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Christopher Butts, a rising senior at Hamilton College, received one of four stipends from the Sergei Zlinkoff Foundation, which supports summer research for students interested in the health professions. Chris’s research seeks to understand the calcium binding behavior of the antibiotic tetracycline.  His faculty advisor is Hamilton Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren.

Members of Hamilton's class of 2007 will begin orientation on Tuesday, Aug. 26 before classes begin on Monday, Sept. 1. The new students will meet with advisors, gather information about academic departments, and attend a lecture by Richard J. Light, professor in the Graduate School of Education and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and author of <i>Making the Most of College</i>.

Hamilton College alumnus and trustee and former solicitor general Drew Days III '63 participated in a panel discussion titled, "Solicitors General in the Spotlight" at the American Bar Association annual convention. Other panelists included Walter Dellinger, Charles Fried, Ken Starr and Theodore Olson. It was broadcast on C-Span.

Hamilton College's Adirondack Adventure (AA) program, an eight-day outdoor program for incoming first-year and transfer students, got off to a great start on August 18. Sunny skies and enthusiastic Hamilton College students, faculty and alumni greeted nearly half of the class of 2007. Nearly 200 students signed up to participate in the annual program that takes place prior to regular freshman orientation. The program offers numerous trips, each of which is guided by a team of two or three highly trained student, staff, or faculty leaders.  Each trip covers a different area of the Adirondacks, allowing students to participate in a variety of outdoor activities such as hiking, canoeing, and mountain biking. The program has been in place for 19 years and greatly contributes to students' community feeling at Hamilton.

Andreu Viader Valls, a rising junior , is conducting research this summer with Professor Steven Festin at Hamilton College.  The summer research will be in the fields of biochemistry and cancer biology. Valls, under Festin’s advisement, will be studying the cellular pathways associated with the steroid hormone estrogen and its relation to cancer, specifically breast cancer.

Robert D. Group, a rising sophomore at Hamilton College, received a stipend from the Ralph E. Hansmann Science Student Support Fund to study and map portions of the surface structure of the planet Venus.  The Ralph E. Hansmann Science Students Support Fund is given to support research in all sciences and mathematics during the summer.  He will be part of a research group including Hamilton Professor of Geology Barbara Tewksbury and two local high school students. 

Andrew T. Yue,  a rising senior at Hamilton College, received a stipend from the LUCAS Fund to research a way to size down a neutron polarizer into a more practical volume for application in the field.  The LUCAS Fund helps support summer science research at Hamilton College.  His faculty advisor is Assistant Professor of Physics and nuclear physicist Gordon L. Jones. 

Sarah E. McNeil '04, Ashley Kuenzi '05, Charlotte Hodde '04, and Krista Marran '04 will be participating in summer research concerning species recovery of the Karner Blue and Frosted Elfin butterflies on the Rome Sand Plains.  Their research is funded through a recent grant from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Hamilton College’s summer science grants program.  Their faculty advisors, Professors of Biology William Pfitsch and Ernest Williams, are members of the Rome Sand Plains Resource Management Team.  Pfitsch’s expertise is in plant ecology, and Williams is a butterfly population ecologist. 

Professor of Philosophy Bob Simon's book <i>Fair Play</i>, about the ethics of athletics, has been revised and published by Westview Press (August, 2004). According to the book jacket, "<i>Fair Play</i> is a rigorous exploration of the ethical presuppositions of competitive athletics and their connection both to ethical theory and to concrete moral dilemmas that arise in actual athletic competition. Professor Simon develops a model of athletic competition as a mutually acceptable quest for excellence and applies it to a variety of ethical issues that arise in sport."

Associate Professor of Economics Ann Owen was interviewed for an Associated Press article titled "Consumer Spending Key to Helping Economy." The article, which appeared in numerous daily newspapers nationwide, discussed the child tax-credit checks that many consumers are receiving this summer, and how they're spending them. "The more consumers spend their tax windfalls, the better for the economy's budding revival. Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity," according to the article. Owen said, "A person's decision to save or spend is shaped by one's perception of the economy and their own personal experiences. Some savers may be influenced by newspaper headlines of exploding federal deficits or decisions by some cash-strapped state and local governments to raise taxes," she said.