MOUNT VERNON — Dava Sobel, an award-winning writer and former New York Times science reporter, will speak on “The Quest for Longitude” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, at Cornell College.

Her talk, for Cornell’s Anderson Science Lecture, is in Kimmel Theatre of Youngker Hall. Admission is free.

Sobel has authored “Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time,” “Galileo’s Daughter” and its sequel, “Letters to Father,” and “The Planets.” She has written for magazines including Audubon, Discover, Life and The New Yorker, has been a contributing editor to Harvard Magazine and Omni and has co-authored five books, including “Is Anyone Out There?” with astronomer Frank Drake.

She is now working on a stage play about 16th-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

“Longitude” was translated into two dozen languages and became a national and international best seller after its 1995 original publication. The book won the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and “Book of the Year” in England.

“Galileo’s Daughter,” based on 124 surviving letters to Galileo from his eldest child, won the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science and technology and was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

The PBS science program “Nova” produced television documentaries based on Sobel’s books, “Lost At Sea — The Search for Longitude” and “Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens,” with the latter winning an Emmy in the category of historical programming. Granada Films of England created “Longitude,” a drama starring Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon, which aired on A&E as a four-hour made-for-TV movie. A “Nova” adaptation of “The Planets” is in production.

Sobel received the 2001 Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board “for fostering awareness of science and technology among broad segments of the general public.” The Boston Museum of Science gave her its prestigious Bradford Washburn Award in 2001 for “outstanding contribution toward public understanding of science, appreciation of its fascination, and the vital role it plays in all our lives.” In October 2004, in London, she received the Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, in recognition of her contribution to increasing awareness of the science of horology by the general public, through her writing and lecturing.

Sobel is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and the State University of New York at Binghamton.

The Anderson Science Lecture was established by the late Richmond Anderson and Cleo Holland Anderson, both Cornell graduates, in honor of their families. Richmond earned a medical degree at Northwestern University and had a nearly 30-year career in public health. Previous Anderson Lectures have been given by Dudley Herschbach of Harvard, Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University and William Lipscomb of Harvard, all Nobel laureates in chemistry; Jerald Schnoor of the University of Iowa’s department of civil and environmental engineering; and Victor Weisskopf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology department of physics.

MOUNT VERNON — A Danish novelist and an Albanian poet will discuss their works and give readings Thursday, Sept. 14, to launch Cornell College’s Global Voices, a series of campus appearances by international writers.

The discussion is at 3:30 p.m. and the reading at 7:30 p.m., both in Shaw Lounge of The Commons. The events are open to the public and admission is free.

Mathilde Walter Clark lives in Copenhagen, where she is a columnist and television critic. Author of a novel, “Thorsten Madsen’s Ego,” and a collection of short stories, “Disorder of Things,” she was awarded the 2005 Discovery of the Year in Literature by Carlsbergfonden and a major grant in 2006 from the Danish Art Foundation.

Gentian Cocoli has published three collections of poetry, most recently “Human Soil.” He has translated several contemporary American poets and won a prize for his translation of Seamus Heaney. His “Circumference of Ash” was selected a Best Poetry Book of the Year in 2001 by the Ministry of Culture. Cocoli is founder of the literary journal Aleph Review and of the publishing house Aleph Publishing. He heads the culture and art department in Albania’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Global Voices will present periodic visits to Cornell by creative writers in residence at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Since 1967, more than 1,000 writers from more than 115 countries have attended the IWP.

MOUNT VERNON — New students at Cornell College will join faculty and staff Saturday morning volunteering in several eastern Iowa communities before starting classes Monday, Sept. 4.

New Student Orientation Service Day on Sept. 2 marks its 12th year at Cornell, where approximately three-fourths of Cornell’s students participate in service projects annually. Last year nearly 350 workers donated over 1,200 hours on Service Day.

Volunteers will work Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at approximately 25 sites around eastern Iowa, nearly half of them in and around Mount Vernon and Lisbon.

Here is a partial list of the sites where volunteers will work:

Cedar Rapids
- OSADA Apartments, 905 Third St. SE: cleaning and painting apartments for MidAmerica Housing Partnership.
- CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 Third St. SE: cleaning and repair work.
- Waypoint/Madge Phillips Center, 318 Fifth St. SE: cleaning house/garage, organizing donations.

Mount Vernon
- Davis Park and the Mount Vernon Athletic Complex: picking up litter.
- Mount Vernon Fire Department and Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service: cleaning vehicles and bays.
- Edith Current Memorial Gardens: helping the Mount Vernon Garden Club with weeding, mulching, planting.

Lisbon
- Lisbon Cemetery: laying mulch.
- Lisbon City Park: landscaping, mulching.
- Southeast Linn Community Center: general cleanup, kitchen organizing.

