Bailey Hall.  Livestreaming available.

Both venue locations on campus have sold out! Overflow viewing available at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca.  See below for details!

Steven W. Squyres is James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences at Cornell University, and is the Principal Investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project. 

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. 

Cinemapolis Details:
A limited number of free tickets will be available starting April 15 for a special screening at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca of the Bill Nye and Steve Squyres conversation. 

Up to four tickets for the Nye-Squyres event will be given to each person, and are available - for as long as they last - beginning April 15 at Cinemapolis - 120 E. Green St., Downtown Ithaca Alliance - Center Ithaca, and Cornel’s Office of Community Relations - 110 Day Hall.

Anyone interested after the screening is invited to board a special free shuttle bus that will take community members to the family-friendly Big Red Birthday Bash in Barton Hall, 7:30-9:30 p.m. (Buses will be running between Barton Hall and downtown throughout the evening.)

Barton Hall

Free and open to the public. Space is limited to the first 5000 guests.  Please indicate your interest in attending this event through the online registration system.

The biggest and best birthday party ever takes over Barton Hall. Follow the Big Red Walk from Bailey Hall to start the festivities.  Explore the installation Illuminating Images and experience firsthand the “Joy of Discovery.”  Enjoy performances by Ithaca and Cornell groups Opus, Armstrong Dancers, Burns Sisters, and Yamatai, Bhangra, Breakfree HipHop, and many more.  Have your picture taken for the virtual 150th time capsule; dance with the hockey teams; sample local foods. Many surprises are in store! Who knows what might happen or who may show up! This is a party 150 years in the making.  Don’t miss this family-friendly and fun event!

Anabel Taylor Hall

Due to popular demand a 2nd performance has been added for 10:15 a.m - 11:00 a.m.  Please note the 9:00am performance is full.

Dedicated in the spring of 2011, the magnificent Cornell Baroque organ represents a decade of intense research into the construction techniques and aesthetics of early-eighteenth-century north German organs. Cornell's sumptuous instrument, both a sonic and visual work of art, is based on a celebrated Berlin organ completed in 1706 but destroyed in World War II.  An international team of organ experts and craftsmen led by acclaimed Cornell university organist Annette Richards reconstructed this lost masterpiece and brought it to the Cornell campus where it has attracted vigorous local and international interest. The original Berlin organ was built by the legendary north German master Arp Schnitger, whose instruments were highly prized by J. S. Bach, the greatest player and composer in the organ’s long history. Cornell's first president, Andrew Dixon White, was himself an organist and he made sure that that from the university's inception the King of Instruments would have a vital presence on campus. Surely, White would have been thrilled that the organ tradition continues to flourish here, 150 years on. Join Professor Richards and her colleague David Yearsley for a program of Bach organ hits—including a bracing post-breakfast performance of the (in)famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor—as the composer himself would have heard them.

Panelists: 
Annette Richards (Professor of Music and University Organist, Cornell University)
David Yearsley (Professor of Musicology, Performance - History, literature, and performance of 17th-18th-century music, Cornell University)

David L. Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall

As a nation, we are committed to the idea that all children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, should have equal opportunity to succeed through their talent and effort. Indeed, Cornell embodies this ethos in its commitment to providing a world-class education to students regardless of their means or origins. Many challenges to the American dream persist. Children born into socioeconomically disadvantaged families have lower odds of succeeding in school, graduating from college, entering professional or managerial careers, or being financially secure as adults than other children. Even for children of the middle class, the prospects of doing as well as their parents are weakening. For immigrants and their children, the American Dream can be increasingly out of reach. Please join us for a discussion by Cornell professors and recent alumni about equality of opportunity and how it can be improved.

Panelists: 
Kim Weeden (Professor; Robert S. Harrison Director, Institute for the Social Sciences; Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University)
Peter Enns (Associate Professor of Government, Cornell University)
Kendra Bischoff (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Cornell University)
Adrian Palma '13 (Co-Founder of Cornell DREAM Team)
Dominique Corley '14 (Linguistics and Sociology, Minor in Inequality Studies)

G10, Biotechnology Building

Hear and learn about a wide variety of projects and activities, from Ithaca campus hopes for “deep hot rock” enhanced geothermal systems for building heating, to research in Africa that links soil health, food security, and human welfare.   
Vote for your favorite project for a flourishing tomorrow.  

