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Giving Opportunities
EAS Vision Endowment
The Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has been undergoing a period of vigorous faculty renewal which is driving changes in the research thrusts of the department, the graduate and undergraduate curricula offered, and the relationships with other departments in the College of Engineering, CALS, and Arts and Sciences.
The department's presence in three colleges affords tremendous opportunities for impact across the campus and with the outside world.
EAS is a partner in the Cornell Earth Source Heat initiative, which aims to heat campus with deep geothermal energy and is a means of meeting the university-wide commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035. The department is also deeply involved in the digital agriculture initiative led by CALS where the goal is a more efficient and robust system for meeting the food needs of the planet. EAS also continues to lead in studying natural hazards associated with seismicity, volcanism, space weather, and severe weather and climate.
With these opportunities come special needs associated with rapid growth and a university business model that compels departments to function autonomously.
Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
An institutional postdoctoral fellowship program would bring extraordinary young scientists to Cornell. One of the best ways to jumpstart a new faculty member’s career is to enable them to hire postdoctoral fellows and research associates. The postdoctoral scholar would serve as a bridge between new faculty and emerging projects on campus and in the nearby community.
Research Lab Equipment, Renovations, and Maintenance
Doing science that matters means having access to state-of-the-art equipment. Some of that equipment will be provided as part of the start-up packages needed to attract the best faculty and the rest will have to come from grants and contracts, industry investment, and donations. Your gift will help ensure the research needs are met of new faculty through modern, well-equipped laboratories and highly trained staff.
Undergraduate Field Training Support
For many of us, field experience as an undergraduate was the transformative and defining experience of our undergraduate careers. Today’s students, many of whom attend Cornell with financial aid, find field programs increasingly difficult to participate in due to the expense of the field program and lost income from summer employment. If we are to maintain this transformative experience for our undergraduates, EAS will need help to subsidize students without sufficient funding.
Student Project Team
EAS launched its first undergraduate project team, joining the experiential learning culture in the College of Engineering.
The team will develop instruments and techniques to assess environmental conditions and trends by exploiting the revolution underway in instrumentation and platforms which can be used to probe the earth and its atmosphere like drones and balloons carrying radar, lidar and/or in situ probes.
The students will supply the know-how and the enthusiasm, but the department will supply most of the equipment, at least at the start. Eventually, the project team would be expected to become self sustaining with private-sector support.
Computer Lab Support
For both atmospheric scientists and many solid earth scientists, the computer is their laboratory. New equipment must be purchased every few years as data sets continue to explode in size.
Give to the 2020 Vision Endowment
EAS Discretionary Fund
Private gifts are essential and help to endure the continued excellence, relevance, and impact of initiatives for EAS.
To assure your gift is credited for the purpose that you wish, please state your intent in the Questions/Comments area of the online form. Of course unrestricted gifts are always welcome--whether directed to EAS or another of your Cornell interests. These gifts help us be most responsive to emerging needs and opportunities both now and in the future.
Commitments can also be made through certain estate tax planning opportunities, such as a charitable lead trust, or in other forms including securities and real estate.