Surrounding area
- Crowded Closet, 1213 S. Gilbert Court, Iowa City: organizing and sorting donations.
- Habitat for Humanity, 811 Hughes St., Iowa City: siding and roofing a house.
- Camp Courageous, Monticello: general cleanup.

MOUNT VERNON – For the second consecutive year, Cornell College is featured in “The Best 361 Colleges” from the Princeton Review.

About 15 percent of the four-year colleges in America are featured in the 2007 edition of the book, which went on sale Tuesday. The Princeton Review surveyed 115,000 students on specific topics and their overall campus experiences, ranking the schools in 62 categories. Cornell ranks among the top 15 in three categories – as a college where students are pleased with their financial assistance, where class discussions are encouraged and where professors make themselves accessible.

“The professors make this school what it is. Most don’t hold scheduled office hours because they’re there all the time, and they’re always there for the students, whether it be to talk about last night’s game or the upcoming test,” according to a student quoted in Cornell’s two-page profile.

Recognized as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, Cornell College is distinctive in U.S. higher education in offering the combination of liberal arts and science study within the One-Course-At-A-Time framework. Cornell also is featured again in the third edition of “Colleges That Change Lives,” a book by former New York Times education reporter Loren Pope. And Cornell was recently cited by the Times as one of 20 hidden gems in higher education that “stress undergraduate teaching, have established or rising scholarship” and are good alternatives to popular brand-name universities. The Times recognized four “northern plains” colleges: Carleton, Cornell, Grinnell and Macalester.

MOUNT VERNON — Two publications have selected Cornell College as a hidden gem among the nation’s colleges and universities.

The New York Times’ Education Life special section on Sunday, July 30, recognized Cornell in an article headlined “Off the beaten path,” which cites 20 colleges that “stress undergraduate teaching, have established or rising scholarship” and are good alternatives to popular brand-name universities. The 20 “stealth powerhouses” were chosen with the help of higher education experts and counselors. Four “Northern Plains” colleges were featured: Carleton, Cornell, Grinnell and Macalester. There are more than 2,500 four-year colleges and universities in the United States.

The Times’ article noted Cornell’s One-Course-At-A-Time, or block, calendar, where students take a single course for 3 ½ weeks, allows students to “really focus and to spend more time in the field.” Cornell students also can design their own majors, are actively involved in research with professors and continue on to graduate or professional schools at a high rate, the Times said.

Also spotlighting Cornell is “Colleges That Change Lives,” a book by former New York Times education editor Loren Pope, which profiles 40 “catalytic” colleges that “outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers.” A new edition of the book, first published in 1996, was released in July by Penguin Books. The book gives readers a comprehensive assessment of each school and also includes general advice for the college-bound.

Cornell is the only Iowa college recognized in “Colleges That Change Lives.”

“It is wonderful that Cornell is being increasingly recognized for the extraordinary opportunities it offers students. In part, this type of publicity has enabled the college to attract the best and brightest students not only from Iowa but throughout the region, nation and world,” said Jonathan Stroud, Cornell vice president for enrollment and dean of admission.

Cornell is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college of approximately 1,200 men and women from over 40 states and a dozen foreign countries. The student-faculty ratio is 11:1 and the average class size is 17, with a maximum of 25. Approximately 92 percent of graduates finish in four years or less and almost 50 percent have double majors or a major and a minor.

MOUNT VERNON — Nine Cornell College students are attending a leadership conference at Upper Iowa University in Fayette from July 18 to 23.

The LeaderShape Institute helps college students learn how to lead with integrity through sessions on topics such as building community and bringing vision to reality. A guest leader forum features Iowans involved in business and public affairs, including Mark Zinkula, Cornell vice president for business affairs. On the last day of the conference, students participate in a commencement ceremony.

The conference includes more than 60 participating students from seven Iowa colleges: Cornell, Drake University, the University of Iowa, Loras College, Simpson College, Upper Iowa and Wartburg College. The LeaderShape Institute has collaborated with campuses across the country since 1992 to bring LeaderShape conferences to students. Last year 46 institutions hosted LeaderShape conferences. Participating students learn how to develop ideas into programs they can implement on campus to improve the world around them.

Cornell students attending the conference in Fayette are: Erik Jensen, Amanda Jepson, Colin Kirkeby, Jessica McMaster, Erica Milner, Heather Roth, Bryan Roush, Kerri Timmerman and Leslie Tweeton.

MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College, the summer home of Red Cedar Chamber Music, is hosting the Red Cedar Chamber Music Summer Festival for the third straight year as professional duos from across the country visit campus July 16-23 to study the finer points of musicianship and the business of music making with Jan Boland, flute, and John Dowdall, guitar, founders of Red Cedar.

