New scholarship on the Cold War in Thailand highlights vernacular agency. Not mere puppets of superpowers, Thai leaders initiated change in their society that did not always align with U.S. interests. A focus on local agency does not let the U.S. off the hook but circumscribes the authority of the superpower by showing how locals redirected it in ways that buttressed particular political factions, cultural hierarchies, and economic policies over others. Our project examines several Thai intellectuals whose writings shaped international, regional, and domestic agendas between the 1950s and 1970s. We focus on the works of royalist anti-communist Prime Minister M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, diplomat Prince Wan Waithayakon, radical Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikku, and Thailand’s foremost cultural intellectual, Phraya Anuman Rajadhon. These men and their philosophies expanded Thailand’s intellectual, political, and cultural space in ways that complicated their country’s alliance with the U.S. and enabled underground ties with the PRC.

The cement industry contributes 7-8% of global CO2 emissions, producing nearly 0.9 ton of CO2 per ton of cement. As demand increases, the need to reduce emissions through sustainable materials becomes crucial. This study focuses on an innovative approach by incorporating biochar (BC) and Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) into cement composites to enhance CO2 sequestration. BC, with its high surface area and porosity, can adsorb and store CO2, while MOFs, known for superior CO2 capture, further improve sequestration. The method replaces up to 20% of cement with bamboo waste and chopped wood biochar, using both CO2-saturated and unsaturated forms. MOFs will be added at 0.1%-5% dosages to enhance CO2 sequestration. The composites will undergo exposure in carbonation chambers, followed by CO2 absorption testing, TOC analysis, and mechanical property assessments. This approach provides a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable solution to reduce the cement industry's carbon footprint, supporting long-term reduction in CO2 consumption.

Although the menopause is a natural life event for all women, many women experience negative physical and mental health symptoms at this time. Physical activity can help reduce these symptoms and provide many other health benefits as women move into older adulthood. Unfortunately, less than 25% of women in this life stage are sufficiently physically active. Healthcare professionals are well-placed to promote physical activity to women during the menopause, but this is rarely done. The aim of this proposal is to bring together complementary expertise on physical activity research during the menopause (Edinburgh: Niven, Fitzsimons) and clinical and psychiatric expertise in women’s midlife mental health (Cornell: Wilkins) to better understand how to promote physical activity for mental health in healthcare settings. The project will include a series of meetings with the applicants and their wider networks in both Cornell and Edinburgh and the development of a preliminary data collection tool.

What percentage of the population is lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer? For whom might this figure matter? And how is this data used and misused? Around the world, more censuses and surveys are asking about sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). While often well-intentioned (e.g., addressing health and socioeconomic disparities), these data practices assume demographic categories are fixed and measurable, creating challenges for the most marginalized LGBTQ individuals. Gender and sexuality scholars doctors Kevin Guyan and Jamie Budnick map the use (and misuse) of SOGI data in the UK and U.S. between 2020-25. The project convenes a Future of SOGI Data Forum, the first global gathering of policymakers, community groups, and academics engaged in SOGI data to learn from shared challenges and identify and mitigate “hidden harms” of collecting more data. The project will also publish an industry/policy brief, draft academic outputs, and establish the groundwork for future funding proposals.

This proposal is for a research partnership between the Department of Science & Technology Studies (S&TS) at Cornell and the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) subject area at Edinburgh. These are the longest-established centers for STS in the two countries. Despite this, there have not been major formal partnerships between the departments to date. This application aims to remedy this with specific projects of intersecting interest: “Innovative Bioscience and Farming for Sustainable Futures” (IB) and “Ethics of Information and Mechanisms” (EIM). Both have clear applied and public-interest dimensions. IB will contribute directly to addressing future-proof food production and environmental protection — major global challenge issues. EIM is increasingly acknowledged as a leading issue for governance and security worldwide.

Regional food systems that support environmentally friendly production methods provide a potential opportunity for increased resiliency and sustainability, yet few projects have allowed for the development of transdisciplinary methods for cross-country comparisons. We aim to fill this gap by co-developing methods to map regional agroecological grain networks in Scotland and Upstate New York and explore the social, environmental, health, and economic impacts of each network. This pilot project will facilitate the development of transdisciplinary methods by bringing together sociologists, economists, and health/nutrition researchers to map regional grain networks, a major staple food of both the UK and U.S. diet. Outputs will include a peer-reviewed paper comparing the two networks along with workshops to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between stakeholders in each network.

