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Jen Santoro ’11 enjoyed catching frogs and spending time outside when she was younger, and has an affinity for nature still. Her love for plant life and for creatures flitting from tree to tree translated into a desire to be an environmental studies major, with a focus in biology. Her research partner, Gary Bedrosian ’11, also claims to have loved biology ever since he was very small. Together they're working on a project at the Rome Sand Plains with Associate Professor of Biology William Pfitsch. This summer, their goal is to study the relationship between wild blue lupine plants and the Frosted Elfin butterfly, and how different soil types in the area could lead them to more conclusions on the topic.

Andrew Steele ’10 is working at a quiet organization this summer, with fewer than 30 staff members and 10 to 12 interns. Despite the fact that it is relatively calm inside, the Center for Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) is surrounded by the commotion of the nation’s capital. Steele says he is excited to be in a place like Washington, D.C., where bustling streets represent the constant hum of political activity.

As a sequel to the biological sampling from earlier in the summer, Kira DesJardins ’10 is taking the next step in identifying the species that inhabit the depths of Green Lakes. Other students have extracted the DNA of organisms in the water samples and prepared them for genetic analysis. DesJardins has created a “clone library” out of the fungal DNA with Professor of Biology Jinnie Garrett.

In Bollywood movies, romance is trailed by an international shadow. The majestic palaces and cathedrals of Europe have become iconic of love themes in Hindi language movies. It is also common to see scenes of men sweeping women off their feet as mountains like the Swiss Alps rise to a clear sky in the background. The ways in which both women and nation are portrayed in Bollywood movies are fascinating to (Catherine) Fiona Kirkpatrick ’10, whose research this summer will analyze these gendered and nationalist discourses. Her collaboration with Assistant Professor of Anthropology Chaise LaDousa is funded by the Emerson Grant Foundation, created in 1997 to encourage students to work with faculty on research that suits their specific interests.

Women stick together in hard times. During World War II they lifted one another’s spirits when their husbands left for the battlefield. Organizations like NOW (National Organization for Women) have constructed alliances that combat forces deterring women’s rights. Even female textile workers as early as two centuries ago formed supportive and cooperative groups. These social groups were known as British friendly societies, and they provided mutual aid to women in the era of the rise of the British welfare state. Lauren Perillo ’10 is working on a Levitt-funded project with Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi to examine the advantages of friendly societies to women who needed more financial assistance.

Henok Alemayo ’10 feels connected to a very specific area of the world due to his upbringing. He is a former refugee from Ethiopia who escaped persecution during the Red Terror. His father, a suspected insurgent and rebel during the reign of a military dictator, spent four years in prison and experienced torture and death threats. After a few years, he and his family escaped to the United States. Alemayo says he cannot imagine a career unrelated to peace-making or international relief.

As a high school student, Keith Willner ’11 was very interested in chemistry but had no interest in going to Hamilton because he was a local student and felt it was too close to home. “My parents dragged me on a tour of campus.” But as soon as he entered the Science Center, with its towering glass windows and immaculate, well-equipped labs, his sullen attitude went away. “I was hooked,” he said. Now Willner is a budding chemist working for the Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Robin Kinnel. The goal of his research this summer is to establish that the (-) enantiomer of germacrene D is the principal chemical signal for feeding and egg laying in the female Phyciodes tharos (Pearl Crescent) butterfly. 

As an out lesbian, Rachel Rapoza ’10 cares deeply about the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest national civil rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. It is a force of more than 750,000 members nationwide, serves to protect the rights of LGBT Americans, and works diligently to ensure that these members of society are embraced as passionate and genuine human beings with great capabilities and potential. HRC is involved in political outreach campaigns as well as non-political research that raise awareness of gay and lesbian issues. They serve a broad range of groups, from elementary schools to corporations nationwide.

To the east of North America are the White Mountains of New Hampshire. To the north, the Monteregian Hills of Quebec. Just west of these is Cannon Point, a cape on Lake Champlain near Essex, N.Y. These three formations typify the uncommon magmatic activity (behavior of molten rock) in the Northeast. Moving past Cannon Point to the west, a person would be hard pressed to find any magmatic features before coming upon the magnificent Rocky Mountains. That makes Cannon Point a rarity among eastern rock structures, and its magnetic igneous intrusions make up the western-most activity of the region. Jonathan Traylor ’10 is studying these rocks to see what they might say about regional magmatic activity that dates back to the Cretaceous period.

A physicist is different from a biologist or chemist in that his data will always be open to debate. No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to flawlessly measure a physical value, whether it is momentum, magnetic field, or moment of inertia. According to him, uncertainty behaves asymptotically – the range of error gets closer and closer to zero but never reaches it. Scientists are especially fond of tacking more decimal places onto physical constants, like gravity. They make it their goal to alleviate uncertainty as much as possible.