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Erica Fultz ’08 (Carlisle, Pa.) is a foreign languages major. But in her case that does not only mean that she can say, “two beers, please,” or “where’s the bathroom?” in three languages; for Fultz, her major gives her a chance to investigate the underpinnings of those languages. A former Freeman recipient, Fultz returns to campus this summer on an Emerson grant to work on a project entitled “A Generative Linguistical Approach to Japanese Verbal Nouns.”

Visiting Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner and Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields and their students have published a paper in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry.

Those in the Science Center last week (July 26-28) will have noticed the elegant tables set out in the atrium and a number of students in dress clothes or the distinctive bright blue “Shieldslab” shirts. Wednesday through Friday, Hamilton played host to the fifth annual MERCURY (Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry) Computational Chemistry conference.

Dean of the Faculty Joseph R. Urgo published an article in symploke, a comparative theory and literature journal. The article, "Collegiality and Academic Community," appears in volume 13, numbers 1-2. In it, Urgo writes, “…When a member of the academic administration, Provost, Dean or Department Chair is on the job, the work he or she does concerns, above all else, the human relationships that make up the institution.” He notes, "Collegiality, the suggestion that we recognize and even enforce certain communal, behavioral norms, is the creation of the administrative mind, arising out of the conditions of administrative work, and in direct response to recent trends in the doing of academic work that discourages community."

Eric Kuhn ‘09, working this summer as a digital media intern for NBC in New York City, will be the featured guest on radio station WOR’s Joey Reynolds Show, Friday, August 4, from 1-2 a.m.

Heather Parker ’07 (Cherry Hill, N.J.) is on the Hill this summer for astrophysics. She will study pulsating variable stars; stars which change their brightness over a given period. Parker plans to take pictures of her chosen stars with a CCD camera and measure the change in light output, as well as trying to understand why and how these stars pulsate. She will be advised by Peter Millet, the Litchfield Professor of Physics.

Rising sophomore Sharfi Farhana began her research career at Hamilton College before beginning her first class. Farhana was one of 10 participants in Hamilton's intensive summer research program for entering first-year students last year. The program has also generated an increase in the number of Hamilton science graduates who continue their studies in graduate programs.

This summer Daniel Griffith ’07 (Sidney, N.Y.) is back in the lab of Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian Rosenstein to continue two projects which could contribute to an eco-friendly pesticide. “I was kind of getting my feet wet last year,” says Griffith. “Now I know where I’m going.” His two projects center on obtaining a better understanding of the insect-specific neurotransmitter octopamine.

Kathleen Donahue ’08 (Flushing, N.Y.) and Robin Joseph ’09 (Watertown, Mass.) are spending their summer working with Karen Brewer, professor of chemistry. In their projects, they are synthesizing calix[4]arenes, which are chalice-shaped molecules with four aromatic rings. They coordinate rare earth metal ions with calix[4]arenes, then embed the resulting compound in sol-gels which can be processed into glasses. The students examine the light that is absorbed and emitted from the glass.

It’s rare that an Emerson recipient will confess that their proposal was inspired by a pulpy movie with pretty actors, but Rebecca Wagner ’07 (Lyman, ME) gamely admits to just that. The rising senior English major first encountered the story of Tristan and Isolde in her medieval literature class because it was the only part of Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur that they did not cover. Later, Wagner saw a recent film adaptation of the legend and became curious about the story. Still curious, she applied for and received an Emerson grant to study the evolution of the Tristan and Isolde story through a historo-feminist lens.