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Alexei Smith ’19, who has wanted to be an aerospace engineer since she was in high school, also wants a little poetry in her life.

Marcos Ferreccio ’17 and Alex Cornwell ’17 spent this summer building and optimizing an electron spin resonance (ESR) magnetometer.

Professor of Physics Emeritus Phil Pearle recently presented “Quantized Vector Potential and the Magnetic Aharonov-Bohm Effect” during the Concepts and Paradoxes in a Quantum Universe conference held at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario.

Margaret Gentry, interim vice president, academic affairs and dean of faculty, announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2016-17 academic year, including nine tenure-track appointments, 17 visiting professors and instructors, five lecturers and two teaching fellows.

In the U.S, buildings account for about 40% of primary energy use and 40% of C02 emissions. Improving energy conservation and efficiency is important for individuals today, but more so, for future generations. One way to increase efficiency is through accessible information for individual homeowners. This summer, physics and environmental studies double major Anna Mowat ’18 is tackling this issue by studying the heating efficiency of residential buildings. Her goal is to develop an accurate model that helps understand and improve the efficiency of residential houses. The research is supervised by Professor of Physics Seth Major.

Steve Cunden ’18 has an unusual lab partner this summer. Baxter is pretty quiet and lacking personality, but he is very intelligent. Cunden is an intern at TechBridgeWorld lab at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, and Baxter, his partner, is a robot.  TechBridgeWorld, founded by Mary Bernardine Dias ’98, is a lab dedicated to bringing robotics to underdeveloped/developing countries and disadvantaged communities.

President Joan Hinde Stewart recently announced the appointment of eight Hamilton faculty members to endowed chairs.  Doug Ambrose (history),  Brian Collett (physics), Martine Guyot-Bender (French), Gordon Jones (physics), Tim Kelly (mathematics), Heidi Ravven (religious studies), Patrick Reynolds (biology) and Michael “Doc” Woods (music) received appointments. All are effective July 1.

The Hamilton College Chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, initiated 13 members of the Class of 2016 to associate membership before the annual dinner in the Taylor Science Center Atrium on May 20. Family members in attendance enjoyed a program of observations by mentors about the students, their research and student plans to continue in research.

In the weeks following spring break, there is usually an abundance of speakers on campus. This year was no exception with almost 100 speakers presenting in the last 30 days on myriad topics. Three well-known scientists were among them: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Robert Ballard and Michael Mann.

The Sacerdote Great Names Lecture Series celebrated its 20th anniversary with American astrophysicist and pop-science star Neil deGrasse Tyson who visited Hamilton on April 12, 2016.