research matters

Translational research is the foundation of Cornell Human Ecology — we work to understand the human experience, generate new knowledge, and collaborate with community partners to apply those findings and improve lives at every scale.

  • $11.2M in federal, corporate and foundation support
  • 60 community partners
  • 188 grad students and 219 undergrads involved in research each semester
  • 40 students participated in summer internships and research supported by donors
  • 123 research labs (including the renovated Kinzelberg Labs)
Learn more and support our research
A lab research fills a tube as Martha Field looks on
microscopic view of pink and purple human tissue sample

new faces around mvr

portrait of a smiling blonde woman in a tan blazer
Kim Pietro
Assistant Dean for Alumni Affairs and Development
Andrea Poag
Andrea Poag
Assistant Dean for Student Experience
Jung-hye Shin
Jung-hye Shin
Professor and Chair
Focus areas Environmental design, Aging in place

newly appointed professorships

portrait of a woman wearing glasses and a patterned dress
Denise Green
Lau Family Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies in Fiber Science & Apparel Design
Focus areas Anthropological studies of style and fashion, History and curatorial practice of dress and textiles, Native American textiles and regalia
woman in a purple sweater
Corinna Loeckenhoff
Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor of Developmental Psychology, Professor of Gerontology in Medicine
Focus areas Age-related differences in health decision-making, Lifespan personality and social cognition, Cultural perspectives on aging
portrait of a man wearing a blazer with bright red embroidered cuffs
Heeju Terry Park
Vincent V.C. Woo Professor
Focus areas Activewear and protective clothing, Smart wearable interface, Ethics of design and fashion
Portrait of Anne Smalling

CHE alumna elected Board of Trustees chair

Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, a third-generation Cornellian with deep ties to the university, was elected the 18th chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees during a special meeting on Feb. 4.

The first woman and second member of her family to lead the board’s 64 voting trustees, Smalling, a trustee since 2017, began a three-year term as chair on July 1. Smalling is CEO and managing partner of HM International, a privately owned manufacturing and management company headquartered in Austin, Texas. She assumed leadership of the trustees nearly a century after her grandfather, Carl H. Meinig ’31, arrived on campus.

Read more

new spaces

Students work in a nutrition lab

We renovated the labs in Kinzelberg Hall this summer, creating adjacent labs with equipment for cell culture, microscopy, histology and cell/DNA/RNA/protein
analysis. Previously, the shared equipment was spread out across multiple buildings and researchers.

Kinzelberg lab interior

Besides ensuring access to state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, expanding the shared research infrastructure will enhance internal collaborations and research synergy, promote efficiency, and lead to overall cost savings through reduced redundancy.

Portrait of Sander Kersten
Sander Kersten
Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Schleifer Family Professor

100 years of innovation

In 2025, Cornell Human Ecology celebrated 100 extraordinary years of challenging convention and redefining what’s possible.

We hosted celebrations from coast to coast, culminating in the college’s Feb. 24 birthday party — an inspiring gathering of students, faculty, staff and alumni from across generations.

Learn more about CHE at 100
People at the Centennial event

cooking with class

For more than 100 years, we've prepared students to help people thrive and connected the latest research to improving human lives.

Home economics students in the 1910s
Home economics students in the 1910s

One of the oldest buildings on the Ag Quad was built in 1913 to house Cornell’s growing home economics program. The facilities included a model cafeteria that served as a laboratory for institution management students.

Students work in the Discovery Kitchen
Students work in the Discovery Kitchen

A little more than a century later, the Discovery Kitchen, a state-of the-art teaching kitchen in partnership with Cornell Dining and the Division of 
Nutritional Sciences, opened in 2022 as part of the North Campus Residential Expansion. It functions as a classroom, event space and test kitchen.

Glenn Beyer stands in his model kitchen
Glenn Beyer stands in his model kitchen

Glenn Beyer, professor in the Department of Housing and Design and founding director of Cornell’s Housing Research Center, lead a five-year, multidisciplinary initiative to develop a prefab, mass-market, easy-to-install kitchen that would meet the needs of post-war home kitchen users.

For more history, check out our timeline

tailoring our nutrition

Did you know that you could develop a personalized nutrition plan based on your individual gut microbiome? Or your genes?

The Cornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health (CPNH) supports research and programs in the emerging field of precision nutrition, which delivers tailored dietary recommendations based on a person’s genetics, gut microbes and other biological, environmental and social factors. The center’s ultimate goal is to develop interventions that will improve health outcomes at both the individual and population level.

“This funding will accelerate research in a critical and underfunded area, invest in the next generation of exceptional scientists working on the science of nutrition, and expose students to a field with ever-increasing importance
to human health,” said President Michael I. Kotlikoff.

The center is funded by a $25 million gift from Irwin M. Jacobs ’54, BEE ’56 and the Jacobs family in honor of Joan Klein Jacobs ’54, who was a lifelong
advocate for nutrition and health.

Learn more about CPNH

giving “house call” a new meaning

A new technology from a team of Cornell researchers will be used across India to help screen patients for iron deficiency, which can lead to anemia. Anemia
affects roughly half of all women and children in India, and the condition is particularly dangerous in pregnant women and their children.

AnemiaPhone can be used to diagnose patients quickly and at a low cost in a community or clinic setting. The technology was developed by Saurabh Mehta,
director of the CPNH, and his co-directors, Julia Finkelstein and David Erickson.

Read the full story
Esha Shakty '25 at the Center for Discovery
kale

engaging with communities

Esha Shakty ’25, a nutritional sciences major, worked as an intern at the Center for Discovery in Harris, New York, focusing on precision nutrition. It was an immersive, community-engaged experience under the mentorship of Saurabh Mehta, Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor of Nutrition and director of CPNH. Esha investigated the prevalence of kidney stones in patients with complex disabilities, especially patients with feeding tubes.

Thanks to our donors, we can support students like Esha in their summer research and internship experiences.

 I realized the power of a supportive and collaborative community in bringing about change. It was inspiring to see how nutritionists, chefs, farmers and doctors have
come together to develop a program that promotes ‘food as medicine,’ improving health, healing and quality of life.

Portrait of Esha Shakty
Esha Shakty ’25

young minds in the making

The Community Neuroscience Initiative, led by Marlen Gonzalez, created a program that helps student teachers understand the neuroscience behind children’s learning and development and encourages them to pass
that knowledge on to their students.

The student teachers, from SUNY Cortland and SUNY Oswego, are trained and then placed in classrooms through a partnership with the New York State Education Department.

“I’ve learned everyone’s brain is different,” said Crystal Nuñez, a senior in the Inclusive Childhood Program at SUNY Cortland and a student teacher in the Syracuse City School District. “I feel like students think that there’s a specific way you have to learn and do stuff, but there are multiple ways you can learn something.”

The training takes into consideration the students’ environment and varied needs, including emotions and feelings that can affect a child’s learning ability, like hunger, safety threats and lack of sleep.

“Children’s brains are like sponges, and that’s why it’s exciting to have them learn about how their brain operates at such an early age,” said Kuricheses Alexander, principal of STEAM at Dr. King Elementary in Syracuse.

“This gives them the knowledge and language to begin to advocate for themselves and express how or what they’re feeling. Plus, it helps them see that they have a voice and it matters.”