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Dr. James Mundy, director of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, spoke on October 5 as part of the William G. Roehrick '34 Lecture Series. Dr. Mundy was the first speaker in a series of lectures titled “College Museums Collections and Directions.” The goal of the series is to experience some of the changing collections at other small museums.

The long awaited dedication ceremony for Hamilton's new Science Center was held on Friday, Sept. 30, in the building's atrium. President Joan Hinde Stewart gave the opening remarks and introduced the keynote speaker, Congressman Sherwood L. Boehlert, the chairman of the House Committee on Science.

The student organization Biology Matters hosted a panel titled "Stem Cell Therapy: The Science and the Controversy" on Friday, Sept. 30, as part of the Science Center dedication weekend. The panelists were Susan Bryant, P'08, dean, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine; and Robert Almeder, the McCullough Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton.

Martin Hirsch '60 gave a lecture titled "HIV/AIDS-Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" for the Biology department during the Science Symposium held on Saturday, Oct. 1 and part of Hamilton's Science Center dedication weekend. Dr. Hirsch is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of infectious disease and immunology at Harvard School of Public Health and director of clinical AIDS research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hirsch was introduced by Professor of Biology Ernest Williams, who presented him with a Hamilton Alumni Achievement Medal.

Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, gave the James S. Plant lecture at Hamilton College on September 29 as part of the Science Center dedication weekend, "A Celebration of Science." The James S. Plant Distinguished Scientist Lecture series was established in 1987 through a bequest from Dr. Plant, class of 1912 and an eminent child psychiatrist, to bring to the campus outstanding scientists as guest lecturers. Diamond's lecture topic was a discussion of his new book, The New York Times best-seller Collapse.

Diane Fox, the Freeman Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies, participated in a Rockefeller funded initiative called “Culture, Art, Trauma, Survival, Development: Vietnamese Contexts” at the University of Massachusetts, Boston on September 17. Fox presented a report based on her scholarly work and on a public education project in which she is involved titled “The Agent Orange Education Project,” which offers educators and community groups resources to educate their students or groups on the lingering consequences of the chemicals used during the war in Vietnam. The project is also drawing together artwork from Americans and Vietnamese; the show of Vietnamese art opened in Hanoi on September 24 and then will come to the United States, where U.S. veterans will contribute art work and poetry.

Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs, presented a paper at the 7th Conference of the European Sociological Association Institute of Sociology, held at Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. The paper, titled “The EMU and the Transatlantic and Social Dimensions of the Crises of the European Union,” was co-authored by Professor of Political Science Magnus Ryner of the University of Birmingham, UK. The paper challenged the conventional belief that the launching of the Euro represents an unprecedented level of European integration and a more even balance of power between the European Union and the United States.

The Inaugural Couper Phi Beta Kappa Library Lecture was held on Friday, September 9. This annual lecture will honor Hamilton alumnus and trustee Richard “Dick” Couper ’44 for his commitment and contributions to Hamilton College and the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the oldest academic honorary society in America. David Stam, the former Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries at the New York Public Library and Syracuse University librarian emeritus was the speaker for this event. His topic was “An Army without Ammunition: Books and the College Library,” about the trials and tribulations of Hamilton and its library in the 19th century.  

John Werner ’92 (Dorchester, Mass.) has been named executive director of Citizen Schools Boston. Citizen Schools is a national network of after-school “apprenticeship education” programs for students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Werner will lead nine Citizen Schools’ program sites, and his primary responsibilities will be to promote a culture of school achievement and to raise the visibility and impact of Citizen Schools’ hands-on learning classes. He will oversee 75 full- and part-time staff serving 800 youth in the city. “I want to make Boston the best city to grow up in,” said Werner, “I think Citizen Schools and our business and community partners can play a significant role in making that happen.”

Experience as a Green Party member in Washington State led Young Han '06 to apply for an Emerson grant to study electoral reform. An economics major, Han chose the project based on his personal interest, rather than academic goals. "I realized how skewed the system was against the third party," said Han. His project, titled "Single-transferable Vote in the Rhetoric of Electoral Reform," brought him to Vancouver, British Columbia, where electoral reform is at the forefront of public issues. Han's project was to "study how electoral reform advocates have framed the issue to make it accessible to the general public," he explained.