Cornell is a major research and teaching university with an international reputation in virtually every field of intellectual endeavor. It is recognized around the world, also, for its many practical contributions to human society. Chartered in 1865 as the land-grant institution of the State of New York, Cornell was the nation's first university to be both nondenominational and coeducational. Essentially a federation of state-supported and privately endowed colleges, Cornell provides its 13,500 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students with a diverse academic environment. Cornell's combination of strength and diversity can be traced back to the intention of its founder, Ezra Cornell, to provide instruction in any subject to any person. 

Cornell offers an impressive range of academic resources and research facilities. The library system, with close to eight million volumes, is one of the nation's largest. Many of its special holdings and collections, including several in the biological sciences, are among the most extensive anywhere in the world. Spanning the traditional disciplines at Cornell are more than 100 interdisciplinary research centers and programs, including the Center for Advanced Computing, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, and the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology.

A good place to start looking for information about Cornell are the Cornell University Webpage, and Cornell University's information system: CUinfo