Eight Scientists Named 2025 Schmidt Polymaths to Pursue Research in New Disciplines
, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Solomon will explore problems in acoustics, climate, and other fields that require digital simulation of physical phenomena. Nozomi Ando, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University. Dr. Ando will explore the co-evolution of life and the planet by combining geology, evolutionary biology, and biochemistry.Polly Fordyce, Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Genetics and Institute, Scholar of ChEM-H, Stanford University. Dr. Fordyce will work toward enabling crowd-sourced
Naturally Quiet
Arctic whales use ice sounds for navigation or they can make sounds that are reflected off the ice for echolocation. “There are subtle differences in the acoustic environments of multi-year ice, young ice and open water, as well as myriad combinations of these conditions,” according to Cornell University professor Christopher W. Clark. “All Arctic whales, even adult bowheads, can get trapped or die in ice, so there is clearly a selective advantage for specialized attributes that enable marine mammal to sense such threats. A naturally occurring ocean soundscape is essential for these mammals
Too Much Information
for us about climate change, and this week, Schmidt Sciences announced it will award up to $12 million to 25 scholars working at the forefront of its growing abilities. The aim is to help realize the potential benefits to humanity that AI can bring.Carla Gomes, information science professor at Cornell University, is one of the researchers to win funding. Gomes is researching current AI limitations for scientific discovery and decision-making by combining symbolic reasoning, deep learning and optimization for high-dimensional reasoning.Yejin Choi, incoming professor and senior fellow, Stanford University
Schmidt Sciences Fosters AI Research
senior fellow, Stanford University, develops algorithms, benchmarks and metrics for AI to reflect multiple human value systems and preferences, suitable for a pluralistic world.● Carla Gomes, computing and information science professor, director of the Institute for Computational Sustainability, Cornell University, addresses current AI/ML limitations for scientific discovery and decision-making by combining symbolic reasoning, deep learning and optimization into a unified system for high-dimensional reasoning.● Roger Grosse, computer science associate professor and founding member of the Vector Institute
Study Sheds New Light on Ancient Shipwreck off Cyprus
timbers, almonds from its cargo, and a gaming piece called an astragalus made from animal bone and used like dice, they concluded that the ship went down around 280 BC. That is a bit later than prior scientific dating estimates but a better match for the archeological evidence.Sturt Manning, a Cornell University professor of classical archaeology, called the Kyrenia vessel an "iconic ship from the early Hellenistic period, central to the history of ancient maritime technology."The ship, about 46 feet (14 meters) long, was built of wood with lead sheathing, with one mast bearing a square sail
Teledyne Webb Research Hires Quinn, Goodrich
, Engineering Project Manager. His work experience at Lockheed includes a variety of unmanned and remotely operated vehicle projects. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at Villanova University and a Masters of Engineering in Systems Engineering and Project Management from Cornell University.Goodrich is tasked with providing customer support and training for users, creating and updating user documentation, piloting TWR gliders, and assisting in final test of new vehicles and beta testing of new Slocum hardware and software.Goodrich joins us from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
Greensea Expands, Again
for Teledyne Webb Research. Partnering with James on the hull robotics team is Sam Fladung. Sam has over a decade of experience as a robotics engineer. Prior to Greensea, he worked at Teledyne Marine where he was instrumental in advancing their glider program. Sam is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. “We’re happy to have another Cornell grad join our team,” said Shay Osler, Cornell graduate and Engineering Manager, Greensea. “With Sam’s education and experience, he has ramped up quickly and is an important
NOAA-Viking Public Private Partnership, a Win-win for Research
has partnered with the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, whose scientists will undertake fieldwork on board. Beyond the cruise partnership opportunities, Viking has also endowed a professorship at the Institute and is helping to fund graduate studies. Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology is a partner. And, so is NOAA - the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.For maritime research, Viking’s new offerings are striking. Ditto for people who track cruise industry developments. In past years, industry officials have
Study: Sunflower Sea Star Population in Peril
The combination of ocean warming and an infectious wasting disease has devastated populations of large sunflower sea stars once abundant along the West Coast of North America, according to research by Cornell University and the University of California, Davis, in Science Advances.“At one time plentiful in nearshore waters, the sunflower sea stars right now cannot be found off the California coast and are rare into Alaska,” said Drew Harvell, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, a co-lead author. “Numbers of the sea stars have stayed so low in the past three years
August 2025
