More than a few global semiconductor developers learned about the College and the region's push as a technology center at Semicon Europa, a conference held April 12 through 14 in Munich, Germany.
“Attendees commented that the collaboration between business and higher education – especially the liberal arts — was a strong testament to the area's commitment to technology initiatives,” said Bill Schwarz, director of communications and public affairs.
And Union in particular was noticed.
“The ideas behind Converging Technologies are embraced and supported internationally,” Schwarz said. “Organizations are looking for more than science and engineering. Their needs include employees who are familiar with language, cultural life, economics, political science and entrepreneurship. There was widespread recognition that Union has an important role to play.”
Schwarz was part of a 30-member “New York Loves Nanotech” contingent. The group hosted a reception to promote the region with about 500 business leaders. About 15,000 attended the conference.
Donald T. Rodbell, professor of geology, has received a four-year grant of $327,000 from the National Science Foundation for a project with colleague Mark Abbott of the University of Pittsburgh that will compare archeological records of cultural change with scientific evidence of climate change in the Central Andes.
The project, titled “Late Holocene Climate of the Central Andes Identified from Sedimentary, Stable Isotopic, Geochemical and Biological Proxies,” the project is expected to involve a number of Union students who will join Rodbell and colleagues for field work in the Andes Mountains and research in the lab.
The grant is the latest in a series of NSF grants for Rodbell's ongoing research on the climate record in the Southern Hemisphere.
Under the grant, Rodbell and colleagues will be looking for evidence of large scale, severe droughts on the altiplano of southern Peru and Bolivia. The altiplano, one of the world's largest high elevation plateaus, is quite dry and coupled with its high elevation (13,000 to 14,000 feet) makes the region barely habitable today. People there are living on the edge, and subsistence farming depends on rain during the Southern Hemisphere summer (December to March).
Archeologists have recorded evidence of widespread societal collapses on the altiplano over the last several millennia. Simultaneously, geologists have documented fragmented evidence for episodic severe droughts over the same interval.
The project is focused on improving our knowledge of the chronology and spatial variability of severe droughts over the last 5,000 years on the altiplano to enable a better comparison between the archeological record of cultural change and past climates. The research should provide an example of how future widespread climate change may affect civilizations that are living on the margins of survivability.
This summer, the team will do research in the Huayhuash Range, the site of Siula Grandé, the 21,000-foot peak made famous in Touching the Void, the book and film by Joe Simpson about an adventure in which a climber is forced to cut a rope holding a fellow climber. The team will hire more than two dozen horses to carry gear and core samples over the remote and rugged terrain.
The softball squad has won 21 of the last 22 games and everything is clicking…the hitting, the defense and the pitching. The Liberty League teams are very familiar with junior pitcher Jackie Coffey (Boston, MA/Boston Latin), who earned her third Liberty League Pitcher of the Week award this season. Coffey has now won 12 straight games and is 13-2 on the season after Tuesday's win at Hartwick. Last week, Coffey gave up a total of five earned runs in 27 innings and struck out 29 in the four games. She had a six-hit, five-strikeout performance against Utica, and a six-hit, 8 K showing against Oneonta. She also had an eight-hitter with six strikeouts vs. RIT and finished her week with a 10 K nine-hitter vs. league rival Rochester. To find Coffey's ERA, it would be wise to head to a lab on campus and check under a microscope. She had a 0.87 ERA for the season after last week's efforts, which ranked her 33rd in the nation in NCAA Division III. On Tuesday, she also was named the ECAC Division III Upstate Pitcher of the Week.
“Jackie is a gamer,” said Union Head Softball Coach Peter Brown. “She has great control and uses all of her pitches equally well. I have said this before; we have two #1 pitchers (with Abby Arceneaux). Jackie doesn't get flustered and always seems in control.”
Catherine Kielb
Meanwhile, Coffey's battery mate, Catherine Kielb (Rensselaer/Columbia), has no trouble in supporting her pitchers with a big bat. Kielb hit .455 last week to earn the Liberty League Rookie of the Week award. The freshman catcher had six RBIs, two doubles and a home run for the week, and had multiple hit games three times. Kielb had two hits vs. Utica, three vs. Oneonta, and two hits with four RBIs and a round-tripper in a win at Rochester. On the season, the frershman catcher is hitting an even .400.
