Williams College Labs Summer Reasearch Programs Swells

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WILLIAMSTOWN - Among the Williams College students who opt to remain in the Berkshire's Purple Valley for the summer, the largest cohort are those participating in science research -- a total of 198 student research assistants this year, roughly a tenth of the college enrollment.

Since its inception in 1967, the summer science research program at Williams has grown to be one of the biggest undergraduate research programs in the country.

Most of these students spend 10 weeks collaborating with professors and peers. Some will get a head start on senior thesis work; many will be named as co-authors in scholarly journals; all will gain a taste of what to expect in a scientific career, which can be critical in graduate school decisions.

Faculty members also welcome the opportunity to work with students outside of the academic year and its rigors. They note that students are more relaxed and focused during summer research, facilitating greater academic independence.

In addition to those experimenting in laboratories, 24 students are working with the math department in the SMALL program. ("SMALL" is an acronym of the initials of the program's founding faculty.) Like other programs, SMALL partners an average of three or four students with each professor. SMALL is open also to students from colleges other than Williams College.

Students (and their hometowns) and faculty working on research projects this summer are listed below.

Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy
Katherine Dupre '10, Nashua, N.H.
Marcus Freeman '10, Portsmouth, N.H.
Matthew Baldwin, Swarthmore College

Henry Art, Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology
Katerina Belkin '11, Sioux City, Iowa
Will Harron '11, Lockwood, Calif.

Lois Banta, associate professor of biology
Hannah Ratcliffe '09, Austin, Texas
Brenda Baccaro '09, Dalton, Mass.
Ang Li '11, Beijing, China
Catherine Hoover '09, Hudson, Ohio

Joan Edwards, Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Biology
Jacob Blessing '09, Pleasant Ridge, Mich.
Matthew Law '10, Niskayuna, N.Y.
Nora Mitchell '10, Pittsford, N.Y.
Jeff Stenzel '10, Unionville, Conn.

Lara Hutson, assistant professor of biology
Tahsin Khan '10, Los Angeles, Calif.
Beth Links '09, Baltimore, Md.
Claire Malone '09, Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Kimberly Elicker '09, Hanover, Pa.

Daniel Lynch, professor of biology
Nina Ivanova '09, South San Francisco, Calif.
Juyeon Park '09, Hawthorne, N.J.
Sung Hye Kim '11, Torrance, Calif.
Annie Park '10, Orange, Calif.
Nathan Benaich '10, Cambridge, Mass.

Manuel Morales, associate professor of biology
Erik Tillman '10, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Sarah Sedney '10, Underhill, Vt.
Ben Swimm '09, Madison, Wis.
Jessica Walthew '09, Ardmore, Pa.

Wendy Raymond, professor of biology
Lyndsay Lau '09, Honolulu, Hawaii

Robert Savage, associate professor of biology and chair of biochemistry
& molecular biology
Mari Lliguicota '11, East Elmhurst, N.Y.
Michael Drzyzga '10, Chicopee, Mass.
Xin (Tina) Zeng '11, Plano, Texas
Katherine Anderson '11, Berlin, Mass.
Kate Yandell '10, Pasadena, Calif.
Amulya Iyer '10, Needham, Mass.

David Smith, senior lecturer in biology
Charles Soucy '09, Rockwood, Maine
Emily Behrman '09, Merion Station, Pa.

Claire Ting, assistant professor of biology
Marian Deuker '11, Seattle, Wash.
Timothy Durham '09, Guilford, Conn.
Yvette Wang '09, Saratoga, Calif.
Catherine Small '09, Jersey City, N.J.

Jason Wilder, assistant professor of biology
Lindsay Bouton '09, Burlington, Vt.
Lauren Finn '09, Brookfield, Conn.

Heather Williams, professor of biology
Danielle Perszyk '09, Wauwatosa, Wis.
Daniel Tao '10, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Steven Zottoli, Chair & Howard B. Schow '50 Professor of Biology
Jun Liu '10, Nanjing, China
Lahari Koganti '10, Vijayawada, India

Dieter Bingemann, associate professor of chemistry
Christian Bonn '09, Towson, Md.
Nathaniel Newburg '09, Dover, Mass.
Dean Weesner '11, Madison, Wis.

Amy Gehring, assistant professor of chemistry
Freba Farhat '09, Gainesville, Va.
Ya-Wen Lu '09, Samut Prakarn, Thailand
Kavitha Mannava '11, Utica, N.Y.

