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In June, Austin Briggs, Tompkins Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, taught at the Inter University Centre in Dubrovnilk, Croatia. The two-week graduate program on James Joyce featured an international roster of faculty assembled at the IUC, a center for advanced studies whose member institutions include such universities as Johns Hopkins, MIT, Cornell, Oxford, Upsalla, Parma, Beijing and Tokyo. Briggs delivered a lecture, conducted a seminar and participated in group reading sessions devoted to Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Before Dubrovnik, Briggs attended the International James Joyce Symposium in Dublin, where he spoke on two panels, one of which -- on Joyce and the menstrual cycle -- he organized and chaired.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren assumed the presidency of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) in June. He is also serving a three-year term on the CUR executive board. CUR is an organization that supports faculty and institutions that seek to promote undergraduate research on their campuses. Elgren also presented talks at CUR's national conference in La Crosse, Wis., in June.  The talks were titled "So You Have Tenure, Now What?," "Report on the NSF Summit on Undergraduate Research" and "International Programs with Research Opportunities."  

Plumbing, electrical and painting are difficult trades to enter without proper experience and training. To help make it possible for other members of physical plant to work their way up the ladder, the college reinstated its apprenticeship program last year.  The program provides training in various maintenance vocations and the opportunity to become a member of the College’s skilled trades crew.

Jonathan Rick '05, an editorial intern at Time magazine in New York City, continues to contribute to the Notebook section. Rick received credit in Time’s Milestones section (August 9, 2004). Credit in this section can include any number of assignments, including fact checking, writing the Performance of the Week, or compiling Milestones, Verbatim or Numbers.

For Kat Lexa '05, Heather Michael '07 and Meghan Dunn (George Washington '06), examining nearly 36,000 different molecular structures has proven both difficult and rewarding. The students are spending this summer in Hamilton's new Science Center studying the molecular composition of peptides in an effort to eventually produce a more effective drug for the treatment of breast cancer.

Mark Cryer, assistant professor of theater, will perform "99 Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask an African-American" at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Theatre Festival, Aug. 22-27. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest and best known arts festival in the world, with more than 20,000 performances, 10,000 artists and 200 venues.  Cryer was also elected editor of The Beat, the newsletter of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education.

Ann Silversmith, professor of physics, has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the acquisition of equipment for "Thermal and Optical Studies of Sol-gel Materials Containing Rare Earth Ions."  Silversmith applied for the grant with Daniel Boye, professor of physics at Davidson College. According to their proposal, the project will be a “continuation of the fruitful interdisciplinary (physics and chemistry) collaborations between Davidson and Hamilton colleges in a study of the optical properties of doped sol-gel materials."

Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was quoted in the Dallas Morning News article "History suggests 9-11 panel won't bring big changes."  Klinkner commented on the Warren commission report and said it was the "least successful" commission because its report fed even more conspiracy theories about Kennedy's assassination.

In the summer of 2002, biology professor Bill Pfitsch and his students began studying the ecology of the Rome, NY, sand plains and the the wild blue lupine, a host plant for the endangered frosted elfin butterfly. Now, in the third year of the study, they are beginning to see some progress in their efforts, according to Mollie Wright and Ashley Kuenzi, both '05, who are continuing the research this summer.

Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick and Associate Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren have received a grant from the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program to support the acquisition of a Raman Microscope. This instrument will be used to support the geo-microbiology research activities in McCormick's lab and bio-inorganic studies in Elgren's lab.  The instrument will also be incorporated into chemistry, biology and geology laboratory courses.