Kudos! Student, Faculty, Staff Accomplishments for Late Fall 2024

Groll ’25 and Girard ’24 Present at Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

Lainey Groll ’25 and Max Girard ’24 joined Assistant Professor of Biology Ariel Kahrl in presenting research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting in Atlanta this month. Girard was selected to participate in the Best Student Presentation session for the Ecology and Evolution division with his talk “Examining relationships between pre- and postcopulatory selective traits in male green frogs.” Groll presented the poster “From pond to proteome: comparing sperm and egg jelly proteomes of anurans.”

“This year was the most competitive year with the highest number of submissions for the session. Max was the only undergraduate student selected — the others were all senior Ph.D. students and some recent Ph.D. graduates,” said Kahrl, who also presented a talk, “Evolution of diverse reproductive strategies and sperm morphology in tropical frogs.”

Campbell ’26 Wins National Student Vocal Competition

Aubrey Campbell ’26 placed first in the nation in his division (lower level, classical) at the National Association of Teachers of Singing student vocal competitions in Knoxville, Tenn., in July. As a result of his performance in the preliminary regional competition, he was also invited to participate in CoOPERAtive at Ryder University. “Aubrey is a student with great potential for a classical singing career,” said his voice instructor Kay Paulsen. “He makes the Hamilton College music department look good at a national level.”

Society for Students of Color in STEM Attend ABRCMS

Hamilton’s Society for Students of Color in STEM took 20 members to the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students in Pittsburgh in November.

Arshdeep Kaur ’26 won a travel award and a presentation award. Other travel award winners were David Kim ’26, Mandy Li ’26, Kaljang Sherpa ’26, and Tyrone Xue ’26. Presentation award winners were Elise Kwon ’26, Brianna Padilla ’25, and Yuxuan Xu ’26.

Other Hamilton attendees included Ellie Casalmir ’26, Chrissy Crespo ’25, Favour George-Ikechi ’25, Hargoon Kaur ’26, Edwin Mensah-Boateng ’25, Rejoice Muleya ’27, Hope Obolanle ’25, Juan Perez-Rodriguez ’26, Isis Riviere ’25, Prim Udomphan ’26, Mimosa Van ’26, and Helen Xin ’25.

New York Six Research Conference Draws 77 Hamilton Presenters

Seventy-seven Hamilton students presented their research at the annual New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium Undergraduate research conference hosted by Hamilton on Nov. 2. The conference showcases recent research by students from across the consortium, through oral presentations and poster sessions. In addition to Hamilton, New York Six members are Colgate University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, St. Lawrence University, Skidmore College, and Union College.  

NESCAC Fall Academic Team  

A total of 73 Hamilton student-athletes earned a spot on the 2024 NESCAC Fall All-Academic Team. Fall all-academic team recipients Pandelis Margaronis ’25 (soccer) and Lilly Truchon ’26 (field hockey) also made the all-conference team in their sports.

A shout-out to our HCEMS

Hamilton recognizes — and thanks — our 27 HCEMS student volunteers. These dedicated students are New York State certified EMTs whose work helps keep the College community safe 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, while classes are in session.

Members of this year’s squad are Ileana Anghel ’26, Allison Berkowitz ’25, Ashyln Blessey ’26, Madeline Boger ’25, Maeve Browne ’25, Caroline Burd ’26, Ethan Connolly ’25, Josephine Cooper ’26, Gabriella Crawford ’25, Anna Duarte ’26, Felix Halloran ’26, Faith  Hollyer ’25 Elaina LaGiglia ‘26, Bailey Leone-Levine ’27, Zach Lucchini ’25, Caitlin Malecky ’26, Andreas Matejka ’25, Christiana Melucci ’26, Walter Scheri ’27, Thomas Sheft ’26, Zach Smith ’25, Jacob Spafford ’25, Claire Tratnyek ’26, Lilly Truchon ’26, Alessandro Vasquez ’27, Alex Vetrone ’27, and Natalie Yarnall ’26.

Advanced Latin Students Create Transcriptions at Morgan Library

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics and Religious Studies Ian Mills brought a group of advanced Latin students to The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City in November to produce their own transcriptions of three medieval manuscripts. It was the culmination of several weeks of extracurricular training in paleography (the study of handwriting) and a long process of coordination with The Morgan (that does not usually admit undergraduates to its reading room). The transcriptions prepared by these students will be incorporated into a new critical edition that Mills is developing for Brill Academic Press. 

