cornell-university-alumni

"The development of any department of science is closely connected with its power of interesting men."

"As our race has advanced in civilization, owing its progress to a more and more rigid division of labor, with the attendant and ever increasing specialization by which each piece of the great machine does its work more perfectly, yet more and more completely loses its direct touch with all but a few of the other parts, most men have lost much of what was at first common to all; and this, perhaps, quite as true as of a knowledge of plants as of anything else."

"There is substantial evidence, over a wide attitudinal and experimental range, that perceptions, opinions and values are systematically ordered in modern societies....Modern society...is more or less unique in the extent to which it produces standardized contexts of experience."

"Man is a symbol-forming organism. He has constant need of a meaningful inner formulation of self and world in which his own actions, and even his impulses, have some kind of "fit" with the "outside" as he perceives it."

"Although science is no doubt the Jehovah of the modern world, there is considerable doubt about the glory of its handiwork."

"... the only way to become a connoisseur of honey is to keep s, for thus only may one learn to discriminate between honey made from and that gathered from ; or to distinguish, at first taste, the product of in bloom from that drawn from vagrant blossoms, which, changing day by day, mark the season's processional."

"Few have heard of Fra Luca Pacioli, the inventor of double-entry book-keeping; but he has probably had much more influence on human life than has Dante or Michelangelo."

"It has become too easy to see that the luckless men of the past lived by mistakes, even absurd beliefs, so we may well fail in a decent respect for them, and forget that historians of the future will point out that we too lived by myths."

"Men of science, men given to "realism," are likely to make a clean sweep of old interests and sentiments as so much rubbish. They regard religion as superstition, metaphysics as moonshine, art as primitive pastime, and all ritual as monkey-business; they apparently assume that because the traditional answers to old needs have been discredited, the needs themselves have vanished."

"It is fitting that her [Ancient Egypt's] most enduring works remain the pyramids. They are monuments to the majesty of her ideal, and to its basic absurdity; to the promise of her beginnings, and to its curse."

"Perhaps half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect the truth and to express it. aids both in discernment and in expression of things as they are."

"A real is never contented with maps of places and pictures of things, but always desires to see the places and things themselves."

"When Anna Botsford Comstock 1885 died in summer 1930 at the age of seventy-five, the pioneering naturalist left behind not only an ailing husband—famed entomologist , who was severely debilitated by a series of strokes and would pass away just half a year later—but a 760-page manuscript chronicling their decades of marriage, travel, teaching, and scientific study. It would be nearly a quarter-century until that memoir reached a wide readership, in the form of a book compiled by , Anna’s second cousin and the couple’s closest living relative. Published in 1953 by a division of , The Comstocks of Cornell was in fact just part of Anna’s original manuscript. It had been heavily edited by Herrick, also a professor of entomology on the Hill—not only to de-emphasize events and characters he considered irrelevant, but to streamline the language, remove any hint of controversy, and shift the focus toward John Henry’s august accomplishments, including his role as founder of Cornell’s entomology department."

"It is open to question whether men today, despite the enormous increase in their knowledge, wealth, and power, can yet endure a universe that leaves them alone, or can manage to live in freedom."

"To say...that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer."

"In Maine the s deposit their over-wintering eggs on the common garden foxglove (' L.). Egg-laying in this locality begins late in September and extends through October the time varying somewhat with different weather conditions. The eggs hatch in the spring and the aphids of the first generation, wingless forms called "stem-mothers", seek shelter between the folded parts of the growing leaves. The stem-mothers are slow in their development and are about a month in attaining full growth. On reaching maturity they do not lay eggs but produce their young viviparously."

"White masses looking like patches thick mold often occur on , especially about pruning wounds or other scars the trunk and branches and upon s. Beneath this substance are colonies of rusty colored or purplish brown plantlice known as "wooly aphids" on account of the appearance of white covering which is, however, really composed of waxen filaments. The species is common in Maine on , , and and some other ."

"Only two species of s of world-wide distribution are at present known which commonly attack the in numbers sufficient to cause serious injury directly due to their feeding operations. These are are the "potato aphid" (' ) and the "green peach aphid" or "spinach aphid" (' ). A third species, apparently also of world-wide distribution, is often present on the potato, frequenting especially the underside of the lower leaves. This is the "buckthorn aphid" (' Patch); which may, under certain conditions, sometimes cause infestations of a serious nature. All three of these species have been proved to be capable of spreading certain s under experimental conditions; and there can be no logical doubt that they function in the same way in the field. Wherever potatoes are grown for seed purposes these three species of aphids may need to be reckoned with."

