existing building stock.” FXFOWLE Architects, known for its design excellence, social responsibility and sustain­ ability, updated Warren Hall. While a mechanical designer can add a traditional HVAC system, the Warren Hall project team installed user-controlled trickle ventilation into exterior windows, decoupled heating and cooling from the ventilation system, insulated and repaired the building's exterior, and found ways to bring sunlight deep into the interior, according to project manager Brian Fish. Warren Hall's auditorium roof is covered with drought tolerant sedum plants for insu­ lation, storm water treatment and longevity. Commonly called stonecrops, they feature succulent, water-storing leaves. Warren Hall—originally called the Agricultural Economics Building—was built in 1932, courtesy of the New York State Legislature and New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt. The building's original tenants—the Departments of Agricultural Economics, Farm Manage­ ment and Rural Social Organization—remain today in their modern incarnations: The Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Department of Development Sociology. Warren Hall was rededicated on April 24, marking the culmination of a four-year, $51 million project that College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Kathryn J. Boor hailed as a triumph of good partnerships, careful planning and good will. “Warren Hall embodies the spirit of interdisciplinary learning, discovery and engage­ ment that defines CALS,” Boor said. “And now it also embodies the college's spirit of sustainability.” CORNELL AND ITHACA COLLEGE , OFFER JOINT AG EDUCATION MASTER'S PROGRAM i By Ellen Leventry Cornell and Ithaca College will offer a new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program to help meet the growing demand for qualified agricultural educators. Students in the graduate program will earn a degree in agriculture education from Ithaca College in collaboration with Cornell Connect, a program of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). “This unique MAT program in agriculture education combines the strength of an established, highly regarded education program at Ithaca College with the internationally recognized agricultural knowledge of Cornell,” said Jeff Perry ‘89, education ■ specialist in CALS' School of Integrative Plant " Science. “Students will graduate with a strong knowledge of the agricultural education community while also being comfortable with their general education peers.” This cross-university partnership, unique in the United States, reflects CALS' commitment to agricultural science education. “Our goal has been to expand opportunities for Cornell students to obtain teacher certification. This innovative program is a true partnership with Ithaca College's nationally accredited, state-approved and much- respected teacher education programs,” said Kathryn J. Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of CALS. “Ithaca College and Cornell University have been collaborating in the preparation of teachers for many years,” noted Linda Hanrahan, chair of graduate programs in education at Ithaca College. “The newly approved MAT program in agriculture education provides us with yet another avenue for continued collaboration.” The intensive 13-month program is an extension of other articulation agreements that exist between the two schools, including the transition of prospective teacher candidates from Cornell's education studies minor program into the M.S. in childhood education or the MAT in adolescence education at Ithaca College. ■ “The new program in agricultural education ’ builds on the strengths of an already successful partnership between Ithaca College and Cornell University in other teacher certification 1 program areas,” said Jeane Copenhaver- Johnson, chair of the Department of Education and interim associate dean for the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College. “Because we are coordinating with Cornell colleagues we already know well, this agricultural education program allows us to bring the unique strengths and resources of both institutions to enrich the educational experiences of our teacher candidates.” The program comes at a time when agricultural education programs are growing in popularity in suburban and urban high schools throughout the country. According to a 2014 National Association of Agricultural Educators supply-and-demand report, more I than 200 additional agricultural teachers are needed due to program growth and expansion each year. in the capitol Small insects have been big news in Albany, as lawmakers move to protect pollinators, help growers fend off a new berry pest, and educate the public about tick-borne illnesses. TICKS Do you know tick species by sight, where they lurk, and how to avoid them? These are some of the es­ sential skills for avoiding Lyme disease that Matt Frye, an educator with Cornell's New York State Inte­ grated Pest Management Program, advocated during a community forum hosted by New York State Senator Sue Serino, R-41st District. Serino, who chairs the New York State Senate Taskforce on Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases, hosted the June 30 forum in Hyde Park, N.Y. “My goal is to make sure the issue really hits the mainstream, because no matter how much we think we know, there are new developments each and every day,” Serino said. “If there is one thing I have learned when it comes to combating Lyme, information is power.” The information Frye provided was preventative and practical: how to identify, avoid and remove ticks. He explained that being able to cor­ rectly identify the pest is a prereq­ uisite for proper treatment, and he recommended the TickEncounter website as a guide. He also covered tick habitat preferences and personal protective measures—including insecticidal socks—and the impor­ tance of staying on the path away from underbrush. “Ticks are questing when they are looking for a bloodmeal,” he said. “They are standing on the vegeta­ tion, with their tarsi (front claws) out, looking for you to come by. If you don't walk into them, your chances of picking up a tick are much reduced.” SPOTTED WING DROSOPHILA A winged newcomer is causing big problems for berries across the Northeast, according to professor of entomology Greg Loeb and Dale- Ila M. Riggs, owner of The Berry Patch and president of the New York State Berry Growers Association (NYSBGA), who testified before the Assembly Agriculture Committee. The spotted wing drosophila, a new invasive fruit fly, has caused millions of dollars in economic damage to the berry industry in New York since its arrival in 2011, but the partnership between the NYSBGA, Cornell, Cor­ nell Cooperative Extension, and the state has been hailed as a model for how to deal with an invasive pest. “We have made progress in our battle against this pest and, more importantly, have given some hope to the farm community that they will be able to continue to grow berries locally,” Riggs said. Successes to date include a new statewide monitoring network and strategies for managing the pest, from netting to protect ripening fruit to frequent harvests to minimize damage, as well as sprayer systems for high tunnels. Loeb is on the fore­ front of developing other solutions, including repellents to drive the fruit flies away from fruit coupled with “attract and kill” stations to lure them away from the crop and iden­ tifying natural enemies—including diseases—that could be harnessed for controlling pest populations. “Much more still needs to be done to develop a sustainable, long-term solution for this invasive pest,” Loeb said. POLLINATORS On August 6, Richard Ball, New York Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, welcomed a meet­ ing of the interagency task force charged with protecting, in his words, “a large work force in New York state that works from dawn till sundown” and without W2s: the bees. The task force, established by Governor Andrew Cuomo in April, will develop a roadmap to conserve and grow pollinator populations across the state. Among the first to speak was Jen­ nifer Grant, the director of Cornell's New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYSIPM), who included an update on pollinator research by NYSIPM and Cornell entomologists Scott McArt, Bryan Danforth and Greg Loeb. Offering a bird's eye view of Cornell research, Grant described wildflower strips to diversify bee diets and enhance their health; bee habitat in natural areas and golf courses; and transmission of patho­ gens among bee species on flowers. Another recent development is the establishment of a new pesticide residue detection facility at Cornell, which will help researchers identify environmental chemicals that may be affecting bee populations. “Some things are being ad­ dressed on a very basic research level; some of it needs to be brought into the field to be tested,” Grant concluded. “And then a lot of needs to be taught, to make people more aware of what's happening and what they can do to help in the big­ ger picture.” Ph ot o: S en at or G ill ib ra nd NEW YORK FARM DAY 2015 Now in its 13th year, New York Farm Day brought the bounty of New York's farms, vineyards and orchards to Capitol Hill. The annual event, started by former Sen. Hillary Clinton and hosted by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), introduced hundreds of guests to the Empire State's products and the people who make them. Cornell offered samples of artisanal cheese, including the university's signature Big Red Cheddar and three cheeses from the Cornell-Wegman's partnership for training in artisan cheese: Nettle Meadow's Nettle Peaks and Consider Bardwell's Pawlet and Dorset. Left: CALS associate communications