Posted on Sep 17, 2009

When Andrew Krauss graduated from Union in June 2008, he left his alma mater for the South Pacific. After spending a year in the Cook Islands and French Polynesia pursuing a lifelong interest in the mechanics of boating, Krauss returns to the College to share his experiences working abroad as a Watson Fellow.

Krauss, who earned degrees in mechanical engineering and philosophy, clinched a prestigious Watson Fellowship in spring 2008. His talk, “Three Cool Things Having to Do with Outrigger Canoes (Maybe Four),” will be held Monday, Sept. 21, 12:50-1:50 p.m. in Social Sciences Room 016.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program offers one-year grants to graduating college seniors “of unusual promise” for independent study outside the United States. Student efforts, in Krauss’s case researching the development of outrigger canoes and paddles, are funded with a $25,000 stipend.

Vessels like canoes have always interested Krauss, who participated in crew in high school and while at Union. On a term abroad in Fiji, he worked on boats with Pacific Fibreglass. He learned that despite vast technological improvements in modern sports, this ancient one has been untouched by rigorous scientific investigation. He used his Watson Fellowship to begin this investigation.

Posted on Sep 16, 2009

Rabbi Jane Kanarek, an assistant professor of rabbinics at Hebrew College in Newton, Mass., where she teaches Talmud and Jewish law, will lead services at Union College over the High Holy Days.  

Rosh Hashanah services will be held in Old Chapel on Friday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at Hale House at 7 p.m.  Morning services on Saturday, Sept. 19 will be held in Old Chapel at 9:30 a.m.

During Yom Kippur, a pre-fast dinner will be held Sunday, Sept. 27 at 5 p.m., in Old Chapel, with Kol Nidre services to follow at the Nott Memorial at 6 p.m.

On Monday, Sept. 28, the Yom Kippur morning service will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Nott. The evening service is at 6:15 p.m. and Neilah, at 7 p.m. The breakfast will be held at 7:40 p.m. in the Kosher Kitchen at West College.

Kanarek received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program, which provides professional training for select Jewish leaders.

“Our campus Hillel is delighted to host a rabbi and academic of Jane Kanarek’s stature,” said Bonnie Cramer, Union Hillel director and Jewish chaplain. “Her visit will kick off an ambitious program of Jewish events, activities, volunteerism and observances at the College this year.”

Recently, Union’s Hillel was designated a “Small and Mighty Campus of Excellence” by Hillel international as part of a pilot program to enhance Jewish life on small colleges with specialized training and financial resources.

For details about services for the High Holy Days, and to RSVP for meals, contact Cramer at cramerb@union.edu.

Posted on Sep 16, 2009

Following is a list of upcoming events on campus. For a more complete schedule, including Minerva-sponsored activities, please go to www.union.edu/News/calendar.

Thursday, Sept. 17, 5 p.m. / Yulman Theater / Department of Theater and Dance open house featuring Italian food to celebrate this season's fall play, "Servant of Two Masters" by Carlo Goldoni (to run Nov.11-15)

Thursday, Sept. 17, 7 p.m. / Nott Memorial / “Race, Politics and the Supreme Court,” lecture on American constitutionalism by Lucas A. Powe Jr., the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. One of the nation’s leading Supreme Court historians, Powe has clerked for Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas and has written many award-winning books and articles, including “The Warren Court and American Politics.” He was one of the principal commentators on PBS's four-part documentary on the Supreme Court. Free and open to the public.

Friday, Sept. 18, 4 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Volleyball vs. TBA

Friday, Sept. 18, 6 p.m. / Old Chapel / Rosh Hashanah evening services, followed by 7 p.m. dinner at Hale House; RSVP for dinner to Bonnie Cramer, cramerb@union.edu  

Friday, Sept. 18, 5-9 p.m. / Mandeville Gallery and downtown establishments / Art Night Schenectady, an arts, business and cultural showcase   

Friday, Sept. 18 – Monday, Sept. 21, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center / Film: “Up”

Saturday, Sept 19, 9:30 a.m. / Old Chapel / Rosh Hashanah morning services, followed by 12:30 p.m. lunch at the Kosher Kitchen, West College; RSVP for lunch to Bonnie Cramer, cramerb@union.edu  

Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Volleyball vs. TBA

Saturday, Sept. 19, 1 p.m. / Tennis courts / Men’s tennis vs. Wesleyan  

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2 p.m. / Bailey Field / Field hockey vs. Skidmore  

Sunday, Sept. 20, noon / College Park Field / Women’s soccer vs. University of Rochester

Monday, Sept. 21, 12:50-1:50 p.m. / Social Sciences Room 016 / Watson Fellow Andrew Krauss '08 discusses "Three Cool Things Having to Do with Outrigger Canoes (Maybe Four)

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 4 p.m. / Tennis courts / Women’s tennis vs. Hartwick College

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 7 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Volleyball vs. Middlebury College

Thursday, Sept. 24, 5–6:30 p.m. / LGBTQ Ally training; contact wolfk@union.edu to sign up and for location

Friday, Sept. 25, 4 p.m. / College Park Field / Men’s soccer vs. Clarkson University

