To kick off the school year, grad students hosted our annual EEB Department Picnic on August 23. The Picnic committee grilled meats and veggies on the shore of Cayuga lake, while department members arrived with homemade sides and desserts. This year, we also provided a brief orientation for incoming first-years on the ins and outs of the department. Welcome to all the new graduate students, and happy start of the semester!

Graduate students, faculty, post-docs and family filled Corson Hall this past weekend for our annual holiday celebration. The Holiday Party committee (Kelsey Jensen, Kara Andres, Christoper Tarango, and Maria Akopyan) decked out Corson with lights and decorations, arranged our main courses, and organized a highly competitive science and pop culture trivia session. The committee also brought in our first-ever photo booth, which made for some excellent impromptu lab photos.

Graduate students cooked a range of delicious veggie and meat dishes, and baked incredible sweets for our annual dessert competition. After stuffing ourselves, we sat back and watched the cohort-bonding video made by the first years. This year, students raised the bar by creating TWO videos. The first was titled “The Grinch Who Stole SNEEB,” documenting the efforts of a grumpy new student to thwart our beloved weekly social hour. The second was an impressive animation that described research in “Eco Evo” in a somewhat-well-timed recording of the first years singing to the tune of Despacito.

Thanks to everyone who made this another great Holiday Party!

The Fall 2017 semester has begun! We celebrated the return of most of Ithaca’s population with our annual Department Picnic. Faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and staff brought delectable dishes, fired up the grill, and admired the sunset over Cayuga Lake at Taughannock Park. Welcome back!

This year’s Grilled Cheese competition was particularly remarkable: first, Harry Green himself was present to judge the best sandwich.

Second, our Cornell mascot Big Red emerged from hibernation to artfully place sandwiches between his teeth.

Third, most shockingly but most welcome, our brand new Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack came to judge our very silly but beloved event.

Teams ranged dramatically in style and names, from The Glutentag to The Really Really Really Ridiculously Good Tasting Grilled Cheese. Congratulations to all for a fantastic, delicious event!

The annual EEB Holiday Party was a great success, with a belly-busting potluck buffet and elaborate dessert competition entries. As a new tradition, a group of faculty gave five-minute talks to slides created by graduate students; topics included the aerodynamics of sea urchins, phenotypic plasticity in Pokemon, foraging behavior of deadly reptiles, and the range limits of burger joints. The evening was topped off by a delightful and unusually well-produced first year video. Thanks to all who came!

To welcome our new cohort of graduate students, we held our annual first-year dinner! Thanks to Ellie Goud for hosting, to the first year dinner committee for preparing delicious soups, and to all others who brought incredible dishes.