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Jay Williams, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies, participated in "River Summer," a program of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities, of which Hamilton College is a member. He spent five days in July living on a boat and studying the ecology and history of the Hudson River from Pierpont Point to Newburg. The group took many water samples, studying the salinity, density, and temperature of the water of the Hudson as well as various lakes, marshes and brooks of the area. They also were introduced to archaeological sites, historic homes, and problems of city planning along the river.

As far as the average reader is concerned, avian flu is somewhere near West Nile virus: a danger, but a slightly dated one. After two winters of hype and no flu the fear has become a bit passé. But Allison Gaston-Enholm '09 (Atlanta, Ga.), who has a Levitt Fellowship this summer to research contingency plans for the avian flu, wants you to know two things: avian flu is potentially very dangerous, and just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn't mean it won't.

Although the Reader’s Digest’s story, “Second Chance City - A wave of refugees is bringing new life to a dying American town” paints Utica as a city that has plunged into an “economic meltdown,” Hamilton’s Associate Professor of Economics Paul Hagstrom offers some hope. His research, which is referenced in this article, focuses on the economic impact of refugee resettlement and the refugees’ effect on local labor markets on the central New York community. 

Three Hamilton students were selected as Diversity and Social Justice Project (DSJP) Service Associates for 2007. The program is designed to support students who wish to make the connections between their own disciplinary or interdisciplinary work and the mission of the DSJP. This year's research associates are Sarah (Sally) Powell '09, Maxwell Akuamoah-Boateng '09 and Lauren R. Hayden '07.

The standard study abroad program usually means 10 weeks in Paris or Madrid and some fun pictures. But Anne Bowler, a rising senior from Dallas, Texas, had a very different experience: she spent part of her study abroad program living in a Zulu village. Before leaving, Bowler had received an Emerson grant to research the South African attitude toward a medical system which relies upon both traditional healing and Western medicine. She completed part of her fieldwork in Africa, but she will spend the summer conducting further research into what she calls a "universal desire for health."

Hydrate inclusion compounds are compounds in which water crystallizes to form "cages," for example, hydrogen-bonded host lattices, that can physically enclose, on the atomic scale, other molecules, called "guests. The semi-clathrate hydrates are one type of hydrate inclusion compound. As their name implies, the semi-clathrates are only partial inclusion compounds because parts of their water cages are broken to accommodate large guest molecules. Fallon Chipidza '10 (Harare, Zimbabwe) is working with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones with several semi-clathrate hydrates to more closely analyze the water-guest relationship in these inclusion compounds. Her goal is to determine the exact water of hydration for three guest molecules: tetra-n-butyl ammonium fluoride (TBAF), chloride (TBAC), and bromide (TBAB). The term "water of hydration" refers to water molecules that are chemically combined with the salts in such a way that they can be removed by physical means without substantially changing the chemical composition of the salts.

Associate Professor of Dance Leslie Norton is the author of a new book, Frederic Franklin: A Biography of the Ballet Star (McFarland & Company, July, 2007). Franklin is one of the greatest ballet dancers of the twentieth century and is still performing at the age of 93, dancing principal roles for American Ballet Theatre. In writing the book, Norton conducted more than 60 hours of taped interviews with Franklin and his most noteworthy colleagues

Alumni, parents and friends of Hamilton College contributed $30.8 million during the fiscal year that ended June 30, an increase of 45 percent over the previous year and 32 percent more than the previous record, set a decade ago.

The Nominations Committee of the Alumni Council invites recommendations for the 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Presented by the Council on behalf of the Alumni Association, the award recognizes an employee who has substantially contributed to Hamilton through distinguished job performance and through involvement in student, alumni, or other activities in the College community. At the time of selection, the recipient must be an active member of Hamilton's faculty, administration, staff, or maintenance and operations. 

Nine current and former Hamilton chemistry students published an article in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry with former postdoctoral associate Steve Feldgus, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner, and Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields. The students involved were Katrina Lexa '05, Katherine Alser '09, Amanda Salisburg '08, Damien Ellens '03, Lorena Hernandez '03, Sam Bono '00, Heather Michael '07, Jennifer Derby '01, and Jaime Skiba '02. Their research article, "The Search for Low Energy Conformational Families of Small Peptides: Searching for Active Conformations of Small Peptides in the Absence of a Known Receptor," is the result of six years of research.