This proposal aims to address the critical challenge of balancing accurate forecasting and topology discovery in the energy grid with the imperative of user privacy. As decentralized energy resources proliferate and smart meters become commonplace, the complexity of energy management increases, necessitating detailed data for effective prediction. We propose a novel framework that leverages state-space models and particle filters to enhance forecasting accuracy while incorporating advanced privacy-preserving techniques, including differential privacy and federated learning. This integrated methodology will allow localized prediction capabilities on devices such as smart meters, ensuring that only aggregated data is shared, thus protecting sensitive user information. Our approach aims to foster trust among users and facilitate the transition to a more resilient and efficient energy grid, ultimately contributing to sustainable energy management in an increasingly decentralized landscape.

This project will support a workshop, public event, and follow-on collaboration and grant writing by the Cornell and Edinburgh team. “Recomputing the Planet” will be held in Edinburgh in May 2025 (to immediately precede the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) World Summit). It will bring together artists, scholars, designers, activists, and community members dedicated to imagining new and more sustainable computational infrastructures for more hopeful planetary futures. Bringing together PI strengths in participatory and speculative design, sustainability, redistributive computing and human-centered computing, it seeks to build new sociotechnical imaginaries that extend and improve the practice of planetary computing, including its key moments of sourcing and extraction, energy and water, and waste and repair. It will also support follow-on PI collaborations towards future gallery installations in the U.S., UK, and Europe, planetary computing teaching modules and public engagement, and pursuit of larger grant-supported collaborations in Europe and the U.S.

Cities consume significant amounts of energy and contribute substantially to global carbon emissions. However, they also have the potential to mitigate these impacts, as the built environment profoundly influences behaviors and decision-making related to energy use and consumption. Rapidly urbanizing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa face unique challenges, including the prevalence of informal settlements and an energy sector primarily driven by residential consumption, compounded by issues of energy justice. Despite this, these contexts remain largely understudied. This research aims to address this empirical gap while enhancing the theoretical understanding of the relationship between the built environment and energy consumption in African cities. Using Accra, Ghana, as a case study, we employ a mixed-methods approach that includes spatial analysis and a quantitative survey of households. Our expected outcomes are to deepen the understanding of energy consumption within the context of informal settlements and energy justice concerns, ultimately contributing to the development of more equitable and energy-efficient built environments.

Children born to HIV-infected mothers who are HIV-free (CHU) experience higher hospitalization and mortality rates than their unexposed peers. These children demonstrate delays in neurodevelopmental milestones. Such challenges adversely impact their educational performance and long-term income potential. As the CHU population grows, understanding the mechanisms underlying their compromised immunity and vulnerability to infections is crucial to improving their health and quality of life. This study aims to identify maternal and neonatal factors affecting the long-term maintenance of vaccine-induced immunity. We will recruit HIV-infected pregnant women in their third trimester and their unexposed infants post-delivery for a longitudinal study. We will determine maternal clinical status and the timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation on the effectiveness of passive antibody transfer. This pilot study will lay the groundwork for funding a well-characterized cohort of HIV+ mothers and uninfected infants to longitudinally examine the induction and maintenance of vaccine-induced immune responses comprehensively.

This project brings together Cornell Engineering students and Ghanaian students of English to collaboratively investigate the cultural and ethical issues emerging from the use of Generative AI (GenAI) tools in writing. Working virtually in teams, they will test various GenAI tools and explore whether these tools favor Western narratives, language, and values and how well they understand non-Western cultural contexts, such as Ghanaian traditions and idiomatic expressions. Students will also examine whether GenAI perpetuates harmful stereotypes about certain cultures or professions and how it addresses sensitive topics such as gender, identity, and race when viewed from different cultural perspectives. Together, they will co-author a proposal offering recommendations for addressing these issues and present it to a large group (both groups). Through this project, students will emerge with a well-rounded, interdisciplinary skill set, deeper cultural awareness, and a critical understanding of how GenAI and ethics intersect in both local and global contexts.

Ultrashort pulses of light, with durations measured in femtoseconds (a millionth of a billionth of a second), allow precision material processing by ablating material without thermal effects. The Cornell-Ghana team proposes to develop femtosecond-pulse lasers made of optical fiber that have the parameters required by the most effective approaches to material processing. Basic physics of nonlinear wave propagation must be understood to design such lasers. The lasers will find applications that range from precision cutting of hard materials such as metals to surgery.

