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The Hamilton Antarctica 2001 Expedition passed through the Straits of Magellan and turned south along the east coast of Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego, "Land of Fire" was named for the many campfires seen by Magellan during his explorations between 1519 and 1522.

The traditional Newman Christmas Mass will be celebrated this Sunday evening, December 9, at 11 p.m. in the Chapel. This year the College Hill Singers, led by Professor Anthony Reeves, will provide music as we gather to prayerfully anticipate the coming holiday. There will be a hot chocolate and cookies reception in the Bristol Hub following the Mass.

Dr. Warren Allmon of the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, will give a talk, Pleistocene Mastodons of New York State, on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 1 p.m., in the Science Auditorium. The talk is sponsored by the Geology Department.

Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies Jay Williams was a guest on "Hour CNY," on WCNY, a Syracuse PBS affiliate. The December 3 interview featured a discussion of Williams' collection of prints by Thomas Nast, 19th century illustrator. The Emerson Gallery is currently exhibiting Williams' collection of Nast's Santa Claus renditions.

George Shields, professor of chemistry, received a $50,000 grant from the American Chemical Society to support "Accurate Calculation of pKa Values." He published five papers, all of which are co-authored by Hamilton undergraduates(*). "Accurate relative pKa calculations for carboxylic acids using complete basis set and Gaussian-n models combined with continuum solvation methods" Ann Marie Toth*, Matthew D. Liptak*, Danielle L. Phillips*, and George C. Shields, J. Chem. Phys. 114 (2001) 4595-4606. "Accurate pKa Calculations for Carboxylic Acids Using Complete Basis Set and Gaussian-n Models Combined with CPCM Continuum Solvation Methods" Matthew D. Liptak* and George C. Shields, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123 (2001) 7314-7319.

Government Professor Cheng Li gave a speech at the Naval Anaylsis Center in Washington, D.C. on Chinese leadership sucession on Dec. 3. More than 100 officials from various U.S. government agencies, as well as academics, attended the talk titled, "Poised to Take the Helm: Rising Stars and the Transistion to the Fourth Generation."

Professor of Government Cheng Li spoke at the conference on "China's Leadership Transition," sponsored by the Center of Naval Analysis Dec. 3-4, 2001.

"Girls Speak Out," a program started by Hamilton senior Jessica Ambrose that encourages middle school girls to express themselves through journal writing, is the subject of an editorial in the Utica Observer-Dispatch (12/4/01).

Richard Bernstein a 1980 graduate of Hamilton College, has been named chief U.S. strategist for Merrill Lynch & Co. Bernstein, the firm's quantitative strategist at Merrill's global securities research and economics group since 1988, will now perform a dual function. He has been voted to the Institutional Investor All-America Research team for the past 10 years, and was a member of the "First Team" for the past six. Bernstein also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton, and is on the committee that oversees the College's Endowment Fund. He holds an economics degree from Hamilton as well as a masters in business administration in finance, with honors, from New York University.

Ann Frechette, Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies and assistant professor of anthropology, presented a paper at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in December. The paper, "The Concept of Democracy among Tibetans in Exile," was part of a panel on "Cultural Representations East and West." The paper is based on research Frechette conducted among Tibetans in India in 1994 and Nepal in 1995.