Summer Festival concerts are:

A Parlor Concert: Spillville & Summer Snow
Sunday, July 16, 6-8:30 p.m.
Rexroat/Farooqi residence, 217 First Ave. NW, Mount Vernon
Tickets are $30, available in advance at the Perfect Blend or Fuel Coffee Shop in Mount Vernon.
Enjoy a concert for flute, viola and guitar by Red Cedar Trio members Boland, Dowdall and Michael Kimber. This unique house concert is an intimate evening of music, wine and refreshments. The program features “Spillville,” a new work by Harvey Sollberger, inspired by music Dvorak wrote when he lived in Spillville, Iowa, in 1893; “Winter-Night Canticles” for flute and guitar by Andrew Simpson, Red Cedar’s composer-in-residence; and a piece for two flutes and two guitars with guests Bret and Annette Heim of the Heim Duo. Because of limited seating, tickets must be purchased in advance. Presented in partnership with the Mount Vernon Area Arts Council. Beverages and hors-d’oeuvres at 6 p.m. and Parlor Concert at 7 p.m.

Red Cedar Summer Festival Performance at Fuel Coffee Shop
Thursday, July 20, 6-7:30 p.m.
Fuel, 103 First St. E, Mount Vernon
Admission is free and reservations are not required. Hear flute and guitar duos from across the country.

MOUNT VERNON - Laura Erceg of Bemidji, Minn., a recent graduate of Cornell College with majors in Russian and sociology, has been awarded a Fulbright grant, the second Cornell student to receive a Fulbright this year.

Beginning in August, Erceg will spend 10 1/2 months in Russia hosted by the psychology and social sciences department at Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok. Her classmate, recent graduate Ryan Taugher, an international relations major from Madison, Wis., was awarded a Fulbright grant to spend nine months in Turkey studying and researching the international impact of controlling the region’s water resources.

“It is really quite an achievement for two students from a small college like Cornell to receive Fulbright grants in the same year. Some of the best prepared and ambitious students at the college applied for this competitive program. We were very pleased that those who received awards had taken advantage of previous opportunities to travel abroad and to learn about their host countries,” said Robert Givens, Cornell professor of history and Fulbright program faculty advisor.

Since 1956, 19 Cornell students have earned Fulbright grants. For details on the Fulbright program, go to http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/

MOUNT VERNON - Summer work hours for the college began Tuesday, June 6. Official office hours are 8 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 4 p.m. Summer hours will continue through Friday, Aug. 18, with regular office hours resuming Monday, Aug. 21, two weeks before classes begin. Below are hours of operation for select buildings.

The Commons and Info Desk: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- The Bookstore is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday; closed Monday-Tuesday, July 3-4.
- The Roe Howard Fitness Center is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. A Cornell ID is required for entry. After 4 p.m. access to The Commons is permitted only through the south rear door to the lower level.

Hilltop Fitness Club
Monday-Thursday: 6-9 a.m., 11 a.m.-1 p.m., 5:30-8 p.m.
Friday: 6-9 a.m., 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m.-Noon
Sunday: 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Closed Friday evenings.

Small Multi-Sport Center Weight Room
Monday-Thursday: 6-8 a.m., 5:30-8 p.m.
Friday: 6-8 a.m.
Saturday: 9-11:30 a.m.
Sunday: 5:30-8 p.m.

Cole Library
Monday: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tuesday-Wednesday: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Thursday-Friday: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
Monday-Tuesday, July 3-4: Closed

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will confer degrees on 248 students at commencement on Saturday, June 3, at 1:30 p.m. in the Richard and Norma Small Multi-Sport Center.

Christina McOmber, associate professor of art, will give the faculty address, “Apples and Knowledge: The Care and Feeding of the Adult Human.” Her talk will stress how fostering a caring environment encourages intellectual growth, with references to artists Michelangelo, Jackson Pollock and Frida Kahlo.

Mark Gordon of Albuquerque, N.M., who is graduating with a triple major in Spanish, politics and psychology, will be the senior class speaker.

English professor Rich Martin and religion professor Charles Vernoff will receive emeriti status. Martin is retiring after 36 years of service. Vernoff is retiring after 28 years at Cornell.

Saturday events begin at 9 a.m. with a baccalaureate service in King Chapel. Father Catherine Quehl-Engel, college chaplain, will deliver the sermon. Seniors’ words of thanksgiving for family, friends and mentors will be read at the service.

Cornell’s Delta of Iowa chapter of Phi Beta Kappa will hold a reception at 10:30 a.m. in Cole Library. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most widely respected academic honor society in the United States. There are 270 chapters in the United States, including seven in Iowa.

After a buffet luncheon from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Cornell seniors, faculty and administrators will assemble at 12:45 p.m. in the Multi-Sport Center for the traditional academic procession that begins the 1:30 p.m. commencement ceremony. The public is invited.