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An article co-authored by Ernest Williams, the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Biology, recently appeared online in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity. “Decline of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico: is the migratory phenomenon at risk?” will appear in a forthcoming print issue of the publication, which is a journal of the Royal Entomological Society.

Professor of Mathematics Richard Bedient presented a workshop for the mathematics faculty at Pittsfield High School in Pittsfield, Mass., on March 11, as part of the department's professional development program. The topic was an introduction to fractal geometry and was based on a summer workshop program at Yale in which Bedient participated for a number of years. He also spoke to a math class on the same topic.

Hamilton College will celebrate the legacy of labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez with volunteer projects and campus events from March 30 through April 2. Chavez led the non-violent movement for farmworkers’ rights, a movement that extended beyond the fields and into cities and towns across the nation, and helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin recently gave two invited talks on an area of her current research. One was an expository talk to a general mathematical audience at St. Michael's College in Vermont. The other was a more technical talk to graph theorists at the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics Southeastern Atlantic Section Conference at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Hamilton College's Maggie Rosenbaum '14 finished first and was crowned a national champion in the 100-yard backstroke at the 2011 NCAA Division III men's and women's swimming and diving championships at the University of Tennessee's Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn., on March 25.

Hamilton seniors Mary Phillips, Nathan Schneck and Julia Wilber have been awarded prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowships for 2011-12. Phillips’ project is titled “Safe Spaces: All-Girl Environments and Their Role in Community Development”; Schneck will pursue “Voluntary Poverty: A Means for Individual and Community Transformation”; and Wilber received the Watson  for her project “A Single Thread: Producers and Consumers of Fair Trade Clothing.”

Associate Professor of French Joseph Mwantuali gave an invited talk titled "The Congo in the Colonial and Post-colonial Imagination" for the Colgate University Humanities Colloquium on March 22.

Professor of Physics Emeritus Philip Pearle was invited to be the first speaker at the "New Frontiers in Quantum Foundations" conference at Clemson University, March 9-11.  He gave a technical lecture titled "Topics in Collapse," as requested and also first gave a talk, "Sociological Snippets," about his experiences in the field of foundations of physics over almost 50 years.

Charlotte Hickey ’11 has been awarded a Fulbright grant to Germany. She will spend the 2011-12 academic year at Ludwig-Maximilians –Universitat of Munich, researching the roles of nurses at former euthanasia site Kaufbeuren and their transition back into German society. She hopes to understand the impact of outside forces on the evolution of post-war German society and in particular the role of the early encounters between Germans and Americans and will investigate their initial interactions.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate co-edited a special issue of the journal Material Religion titled "Key Words in Material Religion." The edition is a collection of essays by prominent practitioners on 19 key words used to address material religion. Plate also serves as the publication's managing editor.