The Essentials

Hans Bethe House is soliciting student proposals for a site-specific art installation for its Jansen Dining Room.

The winning entry will be produced in spring 2010 and will occupy the high-ceilinged space at the dining room’s southwest corner. Artwork can be hung from the ceiling or wall-mounted, should have dynamic elements, and should convey Bethe’s work and ideas in physics, astronomy, energy production in stars, and nuclear arms control.

The competition is open to all Cornell students, and collaborations are welcome. Submissions in the form of concept drawings and/or models are due Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. in the Bethe House Dean’s Office.

Winners will be announced and notified Dec. 14. First prize is $250, and second prize is $100. Winners will lead a team during the spring semester to refine their concept and build the installation.

The jury for the competition includes professors Jack Elliott, design and environmental analysis; Elisabeth Meyer, art; Francis Moon, mechanical and aerospace engineering; John Zissovici, architecture; Bethe House Dean Porus Olpadwala and Assistant Dean Thomas Noel Jr.; and a representative from the Hans Bethe House council.

Information: Denise Shaw, 102 Hans Bethe House; call 607-255-7212 or e-mail with “Hans Bethe House Competition” in the subject line.

- Daniel Aloi

Last Friday, Oct. 30, Risley’s Great Hall was overtaken by a hoard of skeletons. But there’s no reason to fear the apocalypse – it was only Dia de los Muertos. In collaboration with MEChA de Cornell, and featuring performances by Ballet Folklórico de Cornell, Risley Dining brought back the age-old tradition of Day of the Dead, complete with traditional food, music and face painting.

The Day of the Dead is chiefly a Mexican holiday, with roots dating back to Aztec custom. It is typically celebrated Nov. 1, coinciding with the Catholic holiday of All Saints’ Day. Similar to other holidays at this time of the year, like Samhain and Halloween, it is believed that on this day it is easier for dead souls to visit the land of the living. Families gather to pray and remember those who have passed on in the previous year and to honor their deceased relatives. Often families will build alters in hopes that the souls of their loved ones will visit.

Risley focused on the Mexican tradition, complete with customary comidas (foods) and pasteles (desserts) and decorated the dining hall with sugar skulls. But this kind of tradition is actually celebrated much more widely than was once thought – in many Latin American countries, and even as far away as the Czech Republic and the Philippines.

– Jennifer Wholey

Check out what could be the cars of the future Monday, Oct. 19, 1-4 p.m. in Baum Atrium, Duffield Hall.

Representatives from General Motors, Toyota and Mercedes Benz will be visiting campus to showcase prototypes of hydrogen fuel-cell cars.

The event is hosted jointly by the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute and New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR).

The public is invited to view the cars, go for test rides and examine posters and other materials related to fuel-cell technology.

- Anne Ju

Celebrated food writer, culinary consultant and gastronomy guru Irena Chalmers kicked off a series of presentations on nontraditional food jobs Sept. 21 in Statler Hall’s Beck Center. More than 80 students and faculty from the School of Hotel Administration, the Dining Club and other food-focused programs on campus gathered to hear Chalmers’ insights on up-and-coming career paths in the food industry.

Using her most recent book, “Food Jobs: 150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers” as a foundation, Chalmers encouraged students to think creatively about job opportunities and widen their professional expectations. The presentation was followed by a reception.

Other events in the series, presented by the Cornell School of Hotel Administration/Culinary Institute of America Alliance, include presentations from Mike Washburn, executive chef at Wegmans; Taylor Cocalis, director of education at Murray’s Cheese; and Cheryl Stanley, sommelier and former beverage operations manager at Four Seasons.

- Ashlee Mills

NPR’s “Science Friday,” with host Ira Flatow, will broadcast live from Cornell’s Bailey Hall Friday, Oct. 9, from 2 to 4 p.m. The event is presented by WEOS-FM.

Free tickets, limited to two per person, are available at the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Desk and Ticket Center Ithaca on the Commons; printable online tickets are available at BaileyTickets.com.

Note that parking is limited on campus; carpooling or taking the bus is encouraged. Campus parking permits are $10. For special parking needs, call 255-4600.

When alumni of the Sigma Phi Society’s Epsilon Chapter gathered Sept. 10-13 to celebrate the restoration of their 75-year-old West Campus home at 1 Forest Park Lane, they also paid formal tribute to Ezra Cornell with a plaque marking the site of the university founder’s original homestead.

The fraternity house is thought to sit on a piece of the land that Ezra Cornell called home – and that he ultimately gave to establish the university almost 150 years ago. A stone wall behind the fraternity’s basement social room, which contains a “blocker tie ring” for tying horses or cattle, is believed to be from Cornell’s original barn.