officer Chloe Starr with Sen. Gillibrand and sons at the Cornell table. in the marketplace eHUB COMING TO COLLEGETOWN AND KENNEDY HALL By summer 2016, student entrepreneurs will have a new home—eHub—with locations in Kennedy Hall and Col­ legetown. “This is something that students are demanding across university campuses,” said Zach Shulman, director of Entrepre­ neurship at Cornell. “It's not just smart on our part. Students have companies they want to start, and they need the space to do it. They can't do it in their dorms or departments, so we need a serious, dedicated space.” The $4.5 million eHub has been propelled by alumni, who have contributed the majority of the funds for the project. The coalition of collaborators includes Entrepreneurship at Cornell, the Student Agencies Foundation, the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Engineering, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the School of Hotel Admin­ istration. The facilities will move Entrepreneurship at Cornell one giant step closer to its goal: When students think of entrepreneurial universities, they will think of Stanford, MIT and Cornell, and “not necessarily in that order,” according to Shulman. Current students agree that eHub is a game-changer. “It may be surprising to people that you don't have to be in Silicon Valley to have access to this resource—I wish it had been around when I was a freshman,” said Rosie O'Regan, a senior in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. “Entrepreneurship is more a mindset than anything else, and you can see that in the many startups right on campus.” By Amanda Garris Ph.D. ‘04 The space will be home to programs sponsored by Entrepre­ neurship at Cornell, including several existing organizations: eLab, a business accelerator program offering intensive men­ torship to student companies and their management teams; Student Agencies Inc., the nation's oldest student-run busi­ ness group; and POPSHOP, a community of entrepreneurially minded students. Dyson senior Gabe Polsky has spent many hours in POPSHOP, building business ideas of his own. “It's great to have a group of people come together, bringing their passion for creation and making things happen from all across the campus,” Polsky said. “One of the challenges I've faced is connecting with alumni. Mentorship is so important, but we need to think about redefining it. Sometimes we just don't need a long-term commitment, but rather someone to touch base with on a particular idea.” The space will ultimately help to meet those and other needs, with experiential business learning and mentors-in- residence, workshops, seminars, hack-a-thons and start-up weekends. The Kennedy Hall space will include offices for Entrepreneurship at Cornell, as well as spaces for group meet­ ings, conferences, events, classes and presentations, and open areas for discussions and planning. Both locations will be open to all Cornell students, faculty and staff. “This will be a place where any student at Cornell with an idea can get the resources to develop their business,” said Ross Evancoe, associate director of alumni affairs and de­ velopment for CALS. “It will create more opportunities for students to connect with each other, industry leaders and guests.” ENOCERT Cornell Enology Extension Education From labeling laws to wine flaws, winery employees can hone their skills through the new EnoCert program launched by the Cornell Enology Extension program. Developed with input from a wine industry advisory council, certificates can be earned through a combination of classroom and online learning in four areas: harvest technology, tasting room education, wine production and analysis, and advanced winery operations. “Tasting room staff are on the front line interacting with consumers, and they need basic knowledge of enology and viticulture as well as strong sensory and sales skills,” said Anna Katharine Mansfield, associate professor of enology. “On the winemaking side, we are offering winery safety and sanitation now, with plans for advanced courses in wine microbiology and chemistry in the next year.” student life DOUBLE VISION: DOUBLE MAJORS by Krisy Gashler Ph ot os : R ob yn W is hn a For a select group of students, one major is not enough. Only three percent of CALS students are double majors, finding two academic homes among the 22 majors the college offers. Many are committed to meeting global challenges that defy disciplinary boundaries. For others, intellectual curiosity has developed into a quest for both depth and breadth. Meet a few of these exceptional students who have found complementary connections across the college. YUNRU YU '18 In Yunru Yu's native China, some street vendors illegally gather waste oil from places like kitchen garbage disposals, slaughterhouses and ZACHARY WIELGOSZ '17 Zachary Wielgosz became interested in environmental problems in Boy Scouts; his Eagle Scout project involved removing invasive ANYA GANDY '17 Anya Gandy wants to know agriculture inside and out: from working cattle on horseback to helping address global rancid meats, then minimally process this “gutter oil” and sell it for human consumption. Yu is double majoring in food science and science of natural and environmental systems, with the hope of being able to address problems like this one with a whole-system view. Yu also sees the interconnections between human nutrition and environmental systems here in Ithaca, where student transportation options can impact the price and quality of foods students buy. honeysuckle from the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge. At Cornell, Wielgosz has shifted his focus from the earth to the stars. Double majoring in environmental engineering and biological engineering, Wielgosz hopes to work for NASA someday and study hydroponics and life support in space, making discoveries that can help address issues of drought and water pollution here at home, too. Wielgosz is already researching hydroponics at Cornell, working with Neil Mattson, associate professor of horticulture. climate change. She's double majoring in animal science and agricultural sciences. Gandy comes from a small Oregon farm with sheep, goats, geese, llamas and chickens, and she has family with large cattle ranches in Louisiana and Texas. She's already worked at the National Farmers Union in Washington, D.C., at a 24,000-acre ranch in Montana, and with the Noble Foundation, an Oklahoma-based not-for-profit that helps farmers and conducts its own research. Gandy's career dreams are as diverse as her experience: She hopes to do production ranching and to influence public policy. MARAJ ALAM '16 Maraj Alam came to Cornell to major in its world-class science of natural and environmental systems program. But because of CALS' flexibility in fulfilling major requirements—almost 40 credits are chosen by each student—Alam realized he could double- major in biology with only three additional classes. Alam has worked with Anthony Hay, associate professor in microbiology, studying biodegradation of the antimicrobial compound triclosan, and he plans to pursue grad school in microbiology and focus on viruses and their impact on humans and the environment. Alam was involved with Energy Corps, a Cornell sustainability project that captures savings from green energy projects and reinvests the money into new conservation initiatives. NANA BRITWUM '18 When she was 4, Nana Britwum moved from Ghana to the United States, but she has always retained a strong connection to West Africa. Double majoring in plant sciences and agricultural sciences, Britwum hopes to develop salt- and drought-resistant crops to help farmers in developing countries. Britwum was also a student delegate at the 2014 Agriculture Future of America conference. This summer, Britwum was chosen as a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar and spent a week at the National Conservation Training Center before she interned at Cornell's Arnot Forest, where she researched water condensation in prairie grasses, alongside Rebecca Schneider, associate professor of natural resources. AVERY HILL '17 Avery Hill fell in love with the natural world while growing up near northern California's magnificent redwood forests. Double majoring in biology and plant sciences, Hill was inspired by plant biology professor Kevin Nixon's Global Plant Biodiversity course, which included a two-week trip to Patagonia. Hill has continued to work with Nixon on projects involving DNA barcoding and plant species distributions, among others. He's planning for an academic career and hopes to take a holistic approach to plant biology, studying the ways in which plants interact with fungi and animals and can even define ecosystems. PRE-VET STUDENTS STUDY IN ARGENTINA By Krisy Gashler Jonathan Gorman '16 in Argentina's Ibera Wetlands, his favorite place to see wildlife, including capybaras [pictured above). onathan Gorman '16 and Zachia Gray '16 are the first students to study abroad in Argentina as part of a new pre- veterinary CALS Exchange Program. The students traveled to Esperanza, Argentina, in January to study at the Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Veterinarias at Universidad Nacional del Litoral. They took an intensive Spanish course, followed by a semester of pre-veterinary science courses in Spanish at the uni­ versity. Gray, an animal sciences major, said she was impressed by the kindness and patience of the students and professors with whom she interacted. “Everybody was helpful, willing to help explain things to us, to speak more slowly, whatever we needed,” she said. “I think I have a better sense of independence and self-confi­ dence now,” said Gorman, a biological sciences major. “This is the first time I've had to