News: CEE

Qi Li with city skyline

CEE Assistant Professor Qi Li receives NSF Early CAREER Award

By: Cornell Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Qi Li, assistant professor, The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded a prestigious NSF Early CAREER award for her project titled, “Multi-Scalar Transport and Similarity in the Urban Boundary Layer.” According to their website, the NSF CAREER Award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Li is interested in physical dynamics of the lower atmosphere and hydrologic processes in the built environment. She develops and... Read more

Professor Samitha Samaranayake

Research on demand-responsive transit systems leads to NSF CAREER Award

By: Cornell Engineering

Samitha Samaranayake, an assistant professor in Cornell's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate field faculty member in Systems Engineering, the Center of Applied Mathematics and the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, has received an NSF CAREER Award for his work with demand-responsive transit systems. Read more

In toxic microbial warfare, study finds strength in numbers

A new Cornell-led study battled strains of yeast manipulated to release different toxins at tunable and controlled rates, finding that the strain with the stronger toxin can only defeat another if its initial invading population exceeds a critical frequency or size. Read more

Cayuga Lake

A closeup view of Cayuga Lakes HABs: Citizen scientists pilot test use of inexpensive microscopes for rapid on-site HABs screening

By: Associate Professor Ruth Richardson, Cornell students: Valerie Aubley, Illana Hill, Lydia LaGorga, published in "Cayuga Lake Watershed Network News"

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been on the rise in New York State, and Cayuga Lake experienced more blooms than any other NY waterbody in 2020. In fact, 10% of the HABs reported to the NYS DEC statewide in 2020 (94 out of 930) were from Cayuga Lake. Algalblooms are triggered by the presence of excessive nutrients like phosphorus, which spur the growth of the naturally occurring microbe cyanobacteria that congregate into colonies, creating the appearance of “pea soup” at the surface of the water. However, not all algal blooms are classified as HABs: only some types of cyanobacteria produce... Read more