Greg Morrisett has been appointed to a second term as the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech, Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 9.

The Cornell Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee voted Sept. 14 to approve a new five-year term, effective July 1, 2024. Morrisett’s tenure as dean began July 1, 2019. He is also a professor in the Department of Computer Science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

“Greg has been an inspirational leader in the establishment and growth of Cornell Tech, the Roosevelt Island Cornell campus and the New York City tech landscape,” Kotlikoff said. “I’m thrilled for him to continue in his role as dean: growing Cornell Tech programs, fostering intercampus collaborations, attracting outstanding students and faculty, leading exciting K-12 tech educational programs and driving innovation and startups in New York City.”

Cornell Tech launched in 2012, in temporary offices in Google’s New York City building, and moved to its permanent campus on Roosevelt Island in 2017. The campus is home to close to 50 tenure track and nontenured faculty members, approximately 400 master’s students across eight programs, and more than 100 doctoral students in five fields. Since its launch, Cornell Tech has graduated about 1,900 students.

As part of a land-grant institution, Cornell Tech has a deep responsibility to serve New Yorkers, Morrisett said. The land-grant mission is evident in the campus’s efforts to help diversify the tech ecosystem, educate students to design and build solutions that tackle real-world challenges, and develop deep connections in New York City’s tech industry, he said.

“I’m just super proud of how New York’s tech scene has exploded over the last decade, and I think we can take our fair share of credit for this,” Morrisett said.

Some key accomplishments during Morrisett’s first term:

• As part of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, the campus has launched the Urban Tech Hub, which focuses on connecting academic resources with public needs to help make cities more connected, livable, efficient and accessible.
• Cornell Tech’s Studio program for master’s degree students and its Runway Startups postdoctoral program together have helped spin out more than 100 companies, which have raised more than $250 million in independent funding, with more than 90% of the startups operating and creating jobs in New York City.
• Over Morrisett’s tenure as dean, Cornell Tech has hired nearly 20 new faculty members and increased the number of graduate students by 200 – 83% increases for both since 2019.

In Morrisett’s coming term, the opportunities and challenges presented by AI will be a key focus. Along with developing AI technologies for health care, education and climate change, Cornell Tech will be at the forefront of applying deep research to address the new technology’s major shortcomings. Overcoming bias in data-driven decision making, the massive amounts of energy needed for AI systems, and safeguarding against job losses to computers and robots are all areas of concern, Morrisett said.

“I believe we have a very short window to steer the AI age in the right directions,” he said. “Cornell Tech is uniquely positioned – through our amazing faculty and students, our deep connections to the city of New York and our Cornell heritage – to have an outsized impact on the technical and social challenges we face.”

Morrisett’s own research focuses on the application of programming language technology for building secure, reliable and high-performance software systems. He has worked with students to design programming languages that rule out whole classes of bugs. With respect to software and security, he has served in advising and steering capacities with the National Academies of Science, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Security Agency.

Morrisett received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Richmond (1989), and his master’s (1991) and doctoral (1995) degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He was a Cornell faculty member in computer science from 1996 to 2004. He was then hired by Harvard University, where he served as associate dean for computer science and engineering, director of the Center for Research on Computation and Society, and professor of computer science, until he returned to Cornell in 2015 as dean of what was then the Faculty of Computing and Information Science.

His honors include an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond (2023); election as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (2014); a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2000); and a National Science Foundation Career Award (1999).

This story originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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When Omari Keeles was applying for the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) role at Cornell Tech, one of the first things he noticed was how DEIB values have been ingrained in the campus ethos since its founding – from the descriptions on the website to his conversations with leadership.

DEIB-oriented events, initiatives and programming have been underway at the campus level for faculty, staff and students for years – whether that be a workshop on “Allyship in the Workplace”; “Culture Share,” an annual event where students celebrate their cultures through stories, activities and food; the active and growing staff DEI committee; or through faculty and graduate student research on marginalized communities.

“The foundation had already been laid – now it’s time to build the house,” said Keeles.

While DEIB has been a consistent part of the current social and political conversation, Keeles saw a distinct potential for his role at Cornell Tech, which he started just last month.