"... the experience of is well worth relating. While engaged in constructing an electric-light apparatus, he noticed that one of the lamps gave out a constant musical note. One evening he discovered everything near the box below this light was covered with mosquitoes, all males, notwithstanding the fact that the females preponderated in numbers in the vicinity. He found that when the lamps were set in action all male mosquitoes at once faced in the direction of the lamp which gave forth the musical note, and flew straight at it. The buzz of the lamp was practically identical in tone with that of the female mosquito."

"In 1833 discussed at length the etiological relation of mosquitoes to malaria. Michel in 1847 described the ovoid bodies and the pigment, as did also Prof. J. Jones a few years years later. In 1848 Dr. J. E. Nott published his opinions that the mosquitoes transmit this disease. , a French physician, in 1880 finally and conclusively proved the cause of malaria to be the parasite."

"It seems that, in the river districts of Alaska, when the ice breaks up and melts in the spring, the hunting of game over the soggy ground and through the melting snow is impossible, while the ice-cakes in the flooded rivers effectually prohibit any fishing. At about this time, the stock of food laid in for the winter by the Indians has run low, and matters would sometimes be rather serious for the tribes did not the mosquitoes fly to the rescue. At this season these insects appear in countless hordes, clouds upon close, all ravenous for their first spring meal. Falling upon the deer and even the bears, they so torment the poor animals that they rush to the rivers to rid themselves of the blood-thirsty energy; thus falling an easy prey to the watching Indians. At times the eyes of the bears, which are by far the easiest points of attack for the mosquitoes, are so swollen that bruin can no longer see, and thus starves or is captured by some hungry hunter, four-footed or otherwise."

"Speaking of their preferring to sit on dark wood, records that appears to be attracted to black clothing rather than to gray or light brown. We have noticed this also with other species. Pearse says that mosquitoes much prefer dark blue and violet to yellow and red."

"In the beds of all our larger lakes and streams there exists a vast animal population, dependent, directly of indirectly, upon the rich organic food substances that are bestowed by gravity upon the bottom. Many fishes wander about over the bottom foraging. Many , heavily armored and slow, go pushing their way and leaving tralis through the bottom sand and sediment. And many smaller animals burrow, some by digging their way like moles, as do the and of gomphine dragonflies; some by "worming" their way through the soil, as do the larvae of and many . Among the burrowers none are more abundant or more important than the young of the mayflies. Indeed, there are hardly any aquatic organisms of greater , for they are among the principal herbivores of the waters, and they are all choice food for fishes. How abundant there are in all our large lakes and streams is well attested by the vast hordes of adults that appear in the air at the times of their annual swarming. They issue from the water mainly at night."

"s and frogs and s, scurrying to cover as we approach the shore of a still clear pond, show us that the water has some very lively inhabitants. They swim and dive and paddle in the open until we come, and then they hide from us distrustfully. Theirs is another world than ours. In that world there are strange living creatures in endless variety. ... No one who has lived by clear waters can have failed to see something of their wonderful life: minnows on the shoals; s dragging their cumbersome portable houses over the brook bed ; the clinging to the stones in the riffle, or the adult in their dancing nuptial flight in the air above the stream; and what could be more interesting? To make the knowledge of the whole range of life in ponds and streams a little more easy of access ... is a public service of no small moment. It is all in the interest of a better human environment; better for health, for , for instruction, and for aesthetic pleasures."

"s have contested for possession of the waters much as the have contended for supremacy on land, until it may be said that the dominant forage crop of our lakes, ponds, and s is to be found among the pondweeds, the s. Variety in form, adaptability to , and diversity in range have all contributed their share in giving prominence in this group and in furthering a natural resource whose propagation and control are vital factors in the economic relations of the life of inland waters."

"Collections of fish were made at weekly intervals and, if not examined at once in their fresh condition, were kept in an - preserving fluid until needed. In examining the food the method of (1918) was employed, that is, the food content of the digestive tract was pressed out upon a , moistened, and examined under the dissecting and compound microscopes."

