“On Roosevelt Island, we’ve set the stage for Cornell University to build an entirely new applied science and engineering campus, maybe the most exciting economic development project our city has ever undertaken,” Bloomberg said.
Tim Squyres ’81, who studied psychology at Cornell, is nominated for an Academy Award for best film editing of best picture nominee “Life of Pi.” The 3-D adventure film is the 11th Squyres has edited for director Ang Lee (“The Ice Storm,” “Sense and Sensibility”).
Squyres says he and Lee rarely talk, and Lee often accepts Squyres’ edits without discussion. He was nominated for best editing in 2000 for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
His older brother is Steve Squyres, Ph.D. ’81, Cornell’s Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy.
U.S. Marine General John “Jay” Paxton ’73, M.Eng. ’74, received his fourth star and became assistant commandant of the Marine Corps Dec. 15 in a ceremony at the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C.
According to Kevin Bruns ’79, president of the Cornell Delta Upsilon Association, about a dozen Cornellians, including nine Delta Upsilon alumni, were among the 200 attending the ceremony. Paxton’s wife, Debbie, is also a Cornellian (Class of 1975).
Bruns said that Paxton spoke at the ceremony about the four greatest influences on his life – one was his deep friendship with his DU brothers and his experience at “6 South Avenue” during his Cornell years. Paxton was president of DU, a member of the 1971 NCAA lacrosse championship team and also played football.
President Barack Obama nominated Paxton in October and his nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“It’s a book that rescues the human being from hagiography, and that is, in fact, two biographies: one a purely historical one, based on contemporary accounts; and the second a review of the enormous literature of legend and spin that his Order bestowed upon him. The Francis in this book is terrifying and self-destructive, visionary, and tormented. And the way he was subsequently used – in legend and parable and hearsay – speaks not just to the imagination of the church, but to the obvious miracle of Francis’s life’s work.”
Thom Mayne, who is designing Bill & Melinda Gates Hall and the Cornell NYC Tech campus academic building, won the American Institute of Architects’ 2013 GoldMedal, one of the profession’s highest honors. Previous winners include LeCorbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Mayne, dubbed “the bad boy and angry young man of Los Angeles architecture” by The New York Times, founded Morphosis, his Los Angeles-based practice, in 1972. He has said: “I like provoking people. It’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“Kill Your Darlings,” a movie written by assistant professor Austin Bunn, is one of 16 narrative feature films chosen for the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Utah.
The film about a group of Beat Generation writers stars Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg and focuses on the 1944 murder of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) by Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), a key member of the original Beat circle that included Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. The cast also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Cross, Elizabeth Olsen and Kyra Sedgwick.
“I’m thrilled and so honored to have the film selected – getting into Sundance is a screenwriter’s dream,” says Bunn, who teaches dramatic writing and screenwriting in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.
“John (Krokidas, the director and co-screenwriter) and I starting working on this script seven years ago, and the credit goes to him for never losing faith in bringing this story to life. I feel like our baby is one step closer to being born and I can’t wait to share it with audiences. Apparently, I also need to shop for a fashion-forward parka.”
Cornell yogurt expert Tristan Zuber ’08 will appear on CBS Sunday Morning Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. EST on the program’s annual food show. Zuber, a Cooperative Extension specialist, will discuss the origins of yogurt and the job-creating boom in companies building yogurt plants in New York state.
Cornell has made it to the final round of the Most Vegan-Friendly College Contest 2012. The contest site writes of Cornell:
“Between the Va-Va Vegan Bar, located in Keeton House; One World Café, an all-vegetarian café on campus offering popular dishes such as African peanut stew and a vegan Reuben; and the barbecued tofu with smoked tomatoes and watermelon at the Trillium Café, students at Cornell have good reason to want to re-enroll for as many years as possible. Other must-try dishes include the Tofu Kan delight, orange tamari grilled tofu steaks, dairy-free blueberry smoothies and vegan black-cocoa cake with vegan ganache.”
Click the image above to put Cornell over the top.
“Earth’s invasion of Mars (sci-fi writers had it backwards) began with planetary flybys in the 1960s; then came the Viking 1 and 2 landers in 1976 and the Pathfinder mission, with the first Mars rover, Sojourner, in 1997. Today, Cornell University astronomer Steven Squyres is spearheading a new scientific offensive as principal scientist of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Rover’s robot geologists Spirit and Opportunity landed in January 2004 and have sent back more than 100,000 full-color images of Martian terrain as well as microscopic images and detailed analyses of rocks and soil surfaces. Squyres has also been an aquanaut at NASA’s underwater lab in Florida, helping to plan for manned space missions in extreme environments.”
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Accolades, Essentially NYC, Seen & Heard | Tagged: Bloomberg, NYC, tech campus | 
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Posted by Anne Ju