By culminating all of the existing excitement and momentum around the DEIB work, he aims to shift the perspectives of the campus, so that these values are permeated and integrated throughout the school, rather than being seen as siloed or a supplement.

“People’s passion often gets misinterpreted for preparation, skills and tools,” said Keeles.

Keeles intends to establish formalized DEIB programming, including training sessions on subjects such as bias in faculty hiring, to ensure that these concepts and principles are integrated throughout employee development.

Evelyn Gordon, Cornell Tech’s Senior Director of Human Resources, said of his hiring, “Omari coming on board will spark and ignite the campus’ sustained commitment to this work, so that we can grow and advance it purposefully.”

Keeles recognizes there is a unique opportunity presented by Cornell Tech’s location within one of the most diverse cities in the world. He emphasizes that while there may be a common misconception that these complex dynamics and discussions are inherent to certain environments, it remains crucial to be intentional about how we engage and build trust with different communities.

“Being situated in a specific place doesn’t automatically equate to an awareness of the communities around you or understanding how to navigate them,” said Keeles.

Although Keeles anticipates some challenges in the new role, he recognizes the fertile ground that Cornell Tech’s DEIB values provide. In fact, he is already instilling the foundational principles of Cornell, epitomized in the motto, “Any person, any study.”

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New York, NY (September 26, 2023) – Cornell Tech announced the appointment of David M. Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc., and member of the Cornell Class of ‘91, to join the Council of fifteen business and technology leaders who oversee Cornell Tech’s mission and strategic goals. Einhorn brings decades of corporate leadership experience and a deep commitment to Cornell University, having served on the Board of Trustees from 2015-2023, including as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee. His unparalleled championship of the University’s public service mission helped launch the Engaged Cornell initiative in 2015 and the opening of the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement in 2021 to integrate community-engaged learning into every facet of the college experience. Einhorn’s dedication to national service, community impact and a culture of pluralism will serve the Council’s mission to drive innovation in education and technology in service of our shared future.

“David’s perspectives on business, society, and higher-education are an ideal fit for the Cornell Tech Council. His commitment to academic engagement has left a lasting impression on countless students and alumni,” said Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech. “We eagerly anticipate the influence he will bring to our campus, and as a successful company founder, his perspective and passion for socially responsible business leadership aligns with our mission to foster forward-thinking and principled innovation.”

“As a proud Cornellian, I’m excited to join the Cornell Tech Council and learn from the brilliant faculty, students, and leadership who are pushing the boundaries on what technology can do and the societal challenges it can help address,” said Einhorn. “I look forward to contributing to Cornell Tech’s ambitious mission and supporting the students’ success in and out of the classroom.”

David Einhorn’s appointment to the Cornell Tech Council marks a pivotal moment for the institution, signifying not only the expansion of the Council but the growth of the school and its programs within the technological industries and New York City.

About David. M. Einhorn

DAVID M. EINHORN (’91 BA) is President of Greenlight Capital, Inc. which he co-founded in January 1996. Greenlight is a value-oriented investment advisor whose goal is to achieve high absolute rates of return while minimizing the risk of capital loss. David is also chairman of the boards of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. and Green Brick Partners, Inc.

Mr. Einhorn graduated summa cum laude with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arts and Sciences and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

He is the author of “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story,” published in May 2008.

Mr. Einhorn is Founder and Trustee of Einhorn Collaborative, a foundation which helps Americans build stronger relationships and work together across differences to create a socially connected and cohesive society.

One of Einhorn Collaborative’s signature investments is the establishment of the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement at Cornell University to ensure that all undergraduates have a high-quality community-engaged learning experience before they graduate. Because of this partnership, Cornellians will be educated global citizens who practice respect and empathy, seek collaboration and cooperation, and embrace differences in all aspects of their lives.

Mr. Einhorn was appointed to the Cornell Board of Trustees in 2015, and his second and final term concluded on June 30, 2023. Most recently, he has served on the Board’s Executive Committee, as well as its committees on Research and Innovation (co-chair), Student Life, and University Relations. Formerly, he co-chaired the Board’s Committee on Academic Affairs.