Tropical cyclones bring extreme winds, rainfall, and storm surge to coastal areas, posing significant threats to infrastructure and human life. Climate change is expected to worsen these hazards, raising concerns for coastal communities like Hong Kong. However, local and regional projections of cyclone impacts are highly uncertain due to the rarity of these events, and the sensitivity to global warming patterns. This project aims to quantify the uncertainty in future cyclone hazard change by decomposing it into components owing to natural variability, spatial and global warming patterns, and model uncertainty. We will use a combination of climate model simulations and a tropical cyclone downscaling model to generate synthetic tropical cyclone events to estimate local atmospheric hazards. This work will be able to inform cost-benefit analyses for a variety of climate adaptation measures aimed at enhancing coastal resiliency, for which Hong Kong will serve as the first testbed.

This study explores how cultural and individual differences influence sustained engagement and emotion regulation in virtual retail environments within the Metaverse. By focusing on retail therapy and window shopping experiences, the project compares user behavior across the U.S. and Asia, examining differences in regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) and cognitive styles (holistic vs. analytic thinking). Virtual simulations will be designed to assess how these individual and cultural factors shape consumer interaction and emotional responses within retail spaces. By leveraging insights from consumer psychology and metaverse technology, this project aims to understand how virtual retail environments can be optimized for diverse cultural contexts, encouraging sustained use and positive emotional outcomes. The findings will contribute to the development of culturally adaptive Metaverse designs that enhance user experience and emotional well-being across different populations.

Power and transportation systems are fundamental infrastructures that contribute significantly to carbon emissions. This necessitates efforts to reduce carbon emissions across both sectors, such as promoting electric vehicles (EV) in transportation and enhancing renewable integration in power systems. Notably, these systems are deeply coupled, as the spatio-temporal charging patterns of EVs affect power grid operations, which further influences the overall carbon emissions. However, current carbon-reduction efforts typically address them in isolation. To bridge this gap, we propose this project to explore coordinated planning and operation of coupled transportation-power networks, aiming for joint carbon reduction. We will explore integrated planning for renewables and EV charging infrastructure and utilize EVs for grid balancing under high renewable penetration. Through real-world case studies in Hong Kong and New York, we will provide practical insights for achieving joint carbon reduction goals, demonstrating how synchronized improvements in both sectors can significantly enhance overall sustainability.

Breast cancer, particularly triple-negative breast cancer, presents significant challenges due to its high recurrence rates. Copper chelation therapy using tetrathiomolybdate (TM) offers a promising strategy to prevent metastatic relapse by depleting copper in the tumor microenvironment and inhibiting metastatic spread. Building on the expertise of Professor Mittal (Weill Cornell) and Dr. Imberti (King’s College London), this proposal aims to establish a new partnership between the two laboratories to study TM's effect on copper distribution in metastatic breast cancer models using radionuclide imaging techniques. The proposed research visit of experienced postdoctoral researcher Dr. Firth will be key to the new collaboration and enable transfer of expertise in murine metastatic models. The project will generate imaging-based biomarkers that could inform patient stratification and monitoring during copper depletion therapy. Data from this research will support future funding applications, advancing the use of PET imaging in copper depletion clinical trials.

This project builds on Quercia’s previous work at King’s, the "Atlas of AI Risks in Urban Computing," which used interactive tools to convey AI's risks and benefits to the public. The focus of the seed grant is to establish a partnership with Cornell Tech’s Urban Tech Hub. Building on the Urban Tech Hub’s horizon scan “The Future of Urban AI,” this partnership will pursue a focused exploration of critical issues such as accountability in AI-driven climate adaptation strategies and conflicts between privacy and environmental monitoring. Through an expert workshop, we will lay the groundwork for data collection and the future development of interactive tools to raise public awareness, inform policy, and ensure ethical AI implementation that supports sustainable, resilient, and just urban development.