"s are most likely to be seen about about old logs and stumps that are red with decay and crumbling, though an old rail fence or a stone wall is often their last resort. It is no accident that we find them oftenest about old stumps; the rusty red of their fur matches the color of the rotten wood, and they escape the notice of their many powerful enemies. Even the conspicuous stripes of black and white fall into place at lights and shadows, and tell no tales of their presence."

"See how the is adapted to . Its s stand erect with s curving inward. The trough-like pollen cavities of the anthers, opening upward, expose their stores to the insect standing on top. So great is the excess of production over actual needs that the little bee wastefully and unwittingly scatters over the is enough for setting the seed. This store of choice food the flower reserves for its proper visitor—chiefly for this little bee. Large bees would have great difficulty in collecting pollen from flowers that hang on such slender stalks. Wingless insects, like ants, which, if gathering pollen, could run only from flower to flower upon the same plant, and which would thus be poor agents in , are rigidly excluded. Should they be able to run out along the slender flower stalk, and round the fringed border of the and get inside, they would still find between themselves and the pollen overhead a barrier of glandular hairs bearing an acrid and offensive secretion which they would choose to avoid contact."

"Among Professor Needham’s most distinguished research is his work with the aquatic insects—the , , and . To the damsel flies and dragonflies particularly, he gave much of his time in study of the biology and classification. His outstanding work A Manual of the Dragonflies of North America, revised in 1954 with a former student, Dr. M. J. Westfall, as co-author, was published by the only a few years before his death. During his career Professor Needham published more than 250 scientific articles, educational papers, and textbooks. His writing was clear, concise, and interesting to read."

"... ', one of the largest of the , was produced in enormous quantity by natural means. The blue-green alga, , contributed directly to its support and proved to be the most desirable food of a heavy, natural culture of Daphnia pulex. The author's first observation of this association in the pond occurred on June 21, 1918. At this time a "bloom" of the Aphanizomenon was approaching it maximum. It was so abundant that the water appeared blue-green and oily. A few hand strokes of the net would bring up a of it in concentrated form."

"I had to be all things to all fishes."

"Receiving this recognition a year after earning my PhD and a year into my professional career is considerable motivation for me to continue my research and advocacy.”"

"I Chinasa T. Okolo is the Founder of Technēculturǎ and a former Fellow at Brookings. She recently graduated with a Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, where her research leveraged ethnographic methods to understand how frontline healthcare workers in rural India perceive and value AI and analyzed how AI explainability can meet the needs of novice technology users in the Global Majority. Her work has been published at top-tier venues in HCI and sociotechnical computing, including the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) CHI, CSCW, COMPASS, EAAMO, and FAccT conferences. Dr. Okolo has also been recognized as one of the world’s most influential people in AI by TIME Magazine, honored in the inaugural Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list, named one of the Most Influential Africans of 2024 by New African Magazine, a Trailblazer in Engineering, and one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™."

"A significant number of AI tools and systems that have been put into public deployment overstate their capabilities and simply don’t work. Many tasks people aim to use AI for could likely be solved through simpler algorithms or basic automation."

"I initially transitioned into AI because I saw how computational techniques could advance biomedical research and democratise access to healthcare for marginalised communities. During my last year of undergrad (at Pomona College), I began research with a human-computer interaction professor, which exposed me to the challenges of bias within AI.”"

"However, enabling people with the knowledge to understand the limitations of AI may help improve the responsible adoption and usage of these tools. Improving AI and data literacy within the general public will become fundamental as AI tools rapidly become integrated into society.”"

"I’m optimistic that AI could help fuel socioeconomic development that has been much needed in Africa for the last half-century, But I’m also concerned that this competition could limit the autonomy of African countries and perpetuate neo-colonial practices that have negatively impacted their economies.”"

"Even so, as the people who develop these systems, AI scientists and practitioners need to take responsibility for the uses to which AI capabilities are put. We should be clear about the limitations of the technology. Should we think – and talk – about negative or potential unintended consequences? Absolutely! Are these concerns reasons not to develop systems that are smart? Absolutely not."

"One of the things I want students to learn is the importance of designing artifacts for the people who will use them. A computer system should make us feel smarter, not dumber and work seamlessly with us, like a human partner. I tell students to look for limitations and cracks in a system and think about the unintended consequences of those limitations. If you’re only focused on what you’re building, you’re blind to what a system may do that you hadn’t thought about."

