Immerse yourself in Cornell academics, without traveling to Ithaca! Three Cornell faculty members bring the classroom to you through lectures inspired by classes they are currently teaching on campus. Spend your Saturday learning about cutting edge research and ideas, and reconnecting with other Cornellians!

Transforming the Clunky Organization: Leading to Break Inertia
Samuel Bacharach, McKelvey-Grant Professor of Labor Management

The challenge of most organizations isn’t that they fail, according to Sam Bacharach, but that they fail to thrive. They are stuck in the abyss of inertia. The basic challenge of leadership, therefore, is to lead organizations beyond inertia to assure discovery and delivery. This talk will address the four critical components of leadership necessary to assure that organizations are tuned and capable of generating new ideas and new agendas, while assuring that those ideas and agendas are actually implemented. 

Exploring the Origins of our Universe
Martha Haynes, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy

The Universe as we know it began some 13.8 billion years ago in the space-time event known as the “Big Bang”. Cosmologists today use forefront telescopes, instruments and techniques to try to trace the history of cosmic expansion, especially in the earliest times before the first stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes formed. In this talk, I will discuss what we know about the first billion years of Cosmic History and how Cornell scientists are laying the groundwork for exploring Cosmic Infancy by building a novel telescope at an exceptional site in Chile.

Wildlife Health in a Rapidly Changing World
Steven Osofsky DVM ’89, Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy

If we are to successfully address the challenges of saving wildlife in an increasingly human dominated world, we must develop a keen understanding of the relationships among wildlife, domestic animal and human health. Now more than ever it is becoming increasingly evident that our own health, and that of the global economy, are inextricably linked to our stewardship of the natural world. This recognition serves as a warning, but also as an opportunity, encouraging a meshing of expertise that crosses sectoral boundaries in pursuit of solutions that benefit the health of people, of domestic animals and of wildlife. Wildlife Health Cornell is poised to seize this opportunity.