Cornell’s great-great-great-grandson Ezra Cornell ’70 wrote a letter to the fraternity members expressing his appreciation for the gesture.

“Until this weekend there were only two obvious places on campus that paid formal tribute to the Founder: the statue on the Arts Quad and the crypt at Sage Chapel. Your plaque on the entry to 1 Forest Park Lane identifies the Founder and the historic site from which the first truly American University was born,” Cornell wrote.

“What was originally created, and what we work hard to sustain, is a university based on the fundamentals of liberty. … I think it is historically significant that the Epsilon was located over the lands where the Founder labored, and that for 75 years the society has labored on the very same spot and played an increasing role in strengthening what is great about the University.”

During the reunion the fraternity also presented 13 newly designed and updated banners to Cornell, including one representing Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The banners hang in Willard Straight Hall’s Memorial Room.

- Lauren Gold

Want to grow organic produce and learn about organic farming, but don’t have the knowledge, land or resources? The Dilmun Hill Student Organic Farm” may be perfect for you. The farm is hosting its Field Day Thursday, September 3 from 5-7:30 p.m., where you can learn about volunteering at the farm and participate in several farm-themed activities, from veggie trivia to mushroom log inoculation.

Dilmun Hill is located on Route 366 east of the intersection with Pine Tree Road. The event is free and open, and snacks are provided.

If you can’t make it to the Field Day but still want to test your green thumb, the farm is always looking for volunteers to help with weeding, harvesting and planting, depending on the season. Work parties are Mondays from 5-7 p.m. and Thursdays from 4-7 p.m. You don’t have to be a student to volunteer, nor do you have to know anything about gardening. Best of all, volunteers get to take home free veggies.

And if you’re looking to buy local, organic produce but don’t want to leave campus, check out the Dilmun Hill farm stand every Tuesday from 3-6 p.m. on the Ag Quad in front of Mann Library and every Friday (starting Sept. 11) from 2-6 p.m. on Ho Plaza. E-mail for more information.

-Sarah Purdue

It was with “sincere regret” that College of Engineering officials reported the loss of a favorite tree on the Engineering Quad: the beautiful European beech tree that pedestrians face when entering the quad from the stairs between Hollister and Bard (south of Carpenter Hall).

Noticing its distress, Cornell’s landscape manager Pete Salino consulted with Shawn Kenaley, who is a visiting scholar working with plant pathology professor George Hudler, studying the role of Phytophthora spp. in European beech decline and diseases of willows.

Kenaley confirmed there were bleeding cankers throughout the canopy and that canopy dieback was nearly 80 percent. Based on those findings, he recommended that the tree be removed. That took place Aug. 11. Kenaley was on hand to collect tissue samples for additional research.

– Anne Ju

Students arriving back on campus will probably notice the long-awaited Physical Sciences Building rapidly take shape in the space between Rockefeller Hall and Baker Lab. A towering yellow crane continues to keep watch over the construction site, once a hole in the ground, and now the recognizable shell of a building that will eventually connect Clark Hall and Baker Lab.

The 197,000-square-foot building will be home to three departments — chemistry and chemical biology, physics, and applied and engineering physics. It will encourage interdisciplinary research in such areas as nanoscale science, X-ray and accelerator physics, chemical biology and biological physics, enhancing the collaboration that is the hallmark of Cornell physical sciences.

Some highlights of the facility, designed by Koetter Kim and Associates and Burt, Hill Architects and Engineers, include unique low-vibration labs and several beautiful gathering spaces for scheduled and impromptu meetings. Spectacular views of Cayuga Lake and the campus will be seen from the upper levels. Project managers expect a Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) “gold” certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Nearly a decade in the making, the building is on tap for completion in fall of 2010. The first few faculty members should be moving into their new offices next summer, with substantial completion of the full building scheduled for around Christmas.

- Anne Ju

Three Cornellians were researching the papers of late faculty member James G. Needham and the centennial of limnology (the study of freshwater bodies) at Cornell when they stumbled upon an original letter by Charles Darwin in the library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

A transcription of the notoriously difficult handwriting reveals observations about pigs’ ears and nursing babies, and Darwin’s admission that he was the sensitive boy in the hunting anecdote in his book “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.”

Starting in June, an enlargement of the letter will be displayed in the Mann Library exhibit “Written on Our Faces: Darwin’s ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.’”

“In a remarkable coincidence, I had already planned to do the Darwin exhibit when we found the letter,” Mann Library curator Liz Brown said.