The Essentials

Starting today, you can vote for the image you think best represents Cornell. Go to the College of Arts and Sciences’ Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter to participate in “battles” as photos move through brackets in four categories: events, buildings, icons and nature.

Inspired by science journalist Michael Pollan’s description of rare, odd apples from the Noah’s Ark of apples in his book “The Botany of Desire,“ artist Jessica Rath twice visited Cornell’s Plant Genetics Resource Unit in Geneva, N.Y.

Writes The Atlantic: “… America’s apple archivist, Philip Forsline, has assembled and tended a vast Noah’s Ark of more than 2,500 apple varieties: two clones of each, in order to preserve the fruit’s genetic biodiversity. Meanwhile, on the same Cornell/USDA Agricultural Experiment Station, Susan Brown, one of the country’s three commercial apple breeders, develops new clones by cultivating wildly different seed sisters.”

Rath went on to create nine sculptures based on PGRU apple varieties, such as the cluster above, made of high-fire glazed porcelain and bronze. Her exhibition “take me to the apple breeder” is on display at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

And it’s given an infographic treatment by Big Red Love Stories.

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies announced Jan. 30 three winners and 11 honorable mentions in its annual photo contest. Graduate students studying or conducting research abroad submitted 37 photos; all photos are exhibited in the Big Red Barn in February and will be featured on the Einaudi Center website.

First prize: Development sociology student Kasia Paprocki’s “On the Char.” She took the photo in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, where she conducted research with landless people.

Second place: Comparative literature student Kavita Singh’s “A Slaver’s Shipwreck,” featuring a triangle of somber statues facing the sea in L’Anse Caffard, Diamant, Martinique.

Third prize: regional planning student Angela Previdelli’s “The Unit.” The image was taken in Valparaiso, Chile, of a women’s military unit.

Beginning in early 2013, Cornell University Police will begin wearing new uniforms, the first significant change in their official attire in 42 years.

The new look replaces the current nickel-gray shirt with a black uniform shirt with ventilated side panels. The shirt complements the multi-pocket black cargo pants the department switched to in 2010.

“The decision to change our uniforms came when our suppliers advised us they were phasing out our current uniform,” said Chief Kathy Zoner. “We also learned that our officers were in favor of a new look, and wanted to find a material that would provide them comfort and meet the seasonal extremes experienced in Ithaca.”

Physics graduate student Jesse Silverberg blogged in the Huffington Post about his research on the helical buckling of plant roots.

Energy Outreach Coordinator Erin Moore shows off one of the Human Ecology Building‘s energy usage dashboards during a trustee dinner Oct. 25. The dashboards give researchers, students and others a trove of information to analyze the LEED Platinum building’s efficiency or to launch energy conservation competitions.

Cornell DMV candidate Gabby Wild, aka Gabby Wagner ’11, species preservationist and fashionista, posed for a series of photos in which she is made up to suggest various amphibians (half of amphibian species are at risk of extinction). Read previous Essentials posts about Wild here and here.

Fiber Science & Apparel Design student Grace Choi ’14 competed in the Domino Sugar All American Classic Edible Fashion Runway Competition Oct. 6 at Ithaca Mall. Four undergraduate fashion students were each paired with a pastry chef to create a garment using only sweet supplies like sugar and fondant. Choi and baker Kim Simons designed a dress inspired by abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. They took second place at the event, which raised funds to fight domestic violence.

- Dani Corona ’15