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Professor and Chair of Chemistry George Shields and three Hamilton students attended the 44th Sanibel Symposium on Atomic, Molecular, Biophysical, and Condensed Matter Theory, March 1 - March 6 in St. Augustine, Fla.  Shields chaired the plenary session on metals in biology and conducted a workshop for graduate students and undergraduates on combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) hybrid methods. The students presented their research focused on anti-cancer drug design, based on their previous summer work. Frank Pickard '05 won the award for the top undergraduate student poster presentation at the conference for his poster, "The Enediyne Anticancer Antibiotics: A Study of the Bergman Cyclization Energy Barriers of Esperamicin A1 Using ONIOM DFT/MM Methods."

Richard Bernstein, a 1980 graduate of Hamilton and chief U.S. strategist at Merrill Lynch, was interviewed for a New York Times article about the Bull market in stocks.  Bernstein was quoted as saying: "'People are plowing money into emerging-market debt and equity funds, and ignoring the fact that they could get 4 percent dividends on a U.S. food company,' Mr. Bernstein said. Investors often place too much emphasis on capital appreciation, he said, and too little on income."

A Hamilton tradition will be renewed when the College Choir hits the road during spring break, performing in Rochester, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and Buffalo.  Under the direction of G. Roberts Kolb, professor of music and director of choral music at Hamilton since 1981, the 68-member choir will present a number of sacred and secular favorites, including Bruckner's "Ave Maria," Cole Porter's "Night and Day," Brahms' "Neckereien" and Folstrum's "The Water Is Wide.".

Professor of English Margaret Thickstun recently contributed an entry on Anne Bradstreet to Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Printed Texts and Manuscripts, 1500-1700, edited by Helen Ostrovich and Elizabeth Sauer, and published by Routledge. In 2003, she published a book review of Heidi Hunter’s Colonial Women in the Fall 2003 edition of MARDIE. In October 2003, Thickstun also presented a paper titled “Adam as Parent in Paradise Lost” at the annual Milton conference at Murfreesboro in Tennessee.

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, will present "Politics of Patriotism," Wed., March 10, at 7:30 p.m., in K-J Red Pit.  The talk is part of the Alpha Delta Phi lecture series.

Onno Oerlemans, associate professor of English, was quoted in the Syracuse Post-Standard article "Lessons learned in winter."  Winter often is associated negatively with the end of summer and the absence of life. Oerlemans says when you experience nature in the winter, you find that's not true. "Winter is a great time to get out. It's so much quieter, the leaves are gone, tracks are visible," he says, borrowing from the observations of author Aldo Leopold in "A Sand County Almanac."  "Snow absorbs sound. It's much more peaceful, and it's much more conducive to observation," says Oerlemans, who grew up in northern Manitoba, Canada.

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was quoted in the BusinessWeek article "China: A Princeling Who Could Be Premier."  Bo Xilai was appointed on Feb. 29 as head of China's Commerce Ministry.  According to the article, if Bo -- one of China's princelings, as children of the senior Communist elite are called -- can keep reform going in the world's fastest-growing major economy, expect to see him in bigger jobs. "He has very strong political ambitions," Li said. "He would like to become a Politburo member or even Premier."

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times article "China to Boost Defense Funds by 12%."  China announced Saturday that it would boost its defense budget by about 12% at the annual session of the National People's Congress.  Li said, "Looking at China's security environment, they need to accelerate military spending. There's long been a consensus on that. There's nothing new or dramatic about the double-digit increase."

Nancy McCabe, author of Meeting Sophie: A Memoir of Adoption and After the Flashlight Man: A Memoir of Awakening will read from recent work on Tuesday, March 9, at 8 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. 

On Wednesday, our class headed to City Hall for a tour and discussion about the Bloomberg administration.  We all sat around the big round table in the conference room attentively listening as one of Bloomberg’s advisors talked about her work in the public sector. But what did most of us remember most vividly?