"My castles in the air were now reared more loftily and broadly; for they began to include laboratories, museums, and even galleries of art."
A. D. White, first President of Cornell University
The creativity of Cornell's students and faculty is limitless. To allow flexibility, research at Cornell is organized by fields, based on convergent interests, irrespective of primary department or college. Even more broadly, the university has defined several areas of excellence that draw from and contribute to every aspect of the university: Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Sustainability, Humanities, Ithaca - Weill Cornell Initiatives, International Programs, Law and Technology, and Information Science.
Cornell is home to both a particle accelerator and a distinguished art museum; here, animal health gets equal time with human health, nutrition, and society; research into fundamentally new technologies marches hand in hand with studies in ethics and social change; and students learn to be of service in the local community as well as in the world community.
Social Sciences
Visit Social Sciences
What will reduce inequality? How is technology changing society? What can evolutionary biology contribute, and not contribute, to our understanding of society? The myriad uncertainties around such questions are discussed frequently at Cornell, informally as well as in seminars and lecture series.
Life Sciences
Visit Life Sciences
Biology and other life sciences develop deep and fundamental insights into nature, the environment, and ourselves. These insights can affect how we build computers, develop medicines, and raise our children. At Cornell, students learn how biology relates to technology, ethics, the environment, and society in general.
Sustainability
Visit Sustainability
How is Cornell becoming a world-class learning laboratory for sustainability? How do our traditions of academic excellence, stewardship, and service support these initiatives? The efforts of four full-time staff alongside thousands of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community partners guide an emerging culture of sustainability. What piece of the puzzle do you hold?
Humanities
Visit Humanities
What are truth and beauty? That could be a question for the Physics Department’s next poet-in-residence. While natural scientists excel at securing new knowledge, and engineers at implementing it in ever more sophisticated ways, it’s the humanists’ job to put that knowledge in context, often leading to fundamentally original insights.
Ithaca - Weill Cornell Initiatives
Visit Ithaca - Weill Cornell Initiatives
The Ithaca and Weill Cornell Medical College campuses are actively engaged in research that brings together faculty from across the university to further our knowledge and solve our most pressing life sciences and biomedical problems. If you are looking for specific expertise that may be on the other campus or are seeking to "brainstorm" ideas needing collaboration, our innovative"matchmaking" service can help you.
International Programs
Visit the International Gateway
Cornell’s international offerings represent every geographic area of the world as well as transnational themes such as gender, politics, and earth’s climate. Joint programs with universities around the world include city planning, economic and agricultural development, comparative nutrition, international law, and business, among others.
Law and Technology
Visit Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative
The Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative brings together faculty and students from several disciplines and the legal informatics professionals at LII. We consult with government agencies on, and engage in theoretical and applied research about, the technology and practice of e-rulemaking and related areas of e-government.
Information Science
Visit Information Science
Computing and information science is changing what it means to know things in every discipline, expanding on what is known and giving form to what can be imagined. Historians could “visit” ancient Eqypt, if they wish to, although an audience with Cleopatra herself might require further breakthroughs.