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Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe spent five days in July on board the Robert C. Seamans, the Sea Education Association’s 134-foot research sailing schooner. The ship sailed out of San Francisco Bay, north to Drakes Bay, around the Farallon Islands, and finally docked in Monterey, Calif.

Matthew Gabriel ’11 has a fondness for phrases like “a more perfect Union” and “the Blessings of Liberty.” To him, the elegant script that cried for a fledgling country to “establish justice” and “promote the general welfare” is still relevant today. For many, the Preamble of the Constitution is just a Schoolhouse Rock song. But Gabriel’s intended career depends on how the entire work is interpreted. This summer, he is working at the Kings County District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn, N.Y., in their Early Case Assessment Bureau (ECAB). His internship reinforces his interest in justice and law.

“The only thing I ever enjoyed enough to see myself doing long term was being creative, which is why I became an art major,” said Linda Di Bernardo ’10. But it wasn’t until she watched Lord of the Rings for the first time that her interest in set design began to develop. Di Bernardo appreciated the clash of armor and attention to detail on every sword and garment, and knew that she wanted to contribute to such elaborate sets. “I remember when I was little I wanted to be an actress, which didn't work out for me since I get stage fright pretty easily,” she laughed. “Working on sets keeps me in that same kind of exciting environment while doing something I love.”

Ernest Williams, the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Biology, recently published a journal article, co-authored with collaborators from Sweet Briar College and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. The article, "Oyamel fir forest trunks provide thermal advantages for overwintering monarch butterflies in Mexico," appeared in Insect Conservation and Diversity 2:163-175.

The patriarch of Hamilton’s first family, William McLaren “Mac” Bristol III ’43, died Tuesday, August 18, following a brief battle with cancer. He was 88.

Piscidins are potent biological substances. Classified as antimicrobial peptides, they naturally fight off infection in organisms like the hybrid striped bass, among others. There are four members of the family of piscidins that Billy Wieczorek ’11 is studying this summer. Piscidin-1 has been the subject of myriad other studies, and although it has many antimicrobial properties, it can be harmful to human blood cells because it cannot differentiate between bacterial and mammalian cells.

Juancho Hurtado ’11 is a fire-breathing dragon. Well, not really. But he has experimented with the dangerous art of breathing fire this summer. His newly-acquired talent comes from his work at Teatro Taller de Colombia, one of the oldest street theatre groups in Colombia. He is studying street theatre there through the Emerson Grant Foundation, which was created in 1997 to promote collaboration with faculty on subjects that students find fascinating and worthwhile. His adviser and co-researcher is Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell, who stays in regular contact with Hurtado while he is out of the country.

Danielle Burby ’12 knows that the editor always has the final say. So when she secured an internship at Square One Publishers for the summer, she did not expect to have much flexibility. For the most part, she assumed that she would be confined to marketing and minor, superfluous tasks. But during the first week, she took an editing test, and found that she had underestimated her power there – her supervisors loved her ability to tidy up almost any piece of prose and wanted to hire her to edit a book in need of revision. With the turn of a page, Burby’s unpaid internship spawned a paid opportunity.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas published an opinion piece in Georgetown, Guyana’s newspaper, Stabroek News, titled “Corruption, criticism and political culture in Guyana” on Aug. 3. The article addressed Guyana’s “lack of objective oversight standards” and offered ways to prevent and fight against corruption.

Max Currier ’10 is looking for a way to increase the effectiveness of political restructuring in Afghanistan – as long as it works, and works well. He supports Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), joint civil-military teams designed to extend the Afghan Central Government from Kabul (the capital) to Afghanistan’s 32 provinces. His goal this summer is to examine the role and efficacy of PRTs in Afghanistan.