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Physics students David Shapiro '07 and Daniel Tomb '08 are spending eight weeks this summer working on a research project that Hamilton students have been working on for several years. The aCORN ('a' CORrelation in Neutron decay) project began in 1998 and is a collaboration between Hamilton, Indiana University, DePauw University, Tulane University, NIST, and Harvard University. The goal of aCORN is to measure the beta-neutrino angular correlation coefficient in neutron beta decay, often called the "Little a" coefficient. This correlation can be calculated in the Standard Model which describes the weak force, one of the four fundamental forces in nature.

Jordan Fischetti ’08, a geoarchaeology major, is working on a research project this summer with Professor of Archaeology, Tom Jones. Fischetti is analyzing artifacts and source rocks he and other Hamilton students collected last summer in the Great Basin, as well as materials collected by students in the same region during the summer of 1999. Chemical analysis of the artifacts and source rocks (rocks from a volcanic source) enables archaeologists to trace Paleoarchaic Native American mobility and foraging patterns in the Great Basin.

Summer research students Sarah Bertino '09 (Natick, Mass.), William Caffry '09 (Lyme, N.H.), Max Falkoff '08 (Stamford, Conn.) and Jenney Stringer '08 (Manlius, N.Y.) are working on projects related to lupine and butterfly populations in the Rome Sand Plains. Advised by Ernest Williams, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Biology, and Associate Professor of Biology William Pfitsch, the team travels to the Rome Sand Plains several times each week to conduct field research and bring samples back to the lab.  

Sharfi Farhana ’09 (West Haven, Conn.), a former STEP/Dreyfus program participant, returned to research this summer to work with George Shields, the Winslow Professor of Chemistry, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Karl Kirschner on computational chemistry research.

Professor of Government Theodore Eismeier is participating in the River Summer program of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities from July 6 through July 29. Eismeier will join faculty from more than half of the 44 member institutions aboard the R/V Seawolf, a research vessel operated by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, to learn about the development of the Hudson and its watershed while preparing curriculum units for their courses. Eismeier also participated in last year's program.

Matthew Chuff ’08 and Robert Wysocki ’07 are working on an ongoing project in Professor of Biology Jinnie Garrett’s lab this summer. The project examines the AAT1 gene in yeast, which, when mutated, prevents the cells from growing on enriched media. Chuff and Wysocki are building on work done in previous summers in order to determine how the loss of AAT1 function affects cell growth.

While many of her peers are working in laboratories on campus, Ruth Duggan ’08 chose to travel to New Mexico to pursue her summer research. Duggan, a physics major from Oakland, Calif., is working on the NPDGamma experiment at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Her Hamilton project advisor, Assistant Professor of Physics Gordon Jones, helped build a cell that Duggan is using in her research.

Kristin Alongi ’08 (Chittenango, N.Y.) and Alexa Ashworth ’09 (Pittsford, N.Y.) are working together on a summer research project in Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields’ computational chemistry lab. Alongi, a returning member of Shields’ lab, and Ashworth, new to summer research, are studying aerosol formation using advanced computer technology.

William Hoffman ’07 (Baltimore, Md.) received an Emerson research grant to pursue a project in geosciences with Barbara Tewksbury, the William R. Kenan Professor of Geology. His project, titled “Reconnaisance Study of Deformation Bands in Palagonitic Tuffs in Iceland,” will take him to Iceland to collect samples to be studied at Hamilton.

Allie Massaro ’07 (Lewiston, New York) and Wendy Doster ’08 (Basking Ridge, New Jersey), both new to summer research, are working on three different projects in the physiology lab with Professor of Biology David Gapp.