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Claire Williams ’25 conducted research earlier this summer with Visiting Assistant Professor of Geosciences Kris Kusnerik and Andrew Fredericks ’25 on the Wakulla River in Florida.

Hamilton salutes four distinguished members of the faculty who retired this year after a combined 152 years of service to the College. They are Cynthia Domack, professor of geosciences; Elaine Heekin, professor of dance and movement studies; Elizabeth Jensen, professor of economics; and David Thompson, professor of physical education and director of campus wellness.

The X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) lab uses x-rays, a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, to determine the chemical composition of rocks, minerals, and soils. This data can be used to interpret important information about a rock’s history, including how and when it formed.

Is there life on other planets? What does the term ‘Viking’ really mean? Is Earth due for another reversal of the magnetic field? Expert faculty members from several departments, including history, east Asian languages, art history, geosciences, government, and physics, share a little-known fact about their discipline.

Associate Professor of Geosciences Cat Beck recently co-authored two papers stemming from her work with the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP), which she has been involved in since drilling these cores began in 2013.

With representation from Hamilton’s eight major science departments, the Science Research Lab Crawl on Jan. 28 gave students space to learn about student-faculty research opportunities or simply get a better understanding of the science departments.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Associate Professor of Geosciences Cat Beck, along with University of Dayton geoscientist Zelalem Bedaso, a three-year, $289,094 grant to study seasonal rainfall variability over the last 200,000 years in East Africa.

The mantra “study what you love” encourages students to venture into previously unfamiliar fields. Bria Dox ’22, for example, took advantage of Hamilton’s academic diversity to discover her passions for mineralogy and volcanology. This summer, she dove deeper into these fields through a geoscience research project, analyzing the mineral chemistry of rocks from Oregon’s Sand Mountain volcanic field.

Just one year after attending a presentation on the history of climate change, Luke Zaelke ’22 found himself on a camping trip in the northern California mountains with three California State University professors — one of them a Hamilton alum who'd delivered that presentation.

Olivia Holbrook ’23 is spending her second summer with a glacier guiding company in Alaska. The geosciences major tells here what she loves about her summer job.