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Derek C. Jones, the Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, and Antti Kauhaunen of Helsinki School of Economics presented a paper at the Conference on the Analysis of Firms and Employees (CAFE): Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. CAFE was held on September 29-30, in Nuremberg, Germany. The paper, titled “Teams, Performance-Related Pay, Profit Sharing and Productive Efficiency: Evidence from a Food-Processing Plant” was co-authored by Jones, Kauhanen and Panu Kalmi. It investigates the impact of important changes in human resource practices on firm performances for a food-processing plant.The paper is one outcome of a National Science Foundation-funded project.

Douglas Weldon, Stone Professor of Psychology, presented a poster in Atlanta at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience with Carlyn Patterson ’06 and Erica Colligan ’06.  The poster was titled “Neuron Activity in the Rat Superior Colliculus during Reward Magnitude Task Performance.”  The paper showed that some neurons in the midbrain of the rat show cellular activity that differs when the animals retrieve high versus low reward.  The context of the work is that this area of the brain is known to be involved in sensory processing and in generating visuo-motor orientations and is thereby thought to be involved in the neural basis of attention.  The data are meaningful in suggesting that the brain area participates in processing information about significant events.

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was quoted in a Bloomberg.com article titled “Bush Emphasizes Economy as Messages on Security, Values Weaken” (Oct. 6, 2006). Commenting on the Bush Administration’s effort to credit Republicans for an improving economy, Klinkner stated “You go with what you’ve got, and right now the economy is the best thing they’ve got going.” The article suggested that the administration’s effort to focus on the economy was a result of the “difficulty in making moral values and the war on terror central issues…” in the upcoming mid-term elections.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Jean Burr recently presented a paper at the Annual Licensing Seminar of the National Association for Regulatory Administration in Oklahoma City, OK.  This organization oversees the licensing of the nation's human care facilities, such as child care and adult assisted living facilities.  The paper, which Burr co-wrote with Rob Grunewald, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank, focused on the economic benefits of publicly-funded early childhood education programs. Burr and Grunewald presented evidence that well-constructed early childhood intervention programs can create an 18 percent annual return on investment over a 20-year period. They also discussed the policy implications for these findings and some of the current efforts being made to motivate the business community to invest in early childhood education. The paper is available at the Federal Reserve Web site at http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/.

The Emerson Gallery will host an artist’s talk by Native Perspectives artist Shelley Niro (Mohawk). Niro will speak on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 4:15 p.m. in the Science Center Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

The Huffington Post published an article written by sophomore Eric Kuhn titled “Coming Up at the Bottom of the Hour: Global Warming” on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Other articles included on that day’s political group blog were written by U.S. Senator John Kerry, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and Arianna Huffington among others. Besides the main blog, Kuhn’s article was also featured on Eat the Press, a blog on The Huffington Post that examines the media.

An avowed early American history enthusiast, Hamilton College alumnus and life trustee Carl Menges ’51 has made a commitment of $3.6 million to support the newly established Alexander Hamilton Center (AHC) at the college. Inspired by Alexander Hamilton’s life and work, the AHC seeks to "promote excellence in scholarship through the study of freedom, democracy and capitalism as these ideas were developed and institutionalized in the United States and within the larger tradition of Western culture," according to the center’s charter.

Visiting Professor of Film History and F.I.L.M. director, Scott MacDonald, was interviewed in the current issue of Cinema Scope, the international film magazine published in Toronto.  The subject of the article, titled "Interviewing the Interviewer: Scott MacDonald's Critical Cinema," is MacDonald's series of books A Critical Cinema, published by the University of California Press. The Cinema Scope interviewer, Michael Sicinski, called it "a cornerstone in the struggle to preserve the achievements of experimental media-makers for future generations..."

Images by Lecturer in Art Sylvia de Swaan are included in a contemporary art exhibition, “In Transition,” in Limassol, Cyprus, in October. Sponsored by the Independent Museum of Contemporary Art and the Evagoras and Kathleen Lanitis Foundation, the exhibition focuses on immigration and displacement while “…searching for a contemporary perception of the realities and dilemmas which confront displaced people.”

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, is among eight Chinese Americans invited to join the Committee of 100, a national organization of prominent Chinese American leaders.  Among those who are joining the Committee of 100 with Li are Wing T. Chao, vice chairman-Asian development for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; Leroy Chiao, an astronaut and entrepreneur; Wei Christianson, CEO and managing director of Morgan Stanley China; and Kai-Fu Lee, vice president at Google.