Posted on May 6, 2005

Six mathematics majors and three faculty participated in the 12th annual Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference at Williams College on April 30.

Student speakers were Stephanie Conklin, Krishnan Shanmuganandham, Susan Gestwick, Nikhil Srivastava, Adam Pallus and Patricia Hernandez

Professors Alan Taylor, Peter Otto and Pedro Teixeira also presented. Professors Bill Zwicker and Brenda Johnson were on the steering committee for the conference.

HRUMC, the largest undergraduate mathematics conference in the U.S., serves as a model for similar conferences all over the country. The Union math department has been involved in organizing the conference since it started in 1994, and has hosted the conference twice.

This year's conference drew about 500 participants from colleges and universities all over the Northeast.

For more about the conference, visit: http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/mcs/hrumc.htm.

Posted on May 6, 2005

Deidre Hill Butler, assistant professor of sociology, has been appointed a research associate of the Five College Women's Studies Research Center at Mount Holyoke College during fall 2005. The Center is one of the largest and most diverse communities of feminist scholars and activists in the U.S. Besides carrying out research, each associate will give a public presentation of her work.

Posted on May 6, 2005

Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, has written an article, “Nuclear Tracks and Nanostructures,” which appears as Chapter 10 in Engineering Thin Films and Nanostructures with Ion Beams, a volume from CRC Press edited by Emile Knystautas.  The book concerns production of tiny structures on materials. Fleischer's article considers small structures that can be made using ions to form damage trails that are then made into permanent features in materials by chemical etching to create tiny holes. The paper describes how the tracks are made, and  the vast range of solids in which they can appear.

Posted on May 6, 2005

Chad Orzel, assistant professor of physics, has received a three-year grant of $130,485 from the National Science Foundation for a proposal titled “Radioactive Krypton Background Evaluation by Atom Counting.” The project will involve measuring the level of krypton contamination in ultra-pure neon or xenon gas by trapping and detecting single atoms of krypton. This research is of interest to scientists working on the next generation of neutrino and dark matter detectors, for whom krypton contamination is a major source of background counts. The grant, through the Particle Astrophysics program at the NSF, includes funding for new equipment and summer student support. The experiments will be done in Orzel's lab. This is Orzel's second research grant at Union. He earlier received a two-year grant from Research Corporation.

Posted on May 6, 2005

Erica Chambers '05 will present on “The Effect of Working on Youth Enrollment in School.”

Katie and Kara Chylinski '05 will present their improved and less expensive Braille system for sight impaired people.

Christina Muir '05 will speak on “Testing the Feasibility of Laser Cleaning of 19th Century Stenciled Walls for Historic Preservation.”

They will be among the several hundred students participating in the 15th Charles Proteus Steinmetz Symposium, the College's annual exposition of student creative, scholarly and research achievement on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7.

The weekend celebration also features Prize Day on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Classes are canceled on Friday with presentations running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts Building, Steinmetz, Science & Engineering, and the Olin Center.

Performing arts will be during Session III on Friday at 12:20 p.m. in the Dance Studio of the Arts Building. The Steinmetz banquet for presenters, parents and faculty sponsors is Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Upper Class Dining.

The Choir and Orchestra will perform Friday at 8 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Poster sessions will be Saturday from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Hale House.

The Jazz Ensemble will perform on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Reamer Campus Center.

Student art work will be exhibited throughout the weekend in the Burns Arts Atrium.

Copies of the schedule will be available throughout campus. More information and a complete schedule are available at: http://www.union.edu/Steinmetz/