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Associate Professor of Economics Ann Owen was an organizer of the second annual Conference on Macroeconomic Research at Liberal Arts Colleges, hosted by Vassar.  Owen organized this year’s conference with colleagues at Smith, Colgate & Vassar. Its two primary goals are to create an open forum that allows macroeconomists at liberal arts colleges to expose their work to a group of peers to gain valuable feedback and to build a network of colleagues with whom to share ideas and collaborate on research projects. Owen will chair a panel on monetary policy at the conference. Hamilton has been selected to host a future conference.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Kyoko Omori gave a presentation titled “The Art of the Bluff: Youth Migrancy, Interlingualism, and the Popular Fiction of Tani Jôji” at the International Conference on Japanese Language Education at Columbia University. The conference theme was “Japanese Language Education: Entering a New Age.”  Conference presentations included: Japanese literature and culture, research on second language learning, linguistics, and classroom teaching practice.  This conference was the first Japanese language education conference held outside of Asia.

When orientation starts, there will be 10 members of the Class of 2010 who will already know the campus well. Hamilton is in a partnership with the National Science Foundation's STEP (Science Talent Expansion Program) and the Henry and Camille Dreyfus Foundation, both of which allow the science department to fund summer research for students before they even matriculate.

Dane Johnson ’07 (Red Bank, N.J.) is on campus this summer for research into macroeconomics. The mathematics and economics double major is writing a computer program which will help Johnson study the effects of technological progress on business cycles. Advised by Professor of Economics Chris Georges, Johnson is working on a project titled “The Creation of a Computer Program which Simulates the Effect of Technological Progress on Fluctuations in the Business Cycle.”

Stephen Knapp '69 of Worcester, Mass., uses glass and light the way many artists use paint and brush. A recent article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette highlighted Knapp's process for creating "light paintings" using glass and light.

Tim Elgren, professor of chemistry, has received a $259,000 award from the National Science Foundation in support of his continuing research. Elgren's lab focuses on understanding how enzymes work, particularly those that contain metal ions. He and his Hamilton undergraduate students prepare catalytically active biomaterials that contain the enzyme. These materials allow them to probe the natural activity of the enzyme catalyst. The award provides funds to support student participation in the project, a postdoctoral research position, and equipment.

Mary Beth Day ’07 (Seneca Falls, N.Y.) has a new pet. It is called the Dirt Burner, and it burns dirt. Old dirt, though, since Day is researching a new technique for sediment dating. Advised by Eugene Domack, professor of geosciences, Day hopes to “improve the accuracy of radiocarbon ages for Antarctic marine sediments using a programmable temperature combustion system.”

They say that students who study abroad tend to become very attached to their host countries. Drew Thomases ’07 (Roslindale, Mass.) would probably agree. Thomases was in India last fall and now returns to a kind of India by studying the Diaspora community in Queens, N.Y. Thomases will be advised by Jay Williams, the Walcott Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies as he uses his Emerson Grant to study the changing nature of the religious tradition within the Indian Diaspora.

Hamilton College has received a $500,000 Department Development Award from Research Corporation (RC) to increase faculty and technical staffing in the chemistry and physics departments. Only five U.S. colleges have received these RC awards since the first grants were awarded in 1989. Proposals for the award are by invitation only.

Zunfeng “Jeff” Chen ’08 (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Jonathan Stults ’07 (Woodstock, N.Y.) are at Hamilton for summer research into mathematics. They have abandoned the topic they originally chose (“difference equations, differential equations, and Simpson’s paradox”) and moved to the study of n by n (square) matrices. “We’re counting all n by n matrices in Z mod p with all or no eigenvalues in Z mod p.”