Migration in the Making of the U.S.

Celebrating a 250-Year History

America 250 graphic with 250 in blue and flag-like decoration in red.

Migration enriches the United States, bringing people whose ideas, cultures, and contributions have strengthened the country throughout its history. As Cornell marks the nation’s 250th anniversary, Global Cornell celebrates these contributions and the people behind them. Drawing on the Einaudi Center’s Migrations Program and our international Cornell community, we bring together stories, research, art, and events to explore how migration has shaped our country.

Cornell Alumni Contributions to American Life

From Around the World, Contributing to America

Some came to the United States to study; others arrived as children. These Cornell alumni have expanded scientific knowledge, improved opportunities for families, built new technologies, and enriched our cultural life. Their stories show how people from around the world continue to contribute to the country we share.

Isidor Isaac Rabi 1919

Discoveries that helped make MRI possible

Born in what is now Poland, Isidor Isaac Rabi immigrated to the United States as an infant. His Nobel Prize-winning research on atomic nuclei helped lay the groundwork for magnetic resonance imaging. Rabi also contributed to wartime radar research and helped establish Brookhaven National Laboratory, strengthening American science for generations to come.

Explore Rabi’s scientific legacy

Urie Bronfenbrenner 1938

Giving children a stronger start

Urie Bronfenbrenner came to the United States from Russia at age six. A Cornell graduate and longtime faculty member, he helped establish Head Start through his research, congressional testimony, and work with policymakers. His insights into how families and communities shape child development helped create a national program that has benefited generations of low-income children.

Learn about Bronfenbrenner and Head Start

Ching Wan Tang PhD 1975

An invention behind everyday screens

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ching Wan Tang studied in Canada before earning his doctorate at Cornell. At Eastman Kodak, he and Steven Van Slyke pioneered organic light-emitting diode technology, known as OLED. Their work advanced American industrial research and helped transform the screens used in phones, televisions, and other everyday devices.

Discover Tang’s work on OLED technology

Jack Szostak PhD 1977

Advancing understanding of cancer and aging

Born in England and raised in Canada, Jack Szostak came to Cornell after studying at McGill University. His research at American institutions helped explain how chromosomes are protected, earning him a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. These discoveries advanced understanding of cancer, aging, and inherited disease.

Read about Szostak’s Nobel-winning research

Padmasree Warrior MS 1984

Leading American technology and innovation

Padmasree Warrior came from India to pursue graduate study at Cornell after attending IIT Delhi. She went on to lead technology development as chief technology officer at Motorola and later Cisco. Her career helped shape research and innovation at major American companies while opening new ground for women in engineering leadership.

Explore Warrior’s contributions to American technology

Alex Ponomarenko 1994

Funding scholarships for international students

Alex Ponomarenko, originally from Ukraine, supports scholarships for international students in the College of Arts and Sciences to help make a Cornell education more accessible. Having faced significant financial challenges financing his own education, he is committed to helping international students with academic ambition overcome financial barriers and pursue their educational goals.

Learn more about Ponomarenko's story

Nina Cooke John BArch 1995

Making the history of freedom visible

Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, architect Nina Cooke John designed Shadow of a Face, Newark’s Harriet Tubman monument. The public space incorporates artwork and stories from local residents, inviting visitors to learn about Tubman, the Underground Railroad, and the city’s Black liberation history. Her work brings communities together to engage with America’s past.

Explore the Harriet Tubman monument

Swati Mohan 2004

Helping America explore Mars

Swati Mohan immigrated from India at age one and went on to study mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell. As guidance, navigation, and controls operations lead for NASA’s Perseverance mission, she helped guide the rover to its successful Mars landing in 2021. Her work has advanced America’s exploration of space and our understanding of other worlds.

