Three Faculty Members Promoted to Professor

Three members of the Hamilton faculty have been promoted to the rank of professor. Associate Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer, Associate Professor of Communication Catherine Phelan, and Associate Professor of Biology Patrick Reynolds were promoted, retroactive to July 1.

Brewer came to Hamilton College in 1989 and teaches undergraduate courses in advanced and intermediate inorganic chemistry and general chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Karen Brewer in the lab with Elizabeth Faroh '08.

Professor Brewer's collaborative and interdisciplinary research focuses on the synthesis and luminescence properties of rare earth (lanthanide) sol-gel derived materials. Along with her collaborators, Professors Ann Silversmith (Physics, Hamilton College), Daniel Boye (Physics, Davidson College) and Ken Krebs (Physics, Franklin & Marshall College), she and her students synthesize materials including silica-based glasses and gels containing rare earth ions and chelated complexes with the aim of enhancing the materials' fluorescence properties as studied by fluorescence and laser spectroscopy.

In February Brewer was awarded a $36,500 grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences. The grant is for her proposal "Materials Chemistry Project Laboratories for Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry." This project will introduce x-ray powder diffraction as a technique for the characterization of a wide range of inorganic materials into the laboratory curriculum for the course "Inorganic and Materials Chemistry 265." The Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences funds "projects that propose to advance the science of chemistry in innovative ways" and is "intended to seed the initial phases" of a project.

Her research has also been funded by the Research Corporation and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society.

Catherine Waite Phelan

Catherine Waite Phelan, chair and associate professor of communication, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, with an interdisciplinary degree in communication and philosophy. Drawing on the work of Walter Ong and Marshall McLuhan, her scholarship exhibits an enduring interest in technology and society.

Recent publications address a theory of video that challenges current assumptions regarding the role of television. She has published articles in Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Cultural Studies, Symbolic Interaction, and Proteus, among others. Her recent book, titled Mediation and the Communication Matrix, (Peter Lang, 2003) discusses how the screen in its myriad forms has contributed to an emerging view of the self in American culture that is unique to our time.

Phelan's teaching interests include courses on media theory, the First Amendment, and technology and society. She has done a great deal to revive public speaking activities on our campus, including promoting the Debate Team and speaking competitions.

Pat Reynolds in biology lab

The recipient of several National Science Foundation grants, Professor Pat Reynolds is an expert on marine invertebrate biology, particularly the evolution of Mollusca -- the phylum that includes snails, clams and squid. Reynolds received his B.Sc. from University College, Galway, Ireland, and his Ph.D. from the University of Victoria, Canada. He has worked with biology student research assistants on cruises and at marine field stations along both coasts of North America and in Antarctica. His recent publications have appeared in Advances in Marine Biology, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, and in Molecular Systematics and Phylogeography of Mollusks (Smithsonian Institution Press). He is also the editor of Invertebrate Biology, an international journal of the American Microscopical Society. Reynolds has been a visiting scientist at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Caribo Cay, Belize, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Natural History Museum in London.