In this session, campus administrators and faculty and grad students will compete with 1-minute pitches with accompanying posters to showcase the range and  breadth of sustainability activities – including how we are responding to climate change -- on and off campus.  The world requires new, novel thinking at the intersection of the 3Es – Energy, Environment, and Economic Development. Prosperity in the next 150 years depends on today’s discoveries.

The winner, picked by the audience, will receive a cash prize from the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future to continue the research or activity.

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

The Supreme Court’s 1998 Oncale v Sundower Offshore Services Inc., decision held that there could be a cause of action for same-sex sexual harassment.  While most cheered the holding, a careful reading revealed that the case actually codified a theory that “sexual harassment” was not unlawful if both men and women were subjected to the same or similar conduct.  Thus, the equal opportunity harasser defense was now the law of the land.  This lecture will cover how we got there, what has happened since, and propose what the law should be. 

Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler;  Livestreaming available

Overflow seating available in G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

The nature of research and teaching in the humanities has been dramatically transformed over the last half century, as has its subject matter.  From the opening of canons to different voices and genres to the creation of new fields of study defined by social identity; from the emergence of new theories of language and consciousness to the study of new media of communication, expression and performance, and the development of a range of interdisciplinary  enterprises. The fundamental ideal of universal aesthetic "greatness"-what Matthew Arnold called "the best which has been thought and said in the world"- has been questioned, as research illuminates the role of  gender, race or ethnicity, social or economic class, and personal history in determining what is most highly valued. In the most general terms, what was previously taken as natural is revealed as a cultural, historical construction, not immutable but open to transformation, as the humanities have sought not just to understand the world but to change it.  The panel will explore this complex and controversial revolution in humanistic studies—in literature, in philosophy, in the visual and performing arts, while also considering the role Cornell has played in these developments.

Moderator:
Timothy Murray (Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Director, Society for the Humanities)

Panelists:
Jonathan Culler (Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Cornell University)
Salah Hassan (Goldwin Smith Professor of African and African Diaspora Art History and Visual Culture in the Africana Studies and Research Center, and in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies)
Don Randel (Given Foundation Professor Emeritus of Musicology, Cornell University, Past Provost of Cornell University, and Past Dean of Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, Past President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Past President of the University of Chicago)
Gayatri Spivak MA'63, PhD'67 (Humanities Professor, Columbia University) 

Duffield Atrium, Duffield Hall

Free and open to the public. Registration not required.

One of the most exciting and inspiring aspects of the Cornell community is seeing student passions come to life outside of the classroom. Come talk with representatives from dozens of undergraduate and graduate student organizations from all across campus. This event includes student leaders from every aspect of campus life: fashion, engineering, the humanities, business, health, etc. – this will be an event you won’t want to miss!

Featured organizations include:

A Stranger Gravity
Active Learning @ Human Ecology
AguaClara Club
Athlete Ally
Belle Apps
Big Red Sports Network
Cayuga’s Watchers
Center for Transformative Action
Centre d’Education Inclusif (CEI)
Consent Ed
Cornell Business Journal (CBJ)
Cornell Business Review
Cornell ChemE Car
Cornell Class Councils
Cornell Concrete Canoe Project Team
Cornell Consulting Group
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Cornell Economics Society (CES)
Cornell Fashion Collective (CFC)
Cornell Food Recovery Network
Cornell Mars Rover (CMR)
Cornell Media Guild
Cornell Roosevelt Institute
Cornell Steel Bridge Project Club
Cornell Student Assembly
Cornell Undergraduate Historical Society (CHS)
Cornell Undergraduate Research Board (CURB)
Cornell Union for Disability Awareness (CUDA)
Cornell Chorus
Cornell's Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association
C.U. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team (CUAUV)
C.U. Sustainable Design (CUSD)
CUAir
Dilmun Hill Student Organic Farm
Dyson Symposium for Women in Leadership
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
ENAM
Energy Corps at C.U. (ECCU)
Entrepreneurship at Cornell/ Student Agencies eLab
Green Ambassadors
Haven
Intel-Cornell Cup 
International Genetically Engineered Machines Team (iGEM)
Ithaca Hummus
Life Changing Labs
Mountains for Moms
Nine Yards
PAM Undergraduate Research
Partners in Health: Engage at Cornell University
Prison Reform and Education Project
Produce Pay
Reconnect
Red Ideas
RedHead Wine
Right Price Management
Scholars Working Ambitiously to Graduate (SWAG)
Social Business Consulting
Society for Natural Resources Conservation
Software Entrepreneurship N' Startup Engineering (SENSE)
Speare
Technology Entrepreneurship at Cornell (TEC)
Tunetap
Violet (Nanosat-6)
Women’s Resource Center
Worthy Jerky

