Message from the Director of Graduate Studies
Now that the excitement of Commencement and Reunion have passed, I look back at the past semester and my 3-year term as the Director of Graduate Studies. As of this writing, I am handing over the role to my colleague and recently promoted Associate Professor, Andrej Singer, who will serve a 2-year term as the Director of Graduate Studies beginning July 1.
I recently reported on my time as the director of graduate studies to our faculty and graduate student community and highlighted the goals, accomplishments, and potential future directions in six key areas: community, recruiting, mentorship, DEI, research and administration. I began my appointment as the director of graduate studies during the Covid-19 Omicron shutdown with goals of restoring our tight-knit grad community, growing the M.S. and Ph.D. programs, promoting DEI, and expanding our research and collaboration opportunities for students and faculty. I can confidently say that we moved the needle in every area!
We grew the Ph.D. program 23% and the M.S. program 63%, and re-established an in-person Ph.D. Visit Weekend and Graduate Research Symposium. We launched the MSE JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) initiative and reinvigorated graduate governance via Lattice, MSE’s graduate student and professional organization. We also implemented Ezra’s Bridge with the CBE department to provide a pathway to Ph.D. for M.S. students. We expanded research and training opportunities for graduate students by adding 7 new faculty members to the MSE graduate field and establishing the MSE Travel Conference Grant for Ph.D. students. Finally, we created a graduate student handbook and a searchable online discussion forum for our graduate students. I thank my colleagues and the graduate student community for coming together to achieve these goals.
In this issue, we are featuring stories about some of the amazing women faculty members and leaders in engineering as Cornell Engineering celebrates 140 Years of Women in Engineering in 2024. We also highlight some of the incredible research and collaborations from the past semester, as well as the awards and honors received by our students and alumni.
I want to thank everyone who donated to Cornell Materials Science and Engineering during Cornell’s annual Giving Day; we are pleased to report that we doubled our number of donors year over year! Thank you for your continued support on Giving Day and beyond.
If you are traveling to Ithaca this summer, or anytime, we would love to connect with you. Be sure to follow us on social media and let us know how you are doing!
Warmly,
Eve Donnelly
Director of Graduate Studies. 2021-2024
