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Last July, a group of Cornell students sat on mats in a wooden pavilion at the edge of a forest in southern India, passing around plants. A traditional healer from a local indigenous community explained which ones ease menstrual cramps, treat joint pain and soothe colicky infants.

The visit was part of a five-week program that brought seven Cornell students — including four from Cornell Human Ecology — to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, a protected

March of Dimes, the organization working to improve the health of moms and babies, has recognized Kimberly O’Brien, professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, with the Agnes Higgins Award in Maternal Fetal Nutrition for her research on iron, vitamin D and calcium in pregnancy. The award will be presented to O’Brien at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) on April 24-28, 2025, in Honolulu. 

O'Brien’s work has revealed invaluable insights

New research from the Division of Nutritional Sciences helps explain how fat tissue develops in mammals and could one day contribute to biomedical treatments for obesity and related diseases.

Daniel Berry, assistant professor in the division, studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern the lineage of adipose cells, or how fat tissue develops from a fertilized embryo and how that path can change in response to diet and environmental conditions. 

Mammals have two types

Adam Hoffman, assistant professor of psychology, is exploring how LGBTQ+ youth develop social identity and how that process affects their mental health, self-esteem and other outcomes.

He is conducting a three-year study, surveying 200 LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults in partnership with two community organizations in New York state – the Ali Forney Center in New York City and The Q Center in Syracuse. The surveys will measure identity, community connectedness, feelings of loneliness

Annually, the PRYDE Scholars from the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE) work on a translational research project with New York State 4-H Youth Development. Last academic year, PRYDE Scholars implemented a version of the Contribution Project for 4-H’ers across the state, modeled after the original project where undergraduates at Cornell and other universities can receive funding to make a contribution of their choosing.

To acknowledge and celebrate those contributions, two PRYDE