rely on a foreign language, and it feels empowering to have that experience.” In Argentina, Gorman had the chance to go out in the field with animal science researchers, which he credits with giving him a better sense of the diversity of work veterinarians do. On one trip, the group consulted with a dairy farm coping with low milk output; at another, they studied a collar that projects when a cow is capable of conceiving, to de­ termine the best time for artificial insemina­ tion. Gray said the experience affirmed her desire to go to vet school after she graduates. She's hop­ ing to specialize in wildlife health and rehabilitation. “Having that experience of being in classes with other vet students, talking through the medical and veterinary aspects of these problems, this is definitely what I want to do,” she said. Ian Pengra '16 looks out over Habana Vieja in Havana, Cuba. NEW CORNELL IN CUBA PROGRAM SENDS FIRST UNDERGRADS By Krisy Gashler I n December 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced that they would nor­ malize relations between our countries. By January 2015, Cornell's first two undergraduates were on their way to study abroad in Havana. Ian Pengra '16 (CALS) and Wesley Schnapp '16 (Arts & Sci­ ences) inaugurated the new Cornell in Cuba program, studying at the University of Havana and conducting research with re­ nowned Cuban biology professor Emanuel Mora. The univer­ sities signed an exchange agreement in April 2014, initiating the process that enables Cornellians to study in Cuba and vice versa. The first Cuban student came to Cornell this summer. For their research project, Pengra and Schnapp studied bat communication. They took pre-recorded bat distress calls and played them near a cave populated by hundreds of thousands of bats. Then, using an ultrasonic microphone, they listened in on the bats' reactions. “They are always echolocating, but we saw that the num­ ber of ‘pings' per minute skyrocketed every time we played a distress call,” Pengra said. “They're either directing their calls to see why the bat is in distress, or else they just feel more dis­ tressed themselves and so are calling out more frequently.” Pengra said the experience helped him learn to develop better research questions and to appreciate supplies that most Cuban researchers have to do without, including adequate bat­ teries and LED lights. “It helped me realize that to be a good researcher—and Emanuel is a top-quality researcher—what you really need is to be able to ask good questions and know how to exploit what you have available to you. They have amazing biodiversity available,” Pengra said. In spite of the 50-year embargo between Cuba and the United States, Pengra said he never felt any animosity from the Cubans with whom he interacted—quite the opposite, he was impressed by their generosity. “For one field expedition, we stayed at a water buffalo ranch, up on one of their fields near the cave. Around breakfast time, we came out and saw that the people who owned the farm had brought out bowls of chicken soup, cheese, coconut paste. They just brought out literally everything they had in their fridge to share with us,” Pengra said. “The philosophy is basically, you share what you have. You'll inevitably run out, but until then, you share what you have with the people that you love. That was a really profound thing to learn.” SUMMER SCHOLAR MAPS PATH TO ROT-RESISTANT GRAPES By Amanda Garris Ph.D. ‘04 I n the final week of her internship, Anne Repka '17 set parameters, pressed go, and in less time than it takes to eat lunch, her summer's worth of field work was translated into a statistically significant genome discov­ ery. She had identified several regions of chromosomes that can make grapevines prone to infection by a fungus that rots the berries as they ripen on the vine. Repka was one of 25 students who spent the summer at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station as part of the Geneva Summer Scholars Program, tackling projects from bumblebee pollination to plant viruses. The program, established in 2009, introduces top undergrads from across the country to the rigors of research on agricultural crops. For Repka, no such intro­ duction was necessary; she is double majoring in plant science and viticulture and enology and is planning to minor in crop and soil science. Repka worked with postdoctoral associate Elizabeth Takacs and Bruce Reisch, professor of horticulture and grape breeder in the School of Integrative Plant Science, on a vineyard challenge posed by the black rot fungus (Guignardia bidwellii). According to Reisch, it is nearly impossible for organic farmers to stop its spread using approved treatments, so developing resistant varieties with the help of new genetic markers is a priority for his breeding program. To make progress, Repka collected data on the resistance and susceptibility of two populations, using lab-reared spores to inoculate developing clusters and checking the progress of disease at three-day intervals. At the end of the experiment, the clusters were collected, scored for symptoms and photographed. This field data, when combined with genetic data that had already been collected in Reisch's Anne Repka ’17 in a vineyard at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva scouting for evidence of the black rot fungus. Photo: Elizabeth Takacs lab, helped them identify regions of the genome that made grapevines more susceptible. “The experiment was so well laid out that we were able to get it done in a short time during the summer,” Repka said. “It was a really good experience.” REVAMPED FOOD SAFETY COURSE OFFERS ESSENTIAL CREDENTIALS By John Carberry team of faculty and extension experts have cooked up a new recipe for a long-running food science course, one instructors and students say will open doors to future employment. Food Safety Assurance (FDSC 3960) has been offered every two years; it's a requirement for undergraduates and a staple for some graduate students as well. Still, food science professor and class instructor Randy Worobo said he and Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. '97, began to wonder if there was more that could be done to prepare students for a dynamic and demanding industry. “The class was changed to focus on industry-required skills,” Worobo said. “We knew it was going to be a great ad­ vantage to the students.” That big advantage comes from two acronyms—HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and SQF (Safe Quality Food), certifications that are essential credentials in safe food processing. Extension support specialist Kim Bu­ kowski brings her SQF industry instruction to the classroom through a first-in-the-U.S. partnership between a university and the Safe Quality Food Institute. “To our knowledge, no one in the continental U.S. is offering both certifications for undergraduate students,” Bukows­ ki said. “Having these students come out already certified, it's really valuable to them.” Food science undergraduate Avery Becker, a senior focusing on toxicology research, was among the first students in the redesigned course and predicts it will give him a leg up in the job market. “This class takes the principles and applies them to what is actually done at the plant,” Becker said. “That's why I've got a major advantage.” CALS will offer the new course every spring, and the team of instructors is working on a revised course plan that will allow them to expand enrollment to as many as 75 students per class while keeping group and hands-on elements intact. “These kids are brilliant,” Bukowski said. “They have open minds and ask very different questions. They've really opened my eyes, too.” y the middle of this century, the global population is estimated to reach 9 billion. There will not be just more mouths to feed: Demand will grow for animal feed, for land on which to grow feed and food, and for energy to produce it all. What FEEDING ^ GLOBAL APPETITES X " 1 >J B • '..-if .& i, v, * . . s.......................— _ ..... ..... , t .. , if it was possible to spare cropland while simultaneously creating renewable sources of energy and feed, and improving human health? It's the holy grail of sustainability, —and researchers at CALS are part of the quest to develop a portfolio of systems—based on harvests from willow, grasses and algae—that work together to satisfy anticipated feed and energy demands, while using marginal lands, finding profitable uses for byproducts, and providing a buffer against the volatile fuel market. CRITICAL BIOMASS Agricultural crops, aquatic plants, wood and animal wastes: All are biomass, the catch-all term for any renewable source of carbon-rich organic matter. The build­ ing block of life on Earth, carbon con­ stantly cycles through the air, water, soil and all living things. The most basic way to release the stored energy in biomass is through burning it. As a renewable en­ ergy source, biomass combustion is very attractive: It can utilize a variety of waste streams, has lower emissions than coal, and is a proven, relatively inexpensive process. It's a process that Larry Smart '87, associate professor of horticulture in the School of Integrative Plant Science, is working to improve, and key players are starting to take notice. “The industry is picking up steam. There's a lot of interest right now in burning wood chips and pellets for heat­ ing, especially in small commercial and industrial settings. There's been a lot of grassroots enthu­ siasm and govern­ ment support in New York, Montana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire,” said Smart, who directs the New York shrub willow breeding program at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. Smart's group breeds shrub willow varieties for