Joining the increasing reflection that is taking place in public debate and academia on the ongoing impact of colonialism, this project investigates the practices, norms, and imaginaries of the global colonial past and present. Going beyond the Anglosphere, we aim to trace how various colonial realities that are located within specific local, regional, and imperial contexts overlap and connect to larger structures of oppression that may, however, still be internally heterogeneous and sometimes even contradictory. Bringing together a team of four scholars from King’s College London and Cornell University, the project will develop a broader theoretical framework of distinct but also overlapping trajectories and reverberations of colonial enterprises around the world. It will do so through connecting research that is taking place across a variety of empirical historical and contemporary sites, such as the Ottoman Empire, France, Finland, Tunisia, and Germany (to name only a few).

Can we still speak of “global health” in the post-Covid-19 world? This project examines how the pandemic exposed the limitations of "global" health and highlighted the resurgence of state medicine, particularly in India and South Africa. Through a two-day workshop at King’s College London, we will explore how pandemic responses in these localities were shaped by their particular bio-histories, including colonial medicine, anti-colonial struggle, and segregated social structures. The workshop will investigate: 1) whether pandemic governance in South Africa and India indeed marked a re-institution of state medicine; 2) the role digital health and surveillance tools played in this re-emergence and the concerns this raises about exclusionary practices and biopolitical control. Through a comparative analysis of India and South Africa as specific biopolitical locations, researchers from Cornell University, King’s College London, and beyond will work together to explore what remains of “global” health in the ruins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Machine listening — acoustic applications of machine learning — appears to be on the cusp of exponential advance. How might new possibilities of automating our most subtle and emotive sense be leveraged for creative, interpretive, and engaged research? How to listen with machines to support more diverse and situated ways of knowing environments? This collaboration will support the development and exchange of critical, creative, computational, and participatory research methods for socio-environmental listening. It will build on engaged forest soundscaping research at King's College London and sociopolitical listening projects at Cornell. The collaboration will convene an interdisciplinary research network of our respective researchers together with artists, technologists, and environmental groups, with a particular focus on how expressive coding, machine learning, and participatory research can be used to support polyphonous environmental understandings. The collaboration will support the development of a machine-listening research network for cross-institutional and community engagement.

This study is concerned with understanding how geopolitics and political economy have shaped and been shaped by successive waves of Chinese migration to Singapore. Most research focuses one-sidedly on domestic or international migration. But migration from China to Singapore — consisting of blue-collar workers, students, and economic elites — shows how domestic and international mobilities are entwined, with the politics and economics of China’s internal migration regimes reverberating across Asia and the world. Our study investigates three overarching questions: 1) How China’s economic rise, and more recent stagnation, has shaped Singapore's status as a major hub for diverse migrants from China; 2) How U.S.-China rivalry, and Singapore’s efforts to maintain neutrality, have influenced the contours and reception of migration in the city-state and beyond; and 3) How Singapore fits into Chinese migrants’ broader mobility patterns, as these exert political-economic effects across the region and the world.

This proposal aims to develop a new collaborative research agenda focusing on transport policy, specifically around electric vehicles. The research agenda seeks to analyze the range of electric vehicle policies developed by cities worldwide and their effectiveness in addressing climate change, air quality, and social equity. We intend to use quantitative and qualitative research methods to examine the impact of electric vehicle policies on vehicle ownership and usage. This is a new collaboration, and this project will seed our initial analyses with the goal of funding future research collaborations based on our research agenda.

This proposal aims to overcome the current limitations in characterizing the atomic-scale dynamics of high-entropy alloys (HEAs), which hold great potential for energy storage, catalysis, and other advanced applications. HEAs are composed of multiple elements in nearly equal proportions, leading to complex interactions that enhance their mechanical strength, wear resistance, and thermal stability. However, understanding their phase stability and sluggish diffusion remains a challenge due to the difficulty in tracking atomic movement. We propose a data-driven machine learning approach to virtually augment high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) with chemical data, enabling rapid, high-precision chemical mapping. Preliminary work shows success in simulated environments, and this project will extend the approach to real experimental data from HEA samples. This collaboration between experts in materials science and machine learning seeks to uncover the spatiotemporal mechanisms governing HEAs, guiding their rational design for energy-related applications.

The development of chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) has remained a great challenge because of the limited availability of chiral ligands, despite the potential applications in sustainable catalysis and chemical production, drug delivery, and complex separation processes. This proposal aims to explore novel chiral MOFs that exhibit extended pore sizes and diverse functionality. Structurally diverse chiral ligands will be synthesized using the new methodologies developed by NUS Co-PI. Novel MOFs will be prepared by conjoining the chiral ligands and metal ion clusters. The Cornell PI will characterize the resulting MOFs using X-ray diffraction, gas adsorption, and spectroscopic techniques to evaluate their structural integrity and chiral properties. Furthermore, we will explore the performance of these materials in practical applications, including chiral separation and asymmetric reactions, focusing on their efficiency and selectivity in processes that minimize waste and energy consumption.