Philosophy Students Attend Talk by Philosopher of Mind David Chalmers

The Philosophy Department supported a visit to Union College in late October to hear a talk by the preeminent philosopher of mind David Chalmers (NYU) talking about “Can ChatGPT Think?” In the talk, Chalmers outlined criteria for thought, including possession of propositional attitudes (e.g. belief, desire) and reasoning. He also argued that consciousness is important, especially for possible moral standing of AIs, and gestured toward progress in cognitive science in understanding consciousness. Hamilton students met Chalmers and talked with him after the presentation.

Majireck Student Researchers Publish Journal Articles

Associate Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck and student researchers have recently authored two journal articles. 

Majireck and 20 students and recent graduates from his lab co-authored the peer-reviewed cover article for the Nov. 22 issue of Organic Letters, and one of those students, Chrissy Crespo ’25, designed the cover. “Bench-Stable 2-Halopyridinium Ketene Hemiaminals as Reagents for the Synthesis of 2-Aminopyridine Derivatives” describes a new method for making 2-aminopyridines, an important class of compound found in many biologically active compounds, including FDA-approved drugs. Organic Letters is a leading organic chemistry journal.

Two recent graduates and a current student contributed to a peer-reviewed article published in Organic Syntheses. John Frank ’24, Will Strutton ’25, and Joel Adade ’22 conducted research with Majireck and published “Preparation of 2-Chloro-1-(1-ethoxyvinyl)pyridinium Triflate” on the large-scale synthesis of a versatile chemical reagent discovered in their lab. This reagent, a type of molecule that can be used to facilitate a chemical reaction, was shown by the team to undergo a range of transformations that could produce new and important bioactive substances.

Majireck’s research is expected to provide medicinal chemists with ample quantities of new reagent for the design and synthesis of drug leads. As part of this publication, all experimental procedures were reproduced by a professional research scientist at Merck. This project was funded by an Organic Syntheses, Inc. grant awarded to Majireck.

Mock Trial Team Has Successful Fall Season

The Mock Trial team wrapped up its Fall Semester Invitational Season having attended tournaments at the University of Connecticut (winning second place overall); Binghamton University (winning first place overall); and Fordham University. This season, individual Outstanding Attorney and Witness Awards went to Naval Lappalainen ’25, Isabella Ocava ’25, Abigail Lowder ’25, Alexa Wolfson ’26, and Zoe Steinberg ’28. Team members will be returning to campus early for “mock week” training. On Jan. 25, the A Team will head to Cornell, and B Team will go to Utica. 

Geosci. Students Attend Conference in Maine

Assistant Professor of Geosciences Nick Roberts took 17 students to the New England Intercollegiate Geosciences Conference in Penobscot Bay, Maine. It is a student-centered conference where local geologists lead field trips. The group camped at Camden Hills State Park and attended an all-day field trip focused on mineral resources in coastal Maine.

Alix ’25 Discusses Emerson Grant Work on Local Radio

Audrey Alix ’25 discussed her Emerson Grant work on green spaces in the City of Utica on WUTQ FM. She offered recommendations to Utica city officials for the benefit of underserved members of the Utica community.

Faculty and Staff news

Townsend and Alumnae Publish Research

A paper presenting research by several Hamilton alumnae and Associate Professor of Biology Andrea Townsend appears in the current issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology, published by Oxford Academic.

James is “Campus Angel”

Amy James, director of community outreach for COOP, was honored with the “Campus Angel” award from On Point for College at its annual Utica celebration on Nov. 14. COOP offers community service opportunities, connecting Hamilton students and employees with Oneida County nonprofit agencies to create positive change for community partners as well as educational experiences for students.

Graziadei is ARC Exceptional Employee

Parkhurst employee Robert Graziadei received an exceptional employee award from ARC, Oneida-Lewis chapter, in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Graziadei has been working in the Commons Dining Hall at Hamilton for 10 years.

Read about what Hamilton’s faculty and staff members have been working on since the beginning of the academic year — research grants, published books, delivered papers, positions at national organizations, and more.

Faculty & Staff News

Kudos! is a roundup that highlights noteworthy student, faculty and staff news, including awards, published scholarly work, presentations at regional or national conferences, upcoming or recent media appearances, and other accolades. To be considered for the next edition, please send pertinent information to pr@hamilton.edu.