"The fear of AI systems running amok or taking over the world is greatly exaggerated. Some of the predictions are based on lack of understanding of the current state of AI (or even of what’s actually computable). Also, it’s important not to lose sight of who’s in charge: people design AI systems, and they can design any number of plugs to pull. If we design systems to work with people — which has always been my goal — then the probability of them running amok is greatly lowered."

"To clarify: I suggested that the way we use computers had changed so much, as had our knowledge of human cognition, that Turing himself might ask a different question now. My new question is rooted in our now knowing that collaboration is essential to intelligent behavior and seems to play a fundamental role in the ways infants learn. Can we design systems that behave so well that they pass for human? One big challenge, which my team is addressing in our research, is getting delegation to work well. Delegation of particular responsibilities to different team members is a hallmark of teamwork. To make teamwork work (or as we might say in computer science, to make it tractable), team members have to share information but not overwhelm each other with too much information. An enormous challenge for systems is to be able to determine what information to share with whom when."

"These systems are major accomplishments, but they don’t come close to human dialogue capabilities. When Siri first came out people said to me, ‘you have nothing left to do, right?’ So, I borrowed a phone with Siri and it took me two questions to break the system. I asked, “Where are the nearest gas stations,” and then I asked, “Which ones are open?” It replied, “Would you like me to search the web for ‘which ones are open?’” It had no context, no discourse. Siri has improved since then, but it’s still pretty easy to break the system with a question that depends on dialogue context. No current system is thinking to the extent Turing imagined computers might be by now."

"For example, I’m making dinner with Bobby and Susie. Susie is assigned appetizers, Bobby is assigned the main dish and I’m assigned dessert. I don’t ask Bobby how he is making the main course because if he has to tell me everything he’s doing, it’s a huge cognitive load. That said, it’s still crucial to know certain things, such as if we both need the same pan."

"If you’re going to build agents that interact with people, you have to think about people’s cognition and the ways they behave. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do cognitive modeling — although that is an interesting approach — but you do need to care about how people process information and communicate."

"Right. We’re working with a pediatrician at Stanford University Hospital whose patients have complex diseases, many of them seeing 10 to 15 doctors. The cognitive load for coordinating care among 15 people (turning the group into a real team) is enormous — no care giver needs to see everything everyone else is doing but they may need to know something about each other’s work. A key question is when one member of the team learns something new about a patient, who should get that information and when? Our goal is to build the foundations for smart computer care coordination systems to help. To do that, we need to figure how to effectively compute the information to be shared in the absence of detailed models of how people are carrying out their responsibilities. If we do this, we’ll also know how to build computer agents that are good teammates."

"When I was working on speech understanding systems at SRI in the 1970s, other research team members were responsible for syntax and grammar — determining the structure and building a computer representation of the meaning of an individual sentence. Everyone involved in early speech understanding systems knew that wasn’t enough. When people talk, the context matters. They use pronouns and definite descriptions. They depend on each other to interpret those imprecise expressions appropriately in context. For example, depending on the setting, “the cup” might mean my coffee cup or the cup you received as a gift. We knew that if we were going to have a system that could carry on a dialogue and be able to handle the way people actually spoke, we needed to have a computational model of dialogue that could track context. Many researchers thought if they sat in a chair and thought really hard, they could figure it out. I expected that wouldn’t work and devised a way to capture dialogue about the same topic from many different pairs of people. This was actually the first “Wizard of Oz” experiment in dialogue systems, though that name came later. I placed two people in separate rooms and had one give the other instructions in how to put together a piece of equipment — an air compressor. My analysis of the way they talked led to the first computational model of discourse."

"I wanted to be an entomologist since I was about 8 years old “I saw all the trees getting ruined by these caterpillars. My father used a chemical to kill them on a prized dogwood outside the kitchen window [but] it killed all the good bugs – lady beetles, lacewings, honeybees and so forth."

"That’s the whole story of my career, That's my passion, finding science-based products that work and that offer farmers and other customers a value proposition compared to chemical pesticides."

"A lot of professors from different schools said they didn't want to take women because women would just have children, and that would disrupt the Ph.D. Both at Cornell and at NC State, I had really good professors,“They were very supportive of me."

". “I had to be an entrepreneur because I want to solve problems and have practical applications,"