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Assistant Professor of Biology Cynthia Downs presented an invited talk earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Raptor Research Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. The international conference was hosted by the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory.

The editors of the Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) have chosen Assistant Professor of Biology Cynthia Downs’ paper “Flea fitness is reduced by high fractional concentrations of CO2 that simulate levels found in their hosts’ burrows” as the Editors’ Choice for its December issue. The paper is featured in the Inside JEB section of the publication, titled “Fleas Don’t Cope in Burrowing Host’s Stale Air.” 

Associate Professor of Biology Mike McCormick delivered a seminar talk about his work in Antarctica on Oct. 23 at Castleton University. He spoke at the invitation of one of his first Hamilton thesis advisees, Andy Vermilyea ’04, who is now an assistant professor of environmental science at Castleton.

Assistant Professor of Biology Cynthia Downs presented an invited lecture titled “Linking mechanisms and functions through ecophysiology: lessons from mice and elk” on Oct. 5 at the University of South Dakota.

Elisabeth MacColl ’16 is on a career path that fortuitously started with a Cellular Neurobiology class she took at Hamilton with Professor of Biology Herm Lehman. The latest outcome is her publication of a paper in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The paper, “Matrix Metalloproteinases as Regulators of Vein Structure and Function Implications in Chronic Venous Disease,” was written by MacColl and the PI Dr. Raouf A. Khalil of Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Patrick Reynolds, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2015-16 academic year, including five tenure-track appointments, 24 visiting professors and instructors, and two teaching fellows. New tenure-track appointments are Catherine Beck, geosciences; Farah Dawood, chemistry; Cynthia Downs, biology; Quincy Newell, religious studies; and Javier Pereira, economics.

Three Hamilton students, Hannah Ferris ’16, Kate Getman ’16 and Milinda Ajawara ’16 this summer participated in internships at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, N.Y. Burke Hospital, celebrating its centennial this year, is an acute rehabilitation hospital that has maintained a long-standing relationship with Hamilton College, offering internships yearly to qualified applicants.

This summer, Alex Jones ’16 is conducting an important research project to better understand how vitamin C affects growth and development. He is working with Professor of Biology Herm Lehman to study what role vitamin C plays in the metabolism of Manduca sexta, a kind of hornworm that is frequently used in scientific experiments. Jones and Lehman’s research this summer is one part of an ongoing project to determine how exactly vitamin C is necessary for growth and development.

In an article on the news site of the journal Science on varying studies related to monarch butterfly migration declines, Ernest Williams, the William R. Kenan Professor of Biology Emeritus and lecturer in biology, warned that concerns over migration “should be added to—but not replace—the other issues we know to be affecting monarchs.” The Aug. 5 article was titled “Monarch butterfly studies tell a perplexing tale.”

Onwaniqua Heard ’15 is going to find herself back in the classroom more quickly than most recent graduates: this time, however, she’ll be the teacher, not the student. Heard will be entering the Greenwich Country Day School’s Co-Teacher Program this fall, a program that “gives co-teachers a chance to work with children of different ages and to broaden their professional experience.”