Kurt Lewin taught at Cornell from 1933 to 1935 and is considered the " father of social psychology " . Norman Borlaug taught at the university from 1982 to 1988 and is considered the " father of the Green Revolution " , being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the Congressional Gold Medal , and 49 honorary doctorates . Frances Perkins joined the Cornell faculty in 1952 after serving as the first female member of the United States Cabinet and served until her death in 1965 . Perkins was a witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in her adolescence and went on to champion the National Labor Relations Act , the Fair Labor Standards Act , and the Social Security Act while United States Secretary of Labor . Buckminster Fuller was a visiting professor at Cornell for one year ( 1952 ) , and Henry Louis Gates , African American Studies scholar and subject of an arrest controversy and White House " Beer Summit " , taught at Cornell from 1985 to 1989 . Plant genetics pioneer Ray Wu invented the first method for sequencing DNA , considered a major breakthrough in genetics as it has enabled researchers to more closely understand how genes work . Emmy Award-winning actor John Cleese , known for his roles in '' Monty Python '' , '' James Bond '' , '' Harry Potter '' and '' Shrek '' , has taught at Cornell since 1999 . Charles Evans Hughes taught in the law school from 1893 to 1895 before becoming Governor of New York , United States Secretary of State , and Chief Justice of the United States . Georgios Papanikolaou , who taught at Cornell 's medical school from 1913 to 1961 , invented the Pap smear test for cervical cancer . Robert C. Baker ( ' 43 ) , widely credited for inventing the chicken nugget , taught at Cornell from 1957 to 1989 . Carl Sagan was a professor at the university from 1968 to 1996 . He narrated and co-wrote the PBS series '' Cosmos '' , the Emmy Award - and Peabody Award-winning show that became the most watched series in public-television history . He also wrote the novel '' Contact '' , the basis for a 1997 film of the same name , and he won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel '' The Dragons of Eden : Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence '' . M. H. Abrams was a professor emeritus of English and was the founding editor of '' The Norton Anthology of English Literature '' . James L. Hoard , a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project Vladimir Nabokov taught Russian and European literature at Cornell between 1948 and 1959
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Cornell University