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To promote informatics literacy, Hamilton was awarded with a NSF Class Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant to establish and to improve its bioinformatics curriculum. Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang presented Hamilton's five years outcome and achievements at the conference, which was sponsored by AAAS and NSF. He joined other grant awardees from more than 200 U.S, colleges and shared the experience of teaching bioinformatics at small liberal arts institutions. The conference was held in August in Washington, D.C.

Students from Hamilton's Program in New York toured the Science Barge at Pier I, Riverside Park South, on Sept. 10. The barge is "a prototype, sustainable urban farm and environmental education center.  According to the New York SunWorks Web site, "It is the only fully functioning demonstration of renewable energy supporting sustainable food production in New York City. The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff."

Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College's James L. Ferguson Professor of History, will discuss Fallen Giants - A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 4:15 p.m. at the Glen House on Hamilton's campus. Isserman, who co-authored the book, will also sign copies. Published by Yale University Press last month, the book has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Around 103 Hamilton students spent a total of 630 hours volunteering for the annual Make a Difference Day on Sept. 13. The community service day, sponsored by HAVOC, took student volunteers to the Kirkland Art Center, JCTOD Outreach, Kirkland Town Library, Loretto Center, Root Farm, Upstate Cerebral Palsy, The Underground Café and Westminster Presbyterian, Emmaus House and For the Good. 

Terry Borton, leading historian of the Magic Lantern show, will present and discuss "A Halloween Magic Lantern Show," on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 2 p.m. in the KJ Auditorium. This event begins the F.I.L.M series for 2008-09. Borton, an internationally admired performer, offers his audiences the experience of Magic Lantern shows, what he calls "Spooktacular Halloween stories like Poe's The Raven, bizarre animated comedy and outrageous songs – all dramatized on screen by a live showman and singer/pianist." All F.I.L.M events are free and open to the public.

College Republicans and Democrats worked together to help mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly 3,000 memorial flags were displayed along Martin's Way to represent each of the almost 3,000 lives lost on that day. An interfaith discussion of the events surrounding Sept. 11 and their significance to ourselves, the U.S. and the world took place at noon, and a candlelight vigil was held on Martin's Way.

Anthony Aveni, the Russell B. Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate University, opened the Winslow lecture to a standing-room only crowd at the Kennedy Auditorium with a quote from the 2002 blockbuster, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. "Everything is Greek," he said, quoting the father character Gus Portokalos, whom Aveni jokingly referred to as a renowned Greek philosopher. What Aveni meant, he soon revealed, was that modern astronomy is built upon the works of the Greek astronomer, Hesiod. 

Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin presented a talk titled "The Cost of 2-Distinguishing" at a graph theory conference at Sandbjerg Manor, Denmark. In her talk, Boutin described a set of vertices that can be used to disrupt all symmetries in a network and presented her results on how small these sets of vertices can be in some well-known network families.

A group of Hamilton faculty from a variety of disciplines spoke in the newly renovated Kirner-Johnson Auditorium about "Environmental Justice and Sustainability" on Sept. 9.  The event, sponsored by the Diversity and Social Justice Project and the Levitt Center, provided few answers to pressing questions of sustainability but helped clarify the challenges that face humanity in preparing for the future. 

"Media Myths: Palin and Women," an analysis of voter preferences and how they may have changed with the introduction of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate, appeared on Huffingtonpost.com on Sept. 10. In writing the piece, Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, analyzed Gallup tracking poll numbers before and after the Palin announcement that revealed that McCain's surge came equally from men and women.