Friday, Sept. 25, 4 p.m. / Field hockey vs. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Friday, Sept. 25 – Monday, Sept. 28, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center / Film: “The Hangover”

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2 p.m. / College Park Field / Men’s soccer vs. St. Lawrence College

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2 p.m. / College Park Field / Field hockey vs. Vassar College

Sunday, Sept. 27, noon / Messa Rink / Women’s ice hockey vs. Blue Water  

Sunday, Sept. 27, 5 p.m. / Old Chapel / Pre-fast Yom Kippur dinner, followed by 6:15 p.m. Kol Nidre Services at the Nott Memorial

Monday, Sept. 28, 9:30 a.m. / Nott Memorial / Yom Kippur morning service, with evening service at 6:15 p.m., and Neilah at 7 p.m. at the Nott; the break fast is at 7:40 p.m. in the Kosher Kitchen, West College; RSVP to Bonnie Cramer, cramerb@union.edu  

Posted on Sep 16, 2009

Robert Lauzon, associate professor of biology, was recently awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), an internationally renowned biomedical and environmental research center in Woods Hole, Mass. The Frederik B. and Betsy G. Bang Fellowship Fund provides funding for visiting investigators – some of the world’s leading cell biologists, physiologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, neurobiologists, developmental biologists and ecologists – to study the immune capability of marine animals and the use of marine models for research in molecular biology or biomedicine. Lauzon is studying the functional similarities between death and tissue regeneration in the Botryllus schlosseri, or sea squirt, and the role of blood phagocytes in these processes. Project collaborators include Stefano Tiozzo, Ulrich Kuern and Snjezana Rendulic, postdoctoral researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Americas.

Robert Baker, the William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy and director of the Rapaport Everyday Ethics Across the Curriculum Program, was featured on “WAMC Conversation with Alan Chartok” in August. Baker was interviewed by Chartock, the station’s president, about the Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics, the first comprehensive scholarly volume about the global history of medical ethics. Baker’s co-editor is Laurence B. McCullough, the Dalton Tomlin Chair in Medical Ethics and Health Policy Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. The WAMC conversation also focuses on the role of bioethics in the current health care reform debate. To listen to the interview, visit http://www.wamc.org.  

Alan Taylor, the Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Mathematics and chair of the department, gave one of four invited one-hour addresses to the annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) last month in Portland, Ore. One of the largest associations of mathematicians in the world, the MAA drew more than 1,500 participants to the meeting. Taylor’s talk, “Predicting the Values of an Arbitrary Function,” was based on three recent papers he published with Visiting Assistant Professor Christopher Hardin, who joined Union's faculty this fall. Other recently published works by Taylor include the second edition of “Mathematics and Politics” (Springer-Verlag), co-authored by Allison Pacelli ’97. Taylor is one of seven authors of the eighth edition of “For All Practical Purposes” (Freeman), the most widely used text for non-majors in the country. Taylor also has a chapter on “Mathematics and Voting” in the forthcoming Italian volume “La Matematica.”

Will Roy, the College’s executive chef, recently was profiled in LifeAtHome, the monthly magazine published by the Albany Times Union. Last spring, “The Ozone Cookbook,” a collection of 37 of the popular meals created by Roy for the Ozone Café, was published. The cost is $10, with proceeds benefitting The Global Child in Cambodia, where two of the College’s first Minerva Fellows, Jonathan Hill ’08 and Robbie Flick ’08, spent the last 11 months teaching.

Louisa Matthew, professor of art history, is at the National Gallery of Art in London this week, participating in “Studying Old Master Paintings – Technology and Practice, the National Gallery Technical Bulletin 30th Anniversary Conference.” Her essay, authored with Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., will appear in the published proceedings of the conference.

ITS Chief Information Officer David Cossey recently received the Outstanding Service to the Council Award from the Capital District Library Council (CDLC). Cossey is a member of the CDLC Board of Trustees. His collaboration with the first library automation project at Schaffer Library, in 1987-88, set the stage for his sustained involvement with the libraries of the Capital Region and beyond.

Andrew Rapoff, associate professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of bioengineering, was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation with colleagues Scott McGraw of Ohio State University and David Daegling of the University of Florida. Their project, “Functional and Ecological Correlates of Bone Material Variation in Cercopithecoid Mandibles,” examines the interrelationships of feeding behavior, food texture and jaw bone structure in eight monkey species from primate populations in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire for whom diets and feeding behavior have been under study for more than 15 years.

Posted on Sep 16, 2009

The Research and Grants Committee and the Humanities Development Fund Committee are soliciting grant proposals to support faculty scholarship activities. Applications and guidelines are available at www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs/PoliciesForms. The deadline for submission is Friday, Oct. 2. Questions concerning the Faculty Research Fund (FRF) or the Humanities Development Fund (HDF) should be directed to David Hayes, dean of Academic Departments.

The deadline for student-initiated Internal Education Foundation proposals is Monday, Oct. 5. These proposals must have written approval from a faculty advisor who has agreed to supervise the project. Some changes were made to the IEF guidelines over the summer. Proposals should be submitted to the director of Undergraduate Research (S&E, S-100).

Application forms are also available at www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs/PoliciesForms. Questions should be directed to Professor Kristin Fox at foxk@union.edu.