two main bioenergy applica­ tions: biomass combustion and trans­ portation biofuel. Shrub willow is one of a group of perennial plants, including forage grasses like switchgrass and big bluestem, which researchers think can become important bioenergy crops. As a sustainable source for wood chips, shrub willow has fl several ad- fl vantages over wood ■ harvested from fl forests, ac- fl cording to ' ■* Smart. It can be harvested j every two to three years for at least 25 years without replanting, requires essentially ^fl no fertilizer or herbi­ cide after initial establish­ ment, and grows well on marginal soils that farmers aren't using for other crops. In partnership with the Northeast Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consor­ tium (NEWBio) and the Northeast Sun Larry Smart, associate professor of horticulture, examines a willow seedling from his breeding program. Photo: Robyn Wishna "There is a strong push for local production of food these days; I would love to see us make the same push for local production of renewable energy.' —Larry Smart '87, associate professor of horticulture in the School of Integrative Plant Science Grant Initiative, Smart is breeding shrub willow to make it better adapted for bioenergy production. His newly pat­ ented ‘Preble' variety is a prime example, bred to grow rapidly, produce nearly 30 percent more woody biomass on average than other current production cultivars, and to better resist rust disease and insect pests. ‘Preble' also has been shown to have greater tolerance of salt-affected fields. And now that the U.S. Department of Energy and a group in China have sequenced the genomes of two shrub willow species, Smart said his work on genetic marker-assisted breeding will gain even more momentum. “It's all economics, but the main driver is yield, which is why breeding is so important,” Smart said. In the Northeast, which uses the most fuel oil in the country for heating, Smart said shrub willow can provide communi­ ties the opportunity to grow and generate their own renewable energy to offset use Lars Angenent professor of biological and environmental engineering. Photo: Robyn Wishna Carbon monoxide is actually very useful material that can be used to manufacture many different chemicals. Bioenergy is just one outcome. With changes in economics—when petroleum fuel is cheap—it could always be used to produce other chemicals with higher value.” — Lars Angenent, professor of biological and environmental engineering of more expensive fossil fuels. “There are still a large number of rural communities without access to cheap natural gas, so they heat with oil or propane. Willow can be less expensive, and folks can be proud that their energy is produced locally,” Smart said. “There is a strong push for local production of food these days; I would love to see us make the same push for local production of renewable energy.” BIOENERGY BALANCING ACT Smart and colleagues are also assessing willow and switchgrass to reclaim mine sites and buffer sensitive waterways from farm field nutrient runoff. Multitasking is a common theme in bioen­ ergy, because many biofuels can't yet compete with petroleum­ based fuels on cost alone. Corn ethanol and soy-based biodiesel production have become very established sectors—and produce large quantities of animal feed as a byproduct—but they rely on large amounts of prime land, water and fertilizers. Cellulosic ethanol, made from the cellulose that stiffens plant cell walls, is viewed as more ecologically sound because it can be derived from the non-food parts of plants, such as wood and stems, rather than kernel and bean. However, breaking down wood or grass into sugars to ferment into bioethanol is complex because the carbon is locked in large molecules that bacteria can't access without pretreatment with acids and enzymes. Lars Angenent, professor of biological and environmental engineer­ ing, is researching an ethanol production system that instead uses pyrolysis as a pretreatment. The process begins with organic matter—crop residue left after harvest—which is converted into gases using the com­ bination of high temperature and low pressure in the absence of oxygen, i.e., pyrolysis. According to Angenent, who works with biochar expert Johannes Lehmann, a professor of crop and soil science in the School of Integrative Plant Science, while 50 percent of the carbon can be returned to land as biochar, a fertility enhancing, carbon-sequestering soil amendment, most of the energy and 70 percent of the mass—as carbon monoxide and oil—is suitable for making biofuel, with a bit of help from microbes. requires, in addition to the carbon mon­ oxide as a food source, are some trace elements needed by the bacteria,” Ange­ nent said. “You bubble carbon monoxide gas in a system with no oxygen, and the bacteria produce ethanol that can be used for fuel.” grass become older and more numerous in the region, minor problems become more intense,” Bergstrom said. Bergstrom has identified certain dis­ eases of switchgrass that could reduce its profitability as a biofuel crop. In par­ ticular, he's focused on a fungal disease search associate Julie Hansen are helping identify diverse grass populations with disease resistance or tolerance. They are using them for selective breeding, while Bergstrom works with breeders across the United States to diagnose localized switchgrass diseases, to anticipate and This system, which uses a strain of Clostridium bacteria, also produces some acetic acid—basically vinegar—and Angenent is working to determine which parameters, such as pH, maximize the production of ethanol relative to acetic acid. Other challenges are extracting the ethanol fuel from the rest of the bacterial broth and getting the carbon monoxide into the broth and accessible to bacteria. Even with these hurdles, it's a versatile system that could be used as a platform for producing other materials as well, but that will require genetically modified bacteria. “Carbon monoxide is actually very useful material that can be used to manufacture many different chemicals,” Angenent said. “Bioenergy is just one outcome. With changes in economics— when petroleum fuel is cheap—it could always be used to produce other chemi­ cals with higher value. If you pair it with pyrolysis, you can produce both fuel for transportation or cooking and biochar, which is a very useful soil amendment in degraded and especially tropical areas.” recently iden- Cinnamon­ colored spores of the switchgrass smut fungus are revealed when an infected seed panicle is rubbed between thumb and forefinger. Photo: Gary C. Bergstrom MAKING THE SWITCH Switchgrass has the potential to become a feasible source of cellulosic ethanol, and New York has the right climate to grow biomass grasses in three seasons. “Before the interest in biofuels, there were some switchgrass breeders in the Midwest, but they bred more for quality to feed beef cows. Our goals are much different. We're growing a crop of stems,” said Donald Viands, professor of plant breeding genetics and leader of the Cor­ nell Forage Breeding Project, an ongoing perennial forage improvement program with a strong track record with alfalfa. Viands and Gary Bergstrom, profes­ sor of plant pathology, are assessing switchgrass yields, quality and disease management to improve it as a feedstock for biomass energy. Before their efforts, Bergstrom said there were reports of more than 40 diseases on switchgrass in natural settings, but no one knew what might happen in commercial plantings. “In New York state we identified several switchgrass diseases, but the problems weren't all that severe at ^search associates in the ? studying the biology of n process to develop in- be exploited for new tent methods. ergstrom, di- ?y to control, srsity comes ping of dif- Before the interest in biofuels, there were some switchgrass breeders in the Midwest, but they bred more for quality to feed beef cows. Our goals are much different. We're growing a crop of stems. —Don Viands, professor of plant breeding genetics in the School of Integrative Plant Science assess future disease threats. “Switchgrass remains productive in the field for 10 to 20 years, but we need to have pest and disease resistance, and the yields, to make it worthwhile,” Viands said. NEXT GENERATION AND NET-POSITIVE Even though the promise of cellulosic biofuel is great, Bergstrom said that low fuel prices are pushing researchers and biomass producers to find additional applications and markets for switchgrass, such as animal feed, industrial absorbents and plastics. It's a challenge facing every bioenergy solution. “Biofuels are [currently] not cost competi­ tive with cheap oil,” said Beth Ahner, CALS senior associate dean and professor of biologi­ cal and environmental engineering. This is why the algal biofuel industry con­ tinues to move in “fits and starts,” Ahner said, even though single-celled marine algae have many advantages over land plants used for biomass. They can be grown rapidly in reac­ tors or ponds placed on poor soils; use less wa­ ter than some agricultural crops; can thrive in salty water; and selected species can produce more than three-quarters of their weight as fuel's raw materials—oils and sugars—under optimal conditions. And, aside from dealing with its high water content, turning algae into biodiesel, diesel or aviation fuel is fairly straightforward. Ahner is working to make algal biofuel pro­ duction more efficient and, therefore, more cost competitive and attractive to potential inves­ tors. In one project, she and Ruth Richardson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, are working to identify biomark­ ers of stress in commercial algae pools, which have lower growth rates than lab popula­ tions. After