News

The U.S. Geological Survey reports an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 centered in northern Virginia that has been felt here in New York City, including on Columbia’s campuses.

Special from The Record 

For years, Iranian studies scholar Ehsan Yarshater was frustrated that there was only one comprehensive and reliable reference for his field. It was E.J. Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Islam, which did not cover pre-Islamic Iran.

Professor Ehsan Yarshater discusses the challenges of compiling the Encyclopaedia Iranica in his book-lined office. Image credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University

Another encyclopedia was needed, so he decided to create it himself. In 1974, Yarshater began a decades-long…

Researchers returning from a cruise some 250 miles off the coast of Oregon have reported seeing a volcanic eruption on the seafloor that they accurately forecast five years ago—the first successful prediction of an undersea eruption. T

A new study co-authored by Columbia Engineering professor Kartik Chandran and recently published in the journal, Environmental Science & Technology, shows that reducing nitrogen pollution generated by wastewater treatment plants can come with "sizable" economic benefits, as well as the expected benefits for the environment.

Researchers at Columbia Engineering School have demonstrated that light can travel on an artificial material without leaving a trace under certain conditions, technology that would have many applications from the military to telecommunications.

John F. Szwed, professor of music and jazz studies at Columbia University, has been appointed director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia.

The rise of Internet search engines like Google has changed the way our brain remembers information, according to research by Columbia University psychologist Betsy Sparrow published July 14 in Science.

After the recent great quakes that have swept away entire coastlines and cities in Japan, Haiti and Sumatra, scientists are now looking hard at the nation that may suffer the gravest threat of all: Bangladesh

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announced the appointment of Miller Theatre director Melissa Smey as executive director of Columbia’s Arts Initiative, effective immediately.

On June 23, Low Library was transformed into a lively dance studio for Columbia’s fifth annual “Shall We Dance?”, sponsored by the Office of Government and Community Affairs, the School of Continuing Education-Summer High School Program and the University’s Arts Initiative.

A team of researchers led by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic has developed a new technique to evaluate human stem cells using cell micropatterning — a simple but powerful in vitro tool that will enable scientists to study the initiation of left-right asymmetry during tissue formation, to diagnose disease, and to study factors that could lead to certain birth defects.

Sixty years ago, when neurology department professor Harry Grundfest was doing groundbreaking research at the College of Physicians and Surgeons that attracted the likes of future Nobel laureate Eric Kandel to Columbia, he designed a workspace at the medical center that was intended to promote maximum contact among his postdoctoral students.

Dear Alma,

Columbia is big in interdisciplinary neuroscience, including two Nobel laureates, but who came before them?

—Neuro Fan