Mr. Einhorn also serves on the boards of City Year, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and the Robin Hood Foundation. He has three children: daughters Rachel ’19 and Naomi ’21, and son Mitchell.

Cornell Tech Council

Cornell Tech’s full Council includes: David Siegel, Chair, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Two Sigma, Chairman of Siegel Family Endowment; Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th Mayor of the City of New York; Ursula M. Burns, Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings, Chairwoman of Teneo Holdings LLC, Retired Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation and VEON, Ltd; Aaron Holiday, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 645 Ventures; Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, XCOM; Kraig Kayser, Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (ex officio); Peggy Koenig, Chair, Abry Partners, LLC; Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost, Cornell University (ex officio); Howard Morgan, Chairman, B Capital Group; Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell Tech (ex officio); Martha E. Pollack, President, Cornell University (ex officio); Stephen M. Ross, Chairman and Founder, Related Companies; Niraj Shah, CEO, Co-Founder, and Co-Chairman, Wayfair; Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Vista Equity Partners; Andrew H. Tisch, Co-Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Loews Corporation; Jan Rock Zubrow, President, MedCapital, LLC

About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.

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“These amazing additions to our faculty roster bolster Cornell Tech’s unwavering commitment to fostering innovation, groundbreaking research, and collaborative learning in the AI era,” said Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett. “With a passion for pushing the boundaries of knowledge, our new faculty will make a tremendous impact on our campus, in the tech industry and academia, as well as the global community.”

The new faculty are joining a distinguished cohort of professors who are dedicated to shaping the next generation of tech leaders and innovators across key areas including artificial intelligence and machine learning and health. Their work will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the development of innovative solutions that make a positive impact on society.

Effective July 1, 2023:

Frank Pasquale is a Professor of Law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School. He is an expert on the law of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning. Before coming to Cornell, Pasquale held chaired professorships at the University of Maryland, Seton Hall University, and Brooklyn Law School. His books include The Black Box Society (Harvard University Press, 2015) and New Laws of Robotics (Harvard University Press, 2020). He has published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters and co-edited The Oxford Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Transparent Data Mining for Big and Small Data (Springer-Verlag, 2017).

Jae-sun Seo joins Cornell Tech as an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Dr. Seo comes from Arizona State University, where he was an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. His research interests include efficient hardware design of machine learning / neuromorphic algorithms and integrated power management. Dr. Seo was a visiting researcher at Intel and Meta, and he has been recognized with awards from IBM, NSF, Intel, and IEEE.

Kyra Gan is an Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell Tech. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Gan was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Harvard Statistics and earned her Ph.D. degree in Operations Research from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests include adaptive/online algorithm design in personalized treatment under constrained settings, computerized/automated inference methods, robust causal discovery in medical data, and fairness in organ transplants.

Udit Gupta joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a visiting assistant professor for the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. His research lies at the intersection of computer architecture, systems for machine learning, and sustainable computing. During his PhD in computer science at Harvard University he was also a Visiting Research Scientist at Meta AI.

Effective August 16, 2023:

Alex Conway is joining Cornell Tech as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science. Prior to Cornell Tech, Conway served as a researcher at VMware Research Group where he primarily focused on randomized data structures and their applications to memory and storage systems. He earned his PhD in computer science from Rutgers University.

Effective January 1, 2024:

Raaz Dwivedi comes to Cornell Tech as an Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He earned his Ph.D at EECS, UC Berkeley. His research focuses on building effective strategies for personalized decision-making with theory and methods across causal inference, reinforcement learning, and distribution compression, and applications to healthcare. Prior to Cornell, he was a postdoc jointly between Harvard and MIT, and spent time at Microsoft Research. He has received the President of India Gold Medal at IIT Bombay, the Berkeley Fellowship, teaching awards at UC Berkeley and Harvard, and a best student paper award for his work on optimal compression.

About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.

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NEW YORK (August 22, 2023) – Cornell Tech announced today that Prof. Israel Cidon – entrepreneur, renowned leader in network engineering and former faculty member and Dean at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology – joins Cornell Tech as director of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell institute. Cidon will succeed Ron Brachman whose appointment began in 2016.

