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Those visiting the Science Center recently will have noticed the tables set out in the atrium and a number of students in dress clothes or the distinctive green “Shieldslab” shirts. On July 29-31 Hamilton hosted the sixth annual MERCURY (Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational Chemistry) Computational Chemistry conference.

Michael Singer '09 was half way around the world when most of his classmates were still recovering from spring semester. In late May Singer, who has an Emerson grant to study globalization, headed to Singapore, Bangkok, and Eastern Malaysia with his advisor, Associate Professor of Theater Craig Latrell. Singer was featured earlier this summer on this Web site in a short article which dealt with his project. Now, seven weeks later, we catch up with him again as he puts together his final product and reflects on his experiences in Asia.

In November, the Corporate Council of Africa (CCA) will hold its biennial business summit in Cape Town, South Africa. The summit will be a three-day event of sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities which will focus on sectors from entertainment to agribusiness. Planning, understandably, is already well underway, and there is a Hamilton student in the midst of it. Ntokozo Xaba '08 (Seaglen Gardens, South Africa) is an intern with the CCA in Washington, D.C., this summer and spends his time working on research and background organization for the summit director, Angela Rae.

Summer is supposed to be time off, but for Xiaobo Ma '09 (Chengdu, China), it's math as usual. Ma explained that, as well as monitoring fund activity and attending marketing conferences, she had learned to do very advanced probability calculations as part of her work as a portfolio management intern with Archery Capital in New York City.

Deanne Katz '08 started working with autistic children in high school and hasn't really stopped. This summer the rising senior has an Emerson grant to build a project around special needs services for autistic children in Massachusetts schools. Collaborating with Assistant Professor of Psychology Tara McKee, Katz is spending her summer researching the services provided to autistic children in Massachusetts public schools and how the district parents feel about these services.

There are plenty of students on the Hill in the summer doing research or work. Most of them are Hamilton students, but sometimes we get visitors such as Alyona Blokhina, a student from Russia spending her summer in Clinton to work with Assistant Professor of Government Sharon Werning Rivera.

As far as the average reader is concerned, avian flu is somewhere near West Nile virus: a danger, but a slightly dated one. After two winters of hype and no flu the fear has become a bit passé. But Allison Gaston-Enholm '09 (Atlanta, Ga.), who has a Levitt Fellowship this summer to research contingency plans for the avian flu, wants you to know two things: avian flu is potentially very dangerous, and just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn't mean it won't.

There are lots of interns in D.C. this summer but not all of them get to watch the Senate debate. Not all of them have to. As an intern with the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad (COLEAD), though, Philip Holdredge '08 (Oneonta, N.Y.) is responsible for an e-mail update concerning specific Senate debates, and he sometimes has to sit them out -- even when they go until midnight.

The standard study abroad program usually means 10 weeks in Paris or Madrid and some fun pictures. But Anne Bowler, a rising senior from Dallas, Texas, had a very different experience: she spent part of her study abroad program living in a Zulu village. Before leaving, Bowler had received an Emerson grant to research the South African attitude toward a medical system which relies upon both traditional healing and Western medicine. She completed part of her fieldwork in Africa, but she will spend the summer conducting further research into what she calls a "universal desire for health."

The self-help industry can solve your problems, but at what cost? Melissa Kong ’08 (Sunnyside, N.Y.), who has an Emerson grant to study the self-help revolution, is particularly interested in the gendered assumptions behind our lively self-help culture. Working with the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies Vivyan Adair, Kong will research and report on the cultural phenomenon of self-help through the lens of feminist, racial, and cultural criticism.