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One summer of chasing lizards wasn't enough for William Caffry '09 (Lyme, N.H.). Caffry spent three weeks in Oregon last summer researching the escape tactics of Uta stansburiana, or side-blotched lizards, and this year he returned to the project, which is run by Lafayette College professor Peter Zani. Caffry spent five weeks during the summer observing a population near Hines, Ore., as well as monitoring two other populations, one in Oregon and one in Utah. His work is supported by Hamilton's Jeffrey Fund Science Internship, supporting full-time off-campus internships in the sciences at any organization that offers unpaid experiential opportunities.

Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2008-2009 academic year, including five tenure-track appointments, 31 visiting professors and instructors, and seven lecturers and teaching fellows. Following are new tenure-track appointments: 

Hamilton's Run for the Fallen mile-long memorial tribute on Sunday, Aug. 24, took place simultaneously with the national Run for the Fallen final run to and ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. More than 100 alumni, students, employees and community members joined in the event organized by Professor of Mathematics Richard Bedient and Emma Woods '09. Both CNN and Stars and Stripes, the daily paper published for the military, covered the event nationally.

Running a total of 64 miles, 13 members of the Philadelphia Alumni Association gathered at the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum on Sunday, August 24, 2008 in honor of Run for the Fallen, a cross-country run honoring the men and women who have lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Organized by Jon Bellona '03, Run for the Fallen included a group of Hamilton Alumni and Friends who ran more than 4,000 miles across the United States, beginning on June 14, 2008 in California and ending at Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday, August 24, 2008. 

A native of Shanghai, China, Xiaolu Xu '10 took the opportunity this summer to learn more about her hometown. Fu studied how architectural preservation has evolved in Shanghai, whose built heritage has been challenged by various developments in recent decades. Her research, a collaborative project with Assistant Professor of Government Peter Cannavo, was supported by a research fellowship from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. The Levitt Research Fellows Program is open to all students who wish to spend the summer working in collaboration with a faculty member on an issue related to public affairs. Students receive a summer stipend and spend 10 weeks in the summer working intensively with a faculty mentor.

Those who were on campus last semester will most likely remember the end-of-year "Ham's Cram & Scram," where students from the Recycling Task Force collected recyclable/reusable items from residence halls. Now the fruits of the volunteers' labor will be for sale at the Cram & Scram tent sale on Aug. 26 and 27.

Emily Rohrbach, visiting assistant professor of English, recently attended the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, held this year at the University of Toronto, August 21-24. Rohrbach participated in a seminar on "Romanticism and the Forms of Surmise," which explored the limits of the technical vocabulary available for describing Romantic lyrics. She also chaired a panel on editorial initiatives.

"I read some comics when I was younger, but not too many," says Brendan Conway '09 (North Caldwell, N.J.) on his experience in the field of superhero literature. Now, however, he is spending the entire summer reading comics. After a friend recommended Watchmen by Alan Moore, one of the greatest graphic novels ever written, Conway started looking for other superhero comics that showed the same level of depth and complexity…"and one led to another," he says. "Eventually, I was knee-deep in superhero lore, and I was finding it fascinating."

Due to the limited capacity of the brain to repair itself, strokes are the leading cause of adult disability. Although physical and occupational therapy can encourage damaged brain circuits to recover by enhancing their activity, such strategies are hampered by patient participation, limited ability to increase the therapy "dose" and the labor-intensive nature of the methods. However, several new classes of drugs have recently been developed that stimulate brain activity after strokes, possibly leading to increased neural repair and recovery.

A critical concern for U.S. policymakers is how to secure a reliable source of energy in the coming years. Even as fears about a decline in global petroleum reserves lead the country to use the range of its diplomatic options to achieve "energy security," competition for resources is intensifying with the economic growth of countries like Russia, China and India. As a Levitt Fellow this summer, Cameron Gaylord '09 (Westport, Conn.) is delving into these issues, studying the global political arena to assess the challenges that finite energy resources present for international policy.