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Ten women participating in summer research in the Hamilton College Chemistry, Computer Science and Physics departments have been recognized as Clare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Research Scholars. Funded through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and matching funds from Hamilton College, these awards provide stipends and funding for equipment, supplies, and travel to encourage women to either begin or continue research projects in the three disciplines.

Hamilton College students are currently on spring break but that didn’t prevent science faculty from mesmerizing some other willing students with awe-inspiring demonstrations this week.

Hamilton College Dean of Faculty Patrick Reynolds announced the promotion of four Hamilton faculty members to the rank of professor. Brian Collett, physics; Heather Merrill, Africana studies; Cheryl Morgan, French; and Lisa Trivedi, history, were promoted effective Oct. 3.

Steven Laurent Cunden ’18 is this summer helping to further develop the robotics technologies used in the Physics 245 course, Electronics and Computers. Cunden is working with the class instructor, Associate Professor of Physics Brian Collet, on enabling the relatively simplistic robotic arms used in the course to receive and react to positional feedback.

When people recall what they enjoyed most about science classes – whether  in college, high school or even earlier – chances are they remember hands-on experiments and the excitement of discovering something new for themselves. This element of discovery is important to Thomas Hoffman ’16 and Adam Lark, director of physics laboratories. The two are working together to add more discovery-based elements to introductory physics labs on campus, hoping to improve the learning experience for physics students.

Dean of Faculty Patrick D. Reynolds announced the appointment of nine Hamilton faculty members to endowed chairs. All were effective July 1.

Hamilton College welcomed 3rd grade students from Oneida’s Seneca Street Elementary School to the Taylor Science Center on June 3 for a number of educational presentations on psychology, biology, physics and chemistry.

Six outstanding Hamilton women scientists have been named Clare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Research Scholars for the upcoming summer.  The awardees this year are Alex Betrus ’18, Katherine Fuzesi ’17, Vi Pham ’18, Linnea Sahlberg ’17, Isabella Schoning ’16, and Emily Sears ’17.

Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer presented “Synthesis and spectroscopic studies of rare-earth doped sol-gel and nanocrystalline materials” on April 17 as part of the Chemistry Colloquium at Bryn Mawr College.

Lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” and a couple shrieks were heard in the Taylor Science Center during spring break when two groups of local third-grade students visited for some hands-on science learning with the help of Hamilton’s science faculty. For more than 20 years, Professor of Biology Dave Gapp has organized “Science Exploration Days” which bring classes of elementary school students to Hamilton for guided tours and short lessons in various areas of science.