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The Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing greater warming than almost anywhere on Earth, a condition perhaps associated with human-induced greenhouse effects. According to the cover article published in the August 4 issue of the journal Nature, the spectacular collapse of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, is unprecedented during the past 10,000 years. Eugene Domack, professor of geosciences at Hamilton College and the author of the paper, has been the lead scientist of a multi-institutional, international effort that combines a variety of disciplines in examining the response of the Antarctic Peninsula to modern warming. Domack says, "Our work contributes to the understanding of these changes -- where they are occurring first and with greatest magnitude and impact upon the environment."

Hamilton College’s Class of 2009 is the most academically competitive ever enrolled at the institution as measured by SAT scores and class standings. Average SAT scores are 1346, and 69 percent of the students rank in the top 10 percent of their class. These first-year students also comprise the most culturally diverse class in the college’s history. Eighteen percent of entering students are multicultural students from the U.S. Thirty-six states and 22 countries are represented. The College anticipates enrolling a first-year class of 500 students.

Three local colleges actively engaged in assisting refugees in Utica have joined together as sponsors of a photo exhibit, "Many Cultures, One Community," a visual presentation of the city's cultural diversity presented by the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (MVRCR). The exhibit's opening was held on World Refugee Day, Monday, June 20, in the Red Room Gallery in the Stanley Theatre in Utica. The exhibition will run through July 20 and is free and open to the public. It is hosted by MVRCR in conjunction with The Central New York Community Arts Council.

A paper written by Derek Jones, the Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, with Kosali Ilayperuma Simon '94, an assistant professor at Cornell University and Watson fellowship recipient while at Hamilton, has been published in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Comparative Economics. The paper is titled "Wage Determination under Plan and Early Transition: Bulgarian Evidence using Matched  Employer-Employee Data."

Economics Professor Elizabeth Jensen participated in a Teaching Innovations Program Workshop (TIP), June 3-5, in Washington, D.C. TIP is a program run by the American Economic Committee on Economic Education and funded by the National Science Foundation; this is the first year of a five-year program. Participants spent three days learning about and discussing interactive learning techniques such as classroom experiments and cooperative learning, which will be introduced into next year's classes.

"By the time the preliminary estimate of 1st quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is released on Thursday, it will mostly be old news," says former Federal Reserve economist and Hamilton economics professor Ann Owen. "While some revisions from the advance estimates released last month are likely, this information is only useful if it gives us a hint of where the economy may be going in the 3rd quarter.

The images of prize-winning LIFE Magazine photographer George Silk (1916 – 2004), in the first retrospective of his work in the U.S., will be on exhibit at Hamilton College's Emerson Gallery through Sunday, Sept. 11. His photographs will be accompanied by those of his daughter, Georgiana Bulfinch Silk, who is a graduate of Kirkland College and a professional photographer in her own right.

Hamilton College's Emerson Gallery exhibition, "Nature as Refuge: From Rousseau's Cascade to Central New York's Trenton Falls," is open through Sunday, Aug. 28. The show of paintings, prints and drawings of Upstate New York, including Trenton Falls and the Hudson Valley, seeks to illustrate the lasting influence of Swiss philosopher and writer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) on the way people regard nature. Rousseau's ideas, especially those found in his final book, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, will be shown as a significant influence on the "back-to-nature" movement so popular in the nineteenth century. While visiting this exhibition, visitors are also encouraged to take their own walk into nature along the paths of the Root and Kirkland Glens on the opposite side of College Hill Road on the college's campus.

Derek C. Jones, the Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, recently published an article titled "Choice of Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Estonia," with Panu Kalmi (Helsinki School of Economics) and Niels Mygind (Copenhagen Business School). It was published in Post-Communist Economies, Volume 17, Number 1 (March, 2005).

New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi is the last speaker in the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center series on the U.S. budget. Hevesi will speak on Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn on the Hamilton College campus. His remarks will focus on the New York state budget. The event is free and open to the public.