Posted on Jun 8, 2009

Valedictorian

Name: Daniel C. Bailey

Hometown: Mount Vision, N.Y.

Major: Bachelor of Science in chemistry, minor in biology

Activities: Among his many achievements, the intramural soccer and softball player presented research at the American Chemical Society meeting in Utah this March and interned for two summers with Albany Molecular Research Inc. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and associate member of the scientific research honor society Sigma Xi, Bailey also coordinated Chemistry Club outreach with area school children. His junior year, the Sigma Phi brother and Chemistry Help Center tutor studied abroad in Australia and New Zealand.

Plans after graduation: Bailey will begin work as a chemical development scientist at Roche Carolina Inc., a division of Roche Pharmaceuticals. He also hopes to pursue either a medical degree or a graduate degree in chemistry.

Salutatorian

Name: Steven M. Herron

Hometown: Ridgefield, Conn.

Major: Bachelor of Science in chemistry, minors in math and physics

Activities: During his tenure at the College, Herron has passionately studied not only the sciences, but music and Spanish as well. An indoor/outdoor track pole vault athlete, he also played ultimate Frisbee and spent a term abroad in Seville, Spain. Herron’s been active in Chemistry Club as well, and is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.

Plans after graduation: Herron will serve with Passionist Volunteers building homes in West Virginia for the summer, after which he will begin pursuing his Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University. While there, he will research clean sources of alternative energy, principally solar.

Student Speaker

Name: Sean D. Mulkerne

Hometown: Whitesboro, N.Y.

Major: Bachelor of Arts in political science, minor in history

Activities: The Union Scholar and Sigma Phi Society brother graduates with a 3.93 GPA and Dean’s List recognition. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, and Phi Alpha Theta, Mulkerne spent a term abroad in York, United Kingdom and interned for Human Rights First in Washington, D.C. In 2007, he attended the Student Conference of US Affairs at West Point. At Union, he has served as Minerva Council Student Representative for Sorum House, a Writing Center tutor, and an Orientation Advisor.

Plans after graduation: Mulkerne will attend the London School of Economics and Political Science where he’ll pursue a Masters of Science in global politics.

Read Mulkerne’s speech here.

Posted on Jun 8, 2009

Martin L. Perl, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, was awarded an honorary doctorate of science at commencement Sunday, June 14, 2009.

Perl was nominated for the honor by Jay Newman, the R. Gordon Gould Professor of Physics, and Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics.

A year after graduating in 1948 from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Perl became a chemical engineer for the General Electric Co. in Schenectady.

Working in the electron tube production factory led him to what he considers a major turning point in his life – taking atomic physics and advanced calculus at Union to deepen his understanding of electron vacuum tubes.

“I got to know a wonderful physics professor, Vladimir Rojansky,” Perl writes in his official biographical statement. “One day he said to me ‘Martin, what you are interested in is called physics, not chemistry!’ At the age of 23, I finally decided to begin the study of physics.”

Perl received his Ph.D. in 1955 from Columbia University, where he studied under Professor I.I. Rabi, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics. Perl spent eight years teaching physics at the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at Stanford in 1963, where is now a professor emeritus.

In 1975, while working with a research team at the Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Ring, Perl discovered a new elementary particle, which he named the “tau.”

The tau lepton is a superheavy cousin of the electron, the carrier of electrical current in household appliances.

In 1995, Perl equaled the achievement of his mentor Rabi when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery.

Posted on Jun 5, 2009

A cultural reconciliation between the humanities and the sciences is critical if graduates are to succeed in an increasingly technological world, the president of Rollins College said Friday at a national conference on engineering and the liberal arts.

“An understanding of technology and its influence on our society and the human condition has never been a more essential element of liberal learning,” Lewis M. Duncan told more than two dozen academic leaders from some of the nation’s top schools at the conference hosted by Union.

“In this complex, modern world, a truly liberal education liberates the minds of our graduates so that they will be not merely informed spectators, but rather engaged participants in the great issues, debates and challenges that define their times," Duncan said in his talk, "The Illiberal Art of Engineering."

Duncan, the former dean and professor of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, applauded those colleges and universities who have integrated engineering, technology and the liberal arts. He urged more schools to break down traditional barriers between the disciplines to produce graduates, so that “theirs must not simply be a life of the mind, but also a life that is mindful.”

The two-day conference Friday and Saturday marks the second straight year Union has hosted a national conversation on engineering and the liberal arts. Among the participants: Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Smith, Lafayette and the U.S. Military Academy.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Educating the Stewards of a Sustainable Future.”

