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Luke Maher '11, Grace Stadnyk '10, Chan Thompson '10 and Professor of Mathematics Richard Bedient just returned from the first Unknot (Undergraduate Knot Theory) Conference at Denison University where they gave a paper titled "Three-Trip Lorenz Knots," heard many more and generally had a great time meeting knot students from all over the country.

If she ever had trouble falling asleep during her trip to Ireland this summer, Erica Kowsz ’11 could have just counted sheep. They roamed outside her tent on the abandoned island of Inis Airc, and although living with them for almost a week was a bizarre experience, Kowsz says they made good company.

A man with a red nose and white face paint strolls into a pediatric hospital. He greets a small child who has cancer. Pulling out a letter “e” made of construction paper, he shows it to the girl. The letter is solid brown, and when the clown asks her what it is, she looks confused. But then a smile flickers across her face: “Oh, it’s a brown ‘e,’” she understands. “A brownie!” A non-profit organization like Clown Care is small but has a huge presence in both the hearts of its clientele and the nation.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe spent 10 days in July working at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.  She is currently describing a new species of nematode that she collected from sediment off the coast of Florida.

Jay Williams ’54, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religion, published an article, "The Gospel of John (or is it Ch'an)" on the bibleinterp.com Web site. As the title suggests, it offers a rather different approach to the fourth gospel, spelling out in more detail what Williams said at the Service of Remembrance during Reunions ’09 weekend.

Professor of Theatre Craig Latrell recently completed a month-long trip to Bali where he conducted research on destination weddings as intercultural performances. He observed the wedding of a Ukranian couple in a Balinese ceremony, and visited numerous wedding chapels, hotels, wedding coordinators, and an elephant park where it is possible to arrange a post-ceremony elephant ride through a village. His research was funded through the Dean of Faculty office.

The car ride from Albany to Boston was long, but worth it. As a 10-year-old, Whitney Overocker ’09 joined her mother on a trip to see a Claude Monet exhibition. Overocker remembers admiring the resplendent light that Monet cast on lily pads and haystacks and the Notre Dame cathedral. Her childhood awe transformed into an academic interest in the history of art when she took a class on Renaissance Art with John and Anne Fischer Professor in Fine Arts John McEnroe. Overocker is interning this summer at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (PGC) of Modern Art in Venice, Italy. 

Clathrate hydrates are like cages. They are sculptures of ice-like water-based solids that can trap very small molecules inside of them. Studying their behavior can help decide what uses they might have and what kind of industries could benefit from their reactions.

Professor of English Vincent Odamtten was one of two guests on Wisconsin Public Radio's show "Here On Earth" on July 13. The program was focused on Ghana's place in Africa, President Obama’s visit to the country and what Africans can expect during the Obama administration. Odamtten, a native of Ghana, said that he thought Obama’s speech was well balanced with good points but he asked, “Will words be followed by deeds?”

Associate Professor of English Doran Larson attended a National Endowment for the Humanities five-week summer institute, The Rule of Law: Legal Studies and the Humanities, at the University of New England from June 15 to July 17.