David L. Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall

This session highlights the disturbing cases of two individuals who were wrongfully convicted of murder, but who ultimately were exonerated. The exonerees, along with Cornell University experts in law and the social sciences, will offer their perspectives on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions.  

Panelists: 
Valerie Hans (Professor of Law, Cornell University)
Stephen Ceci (Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology, Cornell University) 
Kirk Bloodsworth (Witness to Innocence, Project Director)
Amelia Hritz (PhD/JD Candidate, Developmental Psychology and Law, Cornell University)
John Blume (Professor of Law; Director of Clinical, Advocacy and Skills Programs; Director, Cornell Death Penalty Project)
David Dunning (Professor of Psychology, Cornell University)

Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

From our crops to our commutes and our computers, how secure and sustainable is the infrastructure upon which modern human life operates? Cornell scientists and engineers will discuss what the coming years hold for bridges and highways, food systems, energy development, data and internet security, and water availability. An audience Q&A session will follow.

Panelists: 
Susan Christopherson (Department Chair, City & Regional Planning, Cornell University)
Sarah Evanega (International Professor, Plant Breeding & Genetics (adjunct), Cornell University)
Rick Geddes (Associate Professor, Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University)
Pat Reed (Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University)
Fred Schneider (Professor, Computer Science & Information Science; Professor, Communications, Cornell University)
Jeff Hancock (Professor & Chair, Information Science, Cornell University)
John Morales (Chief Meteorologist, WTVJ NBC-6 Miami)

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

Biography of Richard Price '71:
-Cornell University ILR grad, class of '71
-Columbia University M.F.A '76
-Visiting Professor of English at Yale, NYU, Princeton, and Cornell (2000)
-Author of 8 novels, including Clockers, Lush Life, and most recently The Whites
-Writer for HBO's The Wire
-Oscar nominated Screenwriter of The Color of Money, Sea of Love, Clockers and the newly released (April 2015) Child 44
-Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters - 2010

G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance events play a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people once imagined. Robert Frank will explore the interesting and sometimes unexpected implications of those findings for how best to think about the role of luck in life.

This session honors Cornell’s prominent brand name and rich history of leadership in international development and poverty reduction. A distinguished keynote speaker and a panel of leading global figures will speak about the challenge of eradicating extreme poverty and the role that Cornell has played and can play in combating global poverty, especially through economics research, instruction, and outreach. These eminent Cornellians will describe their personal journeys in arriving at a diverse set of careers, all of which, directly or indirectly, are dedicated to improving the lives of the global poor. They will explain why global poverty reduction is a serious challenge worthy of attention not just on moral grounds, but equally for scientific, commercial and strategic reasons, and how the Cornell experience helped empower them toward their successful and impactful careers. The session will close with the premier showing of a new video highlighting the tremendous breadth of activities, innovations and impacts the Cornell family is having around the world today on the lives of the poor. 

Please also join us for an expo of some of the many on-campus student groups dedicating their time and talents to global poverty reduction. Displays and student group representatives can be found in the Park Atrium before (2:30-3p.m.) and after (4:30-5p.m.) the main event.