The proposed study aims to evaluate the impact of environment on migratory birds along the East Asian — Australian Flyway (EAAF) in 2010–23. The environmental conditions at key stopover sites of migratory birds can play a key role in bird migration and population across borders. Most of the stopover sites in EAAF are located along the coastline of China, which has witnessed dramatic changes in environmental quality in recent years. Such environmental changes may include the protection or destruction of bird habitats, as well as air quality degradation and improvement over time and space. These variations due to local policy changes in mainland China are exogenous to birds observed elsewhere, including Taiwan and Australia. We will further compare migratory birds with non-migratory birds to document the causal impacts of environment on migratory birds. The findings will provide novel and important implications for scientific research and policy practice.

This project aims to investigate the rise of ethnic majoritarianism and its impact on democratic governance in South Asia, focusing on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Utilizing historical, legal, and anthropological perspectives, the research will identify key sources of majoritarian threats and evaluate strategies for resistance. The project’s outcomes include a workshop and an edited volume that will inform both academic and non-academic communities about the complexities of majoritarian politics and the potential for democratic resilience. By amplifying marginalized voices and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, the project seeks to advance scholarship on democracy in postcolonial contexts and contribute to global debates on resisting authoritarianism.

This project will explore how two machine learning paradigms — finite automata and neural networks — can improve and explain each other. It consists of two tracks. The first, led by QMUL, will use finite automata to understand compositionality and modularity in neural networks. Finite automata form a rich suite of classification problems that can be combined to form new problems. Using this feature, we will compare how a neural network solves a combination of two problems with how it solves the individual problems. This should reveal some mechanisms of modularity in neural networks, a key step towards explainable AI. The second track, led by Cornell, will use neural networks to improve the state-of-the-art algorithm for learning finite automata. This task has many industrial applications but faces a computational bottleneck consisting of generating certain counterexamples. We will use generative AI, i.e., specialist neural networks, to solve this problem.

Reversing climate change through sustainable fuels and CO2 conversion is a global imperative shared by faculty at both Cornell and Queen Mary. The proposed work will strengthen a nascent experimental collaboration between Dr. Volpe (QMUL) and Professor Goldfarb (Cornell), who share complimentary expertise in biomass pyrolysis. We will co-develop bio-based sustainable catalysts for CO2 conversion technologies. Bringing together biomass impregnation techniques developed separately by the two groups, our results will first illuminate the ill-understood mechanism of formation of Fe- carbides and oxides on biochar surfaces. By exploring the biochars’ catalytic activity, we will jointly deepen the fundamental understanding and practice in the synthesis of biochar-supported catalysts for the reduction of CO2 via the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction. This funding will strengthen the existing collaboration between the universities and groups and lead to joint publications and a larger collaborative research proposal.

Collaborative learning environments (CLE) are vital for aligning education with the demands of the modern world. In these settings, students work together in groups to achieve shared learning goals, fostering critical thinking, peer learning, and social skills. Yet, realizing the benefits of CLE can be challenging due to numerous obstacles faced by students and instructors. Thus, there is a pressing need for a tool that can effectively support students and instructors. This project will investigate students’ experiences working in CLE to identify barriers and develop targeted interventions that enhance student experience and graduate employability. Through focus groups and stakeholder interviews, the project will demonstrate how these interventions drive meaningful change. We will develop inclusive teaching toolkits, co-create student-staff support guides, and long-term international capacity building through QMUL-Cornel collaboration and invited expertise to improve student and instructor experiences, particularly for those facing intersectional disadvantages.

This project aims to foster deep collaboration between Cornell and QMUL through a large-scale, interdisciplinary research grant application for the UKRI-SBE Lead Agency Opportunity. Building on existing academic partnerships, the project will focus on organizing an in-person workshop at Cornell that will involve key faculty members from both institutions. The workshop will finalize the grant writing process for a collaborative research proposal aimed at securing external funding from UKRI and the National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (NSF/SBE). The proposed project will support travel expenses for additional QMUL faculty members to participate in this workshop. It will also provide funding for an external grant writing consultant, who will offer expert guidance on crafting a competitive proposal that meets the rigorous standards of UKRI and NSF funding bodies. This workshop is a critical step in finalizing a comprehensive and competitive grant application, allowing faculty to brainstorm, review drafts, and ensure alignment across institutions. The resulting proposal will address the consequences of fragmented governance for addressing social and health outcomes related to people experiencing homelessness with migrant status in the UK and U.S.