“Katie is a very good hitter,” commented Brown. “She is very strong and can hit long balls, but also is a quality hitter who can go with pitches and drive in a lot of clutch runs. She should just keep getting better.” Mike Donovan
Another freshman who is getting better with experience is pitcher Mike Donovan (Trumbull, CT/Trumbull). The southpaw pitched a complete-game 6-3 victory over the Rochester Institute of Technology Sunday. He allowed seven hits and two earned runs. He had control over the Tigers in many ways, as evidenced by the fact that he walked only one batter. Donovan also struck out one for the first win of his collegiate career. He received this week's Liberty League Baseball Rookie of the Week honor.
The baseball squad, which knocked off previously 21-4-1 Oneonta on the road Tuesday, hosts the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. This contest is a makeup of a game that was postponed on March 31. Softball will close out the regular season with three straight days of doubleheaders, including two against Liberty League rivals. Sunday features a twinbill with Skidmore at 1 p.m., and Monday the #2 team in the region will host the #1 ranked team, Rensselaer, at 3 p.m. Tuesday will be the final home day, 3 p.m. vs. Hamilton.
The men's and women's crew teams head to St. Lawrence Saturday for the Liberty League Championships. Men's lacrosse has road games at Vassar Wednesday and Clarkson Saturday in league play. Women's lacrosse will host Hamilton Friday at 4 p.m. and St. John Fisher Saturday at 1 p.m. Winners of seven straight, the Dutchwomen are 6-1 in the Liberty League and are on the verge of clinching the regular season title and home field for the four-team Liberty League Championships.
Men's tennis is competing at the Liberty League Championships Saturday at St. Lawrence. Union is seeded #6 and faces #3 Hobart at 9 a.m. at the Sammis Tennis Courts. If inclement weather comes in, the teams will meet at 10:30 a.m. in the Newell Field House. 5th, 3rd and championship matches are Sunday.
The men's and women's track and field teams return to Clinton, NY this weekend for the Hamilton Invitational. That college was the site of last week's Liberty League championships, and the site where Union sophomore Hannah LaMoy (Gardiner/Walkill) won the high jump title.
A group of Union College engineering students has taken top honors at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Regional Student Conference, held a week ago at the University of Maryland in College Park.
This year's design competition centered around a battery-powered bulk material transporter, a device that could carry materials up stairs or over hills and rough terrain. “My machine carried 22 times more rice than anyone else,” said winner Bob Dunton, a senior at Union majoring in mechanical engineering and computer science. Dunton, who was advised by Professor Bill Keat, will compete nationally at the ASME conference in November.
Dunton also placed second in a poster competition, while Shira Mandel, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and chemistry, placed first in the poster competition.
Other winners included seniors Dan Archibald and Nathan Stodola, and junior David Korim. All are mechanical engineering majors.
It's the fourth consecutive year that Union students have taken top honors at the regional competition.
James Prosek to lecture on watercolor at Union College
James Prosek, acclaimed author and illustrator, will speak on his use of watercolor and related techniques on Tuesday, April 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. in S-301 of the Science & Engineering Center.
At 4:30 p.m. Prosek will give a slide talk on the evolution of his work in Room 215 of the Arts Building. The public is invited to both events.
The Biology and Visual Arts departments of Union College are sponsoring James Prosek's return visit to campus of The New York Times has called Prosek “The Audubon of the fishing world.” While still an undergraduate at Yale, James Prosek's career began with publication of his book “Trout: An Illustrated History”.
Prosek's “Brook Trout”
Since then he has become a leading expert on fly-fishing and subsequently penned and illustrated nine more books. In 2003 Prosek won a Peabody Award for his documentary about Izaak Walton, “The Complete Angler,” featured on ESPN.
He recently completed a life size painting of a blue fin tuna nine feet in length. His long list of achievements led Tom Brokaw to proclaim “James Prosek is a national treasure.” The artist/author resides in Easton, Conn.
