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More than 120 Hamilton students are spending part of their summer conducting research with faculty. From Clinton to Iceland and Green Lakes to Greece, students are collaborating with Hamilton faculty on Levitt Center public affairs-related research, Emerson fellowships and science research.

For outdoor enthusiasts, few things are as appealing and exciting as biking, hiking and rock climbing. All three of these require physical strength and substantial amounts of movement. But on the Bruce Climbing Wall in Hamilton’s Blood Fitness Center, climbers are lent a helping hand—literally. In conjunction with Art 307, Advanced 3D and Material Studies, under Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh, environmental studies major Lauren Duncan ’10 created hand-shaped climbing wall holds that are not only artistic and significant, but also functional. She calls her project “LED by hand.”

Professor of Economics Betsy Jensen and Associate Professor of Economics Steve Wu have published an article, “Early Decision and College Performance,” in the August 2010 issue of the Economics of Education Review. (Volume 29, Issue 4, Pages 517-525, August 2010)

Among the myriad problems facing Rwanda, population control is one of the most urgent. A 2000 Demographic and Health Survey found that only 4 percent of women in Rwanda were using contraception. This low percentage gives rise to several problems, including high infant and mother death rates. With his summer Levitt Fellowship research, Steve Mello ’11 is examining data from two demographic and health surveys to see whether an increase in contraception leads to healthier children.

Hamilton students have the choice of a wide variety of living situations. From dark side suites to spacious Carnegie and South quads to Griffin Road apartments, living options are as diverse as the student body. Of all the many housing options offered at Hamilton, probably the least known about is the Woollcott Cooperative (colloquially referred to as the co-op). In high demand among upperclassmen, the co-op option offers a unique Hamilton living and dining experience.

Assistant Professor of Physics Natalia Connolly has been granted observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during its “Cycle 18,” which runs from Sept. 1, 2010, through Aug. 31, 2011. HST cycles are time periods during which research projects, selected in a highly competitive peer review process, are executed. Fewer than one-third of all research proposals are accepted. Cycle 18 will have about 3,000 HST orbits available to researchers.

Every morning, Hanna Kahrmann-Zadak ’12 rides her bike from outside Clinton up the Hill to get to the lab. But before reaching her destination, she makes three pit stops to pick up her samples from two wells and nearby Oriskany Creek. She and Associate Professor of Geosciences Todd Rayne are embarking on a project that could prove extremely significant, especially to the community of Clinton: plotting the changes in the components of groundwater and of Oriskany Creek as they correlate to precipitation events.

Alumni Keith Gross ’09 and Brendan Sullivan ’07 with Yale alumna Jennifer Lanski have published an article with Professor of Mathematics Richard Bedient and Yale Professor Michael Frame in the journal Fractals. The paper, titled “Higher Block IFS: Memory Reduction and Dimension Computations,” is the result of work over a period of years by the authors as parts of various senior projects.

The business world is basically divided into two camps: socialism and capitalism. In socialist economies, businesses are owned and controlled by the state, and in capitalist economies, shares in ownership are traded on the public market. In his summer Levitt Fellowship research, Shichen Xu ’12 will be exploring the economic middle ground between capitalism and socialism by studying the behavior of the Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain.

Clinton Mayor Robert G. (Gill) Goering and members of the Clinton Fire Department brought the department’s new $1 million ladder truck to the Hamilton College campus on Tuesday, June 8. Clinton Fire Chief Mark Young presented President Joan Stewart with a personalized fire helmet in a small ceremony. After the presentation, Stewart and members of her office staff were hoisted above the library roof via the new ladder in a demonstration of the truck’s 100-foot ladder’s reach.