Read about Mohan’s role in the Mars landing

Téa Obreht MFA 2009

Enriching American literature

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Téa Obreht lived in Cyprus and Egypt before immigrating to the United States in 1997. After earning her MFA at Cornell, she became a National Book Award finalist for The Tiger’s Wife. Her novel Inland reimagines the American West, bringing new perspectives to the stories Americans tell about themselves.

Meet Téa Obreht

Mursal Rahim: One of Afghanistan's “Last Free Women”

Constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of the press are fundamental to U.S. democracy. Cornell supports international scholars and students whose academic speech and work put them at risk in their home countries.

Students rally to raise awareness of the plight of Afghan girls and women living under the Taliban outside Day Hall. — Mursal Rahim, center, at a student rally to raise awareness of the plight of Afghan girls and women living under the Taliban.

Mursal Rahim, MPA ’25, fled Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover with the New York Times evacuation of more than 100 local employees. She earned her Cornell degree with support from Global Cornell’s Scholars Under Threat initiative.

The Last Free Women—a new book by Rebecca Blumenstein, a former Times editor who helped coordinate the evacuation and resettlement, and journalist Diana Kapp—chronicles Rahim's journey, including her time at Cornell, her UN internship, and how she and three others have built new futures.

Read in Cornellians

Global Hubs Democracy Collaborations

Global Cornell annually seeds Cornell-Hubs faculty teams to support emerging international research and teaching collaborations. In 2026, Cornell's Center on Global Democracy provided matching funds for projects on global democracy and democratic threats.

U.S. Externalization and the Protection of Migrants' Rights in the Americas

Cornell PI: Ian Kysel (LAW)

Are migrants' rights safe when states extend border enforcement beyond their territories?

The Pathologies of Legalism and the Rule of Law

Judge's gavel. Photo: Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash

Cornell PI: Emad Atiq (LAW)

How does the rule of law erode when citizens or officials resort to legalism?

Migrations Program Creative Competition

How does migration shape life in your community? Cornell students and employees respond with their art and writing in this annual competition that shares a wealth of human migration experiences in a range of media. Here is a video submission on coming to the United States.

Government PhD student Shirley Le Penne shares her family's and her own migration story—from Algeria to France to Ithaca—as she recreates one of her grandmother's favorite Algerian dishes.

The Cosmopolitan Club: “Above all nations is humanity”

A black adn white group shot of members of the Cosmopolitan Club, 1906. — Members of Cornell's Cosmopolitan Club, 1906. Photo courtesy of Cornell University Library.

In 1904, Argentine graduate student Modesto Quiroga founded Cornell’s Cosmopolitan Club, bringing together international and domestic students with diplomatic interests and faculty mentors across a range of academic disciplines, including engineering and agriculture.

Guided by the motto “Above all nations is humanity,” members shared meals and later a house on Bryant Avenue, introduced one another to their cultures, and discussed questions of government, immigration, and peace. German undergraduate Christian Bües wrote in 1907: “[The Cosmopolitan Club] was founded to make men understand the spirit of nations so that in difficult international conflicts they might have a clear judgment and correct reasoning.”

The club thrived for 50 years and encouraged similar organizations at other universities. Its history offers an early example of international students enriching American higher education and putting into practice habits that support democracy: listening across differences, exchanging ideas, and building a shared community.

Mapping Cornell's Global Community

Our diversity is our strength. International students from 129 countries make up 25 percent of Cornell’s student body, and international faculty and staff from 94 countries/regions make up nine percent of our workforce.

Table view of the International Students and Employees map data.

Democracy in the News

A panel of speaker sit at a liong table on a raised stage in front of an audience.

Law Immigration Panel Asks, Who Has the Right to Free Speech?

The ACLU's Cecillia Wang was part of a panel discussion on free speech within the context of immigration, emphasizing fair application of First Amendment rights.

For Threatened Artists, Free Expression is Political and Personal

Artists from Nicaragua and Afghanistan kicked off Global Cornell’s contribution to this year’s campuswide freedom of expression theme. Watch the event video.

Global Cornell

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