reaching a certain density in these pools, algae are “starved” of nutrients to promote natural accumulation of oils. By measuring the level of gene expression in these algae under varying stressors, Ahner and Richardson hope to find five to six biomarkers that producers can use to tweak and optimize the process. “This work will allow us to understand the stresses going on inside these com­ mercial systems, which are ‘black boxes' right now,” Ahner said. At the other end of the algal biofuel process, Xingen Lei, professor of ani­ mal science, is turning an algal biofuel byproduct into profits by testing defatted algae remaining after biofuel production as a high-nutrient, healthier and more sustainable ingredient in animal feed and potentially human diets. “Our purpose was to see if this defatted algae is better for animal feed, if it has more protein and less fat, and how much we can use to replace the soy protein in animal feed and spare it for human use,” Lei said. Lei's lab has conducted 20 experiments with algae-based feed for pigs, broiler chickens, laying hens and mice, finding that defatted algal feed (DFA) has excel­ lent nutritional quality and high protein, and can safely replace five to 20 percent of the corn and soy protein in animals' diets. Lei's team estimated that, based on these replacement rates, DFA could save up to 23 million tons of corn and soy for human consumption annually—and spare a land area the size of the state of Tennessee for other uses. Lei also found that the meat and eggs of chickens fed DFA accumulated high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a family of essential polyunsaturated fats our bodies acquire from diet alone. Lei said research continues to point to a key role for omega-3s in healthy aging and manag­ ing heart disease. In addition, Lei found that the form of iron in algae is absorbed by animals more rapidly than iron from other sources, alleviating anemia in mice and pigs at very low doses. Soon, eggs enriched with omega-3s from algae and algal iron supplements may become key tools for improving global health and nutrition. This idea and others being investigated by CALS scientists are new twists on Earth's constant cycling of carbon. Their goal is to hit the sustainable sweet spot: a planet fueled by complementary systems that don't just create as much energy as they consume but have a net-positive effect on our economies, environment and health. “That's the beauty of science,” Lei said. “We can make all the components work together, not against each other.” Professor of biological and environmental engineering Beth Ahner and post-doctoral associate Lubna Richter look for algae carrying a gene that enables it to produce a high value protein. Photo: Robyn W ishna LIGHT AS A FEATHER? In the United States, our collective appetite for chicken results in more than one million metric tons of feather waste per year, which ends up in landfills or incinerators. Their disposal contributes to nitrogen pollution in soil and waterways as well as greenhouse gases from burning. “Poultry feathers are a renewable, natural resource, but they are also an environmental problem,” said Xingen Lei, professor of animal science, who is working on a new method to turn this fluff into feed for animals. According to Lei, the value of feathers lies in their high protein content: 85% by weight. The challenge is that the protein is B-keratin, durable for flight but tough to digest. The high-pressure cooking process used since the 1990s to make feed from feathers results in a feed with less available protein and a poor amino acid profile. Lei is looking to bacterial enzymes and enzyme combinations that can more efficiently convert the protein in feather waste into a high-quality, more digestible protein supplement for animal feed. Using a bacterial strain that can dissolve feathers fully within 60 hours, Lei's lab is applying genomic, proteomic and biophysical tools to identify the unique enzymes produced by this bacterium to break down feathers. According to Lei, refining this process would allow poultry feathers to replace some of the corn and soy in animal feed and create a cost effective and sustainable source of protein for other industries, while eliminating 150,000 metric tons of nitrogen entering the environment every year. 20 Help PeriodiCALS Go Green. Opt to receive the magazine online at periodicals.cals.cornell.edu periodicals.cals.cornell.edu College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University 21 22 Help PeriodiCALS Go Green. Opt to receive the magazine online at periodicals.cals.cornell.edu periodicals.cals.cornell.edu College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University 23 THE IMPACT of INFLUENCE: Technology and Strategy in Health and Wellbeing By David Nutt Ph ot o: Ro b W ay “Preliminary data show that people with depression are more concerned about how they present themselves on social media than ‘normal' folks and they're less satisfied with what they share, even when they get responses from others.” Natalie Bazarova, assistant professor of communication A Facebook post about a bad day, the placement of chocolate milk in the school cafeteria, taxes on sodas: Research on strategies for health and wellbeing is now encroaching on the turf of ad­ vertising, social media and behavioral econom­ ics. To understand influence—what nudges our minds and behaviors in seemingly small ways—CALS researchers are harnessing research in communication, psychol­ ogy, economics and public policy to find new and inventive ways to give public health a big boost. Assistant professor of communication Natalie Bazarova '05, Ph.D. '09, looks at how people communicate across social media and what effects this has on their lives, relationships and well­ being. She's particularly interested in the personal information people share—and sometimes overshare—through social media applications like Facebook, Twitter and Yik Yak, as well as their goals and motivations in sharing this material. “The technology is always changing,” said Bazarova, who di­ rects the Social Media Lab at Cornell. “We want to understand the principles of human communication and its relationship to health that extend beyond a specific app.” To develop the necessary tools to explore these kinds of com­ munication, Bazarova sought out interdisciplinary partners, in­ cluding Dan Cosley, associate professor of information science, and Janis Whitlock, Ph.D. HumEc '03, a research scientist in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery. Recently the group undertook a National Science Foundation- funded study that examined mental health and how it relates to human experiences on the internet through the prism of social media. By asking subjects what they share online, how people respond to these posts, and how the sharers' sense of wellbeing fluctuates in the presence or absence of social support, Bazarova and her collaborators are finding that while social media has the potential to boost wellbeing it can also have negative conse­ quences when people overshare personal information. “Yes, it can help us with wellbeing, but it can also open a can of worms, from cyberbullying to silence,” Bazarova said. Another recent study looks at the way people use social media to send distress messages and how others make sense of those messages and evaluate whether they require help. A related project examines what happens when messages are not just distressing but damaging to others and whether such displays of cyberbullying motivate people to act. “Are we promoting a culture of bystanders because it's hap­ pening in social media?” Bazarova asked. A study currently underway investigates people who have a history of mental health issues and how their experiences with social media differ from the rest of the population. The researchers are hoping to see if the way these people share information online could be an early indicator of distress. “Preliminary data show that people with depression are more concerned about how they present themselves on social media than ‘normal' folks and they're less satisfied with what they “When there's a perception of abundance people take a lot because it's suggested they should. That perception of abundance helps sell it. So making it look like ‘Well, you can take these, but we don't have a lot of them' was enough to change people's behavior” David Just, professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management share, even when they get responses from others,” Bazarova said. The ultimate goal is to create a more caring community in this new digital environment, one in which participants can intervene and mitigate negative consequences. NUTRITIONAL NUDGES For David Just, it is the little things that have the greatest impact. Just is a professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs (BEN), and he combines psychology and economics to understand how consumers make decisions in “food choice environments,” like the lunch line at school or a grocery store checkout. “For the most part people don't think very carefully about food decisions, even when they're making them,” Just said. “They are responding to their environments and what they think is normal and acceptable. It's pretty easy to change that up.” The challenge, according to Just, is that the majority of food policies that encourage people to eat healthier—labeling calo­ ries, for example, or banning unhealthy items—fail to take into account the way consumers actually behave, and these policies rarely reach the people who truly need their help. The trick is to motivate people to eat healthier foods, like fruit and vegetables, and fewer sugary snacks without overburden­ ing them in the process. In a recent field experiment that