Dear SIPS community,

One of my favorite things about August is the opportunity to enjoy amazing fresh local produce, and the sweet corn this year has been wonderful. Hope you have the chance to enjoy some as well.

Indoor masking: As you have all seen, in the provost’s July 31 email, “When indoors, all faculty, staff, students and visitors – regardless of vaccination status – must remain masked, unless in a private, non-shared space”. We appreciate that people have many questions and we will share additional guidelines from Cornell and CALS as soon as we become aware of them. You are also encouraged to attend the Fall Semester Planning Town Hall on August 11, 12:00 – 1:00 pm. Zoom link. Submit questions.

Congratulations!

• Alejandra Gandolfo Nixon was selected to deliver the Donald Kaplan Memorial Lecture during the Botany 2021 conference, held in July
• Adrienne Roeder received the Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Biology

SIPS Diversity & Inclusion:

The SIPS Diversity and Inclusion Council is organizing another “Connecting in SIPS” event, August 25th at 3:30PM.  We will continue discussions to improve the support we give each other, this time taking inspiration from the work of Beronda Montgomery in “Lessons from Plants”. In preparation, listen to a podcast. Or better, buy the book!

Cindy Twardokus (ct259@cornell.edu) will have 20 copies of the book available on a first-come-first-served basis. Register for the event. Location TBA and adhering to Cornell COVID guidelines

Congratulations to the following people who were recognized with a SIPS Kudos in the last month! Thanks for your effort and passion in support of SIPS.

• Going Above and Beyond: Adam Nariz Sharifi, EVADE summer technical team (Sean Murphy, Kellie Damann, Audrey Klein, Leigh Carmignani, Jessica Burry, Nicolette Nault, Abby Erwin), Matthew Christiansen, Nicholas Kaczmar
• Strong Team Spirit: Tara Reed, Catalina Enright, Michele Blackmore, Rose Harmon

PLEASE remember to recognize people in our SIPS community that have gone out of their way to enhance our School. All you have to do is complete the brief form here

Take care,

Chris