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Professor and author Robin Wall Kimmerer offered students, faculty, and community members gathered in the Chapel a profound testimony regarding the decolonization of the environmentalist movement. The author of the national bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass came to College Hill to deliver this year’s Plant Lecture.

Princeton University Professor and 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Award winner Dr. Betsy Levy Paluck presented innovative research on the effects of social norms and community behavior in a lecture at Hamilton on Nov. 5. Paluck’s presentation, Reducing Prejudice and Bullying in Our World Today: The Role of Social Norms, was this year’s James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture. Paluck dedicated her presentation to Devah Pager, a dear friend and fellow social psychologist whose research on race, crime and mass incarceration broke new ground in understanding racial discrimination in America.

Betsy Levy Paluck, a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” fellow , will present the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture on Monday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m., in the Chapel.

California Institute of Technology Chemistry Professor Harry Gray will present the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture, titled “Fuel from Sunlight and Water” on Tuesday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel

Hamilton welcomed computer scientist and author David Bailey on Nov. 3 for a lecture regarding the failures of the scientific community toward communicating the importance and wonder of scientific research to the general public. Bailey is a University of California Davis research associate and former computer scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His talk was funded through the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture Fund and was sponsored by the Mathematics Department.

David H. Bailey, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Davis, will present the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m., in the Chapel.

In the weeks following spring break, there is usually an abundance of speakers on campus. This year was no exception with almost 100 speakers presenting in the last 30 days on myriad topics. Three well-known scientists were among them: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Robert Ballard and Michael Mann.

Oceanographer Robert Ballard, best-known for his work in underwater archaeology and historic discoveries including the Titanic, will give a lecture on Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture, titled “Ocean Exploration: Past, Present and Future,” is free and open to the public and will be sign-interpreted. Ballard discussed his upcoming Hamilton lecture on Northeast Public Radio WAMC on March 28.

Lisa Randall, author and professor of physics at Harvard University, will deliver the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture on Monday, March 9, at 8 p.m., in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center. Randall’s lecture, titled “Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World,” is free and open to the public.

Stanford University Professor Richard Zare delivered the James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture to an eager audience in the Chapel on Oct. 29. Established in 1988 by Hamilton alumnus James Plant, the series was created to bring to the campus outstanding scientists and guest lecturers. Zare was no exception.