Christopher Goh, assistant professor of chemistry
Alex Beecher '10, Morristown, N.J.
Rens Gotz, Universiteit Leiden
Andre Martinez '09, Greenwich, Conn.
William McClain '09, Ridgeland, Miss.

Sarah Goh, assistant professor of chemistry
Iris Lee '09, Madison, Wis.
James Lowe '09, Cleveland, Ohio
Sara Turner '11, Delmar, N.Y.
Taylor Wilson-Hill '09, Mullica Hill, N.J.

Lawrence Kaplan, Halford R Clark Professor of Natural Sciences and chair of legal studies
Jimmy Gonzalez '10, West New York, N.J.
Katya Prakash '08, Cairo, Egypt

Charles Lovett, Philip and Dorothy Schein Professor of Chemistry and chair of bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics
Kim Bui '11, Solon, Ohio
Helen Cha '11, Rego Park. N.Y.
Mary Haas '09, Fairbanks, Alaska
Alyson Hoffman '10, Elizabethtown, Pa.
Salvador Lopez '09, Chicago, Ill.
Yuzhong (Jeff) Meng '11, Nanjing, China

Enrique Peacock-Lopez, chair and professor of chemistry
Ivan Contreras '11, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Sylvia Lou '09, Niskayuna, N.Y.

Anne Skinner, senior lecturer in chemistry
Elizabeth Esparza '10, Buhl, Idaho
Matthew Limpar '09, Bolingbrook, Ill.
Elizabeth Pasipanodya '09, Masvingo, Zimbabwe
Charles Shafer '10, New Wilmington, Pa.

Thomas Smith, associate professor of chemistry
Zebulon Levine '11, Pomfret Center, Conn.
Cale Weatherly '09, Cincinnati, Ohio
Adrian (Alex) Zackheim '09, Fairfield, Conn.

Jeannie Albrecht, assistant professor of computer science
Sean Barker '09, Brunswick, Maine
John Chaffee '09, Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Austin Stanley '10, Houston, Texas (also with Brent Heeringa)
Joel Hilliard '09, Switzerland (also with Brent Heeringa)

Duane Bailey, professor of computer science
Steve Rubin '11, Bloomburg, Pa.

Andrea Danyluk, professor of computer science

William Jannen '09, Southampton, N.J.
James Finley '11, Arden, N.C.

Stephen Freund, associate professor of computer science
Benjamin Wood '08, Bethlehem, Conn.
Marius Iordan '09, Bucharest, Romania
Samuel Jackson '10, Hunt Valley, Md. (also with Duane Bailey)

Brent Heeringa, assistant professor of computer science
Michael Gerbush '09, Glen Head, N.Y.

Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science
Kyle Whitson '09, Albany, Ore.
Yuxing Huang '11, Shenzhen, China
Sara Carian '08, Indio, Calif.

Thomas Murtagh, chair and professor of computer science
Elisa Chang '11, Richmond, Canada

Ronadh Cox, associate professor of geosciences and chair of Maritime Studies
Aaron Bauer '11, Wenatchee, Wash.
Andrew Mikell '09, Williston, Vt.
Rebecca Gilbert '10, West Chester, Pa. (also with Heather Stoll)
Danielle Zentner '09, N. Huntingdon, Pa.

Markes Johnson, Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Science
Kristen Emhoff '09, Canton, Ohio

Heather Stoll, associate professor of geosciences
Elizabeth Brickley '10, Greensburg, Pa.
Rachel Savain '10, Plantation, Fla.
Deborah Simon, Spanish Science Ministry

Bud Wobus, Edna McConnell Clark Professor of Geology
Henry Kernan '09, Quito, Equador

Colin Adams, Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics
Rachel Hudson '10, Bowling Green, Ohio
Ralph Morrison '10, Danville, Ky.
Laura Starkson, Harvard University
Sam Taylor, College of New Jersey
Olga Turanova, Barnard College/Columbia University

Satyan Devadoss, associate professor of mathematics
Rahul Shah '09, Mumbai, India
Xuancheng Shao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ezra Winston, Bard College

Frank Morgan, Webster Atwell - Class of 1921 Professor of Mathematics
Jonathan Dahlberg '09, West Boylston, Mass.
Alexander Dubbs, Harvard University
Edward Newkirk '09, Charlottesville, Va.
Hung Tranh Tran, Berea College

Allison Pacelli, assistant professor of mathematics
Michael Daub '08, Claremont, Calif.
Jackie Lang, Bryn Mawr College
Mona Merling, Bard College
Natee Pitiwan '09, Washington, D.C.

