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Professor of Geosciences Eugene Domack was interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" (7/19/2005) about his recent discovery of an Antarctic ecosystem beneath the collapsed Larsen Ice Shelf. Domack, the lead scientist on a recent expedition to the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, discussed the mud volcano, mats of bacteria and clusters of large clams. Domack's report presents the first finding of this type in the Antarctic, where the near-freezing water temperatures and almost completely uncharted territory will likely provide a baseline for researchers to probe portions of the ocean floor that have been undisturbed for nearly 10,000 years. He also noted that the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf has opened the pristine chemical-based ecosystem to disturbances and debris that have already begun to bury the delicate mats and mollusks established within the underwater environment.

Professor of Geosciences Eugene Domack was featured in the MSNBC article, "Ice shelf collapse reveals undersea world," about the discovery of an Antarctic ecosystem. Domack is the lead author on the report of the finding published in the July 19 issue of Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union. An accidental discovery of the "cold-seep" or "cold vent" ecosystem came about after video footage from a recent expedition in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica was analyzed. A community of clams and a thin layer of bacterial mats are flourishing in undersea sediments. "Seeing these organisms on the ocean bottom -- it's like lifting the carpet off the floor and finding a layer that you never knew was there," said Domack. He hopes to find new species and that this discovery will open the door to future Antarctic expeditions, specifically into Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake that sits two miles below the surface.

Associate Professor of Economics Ann Owen published an article with Christopher Fogelstrom ’03 titled "Monetary Policy Implications of Electronic Currency: An Empirical Analysis" in the June 2005 issue of Applied Economics Letters. The paper, which investigates the impact of the usage of electronic currency on money demand, was the research topic Fogelstrom pursued with Owen as a Levitt Fellow in 2002 and for his senior honors thesis in economics.

Associate Professor of Economics Ann Owen and Assistant Professor of Economics Stephen Wu presented a paper titled "Financial Shocks and Worry About the Future" at the Western Economic Association Meetings in San Francisco on July 6.

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner published an article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A titled "Global Search for Minimum Energy (H2O)n Clusters, n=3-5." The paper, co-authored with Goldwater Scholar Mary Beth Day '07, describes a complete and thorough search of the potential energy surfaces of the water trimer, water tetramer and water pentamer.

Economics is the name of the game for Levitt Fellow Tamim Akiki ’08 (Kfardebian, Lebanon). This summer, the native of Lebanon is conducting a study titled “Do Home Country Experiences Influence Economic Outcomes of Immigrants in the United States?”

Austin Briggs, the Tompkins Professor of English, Emeritus, delivered welcoming remarks at the opening of the "Ezra Pound and Education" Conference at Hamilton and gave a banquet address, "EP Comes to Lunch, and Other Encounters" in April.

The chance discovery of a vast ecosystem beneath the collapsed Larsen Ice Shelf will allow scientists to explore the uncharted life below Antarctica's floating ice shelves and further probe the origins of life in extreme environments. Researchers discovered the sunless habitat after reviewing an underwater video study examining a deep glacial trough in the northwestern Weddell Sea following the sudden Larsen B shelf collapse in 2002.

Professor of Art History John McEnroe, the Fischer Professor of Fine Arts, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to spend five months at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He will use the time to complete a study of the architecture of ancient Crete beginning in January. McEnroe has published 35 reports in "Pseira IV. Minoan Buildings in Areas B, C, D, and F" (The University Museum Press) to culminate his 10-year project as architect for the Pseira, Crete, excavations.

Associate Professor of French Joseph Mwantuali presented a paper at the International Council for Francophone Studies in Ottawa on June 29. His paper was titled “Mikilistes, diaspourris et pont de lianes.” The theme for the panel was African cinema and globalization. Concentrating on the Congo (RDC), Mwantuali’s paper dealt with the specificity of sub-Saharan cinema techniques and epistemology, and the way it responds to the challenges of Post-colonialist theories.