Students came back from spring break to some good news concerning sustainability on the Hill. Hamilton was the winner of the three-week NY Negawatt/CCN Competition Challenge among New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium peer schools.  The student body, led by Hamilton Environmental Action Group (HEAG) reduced electricity consumption across all Hamilton residence halls by 5.8%, which equates to 27,909 kilowatt hours or approximately $2,500.

Twelve of Hamilton’s outstanding female science students are the first recipients of the Clare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Research Award. The new annual award will fund up to 12 female scientists each summer over the course of three years as Clare Boothe Luce Scholars in the fields of computer science, physics and chemistry. The $144,600 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation will be matched with funds from Hamilton.

A paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Economics Emily Conover was recently published in the journal Economic Development and Cultural Change. The paper “Effects of Subsidized Health Insurance on Newborn Health in a Developing Country” estimates the effect of a rapid and considerable expansion of health insurance coverage in the 1990s in Colombia on newborn health.

The flexibility of creating art and the limitless mediums at an artist’s disposal allow for bold originality and ingenuity. Multidisciplinary artist Chris Doyle takes full advantage of the vast range of possibility in art, and he shared his unique perspective with the Hamilton community as the college’s first speaker in the Artists in Conversation series.  Doyle’s video “Waste Generation” is on view at the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton.

Kimberly Bogardus ’14 has been named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar for the 2013-14 academic year. She is among 271 scholars from across the U.S. to receive the Goldwater, the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Robert Hayden ’14 and Christopher Richardson ’14 received honorable mention.

Professor of History Thomas Wilson received a Research Grant for Foreign Scholars in Chinese Studies from the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library, Taiwan.

Associate Professor of Art History Stephen J. Goldberg published a chapter in the book Contemporary Chinese Art and Film: Theory Applied and Resisted (New Academia Publishing, 2013), edited by Jason C. Kuo of the University of Maryland.

Bestselling author Julianna Baggott will read from her poetry on Thursday, April 4, at 8 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn. The reading is free, open to the public and sponsored by Hamilton’s Creative Writing department.

While many students may have been relaxing at home or on the beach during spring break, 19 Hamilton College students participated in the second week of the two-week Levitt Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C.

In preparation for the 2015 World Economic History Congress, Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi was a featured speaker at a workshop sponsored by the Japanese government.