The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech pushes the boundaries of academia at Cornell Tech, with dual-degree programs in Health Tech, Connective Media, and Urban Tech. Since its founding, the Jacobs Institute has incubated 42 new startup companies, which have filed almost 50 patent applications and secured more than $200 million in private funding. More than 80% of these companies are still operating and, in aggregate, they employ well over 200 employees in New York City.

As the new Director, Cidon will lead the Jacobs Institute’s strategic vision as it continues to grow its interdisciplinary, translational research focused on grand challenges in the digital realm; its innovative dual-degree programs; and its commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship.

“Professor Cidon has led groundbreaking research, co-founded several successful start-ups and developed 65  U.S. patents covering aspects of data networks including mobility, packet switching, security, Internet, and beyond,” said Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett. “His extensive expertise, start-up and industrial research experience – including at VMWare, one of Silicon Valley’s leading companies – will be fundamental to advancing the Jacobs Institute’s mission of offering a global perspective on research, education, technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurship.”

“Professor Israel Cidon is an esteemed computer networking researcher with extensive management experience at the Technion,” said Technion President Professor Uri Sivan. “As Dean he led the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering to significant achievements. Professor Cidon has a rich and successful background in entrepreneurship, and he maintains close relationships with the industry. I am confident that he will contribute significantly to strengthening the collaborations between Technion and Cornell University and advancing research and development at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.”

“The Jacobs Institute represents the academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology at Cornell Tech,” said Israel Cidon, Head of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. “It’s a privilege to succeed Ron Brachman as director of the Jacobs Institute and build upon Ron’s leadership, furthering the institute’s innovative approach to research and industry partnership.”

Cidon comes to the Institute from VMware Research, where for over six years he served as Vice President and Researcher working on high-performance, world-wide networks that bridged IoT, data centers, public clouds and more, enabling and optimizing geo-distributed modern applications. Prior to his time at VMware, he worked as a faculty member at The Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, published over 180 peer reviewed papers and served as Dean of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2006 to 2010. Cidon has cofounded a number of technology companies, including Micronet Ltd., an early mobile data entry pioneer; Actona Technology, which introduced the basic technology for WAN optimization; Viola Networks, a network quality of service testing and diagnosis; and Sookasa, an organizational SaaS security platform.

About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.

About Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology celebrates its first centennial this year. The impact of the Technion on Israel’s economy, society and defense is unmatched. It has long leveraged boundary-crossing collaborations to advance breakthrough research and technologies that impacted the world. Now, with a presence in three countries, the Technion prepares the next generation of global innovators. Technion people, ideas and inventions made immeasurable contributions to the world, innovating in fields from cancer research and sustainable energy to communication theory, quantum technologies, nanotechnology, and computer science.

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The Yang-Tan WorkABILITY Incubator, recently launched through the ILR School’s Center for Applied Research on Work (CAROW), will support innovative applied research projects and collaborations that bring together two or more parts of the university to address important societal issues linked to work.

Funded through the generosity of K. Lisa Yang ’74, the incubator will provide support both to early stage projects and larger initiatives.

“Through applied research and collaboration across Cornell to create tools that will translate into equity and impact for individuals, CAROW and the Yang-Tan WorkABILITY Incubator will enable the ILR School to truly advance the world of work,” Yang said.

The incubator has already launched the Initiative on Home Care and Home Health Care Workers. It will also be the new home of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative. Both initiatives build a community of scholars and researchers across Cornell’s campuses.

“The Yang-Tan WorkABILITY Incubator provides CAROW with an engine through which to tackle the big, consequential challenges of our day in the areas of work, employment and labor,” said Ariel Avgar, Ph.D. ’08, the director of CAROW. “The two inaugural initiatives are a perfect case in point. Focusing on the working conditions of low-wage workers in health care and the equitable access to employment opportunities for justice- involved individuals builds on Cornell expertise with the goal of guiding action based on applied research.”

“We owe a great debt to Lisa Yang’s vision and generosity, which have made this effort and approach possible,” Avgar said.

The Initiative on Home Care and Home Health Care Workers will be directed by Weill Cornell Medicine’s Dr. Madeline Sterling ’08. Nicola Dell, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, will serve as director of technical innovation.