Panelists:
Christopher Barrett (David J. Nolan Director and the Stephen B. & Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and an International Professor of Agriculture in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, and a Fellow in the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University)
Kaushik Basu (Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank)
Eleni Gabre-Madhin '86 (CEO, eleni LLC)
Debraj Ray MA '81, PhD '83 (Julius  Silver Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science, and Professor of Economics, New York University)
Richard Stearns '73 (President, World Vision US)
Erik Thorbecke (H.E. Babcock Professor of Economics Emeritus and Graduate School and International Professor, Cornell University)

Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler;  Livestreaming available

Overflow seating available in G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Obesity has risen dramatically in many countries of the world in the past several decades.  This lecture provides insight into the obesity epidemic using the lens of economics.  It explains the economic causes of obesity and economic consequences of obesity, and explains how economics can be used to help prevent and treat obesity.

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

What makes the world look the way it does? I will talk about Cornell's pioneering computer graphics research on virtually modeling the appearance of the real world. 

Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Hall

Ezra Cornell's story is the story of the telegraph: he was a prescient investor in telecommunications and a strong believer in the power of media. One hundred and fifty years later, alumni/ae of Cornell continue to shape American (and global) sights as sounds as artists and professionals in cinema/media/information technologies. Join three prominent media makers as they discuss the changing climate of cinema and media production amidst vast technological and social revolutions as profound as those of the telegraph. Our panelists are Scott Ferguson, who has produced extraordinary films from Brokeback Mountain to HBO's Emmy award-winning Temple Grandin; Tim Squyres, who has served as the longtime editor for director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Lust, Caution) as well as editing major studio films such as Hulk and Syriana; and Tia Lessin '86, who won an Academy Award for her documentary on post-Katrina New Orleans, Trouble the Water, and has just released her film on the Tea Party Citizen Koch. Two assistant professors, accomplished artists themselves, in the newly-energed Department of Performing and Media Arts, Austin Bunn and JP Sniadecki, will moderate the panel, which will be introduced by department chair Amy Villarejo.

Also featured: MyCornell writing and video contest winners will read and screen their winning reflections on their Cornell experience.

Barton Hall

Scientific discoveries across disparate disciplines frequently arise from fresh ways of “seeing” a phenomenon, whether using different wavelengths or resolutions, or high speed and time-lapse photography. This event will showcase some of Cornell’s successes in producing scientifically meaningful, but also visually striking, images of natural processes on scales from nanometers to light-years.

Panelists:
Joseph A. Burns PhD '66 (Dean of Faculty, Cornell University)
Ron Hoy (Professor, Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University) 
Eric Betzig (Physicist, Janelia Farm Research Campus; 2014 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry)
Drew Harvell (Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University)
Lena Kourkoutis (Assistant Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University) 
 

Lorrie Moore is the author of three novels and four story collections the most recent of which is Bark (2014), a finalist for the Story Prize. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Review of books, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Yale Review , Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She has been the recipient of The Irish Times Prize for International Literature, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the PEN/Malamud Award, the O.Henry Award, and a Lannan fellowship. Her most recent novel, A Gate at the Stairs, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner and the Orange Prize. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has taught at Cornell University, the University of Michigan, NYU, Princeton University, Baruch College and for 29 years at the University of Wisconsin. She is currently Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt University. She grew up in upstate New York and received her B.A. from St. Lawrence in 1978 and her M.F.A. from Cornell University in 1982.

G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

Over the last 150,000 years our species has flourished in spite of two epic glacial periods, surviving the extreme climatic volatility of the past through ingenuity, adaptability, and cooperation. In this talk, I will present a general overview of global climate change over this time period, and present a cautiously optimistic vision for the future.

Bailey Hall, Livestreaming available

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Join the Cornell University Symphony Orchestra, Glee Club and Chorus, Professor David Feldshuh, and Professor Robin Davisson for an evening celebrating Cornell ideas and imagination through music and readings.  The Symphony performs selections from Professor Roberto Sierra’s Carnaval and Professor Steven Stucky’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Second Concerto for Orchestra. The combined Glee Club and Chorus offer songs ranging from an American spiritual to Chinese and Finnish folksongs and a Namibian walking song. David Feldshuh shares Andrew Dickson White’s and Ezra Cornell’s dreams and visions for the University they founded, underscoring composed by Professor Kevin Ernste, and E.B. “Andy” White’s ’21 reflections on sending his son to Cornell.  The concert concludes with the combined Glee Club Chorus and the Symphony Orchestra performing a medley of Cornell songs with new orchestrations, and a surprise guest soloist. This will be an evening to remember!

Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

Robots have been a part of of our culture, education, and research for years. Think of the Jetsons, Lost in Space, 2001 Space Odyssey, Star Wars - robots have been captured in our imagination since we were children. What is our past, and where are we going in Robotics?

Robotics is one of the ultimate of interdisciplinary topics. Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Science, Aerospace Engineering all enable research and education in basic topics such as sensing, actuation, and algorithms to make robots realizable. Robots are now commonplace for repeatable actions, such as those in manufacturing. But, with the advent of low cost sensing and electronics, and advances in algorithms and software, truly intelligent and interactive robots are near the cusp of not only production, but supporting our society. Today we can purchase robots to vacuum our home, mow our lawn, farm our fields, explore a new planet, or play with our kids. 

Cornell has been at the forefront of robotics since our early days, starting with hands on educational activities using the Reauleaux Collection. Since then, Cornell researchers and educators have been actively involved in many areas, including robotic soccer, Mars rovers, vision sensing, autonomous driving, autonomous spacecraft, and manufacturing robots. We believe that the future will continue an evolution of robotics with autonomy, hardware and software, to enable people and robots to naturally work and play together. Examples include natural language interaction, social and personal robots, medical robots, search and rescue robots, exploration, and self designed and printed robots. 

Panelists:
Francis Moon MS '64, PhD '67(Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
Hod Lipson (Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Associate Professor, Computing & Information Science)
Andrew Ruina (Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering)
Hadas Kress Gazit (Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
Elias Friedman (Assistant Professor, Industrial and Labor Relations)
Ross Knepper (Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department)

Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”—it is a widely circulated aphorism meant to convey the impossibility of capturing the essence of one expressive vocabulary with another. Yet scholars and practitioners alike might see possibility rather than impossibility in the aphorism:  how, indeed, is writing about music like dancing about architecture?  What can such comparisons—of writing and dancing, music and architecture, and other combinations--bring to light? The impulse to find fruitful events of intersection, translation, collaborations, and even collision lies at the heart of humanistic endeavors.

Music, art, and architecture share the dimensions of space and time, though it could be argued that the space of experiencing these arts undergoes revolutionary alterations with every new generation of recording, designing, and fabricating technologies. The time of experience, however, remains a common denominator to audio and visual phenomena and artistic creations. This mutual engagement with time can be further refined to concepts that reflect topics current among scholars and practitioners alike:  contingency, emergence, sustainability, cycles, improvisation, and reproduction. The four faculty members featured on this panel offer their views on these temporal topics within music, art, and architecture as reflected in their research and creative projects.

Moderator:
Steven Pond (Associate Professor & Department Chair, Musicology, Cornell University) 

Panelists:
Judith Peraino (Professor, Musicology, Cornell University)
Benjamin Piekut (Assistant Professor, Musicology, Cornell University)
Jenny Sabin (Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Assistant Professor, Architecture, Cornell University)
John Zissovici BAR '72, MAR '86 (Associate Professor, Architecture, Cornell University)

Bailey Hall

The global financial crisis ravaged financial markets in the U.S. and other advanced economies and led to a worldwide recession. The euro zone debt crisis revealed additional fragilities in advanced economy financial systems. High and rising levels of sovereign debt in the advanced economies pose additional risks, raising the specter of ongoing financial turmoil. These developments have sparked a reconsideration of the appropriate regulatory and supervisory framework for financial systems. Meanwhile, emerging market economies have become the main drivers of global growth in recent years. Reforms to create efficient and well-regulated financial markets in these economies have significant implications for their growth prospects and also for the stability of the global financial system. Dramatic shifts in financial and economic landscapes call for a fundamental rethinking of the core principles underlying financial regulation. The challenge is to design flexible and efficient regulatory structures that do not stifle innovation and financial market development. New paradigms for financial development and regulation have to be suitably reframed for emerging markets, given their institutional and capacity constraints. This session will feature a provocative discussion of these important financial stability issues with a panel featuring top experts from the frontlines of policy-making, the financial services industry, and the media.

