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Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe spent 10 days in July working at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.  She is currently describing a new species of nematode that she collected from sediment off the coast of Florida.

In mid-sentence, Professor of Biology Ernest Williams interrupted his thought to comment on a bird that caught his eye: "Oh, there's a yellow warbler – male, yellowy, with chestnut stripe on the breast," he observed. Seeing Williams in his element is like reading an interactive encyclopedia – Williams talks animatedly about nature and the creatures that inhabit it, such as painted turtles, blue herons and Canada geese. He is conducting what is called a "BioBlitz" this summer with Carly Andrascik '11, an environmental studies major.

The LARISSA team met at National Science Foundation for a Principal Investigators meeting on May 5 and 6 in Washington, D.C. LARISSA is a National Science Foundation-funded initiative that joins an international, interdisciplinary team together to address a significant regional problem with global change implications, the abrupt environmental change in Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf System. Lead Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Director Eugene Domack, the J. W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Studies, and Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick attended along with several representatives from National Geographic Magazine.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe spent one week in January on the southern Caribbean island of Tobago (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago) collecting marine nematodes. Her work was sponsored by the Buccoo Reef Trust, a non-profit agency whose goal is to promote research and education about Caribbean coral reefs and marine habitats.

Ernest Williams, the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Biology, published the lead article in the latest issue of the Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 62(4):177-188. The article, "Monarch butterfly clusters provide microclimatic advantages during the overwintering season in Mexico," was coauthored by collaborators from Sweet Briar College and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and was based on field work in Mexico during February 2007 and January 2008.

A 2006 book to which Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Faculty Pat Reynolds contributed a chapter, has been chosen as a winner of the Florida Publishers Association 2008 Book Awards. The Mollusks: A Guide to Their Study, Collection, and Preservation was named in the best Adult Nonfiction category. Reynolds' chapter is on the class Scaphopoda, known as the tusk shell because of its hollow, curved, conical tube shape.

Hamilton College is participating in the International Polar Year (IPY) via Larsen Ice Shelf System – Antarctica (LARISSA), a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded and Hamilton College supported initiative. The program has been launched and has established a Web presence. LARISSA brings an international, interdisciplinary team together to address a significant regional problem with global change implications.

Hamilton College's highest awards for teaching were presented on May 9 to five faculty members. Professor of Biology Ernest Williams Jr. received the Christian A. Johnson Professorship; Associate Professor of Physics Brian Collett was awarded the Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching; Associate Professor of English Catherine Gunther Kodat received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award; Assistant Professor of Anthropology Haeng-Ja Chung was honored with the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award; and Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Mark Oakes received the Sidney Wertimer Award.

Associate Dean of Faculty and Biology Professor Pat Reynolds is the co-author of a chapter in the new book Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca (University of California Press, March 2008). Co-author Gerhard Steiner is a long-time collaborator of Reynolds' from the University of Vienna, Austria. Their chapter is titled "Scaphopoda."

In an opinion piece that appeared on Saturday, Sept. 22, in Utica's Observer-Dispatch titled "Warmer world could mean shorter winters for region," Professor of Biology Ernest Williams explained what the economic effects of global warming might mean for central New York.