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Hamilton College Alumni Association today announced the results of its Alumni Trustee election. Deborah Forte K'75, Gregory T. Hoogkamp '82 and Susan C. Bacot '88 received the greatest number of votes, as certified by Elections USA, an independent firm contracted to manage the election, and will join the College's Board of Trustees, effective immediately. A total of 3,731 or 21.4 percent of alumni ballots were cast by the August 15, 2005 deadline.

Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman is participating in a six-day summer session on contemplative curriculum development at Smith College in Massachusetts. Sponsored by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, the session allows teachers in higher education to develop curricula that integrate contemplative practice into courses in any discipline. Professor Guttman's course, "Lyric Yoga: Meditative Introspection and Poetic Creation," will be offered as an elective in the English department and will use yoga as a form of contemplative practice to complement the study and creation of contemplative literature.

Bryden Considine and Kateri Whitebean, both '08, are no strangers to summer research. Whitebean (Fabius, N.Y.) is spending her fourth summer doing research at Hamilton. As a participant in the Oneida Indian Nation Program for high school students, she gained experience in several different labs in the summers following her sophomore and junior years. Last summer, both Whitebean and Considine (Cabot, Vt.) participated in the STEP/Dreyfus program for incoming freshmen, where they spent six weeks working with Associate Professor of Biology Herman Lehman in a neuroscience lab. "The experience I gained then only furthered my interests in doing research again," said Whitebean.

Lisa Schaaf of Erie, Pa., and Mary Ann Vicari of Baltimore, Md., both '06, are spending the summer researching the geoarchaeology of Smith Creek Cave in Nevada. Schaaf and Vicari, who are working with Professor of Archaeology Tom Jones, spent the first six weeks of their research on-site in Nevada, and are now back on campus analyzing samples in the lab.

A record number of 213 incoming first-year Hamilton students are participating in Adirondack Adventure, an outdoor orientation program for new students. The students arrived on August 15, a week before regular orientation, for eight days of games, hiking, canoeing and service projects. Coordinated by Andrew Jillings, director of adventure programs, Adirondack Adventure (AA) offers 25 different expeditions. Trips range from standard Adirondack explorations -- hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and rock climbing -- to more unusual trips, such as a service trip and a geological exploration. Jillings reports that the sea kayaking and rock climbing trips are the most popular. He said that in 2004 AA added two "hard core triple combo trips of sea kayaking, canoeing and hiking." Participant numbers are up by 24 from 2004.

Adam Gordon '06 (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) is spending his summer with Alexander Hamilton. After winning an Emerson Grant this year, Gordon, a government major and art history minor, decided to conduct research on Hamilton for a project titled "Alexander Hamilton: Patriot for Mankind."

When Diana Mastrocola '06 (Reading, Mass.) opted to spend her summer conducting research as a Levitt Fellow, she simultaneously expanded her commitment to the Utica community. As a volunteer at Girls Inc. throughout the academic year, a program for girls ages 6-16 in Utica, Mastrocola wanted to know more about this national non-profit organization and particularly the demographic makeup of the Utica chapter.

Ernesto Medina Gomez '06 (Mexico City, Mexico), is spending his second summer as a Levitt Fellow combining his interests in government, economics and public affairs as he researches for a project titled "Have NGOs and anti-globalization activists helped the poor? A study of the impact on the poor of World Bank projects and transnational protest."

The Nature Handbook by Ernest Williams, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Biology, received a positive review in The Providence Journal (7/31/05). An excerpt of the review noted: "The Nature Handbook is the mother of all field guides. Your Peterson's won't be the same after you get your hands on your own copy...The writing is exceptionally clear and graceful, at times witty, continuously organizing perceptions and challenging interpretations."

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields was the principal investigator and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner and System Administrator and Research Support Specialist Steve Young were key personnel, on a $100,000 grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant, titled “Acquisition of a linux cluster for the Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry (MERCURY)," has been funded by the NSF’s Division of Chemistry through the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI). The research efforts of the entire consortium of eight liberal arts colleges were essential for the success of the NSF-MRI grant. The Linux Cluster will be built, maintained, and operated at Hamilton, and all MERCURY members will use it for computational research in atmospheric chemistry, materials science and physical chemistry, and biochemistry.