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On Florida’s Wakulla and St. Marks rivers, a group of Hamilton researchers spent their summer snorkeling for freshwater snails, watching for alligators and manatees, and collecting samples that preserve thousands of years of environmental history.

A growing partnership between Hamilton College and the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) is giving students the opportunity to pursue biomedical research. This summer, Lydia DeTraglia ’28 and Aksel Reid ’27 are spending 10 weeks at the institute in Utica conducting independent research projects while gaining firsthand experience in a professional laboratory.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Hannah Lau was a co-author on a paper on which Nandini Subramaniam ’22 was first author. Former faculty member Colin Quinn was another co-author on “A histological approach to mortuary variability in Early Bronze Age Transylvania” in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

While most of campus is asleep, the lights inside Hamilton’s Peters Observatory are still on. This summer, Associate Professor of Instruction for Physics Adam Lark and students Marcus Raabe ’27 and John Fitzgerald ’27 spend their nights tracking distant stars, searching for tiny flickers that reveal exoplanets: planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system.

For most people, the sound of croaking frogs signals a summer evening. For a small group of Hamilton researchers, it’s a sign that the workday is just beginning.

All students at Hamilton complete a senior project, a capstone experience in which they integrate, extend, critique, and apply knowledge gained during their four years on College Hill. The topics vary as much as the students who pursue them — and so do the lessons learned. See the list of senior projects for 2026.

As the 2025-26 academic year wrapped up, students were honored with scholarships and awards, and presented research at professional conferences.

Shey Sanges ’26 created her own interdisciplinary concentration, Sustainable Behaviors in Food, Waste, and Energy, at Hamilton in pursuit of her passion for sustainability and environmental studies. Sanges’ experiences on College Hill have paved the way for her to attend graduate school at Clarkson University for a master’s degree in environmental policy.

Five members of Hamilton’s Class of ’26 will be leaving College Hill for classrooms abroad through the prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship program.

To commemorate the completion of his “Avant-Doc Trilogy,” Professor of Cinema and Media Studies Scott MacDonald recently presented “Birth, Earth, Screen, Sky,” at the Anthology Film Archives with students, alumni, and filmmakers in attendance.