“This new initiative will drive rigorous interdisciplinary research on the link between working conditions, the home care workforce and the delivery of high-quality patient care with the goal of influencing practice and policy,” said Avgar, ILR’s senior associate dean for outreach and sponsored research.

Sterling is an expert on home care and its impact on the health of patients. Her research focuses on examining how home care services impact the delivery of care and novel ways to leverage the home care workforce to improve both worker and patient outcomes.

Dell studies human-computer interactions, computer security and privacy, and information and communication technologies and development. Dell’s health care work examines the potential for designing technologies that enhance equity for home care workers.

ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative will receive funding from the incubator, in addition to its state funding. Directed by Timothy McNutt with Jodi Anderson serving as technical innovation director and Matt Saleh as research director, the initiative provides training on criminal records and employment law to job seekers who have been involved in the criminal legal system. The program also assists employers in developing fair chance hiring, engages in research to study reentry practices and works with policymakers and legislators on criminal justice reform.

McNutt has a background in criminal law, litigation and policy to improve employment opportunities for people with criminal records. He has interacted with hundreds of incarcerated and newly paroled people in the past five years to help them access and correct their criminal records, and get jobs. McNutt broadened the outreach through the incubator to include the Restorative Record Project, which helps job candidates create non-traditional résumés that highlight core competencies and micro-credentials.

Anderson, a Cornell Prison Education Program alumnus who earned a master’s degree from Stanford University, is the developer of Rézme, an app created to support justice-involved job candidates.

Saleh is a senior research associate at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at the ILR School. His research focuses on career pathways for youth with disabilities and on employment barriers such as justice involvement.

Julie Greco is a senior communications specialist for the ILR School.

This story originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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There will soon be a second “Feeney Way” at Cornell: a central thoroughfare at Cornell Tech to be named in honor of the transformative impact and legacy of Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney ’56, the university’s most generous donor.

The former East Avenue running through the heart of the Ithaca campus was renamed Feeney Way in April 2021, timed to coincide with Feeney’s 90th birthday.

This month, in conjunction with Feeney’s 92nd birthday, the university has announced that the central “Tech Walk” on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City will also be renamed Feeney Way.

The naming recognizes the record-setting $350 million founding grant Feeney made to the university through The Atlantic Philanthropies – the largest-ever single gift to Cornell and one of the biggest in higher education history – to fund first-phase construction and program development on the Roosevelt Island campus, while also creating a permanent endowment to help sustain its future.

Feeney, the founding chairman of The Atlantic Philanthropies, spent several decades of his life quietly giving away nearly all of his $8 billion fortune to worldwide causes, with nearly $1 billion invested in Cornell over a 40-year period.

Even after the impact of his philanthropy was revealed in the late 1990s, Feeney chose not to connect his name in any way to the many institutions he supported. He only agreed to the renaming of East Avenue on the Ithaca campus because it was an expression of gratitude by the university – and because it could inspire current and future generations of Cornellians to give back to their communities and make a difference.

“I’m delighted that Chuck Feeney’s name will now stand at the heart of Cornell Tech – a place that his generosity and vision made possible,” said President Martha E. Pollack. “It’s a wonderfully fitting recognition of the impact of his lifetime of quiet, but incredibly consequential philanthropy: a walkway that leads to every path, and every building, on our Cornell Tech campus.”

“Earning wealth is one measure of success. Investing one’s wealth to increase educational opportunities and expand knowledge, awareness, and innovation is a more meaningful way of realizing success,” Feeney said. “Supporting Cornell Tech was an enduring way to extend to others the opportunities from which I benefited. I am grateful for this recognition of my approach to giving while living and hope that Feeney Way will guide a path for similar success for many others to come.”

The quarter-mile Tech Walk that will be renamed Feeney Way is the backbone of the campus, beginning at its entrance just south of the 59th Street Bridge and the Roosevelt Island tram lines that arch overhead. The 30-foot-wide walk links to other pedestrian paths as it connects the campus’s main buildings and the Campus Plaza at its center.

As the renamed Feeney Way, the path will ultimately extend its length through the entirety of the second and third phases of the campus’s construction.