This project will enhance global capacity for monitoring companion animal coronaviruses through advanced sequencing technologies. Through this Cornell/Sydney collaboration, we will establish a Southern Hemisphere sequencing core at the Veterinary Pathology and Diagnostic Services Laboratory (VPDS) to complement Cornell’s existing sequencing core in the Northern Hemisphere. This project will facilitate the training of the Sydney team, led by Cornell experts, in next-generation sequencing techniques (Nanopore, with expansions to Illumina planned). This pilot will support the detection and management of feline coronavirus infections, including those causing feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), with potential expansion to other companion and wildlife species. The project aligns with Sustainable Development Goals, promoting global health (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), and biodiversity (SDG 15). Results will be shared through publications and outreach, advancing both academic and societal understanding of zoonotic threats.

Bats are the known or suspected reservoir hosts for multiple zoonotic viruses. Climate change is impacting wild bats, leading to changes in behavior that can increase the frequency of viral excretion and contact with humans. Our recently funded research will use complementary datasets on viral shedding from wild bats in Australia and South Africa to examine the role of climate change in driving viral shedding patterns, the spatial behavior of bats, and the risk of human exposure to viruses. Currently, there are multiple outstanding early and mid-career researchers (ECMR) associated with the project, each with experience in either the Australian or South African systems but with limited ability to make cross-system inferences. This proposal will enable EMCR research exchanges to foster collaboration, share expertise, and enhance integration — contributing to ECMR development and ultimately strengthening the project’s overall impact.

The application outlines a project combining our expertise in bioengineering, stem cells, developmental biology, pharmaceutical sciences, and 3D printing to address the timely issue of artificial organ development. In particular, the project will focus on the development of bioengineered live membranes to mimic human skin using a 3D printing method. To develop this method, novel biomaterials will be formulated for 3D printing, which are also suitable for tissue growth and medicinal use. Particularly, the biomaterials need to possess the proper mechanical strength and porosity suitable for vascularization and innervation. This can be achieved by mixing aerogel with hydrogel to form hierarchical interpenetrating networks. These live membranes have important applications in pharmacological and cosmetic testing and basic skin biology research. At the end of this project, a novel manufacturing method will be developed to engineer cell-based membranes, suitable for medical and pharmaceutical applications.

Large language models (LLM) and AI systems are increasingly used for content generation, raising concerns about copyright infringement. Artists and researchers have claimed that AI systems may reuse their original work without attribution. This project proposes a novel framework that challenges traditional statistical learning, aiming to ensure AI-generated content is both accurate and dissimilar to its training data, a notion that we call AI creativity. By encouraging creativity and controlling how much the output deviates from the training data, we can prevent unintentional copying while maintaining correctness. Our framework can be wrapped around any existing AI model, allowing companies to measure and control the creativity of their AI's output. We will partner with Kura AI, a San Francisco-based company, to demonstrate the practical effectiveness of this approach, helping ensure AI-generated content remains innovative and avoids repetitive or derivative outputs.

The brain can hold a vast amount of information, but its capacity is limited, requiring a selection process for what to remember or forget. Although the mechanisms of this "memory triage" are not fully understood, research indicates that consolidating experiences into long-term memories depends on hippocampal replay and sharp-wave ripple oscillations, where memory traces are reactivated. This memory reactivation is believed to facilitate plastic changes in the brain, leading to stable representations crucial for long-term retention. Importantly, more salient experiences, such as novel or rewarding events, tend to be replayed more often during sleep, which may prioritize them for consolidation. Optogenetically manipulating hippocampal ripples presents a valuable method for studying this memory triage process, enabling researchers to gain deeper insights into how memories are prioritized and consolidated, ultimately enhancing our understanding of memory formation and retention.

