News Archive

Ten Faculty Members Receive Guggenheim Fellowships

Several full-time and adjunct professors at Columbia and Barnard, in disciplines ranging from dance to history to writing, were awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships for 2014, based on their distinguished achievement and exceptional future promise.

Longer Nurse Tenure on Hospital Units Leads to Higher-Quality Care
When it comes to the cost and quality of hospital care, nurse tenure and teamwork matters. Patients get the best care when they are treated in units that are staffed by nurses who have extensive experience in their current job, according to a study from researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing and Columbia Business School. The study was published in the current issue of the American Economics Journal: Applied Economics. The review of more than 900,000 patient admissions over four years at hospitals in the Veterans Administration Healthcare System is the largest study of its kind…
James Shapiro Edits New Anthology on Shakespeare in America
James Shapiro is among the best known Shakespeare scholars in the world. His award-winning books include Shakespeare and the Jews (1995), A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 (2005) and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010). He is now at work on The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, to be published in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. His latest book is a departure of sorts. Shakespeare in America: An Anthology from the Revolution to Now, just published to coincide with the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth on April 23, 1564, is a 700-page collection…
Columbia’s 2014 Honorary Degree Recipients Announced

Columbia University will confer eight honorary degrees and recognize the alumni recipient of its University Medal for Excellence at commencement exercises on Wednesday, May 21.

Engineering an Earthquake to Buttress the National Cathedral

Robert Mark and George Deodatis, the Santiago and Robertina Calatrava Family Professor of Civil Engineering designed a life-size model of one of the 10-foot spires atop the neo-Gothic cathedral to see if it could withstand vibrations similar to those in 2011 that damaged several pinnacles, flying buttresses and a gargoyle, causing millions of dollars in damage to the structure. No one was injured.

University Announces 63 Winners of First-Ever Columbia Startup Lab Contest

Columbia announced today the 31 teams that have been selected to join the Columbia Startup Lab, one of a growing number of university initiatives engaged with New York City’s burgeoning startup sector and dedicated to fostering entrepreneurial talent. 

James Shapiro Edits New Anthology on Shakespeare in America

James Shapiro is among the best known Shakespeare scholars in the world. His award-winning books include Shakespeare and the Jews (1995), A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 (2005) and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010).

Community Brain Expo 2014

School students arrived at the New York State Psychiatric Institute’s Kolb Annex on the Columbia University Medical Center campus March 12 to participate in the annual Community Brain Expo, cosponsored by the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University.

American Choral Conductor Harold Rosenbaum Wins 2014 Ditson Conductors’ Award

Harold Rosenbaum, distinguished scholar, teacher and choral conductor, is the recipient of the 2014 Ditson Conductor’s Award for the advancement of American music, Columbia University has announced.

Warming Climate May Spread Drying to a Third of Earth, Says Study
Increasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone, says a new study. Much of the concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections, but higher evaporation rates may also play an important role as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil, even in some places where rainfall is forecasted to increase, say the researchers. The study is one of the first to use the latest climate simulations to model the effects of both changing rainfall and evaporation rates…
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin Recipient of 2014 Mendel Medal

W. Ian Lipkin, MD, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and director of the school’s Center for Infection and Immunity, was named recipient of Villanova University’s 2014 Mendel Medal. 

Ask Alma's Owl: Organ at St. Paul’s Chapel

Dear Alma,
I know pipe organs are called the king of instruments, but how did St. Paul’s Chapel come by its own musical crown?
—Melody

The Marriage of True Minds: A freewheeling conversation with the Broadway team of Tom Kitt ’96 and Brian Yorkey ’93
Study: Innovative Pre-Apprenticeship Program for Minority Youth Deserves Expansion

Just weeks after President Barack Obama announced the creation of “My Brother’s Keeper,” an initiative aimed at increasing job training opportunities for young black and Latino men, a study released today by Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs found that the Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills, an innovative workforce development model for students in New York’s career and technical high schools, has been succeeding in placing minority youth in middle-class careers in the construction industry.

Women were digital media pioneers but underrepresented and underappreciated in journalism startups

USA Today launched its first website just days before the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and its staff helped create a new kind of crisis storytelling in the aftermath. Rapid updates, photos, and story indexes made the web, for the first time in human history, a significant source of information for understanding national tragedy. Two years later, another major paper continued to shape our understanding of online news when a web producer at Philly.com assembled the multimedia version of Black Hawk Down. On the West Coast, meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News unveiled Good Morning Silicon Valley…