Panelists:
Abby Joseph Cohen '73 (Senior U.S. Investment Strategist, Goldman Sachs)
Mary Miller '77 (Former Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, U.S. Treasury)
Eswar Prasad (Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University)
Andrew Ross Sorkin '99 (Assistant Editor, Editor of Dealbook, Columnist, NY Times)
Sanford Weill '55 (Former CEO and Chairman, Citigroup)

Barnes Auditorium, Barnes Hall

Over the past thirty years or so, an ever-increasing number of serious musicians has begun to perform classical works on instruments for which that music was originally conceived, rather than on their later counterparts. Cornell’s Department of Music has a long history of being involved in this effort, and our collection of important keyboard instruments in particular has made it an international center for performance and historical research.

What can we learn from these instruments, and how might they inspire musical performance in the future? Bilson and Moseley will highlight the important expressive differences that historical pianos can help achieve and explain how they shed new light on the notational practices and aesthetic profiles of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert. They will play solo and four-hand compositions and improvise on several different instruments, demonstrating how their variety of tone and touch opens the door to a world of sonic possibilities that lie beyond the reach of the ubiquitous Steinway. To celebrate Cornell’s sesquicentennial, they will give a brief history of how Cornell came to occupy a unique position in the musical world at large and discuss how this legacy might provide a platform for exciting future developments.

Presenters: 
Malcolm Bilson (Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music 
Emeritus Professor of Performance Keyboard/Forte Piano)
Roger Moseley (Assistant Professor of Musicology, 19th-century music, theory, performance practice)

David L. Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall

The panel will discuss the various ways that Cornell's ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship have evolved in the past 20 years. Discussion with the audience will be prompted by: 1) Comments on how the NY Tech campus has changed the entrepreneurial ecosystem (including the Ithaca campus), 2) a review of survey results on entrepreneurial Cornellians and how Cornell impacted their journeys, and 3) several micro-cases on Cornell entrepreneurs, reveling the variety and nature of innovation that has emerged over two decades.

Panelists:

Deborah Streeter (Professor, CALS)
Michael D Johnson (Dean, School of Hotel Administration)
Diane Burton (Associate Professor, ILR)
Soumitra Dutta (Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean, Johnson Graduate School of Management)
Zachary Schulman (Director, Entrepreneurship@Cornell)

Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Inventors of the modern highway and the most prolific park builders of the 20th century, Gilmore D. Clarke (1913) and Michael Rapuano ('27) were the creative giants who enabled New York masterbuilder Robert Moses to transform Gotham into America's first metropolis of the motor age.

G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

This lecture charts the dramatic decrease in the gender pay gap since 1980, and examines the reasons for its decline but also for its continued existence; policies that might reduce the pay gap further are also considered. 

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

Astonishing advances in DNA sequencing technology and in bioinformatics permit access to vast amounts of DNA information at ever decreasing cost.  The ability to analyze and curate this information is rapidly becoming a core element of scientific agriculture, prenatal diagnosis, drug development and precision medicine, forensic science and even studies of the evolution and migration of the human family.  In each of these fields questions have been raised about what constraints (if any) should be placed on use of DNA information.

After providing the audience with an overview of the power of DNA sequencing technology, each panel member will discuss opportunities and issues raised by the application of DNA sequencing and companion technologies to a particular field.  How is DNA technology influencing man’s constant struggle to feed humanity?  What will the impact be of whole genome sequencing on prenatal diagnosis?  Will a new kind of eugenic thinking emerge?  What impact is DNA analysis having on our definition of disease, on how physicians choose therapies, and on drug development?  Can we afford the costs associated with ever more personalized medicine? What impact will DNA testing have on veterinary medicine? How is comparative DNA analysis altering our understanding of our own evolution as a species?

