Only 10 more days until we celebrate #Cornell2026! And today, we’re hopping in the Big Red Time Machine again to check out photos from Cornell’s commencement exercises from days of old.
Take a look at how Big Red has locked in for finals across the ages. 🐾
With the end of the academic year and the beginning of summer break tantalizingly close, we offer the sage advice of Gerald Rehkugler ’57, MS ’58: “Consider exams as a learning experience. If you do well, you can celebrate; if you find deficiencies, you can take that as motivation to improve your efforts. Enjoy the ride, since it will be over quickly.”
You may have asked yourself, “What did spring look like at Cornell in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s?” 🌷🌺🌸
Well, wonder no more. 📸
Photos courtesy of the Rare and Manuscript Collections.
A team of geophysicists from Cornell, Cameroon, and South Africa is using machine learning tools to unearth new information from earthquake data collected by @cornelleng 15 years ago - providing a lifeline for a scholar whose career was upended by conflict.
Cameroonian Ndikum “Eric” Ndola is one of our current @scholarrescuefund fellows, working with alum Diego Quirós, PhD ’17 to study data from a 2011 earthquake in Virginia.
Although it’s too early to report results, preliminary findings suggest that there may have been 6x as many seismic events as were previously detected.
The team’s cross-border collaboration is part of Global Cornell’s support for Scholars Under Threat.
Thanks to everyone who attended the 2026 Groat and Alpern Awards last week! 🎉 We loved seeing ILR alumni, faculty, staff, current students and—of course—friends and family join together to celebrate this year’s award winners.
Congrats again to Kenneth Kirschner ’75 and Stephen H. Goodman ’65! 👏
A Human Ecology alumna is rethinking fashion in a way you might not expect.
Meghan McKenzie Russell ’19, BS ’18, studied global and public health sciences in Cornell Human Ecology; yet today, she’s the founder of Detoure, a fast-growing fashion startup that’s reshaping how Gen Z shops.
After noticing how often influencers wear items once and never again, Russell had a simple but powerful idea: what if you could shop their closets directly? That insight led to Detoure, an online and in-person marketplace offering influencers’ clothing and accessories at a fraction of retail prices, while keeping thousands of items out of landfills.
“I wanted people to be able to shop the styles they see on social media, but secondhand,” she said.
Since launching as a backyard pop-up in 2022, Detoure has grown into a storefront on Melrose Avenue and has rehomed more than 100,000 items: blending sustainability, accessibility and style.
While at Cornell, Russell also met her future husband, Paul Russell ’19, now a rapper and singer whose viral hit “Lil Boo Thang” brought him national attention. Their story began in Collegetown, adding another personal Cornell connection to her journey.
Russell’s path is a great reminder that a Human Ecology education doesn’t lead to just one industry. It equips students to think broadly about human needs and systems, and to build solutions in unexpected spaces.
Read more about her journey and Detoure at the link in our bio.
Photo Credit: Provided
Gilles Brassard, Ph.D. ’79, has received the 2025 A.M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), jointly with Charles Bennett, for founding the field of quantum information science and for new encryption technology for secure communication and computing.
At the age of 24, Brassard received his Ph.D. in theoretical computer science from Cornell, working with John E. Hopcroft, professor emeritus of computer science and a 1986 Turing Award recipient.
“Gilles Brassard’s BB84 protocol laid the foundation for quantum information science and reshaped the future of secure communication,” said Lorenzo Alvisi, the Tisch University Professor in Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science.“ We are proud to count him among our Cornell graduates, whose achievements continue to amplify the department’s legacy of groundbreaking theoretical computer science – a tradition exemplified by his adviser, John Hopcroft.”
Photo: Hatim Kaghat/Provided
Following a viral TikTok video in which Juan Uribe '96 put out a plea for help to save his son's life, the National Marrow Donor Program hosted the largest cheek swabbing event, it ever hosted, on Cornell's campus. Read more about the event, and how you can join in, from the link in our bio.
In 24 hours, this year’s nature-themed #CornellGivingDay brought together 17,011 donors to raise $11,345,462, to support everything from student organizations to scholarship aid to groundbreaking research. You can read more about this record-breaking day from the link in our bio.