Cesar Silva, chair and Hagey Family Professor of Mathematics
Domenico Aiello '09, Garnerville, N.Y.
Hansheng Diao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zhou Fan, Harvard University
Daniel King '09, South Berwick, Maine
Jessica Lin, New York University

Shawn Rafalski, visiting assistant professor of mathematics
Karin Knudson '09, Concord, Mass.
Jeremy Leach, Yale University
Indra Shottland, New College

James Carlton, professor of marine sciences and director of the Williams-Mystic Program
Emily Flynn '09, Pittsfield, Mass.
Rachel Rock-Blake, Smith College

Lisa Gilbert, assistant professor of geosciences and marine sciences
Kimberly Elson, Carleton College
Ellie Wawrzaszek '10, Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Daniel Aalberts, associate professor of physics
Nagarajan Nandagopal '09, New Delhi, India
Steven Jackson '10, Victor, N.Y.
Rebecca Sullivan '11, Glenview, Ill.

Sarah Bolton, chair and professor of physics
Stefan Elrington '09, Kinston, Jamaica
Scott Olesen '10, Millington, N.J.

Tiku Majumder, professor of physics
Huajie Cao '09, Suzhou, China
Scott Smedinghoff '09, Wheaton, Ill.
Anne O'Leary '10, Short Hills, N.J.

Jefferson Strait, professor of physics
Patty Liao '09, Great Falls, Va.
Joseph Skitka '10, Hummelstown, Pa.

David Tucker-Smith, assistant professor of physics
David Aitoro '09, Weston, Conn.
Alexandre Massicotte '10, Austin, Texas
Carl Brasz '09, Fayetteville, N.Y.

William Wootters, Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy
Christopher Chudzicki '10, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Olufolajimi Oke '10, Ibadan, Nigeria
Farry Taraz '09, New Canaan, Conn.

Steven Fein, professor of psychology
Jaimie Herrmann '10, Redding, Calif.
Marcus Morrissette '10, Atlanta, Ga.

Amie Hane, assistant professor of psychology
Alexandra Hoff '09, Mountain Lakes, N.J.
Willa Marquis '09, River Ridge, La.
Lauren Philbrook '09, Hopkinton, Mass.
Nicole Tetreault '08, Adams, Mass.

Laurie Heatherington, chair and Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of Psychology
Ryan Jacoby '09, Wellesley, Mass.

Kris Kirby, professor of psychology
Kirsta Grande '10, Derry, N.H.

Martha Marvin, Essel Postdoctoral Research Fellow and visiting assistant professor of neuroscience
Christina Liu '10, San Jose, Calif.
Hannah Rosenthal '10, New York, N.Y.

Noah Sandstrom, associate professor of psychology
Marijke DeVos '11, Birmingham, Ala.
Katherine Jordan '09, Pisgah Forest, N.C.

Paul Soloman, professor of psychology
Kathleen Palmer '10, Westport, Conn.
Komal Shah '10, North Adams, Mass.

Safa Zaki, associate professor of psychology
Marie-Christine Andre '08, Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Janna Gordon '11, Plainview, N.Y.

Betty Zimmerberg, professor of psychology
James Dunshee '09, Hinesburg, Vt.
Shivon Robinson '11, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Ashley Rae Martinez '09, Las Vegas, Nev.
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St. Stan's Students Spread Holiday Cheer at Williamstown Commons

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Students from St. Stanislaus Kostka School  in Adams brought the holiday spirit to Williamstown Commons on Thursday, delivering handmade Christmas cards and leading residents in a community caroling session.
 
"It honestly means the world to us because it means the world to them," said nursing home Administrator Alex Fox on Thursday morning. "This made their days. This could have even made their weeks. It could have made their Christmas, seeing the children and interacting with the community."
 
Teacher Kate Mendonca said this is the first year her class has visited the facility, noting that the initiative was driven entirely by the students.
 
"This came from the kids. They said they wanted to create something and give back," Mendonca said. "We want our students involved in the community instead of just reading from a religion book."
 
Preparation for the event began in early December, with students crafting bells to accompany their singing. The handmade cards were completed last week.
 
"It's important for them to know that it's not just about them during Christmas," Mendonca said. "It's about everyone, for sure. I hope that they know they really helped a lot of people today and hopefully it brought joy to the residents here."
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