All News

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Andrew Nutting presented a paper "To the Slimmer Go the Spoils: Heterogeneous Responses to Bodyweight Incentives in Olympic Weightlifting Tournaments” at the Western Economic Association  82nd Annual Conference in Seattle on July 2. The paper has been accepted for publication by the Eastern Economic Journal.

Marianne Janack, the Sidney Wertimer, Jr. Associate Professor of Philosophy, attended the National Women's Studies Association conference in July in Chicago, where she was on a panel on future directions in feminist epistemology. Her paper was called "Truth Talk and Realism."

Isoprene (C5H8) is the second most common naturally occurring hydrocarbon in the atmosphere (methane, CH4, is the first). It is produced and released into the air by certain species of plants. Due to isoprene’s high concentration in the atmosphere, it has a significant impact on many atmospheric processes, most notably its role as an essential precursor to ozone (O3). Although ozone in the upper layers of the atmosphere is essential to blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun, ozone in the lower layers of the atmosphere is a serious pollutant because it contributes to smog, acts as a greenhouse gas, and causes respiratory problems.

Any scientist knows that research is time-consuming. Most researchers, both at Hamilton and in the world at large, will wait years to see the results of their labor, but Jonathan Wexler ’08 (Beverly, Mass.) anticipates seeing his work put into operation before the end of the summer. Under the advisement of Associate Professor of Physics Gordon Jones and Professor of Mathematics Larry Knop, Wexler will update and perfect existing programming – as well as creating new computer code – for programs integral to the Spallation Neutron Source in Tennessee Oakridge National Labs in Nashville. Beginning in mid-July, Wexler will spend a month installing these programs and overseeing their operation at the facility, which provides a controlled source of neutrons for experiments regarding subjects as diverse as the composition of antimatter and the origin of the universe.

Professor of Economics Christophre Georges presented a paper, "Staggered Updating in an Artificial Financial Market" at two conferences in June: Computation in Economics and Finance, in Montreal, and Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, in Washington, D.C. The paper studies the effect of learning on price volatility in an agent-based market model.

James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman contributed a feature article about climbing the Himalayan Mountains to the Christian Science Monitor (July 3, 2007). In "Himalayan summitry: A lesser peak, not a lesser lesson," Isserman recounts his climb to the top of Kala Patar in Nepal in June. Isserman is writing a book on the history of Himalayan mountaineering with Stewart Weaver of the University of Rochester.

As traders moved back and forth along the Silk Road, they carried more with them than luxury goods. Art, concepts, beliefs changed hands during the trade – but how to track this part of the commerce? Liuhong Fu ’09 (New York City, N.Y.) is willing to try. This rising junior will spend his summer working with Professor of Religion Jay Williams and researching the development and change in early Christianity on the Southeast coast of China.

Associate Professor of History Shoshana Keller has just returned from a two-week intensive workshop on the Arab-Israeli conflict, sponsored by Tel Aviv University. The 19 participants from seven different countries travelled to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Haifa, and other locations, listening to people from all parts of the political spectrum and making connections with Israeli and Arab academics.

Austin Briggs, Hamilton B. Tompkins Professor of English, Emeritus, and lecturer in English, attended the North American James Joyce Conference held at the University of Texas at Austin in June. In addition to delivering a paper—“Is Bella Cohen Jewish?—on the panel “Nomen Est Omen: Names and Naming in Joyce” that he organized and chaired, he co-moderated two reading sessions on Ulysses at the conference.

While other folks in tidal regions are eating shellfish this summer, Adele Paquin '07 (Northampton, Mass.) is dissecting hers. Paquin, a biology major specializing in marine biology, has an internship this summer with a graduate student at Sonoma State University in California. She is working on a project which compares the ability of different coastal sites to support populations of mussels and their predator seastars.