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Over the past 60 years, the People’s Republic of China has had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church. Since the communist state first obliterated almost all religious representation, it has gradually opened up. Funded by a Levitt grant and with the guidance of Professor of History Douglas Ambrose, Tongxin Lu ’11 is evaluating the status and future of the Catholic Church in China.

Christian A. Johnson Professor of Biology Ernest Williams recently presented a talk at the 6th International Conference on the Biology of Butterflies, held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta.

Nora Grenfell '12 is providing updates from Iceland, where Upson Chair for Public Discourse and Professor of Geosciences Barbara Tewksbury is leading eight Hamilton students and nine students from SUNY Oneonta in a 15-day field study.Our trip began with a 9 p.m. flight from Boston’s Logan international airport, and ended with us arriving four time zones ahead of New York in Iceland at 6:30 a.m. We hit the ground running, driving from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik across the Reykjanes ridge. As we drove, we observed the oldest rocks in Iceland. Since the island has been built up by magma rising from the mid-Atlantic ridge, the oldest rocks are at the edges of Iceland while the youngest land lies in the center on the volcanically active zone. So far we have been able to observe both the older zones in Iceland and areas where there has been volcanic activity as recently as 30 years ago.

Hamilton was one of the stops on Utica Monday Nite’s “Get on the Green Wagon Tours” on Monday, July 12. Associate Vice President of Facilities and Planning Steve Bellona led a tour of the LEED Gold-certified Kirner-Johnson Building and discussed the wind, solar and geothermal energy applications throughout the campus.

All over the world, women fight for their rights. In Iraq they speak out for women raped and murdered by their husbands, in Colombia they fight to help heal the damage caused by exploiting child soldiers. Everywhere there is injustice, organizations form to support these wronged individuals. Working with MADRE in New York City, Mary Phillips ’11 is learning the business side of a non-profit.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Myriam Cotten recently participated in a Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) annual business meeting that gathered councilors from diverse academic disciplines at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Cotten contributed to two workshops as part of the national meeting that followed the business meeting.

In the brain of every insect embryo, budding neurons grow and develop, in the same way as in the human brain. The protein tyramene beta hydroxelase (TBh) has been found in the budding neurons in insect embryos, as well as its relative TBhR (R is for “related”). Sumithra Nair ’12, working with Professor of Biology Herman Lehman, will try to shed some light on this common, essential yet enigmatic protein.

Sitting in front of a computer screen, scientists spend hours staring at satellite images of outer space, searching for exploding supernovae. But surprisingly, visual identification is the main way that astronomical laboratories identify supernovae. Led by Assistant Professor of Physics Natalia Connolly, Ileana Becerra ’11, Anne Vilsoet ’11 and Will Eagan ’11 are creating a smarter computer program that will more reliably detect supernovae in satellite images.

Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Cryer is playing King Claudius in Hamlet with the Saratoga Shakespeare Festival. Performances are held Tuesday through Saturday, July 13-17 and July 20-24, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 18 and 25, at 3 p.m. in on the Alfred Z. Solomon Stage in Saratoga Springs' Congress Park. All performances are free and open to the public.

Five Hamilton students will be joined by 12 additional students from seven colleges and five countries (Belgium, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom and United States) for a two-week course on the marine geology of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf. This National Science Foundation-sponsored program, related to the International Polar Year (IPY) and the LARISSA project (Larsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica), will take an interdisciplinary approach in examining the reason for the ice shelf's dramatic breakup in 2002.