In addition to Duncan, other speakers included Diane P. Michelfelder, professor of philosophy at Macalester College and president for the Society for Philosophy and Technology; and Braden R. Allenby, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and of law at Arizona State University, and president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. Union President Stephen C. Ainlay gave opening remarks.

A series of breakout sessions and discussions will be held in the Nott Memorial and the F.W. Olin Center.

In 1845, Union became the first liberal arts college to offer engineering in response to the needs of a nation characterized by rapid industrial and urban growth.

“We have to develop the competencies in our students that are needed by the leadership teams of the future,” said Cherrice A. Traver, dean of engineering at Union. “The complex challenges facing humanity and the earth demand that the concept of a liberal education include familiarity with technology as well as the more traditional ‘liberal arts’ fields.”

The symposium is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

For more information, click here.

Posted on Jun 5, 2009

David Sanders ’09 wanted his senior project to be solid and make a solid difference.

“I’ve written so many papers in my life, I wanted to do something tangible,” said Sanders, a political science major. “That’s why I chose to build the tool shed.”

The new 110-square-foot structure fittingly occupies a corner patch of grass beside Octopus’s Garden. Like the garden, the shed’s all about sustainability and was built with earth-friendly materials and practices.

“My first source of inspiration for this was my stepfather,” Sanders said before giving a presentation to a small crowd Thursday outside McKean House. “A green architect, he built our home in the D.C. area three years ago and incorporated some of the same green building practices I used here.

“Professor Mohammad Mafi was also an inspiration to me, I learned a lot from his green building class.”

The shed, which Sanders started constructing in late March, features south-facing windows for natural light and warmth, earthen plaster siding, salvaged doors and windows, and sustainably grown timber.

Most of wood used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, meaning it was harvested at the same rate it was grown. The rest of it came from a former stage in Old Chapel.

“The shed also has walls insulated with straw bales,” Sanders said. “Straw is a waste product of grain production and it’s very efficient as insulation.”

Before he leaves Union, headed either for Congressman Paul Tonko’s office or an internship with the Sustainability Institute in South Africa, Sanders will add a rainwater capture system to the shed’s roof. This will trap and store rain, which can then be used to irrigate Octopus’s Garden.

“I’m really pleased with the way this little building turned out,” Sanders said. “There’s so much waste out there, and if we can take this waste and make something new, that’s what being green is all about.”

Sanders’s efforts were supported by a Presidential Green Grant, the Minerva program and the Intellectual Enrichment Fund.

“It really takes a community to accomplish things, and so many people supported David in this,” said Associate Professor of political science Robert Hislope, Sanders's project advisor.

Posted on Jun 4, 2009

Friday, June 5, 5 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Senior recital: Alex Schlosberg

Sunday, June 7, 5 p.m. / Taylor Music center, Emerson Auditorium / Senior recital: Adrienne Hart, soprano, with appearance by Alex Schlosberg, tenor

Sunday, June 14, 10 a.m. / Roger Hull Plaza / Commencement 2009

Friday, June 19, 5-9 p.m. / Art Night Schenectady / Mandeville Gallery and various downtown sites

Posted on Jun 4, 2009

Eight members of the Class of 2009 will head to China, Uruguay and other parts of the world in July as part of the College’s second group of Minerva Fellows.

Like their predecessors, the eight will spend nine months paired with a social organization or community leaders to help the poor in developing countries. The group will return to Union next April, where they will share their experiences with the campus community through a month-long series of forums.

The first class of Minerva Fellows recently returned to campus for a series of presentations highlighting the 11 months they spent in Southern Uganda, Cambodia, India, South Africa or Southern Malawi. To read more about their experiences, click here.

"This program exceeded our expectations in year one and we are looking forward to the second year," said Tom McEvoy, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Minerva Progams. "One of the huge bonuses of the program is having the Fellows return to Union for a month of engagement with the campus.  Besides many individual conversations with other students, collectively the returning Fellows participated in well over a hundred classes and programs on campus."

The Minerva Fellows is a scholarship program designed to instill in new graduates an entrepreneurial approach to social problems and a lasting commitment to the poor.

The latest Fellows and where they are headed:

Monica Rowett and Tom Perry

Organization: Engeye

Location: Southern Uganda

Lyndsay Wehrum and Nate Saslow

Organization: The Global Child

Location: Seim Reap, Cambodia

Andrew Scaplen

Organization: One Laptop per Child

Location: Montevideo, Uruguay

Jennifer Mao-Jones

Location: Shanxi Province, China. Mao-Jones will work with community leaders to help them market their culture and history to tourists.

Ned Lincoln

Location: Cambodia, where he will start a moto bike repair shop.

Mike Eisenman

Location: Capetown, South Africa. Assignment to be determined.