EPHEUS addresses the critical challenge of urban heat extremes in megacities by enhancing preparedness through improved near-surface temperature predictions. The preparedness of megacities to heat extremes encompasses multi-sectoral efforts, ranging from issuing early heat warnings for vulnerable groups to predicting the household cooling energy demands for the operation of electricity grids. The near-surface temperature, i.e., the 2-meter air temperature, is a fundamental meteorological quantity important in almost all measures to improve a city’s preparedness to heat extremes. However, it remains a recalcitrant problem in current urban climate models to predict the near-surface temperature accurately since the urban climate models are often based on forest canopy concepts, leading to biases and inaccuracies within complex urban environments. As a first necessary step to improve the preparedness of global megacities to heat extremes, this project aims to develop a novel modeling framework for near-surface predictions tailored specifically to urban street canyons. Integrating Dr. Qi Li's expertise in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with our advanced urban climate modeling capabilities, will significantly enhance the accuracy of urban temperature forecasts. The improved models will be implemented into the Surface Urban Energy and Water balance Scheme (SUEWS), which is a widely adopted global community urban climate model. The simulated extreme heat events in selected megacities will provide a deeper understanding of the magnitudes and spatial extents of near-surface temperatures, informing the strategies to improve a city’s preparedness to heat extremes. This collaboration between Cornell and UCL leverages our complementary expertise to address a pressing global challenge, potentially transforming urban climate resilience worldwide.

Cardiovascular calcification, which is characterized by the formation of mineralized lesions in heart valves and/or vascular walls, is a widespread phenomenon involved in multiple diseases, contributing to over 17 million deaths annually. When heart valves lose their ability to function due to accumulation of mineral, the only currently available treatment is surgical replacement of the valve. The deposition of mineral in cardiovascular tissues is an active cellular process, involving complex mineral-matrix-cell interactions that play a key role in driving the formation of the mineral. This project aims to identify the system-specific biological moieties (e.g., cells, proteins, lipids, proteoglycans) that modulate mineral nucleation and growth. We will compare the mineral-matrix “signatures”, or mineralomics, of calcified mitral valves from patients with rheumatic fever and of calcified aortic valves from patients with calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). This study lays the groundwork for identifying therapeutics that can disrupt mineral deposition within the valves.

This project will evaluate cultural differences in mobility by developing a comprehensive toolkit through preliminary investigations and collaborative workshops. We will host two workshops—one at UCL and one at Cornell Tech—to explore and establish methodologies for assessing cultural driving differences using machine-learning-supported traffic evaluations. Between these workshops, we will develop a preliminary toolkit based on the identified requirements and conduct an initial data collection. The second workshop will assess this toolkit and discuss insights gained, which will inform further dissemination efforts and future funding applications. By uniting expertise from UCL and Cornell Tech, this initiative seeks to enhance our understanding of how cultural factors influence driving behaviors and mobility patterns, contributing to more effective and inclusive mobility solutions.

The Cordillera del Cóndor in southern Ecuador harbors unique ecosystems due to its geographic isolation and ecological diversity. Anurans in this region exhibit high levels of diversity and endemism, making them especially vulnerable to human activities. This study will assess anuran composition and diversity along an altitudinal and microhabitat gradient, examining the influence of environmental factors like temperature, humidity, and precipitation across four mountains. Using standardized methods, it will explore alpha and beta diversity to reveal local patterns and variations among communities. Additionally, the project will analyze how anuran traits, such as body size, are linked to environmental conditions. The findings will enhance our understanding of species composition and biogeographic patterns, providing insight into whether these respond to local isolation and environmental characteristics. The study will offer valuable information for future conservation strategies and contribute to understanding ecological processes affecting species susceptible to global change.

The Galapagos Islands face significant challenges in balancing conservation with the demands of tourism and local agriculture. Its dependency on mainland imports to meet tourism demand contributes to a higher carbon footprint and increases the risk of invasive species. Additionally, current agricultural practices on the islands generate considerable waste, further threatening the delicate ecosystems. This proposal seeks to examine how enhancing local sourcing strategies, promoting local food consumption, and integrating local products into the Galapagos tourism industry can support sustainable agriculture, enhance food security, and protect biodiversity in the Galapagos Islands. This research aims to assess existing practices, consumer preferences, and the feasibility of local sourcing. The goal is to develop a framework to measure and manage the multidimensional impact of practices and initiatives to support sustainable tourism, reduce environmental impacts, and safeguard the Galapagos Islands' unique natural heritage for future generations.