sought to boost fruit and vegetable consumption among the Hispanic population in El Paso, Texas, Just and his team visited a grocery store and placed six-foot-by-three-foot arrows on the floor pointing toward the produce section. The arrows resulted in a 9.5-percent bump in produce sales. Another experiment found that consumers will purchase bottled water instead of soda if the bottled water is in a more visible and accessible location. An experiment at a food pantry revealed that if given the choice between a pile of bagels or a pile of donut holes, one-third of participants would pick the calorie-dense donut holes. But when the display quantity of donut holes is limited to a single bag of six donut holes versus a stack of many bags of six bagels, only seven percent of partici­ pants chose the donut holes. “When there's a perception of abundance people take a lot because it's suggested they should. That perception of abun­ dance helps sell it,” Just said. “So making it look like ‘Well, you can take these, but we don't have a lot of them' was enough to change people's behavior.” Through his work with the BEN Center's Smarter Lunch­ rooms Movement, Just has helped bring these types of simple, yet heathy, solutions into school cafeterias across the country. Recommended strategies include providing healthy food items in “grab-and-go” lines while keeping unhealthy items in longer lines that make students wait, and placing white milk first in lunchroom coolers, which resulted in an increase of up to 46 percent in white milk sales. “These are simple interventions, but at the same time we're doing it in a way that doesn't overburden them. Food pan­ tries don't have many resources, and schools don't have many resources. Grocery stores actually run pretty thin as well,” Just said. “So it has to be something that's super simple, not particu­ larly expensive, and that actually has a measureable benefit.” SCALING BACK For David Levitsky, a CALS professor in the Division of Nutri- tional Sciences, the solution is not in the food aisle but on the scale. Levitsky has spent his professional career studying the control of food intake and regulation of body weight, and he believes the number one nutritional problem faced by the United States—and most countries, for that matter—is rising obesity rates, which have been increasing for the last 50 years. To slow the growth of girth, Levitsky advocates for another simple technique: frequent self-weighing. Levitsky's research into self-weighing began about ten years ago when he started looking into the amount of weight Cornell freshmen typically gain in their first semester on campus. “We discovered what the students knew anyway. The weight gain at Cornell is pretty hefty,” Levitsky said. “It's about five pounds that first semester. And I became intrigued with this because that's exactly what's happening in the world outside of Cornell. People are gaining weight, and when you ask them ‘Why?' they don't know, because that weight gain, despite being five pounds over 12 weeks, is still too small for you to see. So the scale is a way of actively visualizing it.” The basic act of stepping on a scale every morning serves as a “negative prime,” countering the stimuli that lead a person to eat. And those stimuli can be quite persuasive. Levitsky's studies have shown that the mere act of discussing food, seeing a food ad on TV, or even looking at a bowl, can trigger a person to eat. “There's this environmental structure in the food system that makes becoming over­ weight very easy,” said Lua Wilkinson, a graduate student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and advisee of Lev­ itsky. “Making that system visible to the individual is very difficult, particularly when they're just inundated with unhealthy practices, including high fat, fast food, convenience food, low exercise, ads on TV. Frequent weighing helps you make these invisible forces more visible so you're able to see your weight change over time with the environment you're in.” Between the ages of 20 and 40, most people gain an average of one pound a year, Levitsky said, and it's this in- cremental creep that can eventually lead to obesity. The problem is even more pronounced for adolescents. In a recent pilot study in Huntsville, Ala., Levitsky focused on obese and overweight children between the ages of 8 and 11. While the amount of weight they gain is smaller, it adds up over time and becomes that much harder to shed after adolescence. Levitsky is hopeful that self-weighing each day will help the children avoid a lifetime of health issues. “All the major pathologies, whether you're talking about diabetes, heart disease, stroke or cancer, all increase as weight increases,” he said. “These are expensive diseases, and the fatter we get, the greater the expenses. It's eventually going to hit us in the pocketbook, and the medical cost of insurance will sky­ rocket unless we can at least stop gaining weight.” PITCH OR POLICY While individuals may struggle to stave off the pounds, there are also a number of anti-obesity policies that have been proposed to help in the battle of the bulge. Harry Kaiser, the Gellert Family Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, is a behavioral economist whose recent research has examined the effectiveness and impacts of such policies, like fat and sugar taxes, anti-obesity advertising, and healthy food subsidies—financial incentives such as discounts and reduced prices. “Obesity has reached epidemic propor­ tions in the United States, and there are a lot of theories on why that is the case,” Kaiser said. “What I've been looking at is the efficacy of some of the social and economic policies that either have been implemented or are being proposed. I'm not really using traditional, economic models but more in the behavioral and experimental areas instead.” Through his experiments and a Nation­ al Institutes of Health-funded field study, Kaiser found the least effective policy is the healthy food subsidy, which has a tendency to backfire on participants, who end up purchasing more unhealthy foods along with more fruits and vegetables. "People are gaining weight, and when you ask them 'Why?’ they don’t know, because that weight gain, despite being five pounds over 12 weeks, is still too small for you to see. So the scale is a way of actively visualizing it.” David Levitsky, professor of nutritional science Ph ot o: T ilt L uk k “If the labels are just the right amount of scary and they tell us how to solve the problem also, then we actually are more willing to let them in and think about how they apply to us” Sahara Byrne, associate professor of communication The benefits, then, are negligible. Taxing unhealthy foods proves to be a slightly more successful tactic, although it may not be effective in the long run. In Kaiser's experiments he implements a 20-percent tax, which causes his subjects to curtail their purchasing of unhealthy foods immediately. However, over time people will generally return to their pre­ vious pre-tax consumption habits. According to Kaiser, this reversion is particularly true with Americans, who— due to the relative wealth of the United States—are less sensitive to price increas­ es than other populations around the world. And although income level can affect price sensitivity, even lower income Americans tend to be fairly insensitive to price changes under 25 percent. “When you use a fiscal type of policy like a tax or subsidy to try to change behavior, you're already dealing with people who are not very price-sensitive anyway, so whether you increase the price or decrease the price you have to do it by quite a bit to have much of an impact,” he said. While some regions have tried to ban unhealthy products, most notably New York City in its campaign against large sodas, those policies often trigger a backlash among consumers, who will ac­ tively seek out the banned product as a way to reaffirm their freedom of choice. Kaiser's studies show that the strongest policy for reducing obesity is healthy food and anti-obesity advertising, and his ideal solution would be a tag­ team approach: implement­ ing a food tax on unhealthy items, with the proceeds funding a robust anti-obesi­ ty advertising program. “There's a reason we have so much advertising,” Kaiser said. “Because it works.” MECHANICS OF MESSAGING Given the ubiquity and sophistication of modern advertising, and how much media dominates contem­ porary life, Sahara Byrne, associate professor of com­ munication, is working to help people make sense of all the health-related mes­ saging that bombards them every day. “They are being exposed to messages that are contrasting, that are helping, that are hurting, and so I'm trying to help supply some clarity and some effective­ ness to that daily experience,” Byrne said. Of particular interest to Byrne are the ways that messaging efforts intended to help people can sometimes go awry and “When you use a fiscal type of policy like a tax or subsidy to try to change behavior, you're already dealing with people who are not very price-sensitive anyway, so whether you increase the price or decrease the price you have to do it by quite a bit to have much of an impact” Harry Kaiser, the Gellert Family Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management have the opposite or unintended effect, or sometimes no effect at all. For example, recently Byrne saw an ad in the subway that featured a drawing of an overweight man with a stomach full of visible items, including fast food, french fries, soda and donuts. An accom­ panying text explained how the un­ healthy food had made the man fat. But for Byrne, rather than being dissuaded from buying junk food, the poster actu­ ally made her hungry. She also wondered how