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An InsideHigherEd article titled “Majoring in a Professor,” focused on a paper, “Faculty Gatekeepers and Academic Taste in Undergraduate Students’ Choice of Major,”  co-authored by Dan Chambliss, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology,  and his former student Christopher G. Takacs, a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago.  Takacs presented the paper on Aug. 10 at the American Sociology Association meeting in New York City.

For Meghan O’Sullivan ’15, immigration is not just an abstract policy issue. This summer, as part of the Kirkland Summer Associates Program, she is pursuing a research project, “Oral Expression of Refugee Women.” Her goal is to create a podcast that gives some insight into the first-hand experience of the refugee women who have come to Utica, N.Y.

Isaac Handley-Miner ’14 is combining his interests in education and psychology through an internship this summer with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. With funding from the Joseph F. Anderson ’44 Internship Fund, he is studying the applications of emotional intelligence and gaining valuable laboratory experience.

If you’ve been on Hamilton’s campus this summer, you may have heard the sound of bagpipes drifting over Minor Field. Nathaniel Livingston ’14 has been playing them as part of his Emerson Foundation project, “Performing the Poetics of Music.” Through his project, he is researching the ancient instruments and epics of Scotland and Finland and exploring a long-standing interest in the intersection of music and poetry.

The Community Luncheon on Wednesday, August 7, shared the spotlight with the first Employee Arts and Crafts Exhibition. Thirteen talented members of our community displayed an assortment of items ranging from bonsai trees to handcrafted wine.

Emma Laperruque ’14 is working the “internship of her dreams,” at The Daily Meal, a website catering to food enthusiasts.  With the tagline “All Things Food and Drink,” The Daily Meal mirrors her many culinary passions.  This summer, Laperruque will develop her journalistic skills while writing and publishing stories and recipes online.

“Precipitous decline in monarch butterflies linked to habitat loss in Midwest,” published by Environment & Energy (E&E) on Aug. 5, included an excerpt from an interview with Ernest Williams, the William R. Kenan Professor of Biology. The article also linked to a study he co-authored that examined the increasing risks posed by land development and extreme weather on the declining population of monarchs.

Eating fruits and vegetables can provide numerous health benefits, from improved vision to substantially reduced risk of cancer and strokes.  Some parents have trouble getting their children to eat leafy greens or vibrantly colored peppers, but Morgan Osborn ’14 is trying to change that by educating teenagers about how great produce can be.  As an intern with the Burlington School Food Project, Osborn is teaching children various aspects of farming and how to prepare meals with fresh ingredients.

It might sound surprising, but studying two neurotransmitters found in drosophila, a genus of small flies, may help us better understand human brain chemistry.  While most people may not regularly think about neurotransmitters in our brains, these chemicals are the stimuli behind our frustrations when stuck in traffic or our elevated stress levels when facing a seemingly never-ending pile of assignments. Ashley Perritt ’14 and Niko Wagner ’14 are studying tyramine beta hydroxylase (TBh) and TBh-Related (TBhR) neurotransmitter genes in drosophila to better understand their functions.

Four Hamilton students presented their research at the 12th Molecular Educational Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational chemistRY (MERCURY) conference held July 25-27 at Bucknell University.