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Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin recently published a research article "Structure and Properties of Locally Outerplanar Graphs" in the Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing. Boutin's paper investigates graphs (network diagrams) that can be drawn in the plane with their vertices on a circle and which contain no short self-intersecting path.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Kyoko Omori presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston (March 22-15). Her talk was titled “Narrating the Detective: Nansensu and Formulaic Inversion in Absurdist Detective Fiction of Tokugawa Musei,” and it discussed how Tokugawa Musei (1894-1971), arguably the most famous benshi or silent film narrator/commentator in Japan, undermined conventions of detective fiction to show the limitations of literary form by adapting the narrative techniques of benshi into writing fiction.

Five Hamilton students spent a week of spring break, March 19-23, working with the residents at St. Elizabeth's Family Practice Residency program. This is the third group who have participated. They rotated through surgery, labor and delivery, pediatrics, family practice and internal medicine clinics. The students who were involved this spring were Wendy Doster '08, biology major; Kevin McCarthy '07, chemistry major; Lindsay Rubenstein '07, neuroscience major; Evan Savage '08, chemistry major; and Olivia Vargo '08, mathematics major.

Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, assistant professor of psychology at Yale University, delivered a lecture at Hamilton on March 28 titled, “Out of the Laboratory and Into the University: Stereotype Threat and Powerful Influences on Student Achievement.” Purdie-Vaughns spoke about the phenomenon of stereotype threat, in which students who face negative stereotypes about their academic abilities will perform more poorly. She discussed the research being done on the topic, and how what has been learned can be applied to efforts to alleviate achievement gaps. The lecture was sponsored by the Diversity and Social Justice Project and the Dean of the Faculty.

Leanne Pasquini '07, Hilary Gamble '07, and Julianne Tylko '10 presented research results at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, March 25-29. All research was the result of collaborative work done with Hamilton science faculty.

Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick co-organized and presided over a symposium at the American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago during March. The symposium titled “Abiotic and Biotic Factors Affecting Contaminant Fate at Iron Oxide Surfaces,” was organized in collaboration with Dr. Ed O’Loughlin of Argonne National Lab and Assistant Professor Dan Giammar at Washington University in St. Louis.

On Friday, March 30, from 12-2 p.m. at Beinecke Student Activities Village, Hamilton in Honduras is collecting donations for the San Jeronimo Bilingual School (SJBS) in Cofradía, Cortés, Honduras. Teachers at the SJBS serve more than 180 pre-K to 9th grade students and families in the Cofradía community, yet lack classroom budgets and textbooks. The school relies on the generosity of American donors for basic supplies. All donations of children’s, young adult and beginning reader books in English, as well as reference materials, National Geographic magazines, index cards, scrap fabric, glitter, paint, paintbrushes, gluesticks, tape, scissors, construction paper, will be greatly appreciated.

At the request of several alumni and parent volunteers, Hamilton Vice President for Communications and Development Dick Tantillo sent a letter clarifying the reasons for the decision not to move forward in establishing the Alexander Hamilton Center. Tantillo acknowledged “the distractions caused by the proposed Alexander Hamilton Center have taken away some of the focus on the exceptional year we are having on College Hill.” He concluded that “Hamilton has enormous momentum.”

Three Hamilton students have been named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars for the 2007-08 academic year. Juniors Marco Allodi, Kristin Alongi and Dan Campbell are among 317 scholars from across the U.S., bringing to 10 the number of Goldwater Scholarships awarded to Hamilton students since 2001. The scholarship is the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Pete Zani, visiting assistant professor of biology, led his Tropical Field Ecology (Bio 437) class on a trip to Ecuador over spring break. They spent 12 days and nights in the Amazon (Oriente) and at the Yasuní Research Station operated by the Catholic University of Ecuador in Yasuní National Park. While at the station, students collected data for course projects on topics such as poison-dart frog toxicity, lizard social behavior, and plant physical and chemical defenses. The 11 Hamilton students on the trip were Will Caffry '09, Lizzy Finan '08, Neil Frei '07, Jon Milgrom '08, Kennesaw Richards '07, Kira Rosalsky '07, Kristen Selden '09, Emily Starr '07, Chris Sullivan '09, Meaghan Sutton '07 and Tessa Teichert '07.