“We are so thrilled and honored to name the central artery of the Cornell Tech campus after Chuck Feeney,” said Greg Morrisett, the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech. “His tremendous gift, through The Atlantic Philanthropies, enabled Cornell and the Technion to not only win the initial competition to build Cornell Tech, but to launch all aspects of this amazing, innovative campus.”

The design and installation of signage marking Feeney Way at Cornell Tech will take place over the next several months, with a celebration and unveiling planned in the 2023-24 academic year.

A native of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Feeney enrolled in what is now the Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration in 1952 with support from the GI Bill. At Cornell, he was already beginning entrepreneurial ventures, creating a sandwich business so profitable that his classmates called him “the sandwich man.” Two years after graduation, he and Robert Miller ’55 co-founded Duty Free Shoppers, which became the world’s largest seller of luxury goods.

In 1984, Feeney secretly gave away nearly all his fortune by transferring his stake in Duty Free Shoppers and other businesses (estimated at more than $900 million at the time) to create and establish The Atlantic Philanthropies.

Through Atlantic, Feeney became one of the world’s greatest philanthropists, giving worldwide to universities, nonprofits and causes focused on education, human rights, health equity, medical research, peacemaking and social justice.

Feeney’s decades of generosity to Cornell included the gift to help establish Cornell Tech; creation and endowment of the Cornell Tradition program, and leading support for other scholarship initiatives; help creating the university’s current North and West Campus residential communities; and many years of support for various university infrastructure and academic programs, as well as athletics and student life.

One of the earliest proponents of the “giving while living” philosophy, Feeney helped inspire people of means to give away the majority of their wealth to better the world during their lifetimes. When Warren Buffet and Bill Gates created the Giving Pledge initiative to motivate the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to do the same, they cited Feeney as their inspiration.

Feeney reached his lifetime goal of giving away his entire fortune and formally dissolved The Atlantic Philanthropies in 2020.

In 2021, Entrepreneurship at Cornell created the Charles F. Feeney ’56 Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Humanity to honor world-class Cornell entrepreneurs who have also made tremendous gifts to humanity through either philanthropy or the positive impact of their business ventures, and honored Feeney as the first recipient.

A Feeney Way was unveiled at the University of Limerick in Ireland in March, as well as one at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2022 – additional tributes to Feeney’s global impact, especially on higher education.

Joe Wilensky is a staff writer for Cornellians.

This story originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle. 

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With the support of a transformative gift from Franci J. Blassberg ’75, J.D. ’77, and Joseph L. Rice III, the Blassberg-Rice Center for Entrepreneurship Law will expand the popular Entrepreneurship Law Clinic.

“We are so excited to help support the incredible program at Cornell Law School to train students to be thoughtful counselors to entrepreneurs and to provide an enhanced opportunity for entrepreneurs to get excellent legal guidance,” Blassberg said.

The Blassberg-Rice Center’s first priority will be the expansion of the five-year-old Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, in which students provide Ithaca-area startups with a wide range of free transactional legal services, counseling clients on everything from branding to commercial contracts, data privacy, employment, equity allocation, founders’ agreements, intellectual property, marketing, negotiations and, during the pandemic, COVID-19 protocols for businesses and employees.

Law students can start in the clinic in their second and third years, and typically remain in the clinic for the rest of their Cornell careers, gaining transactional experience as they progress toward graduation. Along the way, they sharpen the foundational skills they need to succeed in corporate law, emerging with a real-world understanding of building long-term relationships and advising clients across the early stages of business development, said Celia Bigoness, who founded the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic and will now direct the Blassberg-Rice Center.

The center will both broaden the clinic’s existing Ithaca work and give law students who choose to spend a semester at Cornell Tech an opportunity to work with clients in the New York City area – a first for the law school’s Cornell Tech curriculum.

“The creation of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic has been one of the most important developments in our clinical program,” said Jens David Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law. “It’s been hugely successful – so successful that its capacity isn’t nearly enough to satisfy student demand. This expansion will allow us to scale the program while keeping the intensive, hands-on approach that makes it so effective. We can broaden our reach, turning this clinic into a full-blown center and offering our corporate law students a transformational experience in New York City.”