The panel will turn to the audience to help explore these questions.

Moderator: 
Stephen Hilgartner BA '83, PhD '88 (Professor, Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University)

Panelists:
Philip Reilly BA '69, M.D., J.D. (Cornell University Emeritus Trustee; Member, Board of Overseers at Weill Cornell Medical College; Venture Partner, Third Rock Ventures)
Charles Aquadro (Professor, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University)
Margaret Smith PhD '82 (Professor, Plant Breeding & Genetics, Cornell University)
Rory Todhunter PhD '92 (Maurice R and Corinne P Greenberg Professor of Surgery, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine)
Adam Boyko (Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University)

Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler

Ezra Cornell built the first overhead telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore on which Samuel Morse percussively tapped the phrase “What hath God wrought?” Cornell made a fortune from that technology – but what has been wrought by technological shifts in our own time in the worlds of media and journalism? What happens now, as the pulse of news jets past the speed of 24 hour news channels to become a steady streams of tweets and Facebook newsfeeds? As newspapers continue their decline, how do even well informed people separate fact from assertion – and how can assertion color, aid or damage our understandings of the fact in the modern media landscape? How did ESPN and NPR become indispensable to the flow news, but were fledgling shops a generation ago and how much of journalism is now performed by figures at news organizations that simply did not exist - such as BuzzFeed, Vice, the Blaze, Al Jazeera America and Fusion? How much of our news agenda is shaped by non-journalists operating on social media platforms – and how does that redefine what we consider the news?

We have assembled a panel of sharp journalists in the prime of their careers to sift through these issues and more in what should be a fast-paced but deep take on the news ecosystem that surrounds us all – from the most tech-savvy digerati to the most enduring Luddite.

Panelists:

Jeremy Schaap '91 (anchor & correspondent, ESPN, author, “Triumph: the Untold Story of Jesse Owens”)

Farhad Manjoo '00 (technology columnist, NY Times, author, “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society”

Vivian Schiller '83 (journalism and technology executive. Former President & CEO of National Public Radio, and former head of news and journalism partnerships at Twitter).

David Folkenflik '91 (NPR media correspondent & author “Murdoch’s World: Last of the Old Media Empires”)

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

Meeting global energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way is one of the grand challenges of our time. While the use of energy based on fossil fuels has enabled great advances and an increase in the standard of living, it has also brought us to the brink of an environmental catastrophe. As a society, we will need to develop strategies that integrate renewable and sustainable energy sources.  This presentation will deal with global and national energy issues and how ongoing work at Cornell, especially on fuel cells and electrical energy storage technologies (batteries) can provide some potential solutions.

Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

The 1998 Nobel prize in Medicine was awarded for the seminal discovery of small RNAs, molecules that regulate gene expression and cellular functions but which do not themselves encode proteins. This lecture will discuss collaborative efforts between the Ithaca campus and Weill Cornell Medical College to define the emerging role of these small RNAs in human disease processes, notably infertility, cancer, and birth defects.

Bailey Hall, Livestreaming available

Over the past decade there has been a growing public fascination with the complex connectedness of modern society. At the heart of this fascination is the idea of a social network. Understanding networks, the incentives they create, and the aggregate behavior they facilitate is vital to understanding topics as varied as how Google does web search and how Facebook became so popular. Cornell is a leader in this emerging area with active interdisciplinary research and education going on in Computer Science, Economics, Information Science, Applied Mathematics and Sociology.

Moderator:
Michael Macy (Goldwin Smith Professor of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and Department of Information Science)

Panelists:
John Guare (playwright who wrote the play "Six Degrees of Separation”)
Duncan Watts PhD '97 (author of “Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age,"  Principal Researcher, Microsoft)
Steven Strogatz (Jacob Gould Schurman Professor, Department of Mathematics)
Jon Kleinberg '93 (Tisch University Professor, Department of Computer Science)
Lars Backstrom (Engineering Director, News Feed and Infrastructure, Facebook)

Mark your calendar for an advance screening of Connected: The Power of Six Degrees on Friday, April 24, 4:30 pm, Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Hall. 

