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Matt Smith '06 knows all about how confidence can equate to better play in athletics. One of the most versatile athletes at Hamilton, Smith's versatility and broad interests led him to question the powers of self-evaluative thoughts. "I wanted to look at the concept that thoughts affect performance and how it is applicable to many situations," says Smith.

After spending a year abroad in Paris, Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill '05 came back to campus with a sense of focus. Even though he has grand visions for himself in the future, Bentsi-Enchill has been concentrating on his psychology major and his current investigation on how values influence the development of teenagers.

Hamilton College is currently hosting the 3rd Mercury Conference in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry from Thursday, July 29 to Saturday, July 31. The Mercury Conference, devoted solely to undergraduate computational chemistry, provides a great opportunity for students to learn about the broad field of computational chemistry, particularly in interdisciplinary subjects. Students also can discuss their work with other undergraduate computational chemists and leaders in their field. Undergraduate poster presentations and speakers will display new work done in computational chemistry, allow others to learn about the field and create a sense of community amongst students and faculty of many colleges and universities.

Eight Hamilton College students are spending the summer working on a long-term research project that investigates the optical properties of rare earth-based solid materials under the supervision of Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer and Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith. Kate Schirmer '05, Peter Burke '06, Helena Grabo '06, Greg Armstrong '06 and Brendan Sullivan '07 are each conducting specified parts of this interdisciplinary study, and incoming first-year students Tessa Olson '08, Katie Donahue '08 and John-Henry Forster '08 are contributing to the work as well.

Two Hamilton students, Michelle Skornicki '06 and Hilary Gamble '07, have relatively little experience in a science lab, but Associate Professor of Chemistry Timothy Elgren has raved about their research work this summer. Their confidence in working in a laboratory situation has aided them in their study of catalytic enzymes and how they behave when encapsulated in sol-gel.

Pete Coxeter '05 leads a college life that is nothing short of chaotic, where he is dedicated to his academics and athletic commitments. This summer, Coxeter is examining the impact oscillator model to identify the system's chaotic properties. With the help of his advisors, Litchfield Professor of Physics Peter Millet and Director of Laboratories James Schreve, Coxeter hopes to have the model be used as a teaching aid in the classroom for future physics classes.

Stephanie Godleski '05 has a fascination with human movement that stems from her involvement in athletics, as a member of the varsity crew team. Her interest in human movement has motivated her to work with Professor of Psychology Jonathan Vaughan and Aram Kudurshian '06 on a summer research project that deals with human movement around obstacles in three-dimensional space.

Amber Gillis '06 already knows she would like to teach high school chemistry and biology, but she will not have the chance in that profession to perform her own in-depth research. For that reason, Gillis is taking advantage of the opportunity to spend her summer researching how the inhibition of enzymes may become a "promising potential therapy" for several forms of cancer.

After a number of traumatic incidents in his life, Adam Morris '05 discovered few resources available to parents who struggle to help their children cope with disaster-related traumatic experiences. Morris decided to develop and test a parent-training program to aid families whose children find difficulty coping after a disaster.