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Adam Polonski '08 participated in the Undergraduate Conference in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Moravian College at Bethlehem, Pa., on Dec. 1-3. He presented a well-received paper titled "Malory the Idealist." Brittany Gross '10 also attended the conference.

Debra Boutin, associate professor of mathematics, has published a research article in the Journal of Graph Theory. This paper presents Boutin's continuing work in the area of geometric graph theory, a subfield of discrete geometry. The article "Distinguishing Geometric Graphs," co-authored with Michael Albertson, proves that (with one exception) every complete straight line network has the property that we can color each node with one of three colors in such a way that the resulting colored network has no symmetry.

The Hamilton College Orchestra will give a free performance on Thursday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. in Wellin Hall. The orchestra, directed by Heather Buchman, will perform Bartok Transylvanian Dances, Falla El sombrero de tre picos (Three Cornered Hat) and Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Admission is free and no tickets are required.

Professor of Biology Patrick D. Reynolds has been appointed Associate Dean of Faculty at Hamilton College, effective July 1, 2007. He succeeds Associate Professor of Philosophy Kirk Pillow whose term ends on June 30. In addition, in a restructuring in the Dean of Faculty Office, the new position of Assistant Dean for Diversity Initiatives will be filled by Associate Professor of English Steven Yao. The announcement was made by Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo, who noted that "the new configuration identifies a point person on the faculty who will devote a considerable portion of his energies to diversity initiatives and programs on campus." Yao’s appointment is also effective on July 1.

Students in government professor Peter Cannavo’s “Introduction to Environmental Politics” class will hold a simulated U.S. Senate Hearing on climate change policy on Thursday, Dec. 7, from 4 - 7 p.m. in the Red Pit auditorium in the Kirner Johnson building.

"Defying Gravity," a PBS documentary about the making of Josh Simpson's '72 Megaplanet will air on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. on WGBY - Public Television for Western New England. The show offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the world's largest glass paperweight. Simpson created the 109-pound megaplanet for an exhibit, "Worlds Within: The Evolution of the Paperweight" at the Corning Museum of Glass, on view through March 18. WGBY is channel 57 in western New England and will rebroadcast the show on Dec. 9 and 10.

Sculptor Helaman Ferguson '62 was profiled in the October issue of Science in an article titled "Carving His Own Unique Niche, in Symbols and Stone." Ferguson, a former mathematics professor at Brigham Young University, crafted the sculpture in front of Hamilton's Science Center. The article notes that after learning stone carving as a teenager, Ferguson wanted to study art as well as math. "He chose Hamilton College, a liberal arts school in upstate New York near where he had spent most of his childhood, where he could do both." The article describes Ferguson's Science Center sculpture: "The work, made of 10-centimeter-thick granite, centers on a pair of massive disks representing the planets Mars and Venus. 'Venus' is exactly 161 centimeters in diameter - the height of the average female Hamilton student, taken from the records of one of the college's psychology professors. 'Mars' is 174 centimeters in diameter - the average male student's height. The disks are inlaid with tiles in a pattern defined by the Poincare and Beltrami-Klein models of plane hyperbolic geometry."  Science subcribers may view the entire article at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/314/5798/412.

Joseph Berger spoke at Hamilton on Thursday Dec. 1 on the topic “The World in a Single City: How Immigration is Changing the Neighborhoods of the New New York.” Berger, an education columnist for The New York Times, recently published a memoir about his own experience growing up as an immigrant in 1950s and 60s Manhattan, Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust.

The College Hill Singers, directed by Prof. G. Roberts Kolb, will lead a Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols in the Hamilton College Chapel on Sunday, Dec. 3, at 4 p.m. The tradition of the Service of Lessons and Carols dates back to Christmas Eve of 1918 and Cambridge University in England. Planned by the new Dean of King’s College, fresh from his role as army chaplain in World War I, the service has become a tradition for many colleges across the world.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Masaaki Kamiya gave an invited presentation in November at the Department of Linguistics at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The presentation was given at the advanced graduate seminar (on Aspect). His presentation was titled "Negation, Quantifier, and EPP Movement in Nominalization in Japanese".