the poster would appear to children who could not read the explanatory text, or to women who felt the image only ap­ plied to men. “These are all different kinds of mecha­ nisms that might cause messaging to backfire or not work or have an unin­ tended effect on audiences,” Byrne said. For a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health, Byrne has teamed up with associate professor of communica­ tion Jeff Niederdeppe, dean of Human Ecology Alan Mathios and Cornell Law School professor Michael Dorf to exam­ ine the placement of graphic warning labels on cigarette packages. They are determining what such warning labels would look like, who they would be most effective for, and whether the graphic labels could backfire and instead scare people into covering them up and ignor­ ing the message. “If the labels are just the right amount of scary and they tell us how to solve the problem also, then we actually are more willing to let them in and think about how they apply to us,” Byrne said. Another study, which Byrne conducted with Geri Gay, communication and information science professor, examined the way that technology, and specifically iPhones, can deliver health messages custom-tailored to youths. “That is going to be a huge area. Like marketing is very much tailored, so our health messaging will be,” Byrne said. “But it's difficult to know what kind of processer a person is, if they are highly reactant or have lower cognitive ability. We are not quite there yet, but we're get­ ting really close.” One constant challenge Byrne faces is that her research involves a great deal of field work, particularly with youths and underrepresented populations who are often difficult to reach. However, a recent NIH grant is funding a mobile lab equipped with experiment stations that will allow Byrne to travel to inner city neighborhoods and schools. “That field work is about to get really interesting with this mobile lab. I've always had to bring all my equipment to malls, where I do a lot of research, or school grounds,” Byrne said. “Now I can bring it in its own little environment. Space is very scarce in schools and in cities. So I'll be able to have the lab come to them.” STRATEGIC STORYTELLING Sharing the grant for the mobile lab is fellow associate professor of communica­ tion Jeff Niederdeppe, whose own work measures the role of mediated communi­ cation in shaping human health behav­ iors and also the support such health- related policies receive. Niederdeppe's projects range from efforts that promote safer consumption of fish to those reducing smoking and obesity among youths to analyzing the marketing of prescription pain medica­ tion, all with an emphasis on prevention. Recently Niederdeppe looked at the roles strategic communications play in shaping public support for policies that would create healthier environments, such as taxes on alcohol or sugar-sweet­ ened beverages and restricting marketing to youths. Specifically, Niederdeppe and col­ leagues wanted to see how various message strategies on the pro-policy side intersect with counter messages that come from industry and other opposition-minded groups. For instance, Niederdeppe compared the effectiveness of storytelling strategies that personalize issues, such as a mother with a daughter who is experimenting with cigarettes, versus an “inoculation” method that preemptively addresses the points that industry would make in opposition to policies to restrict their marketing and promotion. Niederdeppe found that while the storytelling approach is effec­ tive, if a policy faces strong resistance from an industry willing to spend great sums of money to undermine support, then the inoculation strategy is prefer­ able. Niederdeppe also collaborated with Rosemary Avery, professor in the Col­ lege of Human Ecology's Department of Policy Analysis and Management, to look at what types of anti-tobacco messages have most greatly reduced youth smok­ ing rates over the last ten years. Using a database that Avery assembled that catalogues and classifies tobacco ads from all 50 states over the last decade, the researchers were able to isolate two types of messages most often associated with lowered smoking rates: ads that em­ phasize long-term health consequences of smoking and ads that emphasize the tobacco industry's role in promoting their products. “Both of those have a synergistic ef­ fect,” Niederdeppe said. “You can have a message that says, ‘Look, this prod­ uct kills 3,000 people a day,' and ‘This company knows it and is promoting this product to you anyway.' And that's a re­ ally powerful combination.” Another project undertaken with the Department of Policy Analysis and Man­ agement examined the impact that direct- to-consumer pharmaceutical ads have on the public. The researchers found that ads for statins, i.e., drugs that aim to reduce cholesterol, not only led to an increase in prescriptions, but the ads also had the biggest impact on people with comparatively lower levels of risk for diabetes or high-blood pressure. In short, “You can have a message that says, ‘Look, this product kills 3,000 people a day,' and ‘This company knows it and is promoting this product to you anyway.' And that's a really powerful combination.” Jeff Niederdeppe, associate professor of communication the advertisements made the people who least needed the drugs request them more. For Niederdeppe, this type of re­ search may not change policy immedi­ ately but can slowly help shape it. The need is quite apparent. After all, health­ ier populations lead to more affordable insurance, a less strained healthcare system, and a stronger workforce. And one key to boosting collective health is to understand the messaging that sup- ports—or sometimes undermines—it. “Here in the United States we devel­ op these campaigns to promote healthy behavior, and the level of exposure these campaigns receive are just drops in the bucket compared to the huge amount of health-related information we receive from big pharmaceutical companies, from fast food companies, from soda companies,” Niederdeppe said. “So we better understand what impact this other stuff is having, and if we want to compete with these mes­ sages we better understand what we're competing with.” alumni notes A MESSAGE FROM THE CALS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT T hose who know me well know that I cherish my trips back to Ithaca and that I visit as often as pos­ sible. In fact, even though I live in metro Washington, D.C., I am often asked if I live in the 14850 zip code (perhaps as a result of my enthusiastic campus photo and status sharing on Facebook?). There is just something about being back at Cornell—interacting with students and faculty, appreciating the familiar and the new aspects of campus—that has a posi­ tive, energizing effect on me. I have volunteered as an alumna in various capacities for Cornell over the last 20 years, but only in the last few have I made my way “home” to CALS-specific volunteerism, to give back to the com­ munity which had such a formative role in my education. There is a tremendous amount of momentum in the college, from research to outreach; CALS truly is a microcosm of Ezra Cornell's “Any A'ndrea Van Schoick, CALS '96, DVM 2015-16 CALS Alumni Association President person ... any study” motto. Addition­ ally, new developments in technology are making it easier for CALS alumni, students and faculty to connect with each other to create an even stronger synergy. It is my honor to serve as president of the CALS Alumni Association for 2015-16. I hope that you, too, will find your way back home to CALS over the coming months and share the wisdom of your path with others (http://cals. cornell.edu/get-involved/alumni/asso- ciation/). One of our great assets as an Alumni Association is the diversity of our collective backgrounds and experi­ ences, which can benefit students and alumni alike. Please reach out to me if I can help facilitate these interactions in any way, or if you have suggestions for how we can serve the needs of current and future alumni. I would love to hear from you at alv1@cornell.edu. MAKE IT A TRADITION: every person, any amount more than 80% of CALS academic departments rank in the TOP 10 in the nation CALS ANNUAL FUND GIFTS provided start-up funding for 11 NEW FACULTY HIRES, representing 11 different departments 75% of unrestricted gifts to Cornell are $250 or less MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH THE CALS ANNUAL FUND TODAY by calling 1-800-279-3099 or visiting www.giving.cornell.edu/give/CALS. http://cals cornell.edu/get-involved/alumni/asso-ciation/ mailto:alv1@cornell.edu http://www.giving.cornell.edu/give/CALS MY CORNELL: LAUREN FRAZIER '15 W hen I was younger I struggled with the words mine and my. I would feel almost embarrassed to claim possessions as my own. As I've grown older the things that are mine were earned through my own hands, my own mind, and the expression of that work is my pride. This is how I feel think­ ing of Cornell and every single person who walks its campus. They are mine: the people I love and those I've only glimpsed on the sidewalk; the sunsets over West Campus and the blizzards that hide the sun from view. I've earned the right to be among them, because I've stamped my love here time and time again, I've signed it into every assign­ ment I've turned in, every hour I've spent in the library stacks, every tennis ball I've picked up at practice and every time I've answered the question: So where do you go to school? My senior year I spent five months at the University of Auckland in New Zea­ land. There, as a foreigner and outsider, my connection to Cornell became the strongest. I was Cornell to these people; I was the only representation of Cornell