Ohlin and Bigoness expect to hire two full-time clinical instructors in 2024, one based in Ithaca and the other at the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. They are seeking to hire experienced lawyers with an established commitment to both startup legal services and legal education. Those hires would triple the number of faculty in the clinic, the number of client businesses it serves and the number of law students who can participate.

“We have a model that’s working really well, but we’re just touching the tip of the iceberg in the clients we can serve,” says Bigoness, clinical professor of law. “With the creation of the center, more students will gain the hard legal skills of transactional lawyering along with the soft skills of managing long-term relationships with clients. They’ll learn how to think from a business owner’s perspective, how to communicate about finance and risk management, and how to hit the ground running when they begin their full-time practice as lawyers.”

In Ithaca, Cornell Law students will continue focusing on the clinic’s waitlist of regional entrepreneurs. Companies that have recently worked with the clinic include AI-Learners, which provides accessible math courses for children with learning disabilities, and Lev Kitchen, a Middle Eastern restaurant that provides a living wage to its staff and is owned by two Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration graduates. In New York City, Cornell Law students will represent a similar variety of entrepreneurs and startups while participating in a technology-focused law curriculum at Cornell Tech. This program will allow Cornell Law School to deepen its partnership with Cornell Tech in promoting the growth of both for-profit and nonprofit technology-based business ventures.

Kenny Berkowitz is a freelance writer for Cornell Law School.

This story originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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“In the last decade, we have deepened Cornell Tech’s role in New York City and the local technology ecosystem and Neil will only build upon that to lead the important collaborations happening beyond our campus,” said Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett. “Neil’s leadership working with local and federal governments, crafting strategic communications and building coalitions will bolster the impactful and innovative work our faculty and researchers are doing.”

“As a New Yorker and proud Cornell alum, I’ve been inspired by the economic and social impact Cornell Tech has on our city and the broader tech industry,” said Neil Giacobbi, Assistant Dean for External Affairs at Cornell Tech. ”The innovative and urgent work by Cornell Tech’s brilliant and passionate faculty and students will advance society and improve the lives of generations of New Yorkers and people across the globe, and I am so eager to help tell and amplify their stories so everyone knows how fortunate we are to have Cornell Tech here in our city.”

Giacobbi comes to Cornell Tech from AT&T, where he served on the public affairs team for eight years. He lives in New York City and graduated from Cornell in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations.

Since the campus’ founding in 2011, Cornell Tech has graduated more than 1,500 highly skilled tech grads. The campus has spun out 94 startups, 95% of which are headquartered in New York City, raising $240 million in VC funding and employing 420 people – helping to make its startup ecosystem the second most valuable in the world.

Giacobbi’s first day at Cornell Tech was Monday, February 13.

About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.

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Nicola Dell, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, has received the 2023 Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Societal Impact Award.

One of three awardees, Dell was recognized for leveraging research in human-computer interaction (HCI) for the greater good: her work improves computer security and privacy for victims of intimate partner violence, strengthens digital privacy in non-Western contexts, and guides the development of technology that supports home health care workers.

Together with colleague Thomas Ristenpart, professor of computer science at Cornell Tech and Cornell Bowers CIS, Dell founded the Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA), which provides free tech support for survivors of intimate partner violence. CETA is embedded within the Family Justice Center social support system run by the New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.

“I’m truly honored to receive the SIGCHI Societal Impact Award and am grateful for the amazing collaborators, students, postdocs, and research partners who make my work possible,” Dell said. “This award is a wonderful recognition of our research team’s hard work and accomplishments over the last few years.”

Dell’s research spans HCI and Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), which explores how technology can assist underserved communities. Specifically, her work focuses on designing, building, and evaluating computer systems for underserved populations in low-income areas around the world.

Her research has been published widely in journals including the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, and has received several awards at premier conferences including ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), and the USENIX Security Symposium, among others.

Among her many honors and recognitions, Dell received a Google Award for Inclusion Research in 2022, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2018, and two Google Faculty Research Awards in 2020 and 2018.

Dell earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in 2011 and 2015, respectively. At Cornell, she is a member of the Center for Health Equity, the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech, and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Louis DiPietro is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

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