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An emphasis on diplomacy and strong recommendations on the resolution of world conflicts in Iraq, Iran and Israel among other global challenges, was the focus of Richard Haass' remarks at Hamilton College’s Commencement on Sunday, May 20. Haass directed policy planning in the Bush administration at the State Department, reporting to Colin Powell, until June 2003. He is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article on Wednesday, May 16, titled “Giuliani's pro-choice tightrope.” The article referenced Klinkner’s analysis of data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey that found that more than one-third of Republican primary voters wanted to ban all abortions.

Mary Beth Day '07 was recognized by the New York State Legislature for recently being named to the USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team. Each February, USA Today honors 20 undergraduate academic all-stars as its All-USA College Academic Team. Day is the first Hamilton student to earn the honor. Assemblyman Dave Townsend, 115th District, and Senator Michael Nozzolio, 54th Senate District, co-sponsored the resolution. Day is a resident of Seneca Falls, N.Y., which is in Nozzolio's district, and Townsend's district includes Hamilton College. Townsend presented Day with a framed copy of the resolution at his Westmoreland office on May 18.

Twenty-one members of Hamilton's class of 2007 were elected this month to the Epsilon chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest honor society. They are: Riada Asimovic, Rachel Bennek, Melissa Coffey, Elizabeth Debraggio, Sara Feuerstein, Elizabeth Gilliams, Laura Hartz, William Hoffman, Joseph Jansen, Kaitlin Jones, Theodore Krolik, Lindsay Martin, Sean Navin, Dillon Prime, Michael Simonelli, Shannon Stanfield, Emily Starr, Jonathan Stults, Ingrid Tharasook, Bridget White and Tyler Zink.

The French Ministry of National Education, Teaching, and Research has promoted John C. O'Neal, professor of French, to the rank of "officier" in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. He was named a "chevalier" (or knight) in 1998. (The three ranks in this order are "chevalier," "officier," and "commandeur.") Founded in 1808 by Napoleon, the order originally recognized teachers but later included other figures in the fields of letters, the arts, and the sciences. The promotion signed by the French minister of education, Gilles de Robien, and dated February 1, 2007 awards O'Neal for his "services rendus à la culture française" (services rendered to French culture). The envelope containing the promotion arrived recently via the French embassy for cultural services in New York City.

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, will deliver the Commencement address at Hamilton College on Sunday, May 20, at 10:30 a.m. in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House. The 455 members of the class of 2007 will receive bachelor's degrees.

Throughout the year, Hamilton plays host to a broad spectrum of approximately 200 speakers, from a former U.S. vice president to an organic farmer, on myriad topics, from film direction to congressional budgets. As the academic year comes to a close, a review of a list of some of these visitors highlights the diversity of disciplines, views and interests represented on campus as well as the opportunities afforded our students and our community.

Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick was awarded a $100,000 grant by the Department of Energy to study the use of iron-reducing bacteria to help remediate groundwater contaminated with uranium. The iron-reducing bacteria that are the subject of the study use iron oxides to support cell respiration. In essence, they "breath rust." In carrying out normal life processes these bacteria profoundly affect the geochemistry of the environments where they live often producing a variety of biogenic mineral byproducts.

John Rice '78, one of four GE vice chairmen and president and CEO of Atlanta-based GE Infrastructure, is featured in the cover article of Georgia Trend magazine (May, 2007). Rice was named 2007's Most Respected Business Leader by the magazine. Rice oversees GE’s Energy, Aviation, Rail, Oil & Gas, Water, Energy Financial Services, and Aviation Financial Services operations, businesses that generate more than $54 billion in annual revenue and employ 90,000 people worldwide.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Ruby Patterson presented a paper titled "Caribbean Activism Stateside: 1968 and Beyond" at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Association of Caribbean Historians in Kingston, Jamaica, May 7 -12. Her paper examined the life of Barbadian immigrant Richard B. Moore from 1920 to 1973. Moore was a major political figure in New York City during these years and from 1942-1968, he ran the Frederick Douglass Bookstore in Harlem. Radically opposed to racism and committed to Caribbean independence, Moore was an important spokesperson for the rights of all African people. He died in Barbados in 1978.