they'd ever known. I was Cornell's ad­ venturous spirit when we pulled the car off to the side of the highway and crested an unmarked mountain to find the best panoramic view. I was Cornell's environ­ mental voice when I spent lunchtimes washing reusable dishes that replaced the cafeteria's throwaway plastic containers, and I was Cornell's humanitarian plea when I participated in an initiative to raise money for the fight against poverty. Now when I think of my Cornell, it's in­ terspersed with the newfound love I have for my semester in New Zealand, which gave me the opportunity to really miss the campus high above Cayuga's waters. Lauren Frazier was a winner of the “My Cor­ nell” Writing Contest held by the Sesquicenten- nial Steering Committee and the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. GELLERT FAMILY ENDOWS FOOD SAFETY RESEARCH CHAIR By John Carberry A $3 million gift from the George Gellert family—whose Gel­ lert Global Group includes one of the largest collections of privately held food importing companies in North Amer- ica—has created a new endowed professorship in the Department of Food Science. The position and its inaugural appointee, Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. '97, will focus on prevention and control of bacterial foodborne illnesses and zoonotic diseases passed from animals to humans, including persistent pub­ lic health threats such as Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella. “The association my family and I have had with Cornell has been a crucial element to our success in the food business,” said George G. Gellert '60, MBA '62, J.D. '63. “It has helped us with relationships, ideas and solutions. As leaders in the food industry, it is important to contribute to a business environment focused on food safety. It is a privilege for us to see that Cornell continues its leadership role in this discipline.” The Gellert family connections to Cornell and the food indus- From left, Thomas Gellert '94, MBA '99, J.D. '00; Andrew Gellert '89; Robert Gellert '63, MBA '65; George Gellert '60, MBA '62, J.D. '63; Dean Kathryn J. Boor; and Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. '97, the Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety. Photo: Lindsay France/University Photography try started with Gellert's father, Imre Thomas Gellert '27. The Gellert-Cornell legacy continues to expand, with 15 Cornellians and 25 Cornell degrees among the fam­ ily members, including 14 CALS grads. “George and the Gellert family have been part of CALS and Cor­ nell for many years. Their efforts and expertise have contributed so much to the very fabric of our university,” said Kathryn J. Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sci­ ences. “This generous gift further extends the Gellerts' great legacy.” Ph ot o: Je nn ife r B en so n Julie Carter, HumEc '71; Professor Emeritus James White '39, Ph.D. '44; and Jay Carter '71, MEN '72. GIFT HONORS EMERITUS PROFESSOR JAMES WHITE J ames White '39, Ph.D. '44, first set foot in Stocking Hall when he arrived on campus as a freshman in 1934 to study bacteriology. As faculty member in the former Department of Dairy Industry, he enriched the building with his expertise in milk safety and dairy engineering—and enlivened it with his flair for storytelling—until his retirement in 1972. A gift from Jay '71, MEN '72, and Julie Carter, HumEc '71, that names a confer­ ence room for him ensures that his legacy will be honored in the newly renovated Stocking Hall. According to the Carters, who met White through his late daughter Debbie Pavelka, the gift is an expression of gratitude for the privilege and good fortune of decades of knowing him. The room was dedicated in a July cer­ emony, where White was hailed as a “visionary who has always been ahead of his time,” a passionate advocate for the environ­ ment, and the consummate Cornellian. alumni notes BELOVED RESEARCHER ROYALL MOORE'S GIFT TO FUND FUTURE FUNGI SCHOLARS By John Carberry NORTHEAST AGRIBUSINESS AND FEED ALLIANCE SUPPORTS TWO CORNELL DAIRY FACULTY POSITIONS By Amanda Garris Ph.D. ‘04 H e's remembered as a dedicated mycologist, a generous brother and a “sweet and down-to- earth” mentor—and now the late Royall Tyler Moore will be remembered by generations of Cornell students as the man who helped make their future in the study of fungi possible. Moore, an Ithaca-area native who worked as a post­ doctoral researcher at Cornell in the 1960s, died Aug. 17, 2014, at age 83 in Northern Ireland. He bequeathed almost $500,000 to his former academic home to support graduate study in mycology, the study of fungi. The gift will be administered through the Section of Plant Pathol­ ogy and Plant-Microbe Biology of the School of Integra­ tive Plant Science. “This was his legacy, what he wanted,” said his brother Kent Moore BFA '63. “He loved it, and his idea was that the study of mycology might continue to ben­ efit mankind.” A graduate of Michigan State College and Harvard University, Moore never received a degree from Cornell, although he came from a family of Cornellians. His mother, Frances Goodnough '25, studied English, and his father, Ulric Moore '25, earned a degree in dramatics and a doctorate in 1931. Younger brother Kent Moore earned his bachelor's in fine arts and is now an artist Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance (NEAFA) leadership and Cornellians at the announcement of the faculty renewal gift. Front row: Rick Zimmerman '78, Rick Grant '65, CALS Dean Kathryn J. Boor, Danielle Penney, Bill Colten, John Clark '80, MBA '86. Back row: Craig Newton, CALS professor of animal science Tom Overton, Corwin Holtz M.S. '87, Barry Baetz, Mark Anderson '68, Ph.D. '73, and Chip Hyde. Photo: Emma Andrew living and working in Ithaca. “It just blew me away,” said Kathie Hodge, associate professor of mycology and, since 2011, a digital pen pal of Moore's. “In his field, he was great, he was a pro. And he was just sweet and down-to-earth.” Moore pursued chemistry as an undergrad at Michi­ gan State College, then began gradu- ate work on the taxonomy of fungi at the University of Iowa, followed by post-docs at Cornell and the Univer­ sity of California, Berke­ ley. In 1972, he accepted a post at Ulster Uni­ versity at Coleraine, Northern Ireland. There, Hodge said, in Northern Ireland's fa­ mously fungi-friendly weather, Moore built his academic legacy as a careful and steadfast chronicler of new fungi, their structure and their classi­ fication. T he Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance, with support from the feed industry, has raised $1 million to create two new dairy-focused faculty positions in the Department of Animal Science. The alliance, a 300-member trade organization representing animal feed manufactur­ ers and agricultural input suppliers and distributors throughout New England and New York, rallied support from more than 45 businesses and individuals to fund the positions. Organizers see the growth in research capacity as a strategic investment that will benefit dairy scientists, produc­ ers and consumers across the region in the coming decades. “Creation of two new positions at Cornell is a boost for all the land­ grant universities in the region,” said alliance president Rick Grant '65. “Support from members of the alliance to create these new positions will help farmers in many neighboring states.” The first position will focus on dairy nutrition and environmental mod­ eling. More specifically, the faculty's research and extension program will study the biology of nutrient use by dairy cattle and its integration with forage and feeding systems into models that can be used to contribute to improved farm-level environmental sustainability. “This position is critical for our Northeast dairy farms and allied industries to continue to lead in implementing nutritional strategies that translate to improved environmental stewardship,” said Tom Overton '91, professor of dairy management and chair of the search committee for this position. “The leadership and commitment that the alliance has demon­ strated exemplifies the unique partnership that Cornell faculty and feed industry professionals in the Northeast have forged over many years.” The second position will likely focus on fundamental aspects of nutri­ tion and lactation, with an emphasis on dairy cattle. Both hires are part of the Cornell Faculty Renewal Sesquicentennial challenge, a $100 million effort to recruit the next generation of Cornell faculty, by raising funds for salary, startup funds for laboratories, library acquisitions and research stipends. “We are deeply grateful to the alliance for its incredible commitment to the future of Cornell—and to agriculture in the northeastern United States,” said Kathryn J. Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of CALS. “This vote of faith and confidence will pay dividends for decades.” For a complete list of donors, visit alumni.cals.cornell.edu/neafa alumni.cals.cornell.edu/neafa Savneet Singh '05 Young Alumni Achievement Award S avneet Singh credits his father with pushing him to take risks while giving him the freedom to make mistakes, a boldness that has fueled his rapid ascent from investment banking analyst to innova­ tor in the financial marketplace. His most recent brainchild is GBI, borne out of the need for a more democratized, electronic system for both retail and institutional investors to pur­ chase physical gold. Founded in 2010, GBI allows consumers to purchase, sell and exchange physical pre­ cious metals as straightforwardly as ordering a stock or bond, and the company also provides gold storage in seven countries around the world. Prior to establishing GBI, Singh was an investment analyst at Chil­ ton Investment Company, covering