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Hamilton alumni, students, and colleagues send well-wishes and thanks to four members of the faculty who will enter the world of retirement at the conclusion of the 2022-23 academic year. We asked each of them to reflect on their time on College Hill and what’s next.

As the sight of plows on icy roads becomes a distant winter memory, people across the state breathe a sigh of relief. But as the ice melts, a new problem surfaces: road salt. In the village of Waterville, just 10 miles from campus, Jenny Soonthornrangsan ’19 and Nicholas Jickling ’19 are trying to do something about it.

His research project was meaningful in and of itself — investigating high salt levels in wells not far from campus. But Chris Klein ’18 also gained experience in handling the unexpected, as in, “What else can we try to figure this out?”

Members of Robin Kinnel’s Environmental Studies 220 class, “The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondacks,” took a whirlwind tour of the area they are studying when they visited the Adirondacks the weekend of Sept. 26-27.

Hamilton College Dean of Faculty Patrick Reynolds announced the promotion of two faculty members to the rank of professor. The promotions of Associate Professors of Geosciences David Bailey and Todd Rayne were approved by Hamilton’s Board of Trustees at its December meeting and will be effective Jan. 1, 2014.

Andy Chen ’16, John McGuinnis ’16 and Zachary Pilson ’16 are applying the science behind a survivalist water-collecting technique to develop an alternative energy-generating device. With a Levitt Research Group Grant, the team is utilizing a method similar to solar stills to generate energy from falling condensation.

The 2010 Lake, Stream and Watershed Issues Conference is being hosted and co-sponsored by Hamilton on Friday, Oct. 22, in the Fillius Events Barn. Associate Professor of Geosciences Todd Rayne will discuss the influence of surface water on municipal groundwater supply systems. Other speakers include individuals from Honeywell International, U.S. Geological Survey, SUNY-ESF, Natural Systems Engineering and Cornell University.

In the warmer seasons in Central New York, rainstorms can be sudden, violent and torrential, soaking students to the skin as they walk across campus. But for Cassidy Jay ’11, rain this summer means more than damp jeans: it means changes in the chemistry of water samples she collects from the Oriskany Basin. She and Associate Professor of Geosciences Todd Rayne are comparing the chemical composition of stream water before and after a rainstorm in the Oriskany Basin.