Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Rebecca Koopmann ’89 organized the third annual NSF-sponsored ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Undergraduate Team Workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico recently. The observatory is home to the 305-m diameter Arecibo telescope, the largest telescope in the world.
Accompanying Koopmann were SreyNoch Chin '12 and Schuyler Smith, who joined a selected group of 18 undergraduates and 14 faculty members from 16 U.S. colleges and universities. Chin and Smith presented a poster about their summer 2009 Union research, titled "ALFALFA HI Observations of the NGC 5846 Group of Galaxies." The poster describes their research on a concentration of galaxies within the ALFALFA survey area to determine how their proximity has influenced their evolution. Kaitlyn O'Brien, '11, was a co-author. Chin and Smith visited the platform suspended 450-feet above the reflecting surface of the Arecibo telescope and participated in observing runs for the ALFALFA project. The ALFALFA project, led by astronomers Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes of Cornell, is a multi-year survey of a large area of the sky at radio wavelengths appropriate for the detection of neutral hydrogen gas in other galaxies. It is expected that more than 30,000 galaxies out to a distance of 750 million light years will be detected by the survey. For more, click here.
Jay Newman, the R. Gordon Gould Professor of Physics, presented a paper at the Biophysical Society annual meeting in San Francisco in February. “Amyloid Gels: Formation and Mechanical Properties of Insulin Fibrillar Networks” was co-authored with four Italian colleagues. Related work, titled “Amyloid Gels: Precocious Appearance of Elastic Properties during the Formation of an Insulin Fibrillar Network,” was recently published in the journal Langmuir by Newman and the same colleagues. This study demonstrates the unexpected onset of a macroscopic elastic modulus during the initial lag phase of insulin aggregation, earlier than has ever been observed before
John Garver, chair of the Geology Department, published a paper titled “Extension and Exhumation of the Hp/Lt Rocks in the Hellenic Forearc Ridge” in the January 2010 issue of American Journal of Science. Co-authors were A. E. Marsellos and W. S. F. Kidd. Detailing the tectonic evolution of the western part of Greece, the authors suggest that the subduction zone has been changing dramatically in the last 15 million years. This change has resulted in the pulling apart of this part of Greece, which accounts for some unusual rocks that have high pressures and some unusual extensional features at the surface.
Ray Martin, the Dwane W. Crichton Professor of Philosophy, gave a talk on personal identity theory, titled “What Really Matters,” to a recent conference on the history and philosophy of science at Florida State University. Martin’s review essay on historical methodology, “Let Many Flowers Bloom,” will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal, History and Theory. In addition, Martin will chair an author-meets-critic session at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association in San Francisco in early April. The session will be devoted to Galen Strawon's recent book, “Selves” (Oxford University Press).
An article in the March 7 New York Times Sunday magazine, “Building a Better Teacher,” features Katie Bellucci ’08, who is teaching math at Troy Prep in Troy, N.Y. The story, by Elizabeth Green, mentions Bellucci’s degree at Union and ends with this comment from Doug Lemov, an educational consultant and co-founder of UnCommon Schools: “You could change the world with a first-year teacher like that.” To read the story, click here.
An article by Lori Marso, “Feminism’s Quest for Common Desires,” will be published in the March 2010 issue of Perspectives on Politics (Cambridge University Press) as part of a symposium on “Women’s Choices and the Future of Feminism.” The article and symposium will discussed at the Feminist Theory Conference as part of the Western Political Science Association Meetings in San Francisco March 31. In addition, Marso’s recent article, “Marriage and Bourgeois Respectability,” will be included in the March 2010 issue of Politics and Gender (Cambridge University Press), a special issue on California’s anti-gay marriage proposition that was passed in the 2008 national election. Marso is director of Women’s and Gender Studies and professor of political science.