The spread of political polarization around the world has led to alarming outcomes, including the rise of populist and extremist movements, weakened social cohesion, and democratic backsliding. While scholars have focused on understanding polarization and its sources, key questions remain about how specific events, such as elections, shape these dynamics. This project examines how electoral cycles affect levels of polarization among Ecuadorian citizens. Through four surveys conducted during Ecuador's 2025 two-stage electoral cycle, the project will assess how polarization levels change over time in response to the dynamics of electoral competition. Ecuador is a particularly interesting case to study because of its recent history of high polarization, driven by the divide between supporters and opponents of ex-president and populist figure Rafael Correa. The country's recent elections have highlighted the durability of this political cleavage, making it an ideal setting to study the relationship between electoral cycles and polarization dynamics.

This project aims to characterize genomic variants responsible for phenylketonuria (PKU) and cystic fibrosis (CF) in Ecuador by analyzing disease-associated genes (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) and ancestral markers (Cornell University). Our objective is to uncover new and under-reported variants unique to the Ecuadorian population, given its high consanguinity rates and diverse genetic admixture. Through comprehensive genetic analysis and bioinformatics, we will establish correlations between PKU/CF variants and ancestral backgrounds, contributing to the broader understanding of genetic diversity in Latin America. We will collaborate with the national pediatric hospital Baca Ortiz, sequencing DNA samples from CF and PKU patients. The findings will inform genetic counseling practices and public health strategies, helping policymakers address genetic disease hotspots. The project will contribute to precision medicine and establish a model for future research in inherited disorders across the region. Results will be disseminated through scholarly publications, conferences, and direct reports to the Ministry of Health.

The headwaters to the Amazon bring life-sustaining nutrients from the Andes to the diverse plant, animal, and human communities lower in the basin. Although recognized for its global importance, the area faces threat from increasing human expansion and climatic anomalies. The resulting changes to river ecosystems and their biota jeopardize both human livelihoods and the world’s crown jewel of biodiversity. We will partner with a kayaking-oriented school, Yaku Churi, that connects Indigenous youth to their culture and waters. During their weekly runs down a set of six rivers, school students will collect environmental DNA and chemistry data across a one-year period. The results will provide unprecedented insights into fish migrations and environmental dynamics. This exciting collaboration between Cornell and USFQ will break new ground in environmental science while empowering Indigenous youth to know and conserve their home waters.

Recent decades have seen a surge in extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric in many countries and regions, including Southern Africa, despite the African Union's emphasis on continental mobility as a key aspect of sustainable development. We propose a collaboration to assess and promote research on anti-xenophobia policies in Southern Africa. The deliverables will include a fall 2025 Workshop, a Report or Symposium with recommendations, and an article on the international, regional and comparative normative framework. We will also launch the first collaboration between the co-PIs. Our work will be informed by UNZA’s expertise in African regional comparative law and human rights, and Cornell’s research on anti-xenophobia policy. We will also assess the utility of collaborating to test our online xenophobia ML model in the context of Southern Africa, using nation-states with historical challenges in addressing xenophobia as a case study.

The African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) is an indigenous African vegetable grown mainly for its fruit and is among the target crops for promotion in Zambia under the recently launched crop diversification strategy, which aims to improve food security and climate resilience. African eggplant has the potential to contribute to food security because of its resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses and its high content of dietary fiber, minerals and vitamins. However, despite its local significance, crop improvement efforts and research investment have lagged behind in African eggplant compared to other crops. This proposal supports the initiation of a collaboration between African eggplant researchers at Cornell and the University of Zambia and aims to contribute to the development of this crop for improved food security and agro-biodiversity, through a preliminary characterization of local variety diversity and traditional farmer knowledge in Zambian communities.

The African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) is an indigenous African vegetable grown mainly for its fruit and is among the target crops for promotion in Zambia under the recently launched crop diversification strategy, which aims to improve food security and climate resilience. African eggplant has the potential to contribute to food security because of its resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses and its high content of dietary fiber, minerals and vitamins. However, despite its local significance, crop improvement efforts and research investment have lagged behind in African eggplant compared to other crops. This proposal supports the initiation of a collaboration between African eggplant researchers at Cornell and the University of Zambia and aims to contribute to the development of this crop for improved food security and agro-biodiversity, through a preliminary characterization of local variety diversity and traditional farmer knowledge in Zambian communities.