PepsiCo Lecture Hall, 305 Ives Hall

Most people bear little resemblance to the bloodless rational actors portrayed in traditional economic models. Even when possessed of all relevant information, for example, they frequently make systematic errors.  They often give short shrift to costs and benefits that occur with uncertainty or delay. They leave tips in restaurants they never plan to visit again. Many refrain from cheating, even when there is no prospect that cheating would be caught and punished. And contrary to the core assumption of traditional models, their evaluations of their material living standards depend heavily on context.

These departures from traditional economic models are the focus of behavioral economics, one of the most important new areas of research in economics to have emerged in the last three decades. Cornell was the birthplace of this field and remains a leading center for work in this area, which continues to change beliefs long thought to have been settled in the discipline. Insights from behavioral economics are now being adopted by policy makers in countries around the world.  

In this session, some of Cornell’s behavioral economics pioneers and others will illustrate some of the findings from this exciting new field.

Moderator:
Robert Frank (Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics)

Panelists:
Richard Thaler (Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, University of Chicago)
Sendhil Mullainathan '93 (Professor of Economics, Harvard University) 
Tom Gilovich (Professor, Department of Psychology)
Ted O'Donoghue (Professor, Department of Economics)

G01 Auditorium, Uris Hall

One of the grand challenges of the 21st century is to decipher the neural mechanisms that underlie brain function and consciousness and to elucidate the causes of devastating brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. In collaboration with neuroscientists and neurologists at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical College, researchers in the College of Engineering at Cornell are developing advanced optical tools to enable these detailed studies of brain function and dysfunction. In this lecture, we will describe these powerful new techniques and discuss some of the findings about how our brains work and fail that these tools have enabled.

Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

This talk will explore how Americans over the course of the twentieth century came to venerate the Federal Constitution as well as what today's climate of near unanimous support means for various reform agendas.

Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

Our health and wellbeing are determined by a combination of genetic, environmental, and psycho-social factors.  In this discussion, the panelists will offer their insights on the role of traditional healthcare, sleep, exercise, vitamins and supplements, mental and behavioral health, as well as epidemiological observations that impact wellness.  How are Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell Tech working to make aging comfortably a possibility?  The experts will demonstrate innovative technologies that can be used by health care workers as well as by individuals to measure factors that impact one’s health.  They will discuss novel approaches to improve overall wellness, leading to a more fulfilled life. 

Moderator: 
Gary Koretzky, AB ‘78, M.D., PhD (Vice Dean for Research, Weill Cornell Medical College

Panelists:
Tanzeem Choudhury (Associate Professor, Information Science, Cornell University
Deborah Estrin (Professor of Computer Science, Cornell Tech; Professor of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College)
Orli R. Etingin, M.D. (Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College)
Mark S. Lachs, M.D., MPH (Professor of Medicine; Co-Chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Weill Cornell Medical College)

Bailey Hall, Livestreaming available

Moderator:
Frank H.T. Rhodes (Cornell President: 1977-1995) 
President Emeritus; Professor Emeritus, Geological Studies

Panelists:
Hunter R. Rawlings III (Cornell President: 1995-2003; Interim: 2005-2006) 
President, Association of the American Universities
Jeffrey S. Lehman ’77 (Cornell President: 2003-2005)
Vice Chancellor, NYU Shanghai
David J. Skorton (Cornell President: 2006 - Present)
Drew Gilpin Faust (Harvard University President: 2007 - Present) 

Barton Hall. Livestreaming and closed captioning available

Free and open to the public. Space is limited. First come, first served. Please indicate your interest in attending this event through the online registration system.

The weekend’s celebration of Cornell’s proud history and promising future culminates with Monday’s Charter Day Ceremony. Join us as we recognize the significance of the original Charter, signed April 27, 1865, and all it has generated. The ceremony begins with an academic procession,  the world premiere of the Sequicentennial Video, and includes remarks by Cornell Chairman Robert Harrison, Professor Isaac Kramnick and Dean Glenn Altschuler, and President David Skorton. The Cornell University Wind Sympthony and Chorus/Glee Club will provide music.