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Six members of the Hamilton College faculty have been promoted to the rank of professor. Associate professors Debra Boutin, mathematics; Naomi Guttman, English; Shoshana Keller, history; Doran Larson, English; Herm Lehman biology; and Gary Wyckoff, government, were promoted, effective July 1.

On the surface, humans and flies may seem to have very different embryonic development; while it takes nine months for one human baby to develop, hundreds of fly eggs can hatch in the incubation period of only 24 hours. But, in both species, the undifferentiated embryo separates at some point to become different segments and appendages to the body. The molecules that trigger these differentiating genes are called morphogens, and each species has hundreds to thousands of them in its genome. William Stateman ’10 is trying to identify the effects of one specific morphogen on embryos of fruit flies.

In the brain of every insect embryo, budding neurons grow and develop, in the same way as in the human brain. The protein tyramene beta hydroxelase (TBh) has been found in the budding neurons in insect embryos, as well as its relative TBhR (R is for “related”). Sumithra Nair ’12, working with Professor of Biology Herman Lehman, will try to shed some light on this common, essential yet enigmatic protein.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian Rosenstein and three students participated in the 40th National Organic Symposium, sponsored by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society at Duke University, June 3-7. The students, Daniel Griffith, Silas McKee and Rebecca Parkhurst, all graduated from Hamilton in May. The three students made four poster presentations. Griffith was a co-author on two posters, one with Rosenstein and the other co-authored with Associate Professor of Biology Herm Lehman. McKee's poster was co-authored by Greg Nizialek '08 and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones and Rosenstein. Parkhurst and Rosenstein were the authors on her poster.