Colgate Announces 2024–25 Commons Co-Directors Contributing Writer Fri, 04/19/2024 - 13:07 Colgate University Residential Commons will welcome new co-directors at the beginning of the 2024–25 academic year. Through the Residential Commons, first-year students enjoy a robust, engaging living-learning community from their first days on campus. They encounter co-directors and fellow commons members who form a living-learning community that respects and builds on tradition and exposes students to an intellectually rich residential experience. “I want to thank both our incoming and outgoing co-directors for their service to Colgate,” says Vice President and Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II. “The Residential Commons play a vital and dynamic role in residential life at the University, due in large part to the dedication of these individuals, who commit themselves to ensuring that our students are received into a welcoming residential and academic community on day one.” Brown Commons David McCabe, Richard J. and Joan Head Chair in philosophy, will join Laura Festine, director of university grants and sponsored research, in Brown Commons. McCabe will serve as the co-director, a position held this year by Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Frank Frey, who served as the co-director of Hancock Commons during the 2021–2023 academic years. McCabe earned his BA from Williams College and his PhD from Northwestern University. He arrived at Colgate in 1994 as an assistant professor of philosophy. During his three decades on campus, he has served as chair of philosophy, director of the Lampert Institute, university professor in the Core Curriculum, and director of the Division of Arts and Humanities. In the philosophy department, he teaches courses in aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy. His research centers on political philosophy and the ethics of political action. Ciccone Commons Senior Lecturer in French Mahadevi Ramakrishnan and Associate Dean of Admission Erin Milin will co-direct Ciccone Commons. They succeed Jessica Graybill, professor of Russian and Eurasian studies, and Carolyn Strobel-Larson, director of entrepreneurship and innovation. A 2022 recipient of the Balmuth Award, Ramakrishnan earned her BA in history at the University of Madras, India. She received her MA and doctor of arts in foreign languages and literatures from Syracuse University. She is a founding member of the Colgate Contingent Faculty Council and a member of the Core Transition Team — having taught Core 180C: Core French Caribbean.  Ramakrishnan has been an adviser to the French Club for nearly two decades. As associate dean, Milin serves as campus visit coordinator and leads the Campus Visit Team, and she manages recruitment and application review for prospective students from Alaska, New York (central N.Y. and North Country), Oregon, and Texas (Austin, Houston, San Antonio). Outside the admission office, she has served as a Living Learning Workshop facilitator and a member of the Community Reads Selection Committee. Mabel Dart Colegrove Commons Lou Kaminski, assistant dean of student conduct, will step in for Director of Outdoor Education Heidi Riley as a co-director in Mabel Dart Colegrove Commons. He will work alongside Professor of Biology Engda Hagos. Kaminski arrived at Colgate in April of 2023 from Paul Smith’s College, where he was director of student life and housing. To his work in the Dean of the College division, he brings experience in mediation, coaching and feedback, performance management, and effective management practices. Kaminski is also an ultramarathon runner. Hancock Commons Professor Beth Parks will take over for University Librarian Courtney Young in Hancock Commons, joining Lyosha Gorshkov, director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives, who joined the commons last year. Parks received her bachelor’s degree in physics with a certificate in theater and dance from Princeton University. She earned her masters and PhD in physics at the University of California at Berkeley. Since arriving at Colgate in 1997, she has taught courses across the physics curriculum, including classes on quantum mechanics and renewable energy. She has also served as a visiting professor and Fulbright scholar at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Mbarara, Uganda. Parks is currently the editor of the American Journal of Physics. The Commons Spirit Ciccone Commons opened in 2015, and the University inaugurated Hancock Commons in 2016. Colegrove and Brown Commons welcomed their first students in 2017. The completion of the Residential Commons at Colgate is a key initiative within the Third-Century Plan, which foresees a fifth commons and the creation of Fox Hall as an eventual replacement for Gatehouse. “The Residential Commons, through their intellectual engagement and community-building, represent the distinctive way in which Colgate pursues residential liberal arts education,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing. “I thank our co-directors for going above and beyond in their efforts to ensure the success of this program — and for the students who find home and community there.”Campus Life Residential Life News and Updates Faculty & Staff

Indigenous Maya Band Sak Tzevul Rocks Colgate sliddell@colgate.edu Thu, 04/18/2024 - 11:59 Colgate University recently hosted the Tzotzil Maya rock band Sak Tzevul for a series of events, including a film screening, a talk, and a concert. The band’s visit not only showcased their musical talents but also created space for discussions surrounding Indigenous identity and cultural representation. At the heart of Sak Tzevul’s music is the fusion of tradition and modernity. Their distinctive style, known as Bats’i Rock, is rooted in the rich traditions of the Tzotzil Maya people of Chiapas, Mexico, and emerged as a response to centuries of nationalistic narratives that pitted Indigenous culture against modern progress. Instead of viewing tradition and modernism as conflicting forces, Sak Tzevul celebrates their intersection and the dynamism of Indigenous heritage in a contemporary world. “Sak Tzevul is unique in that they integrate Indigenous language and deep-seated traditions in their music but also look toward a future that is creative and limitless,” said Santiago Juarez, associate professor of anthropology and a key voice in bringing Sak Tzevul to campus. “In their music, the band is constantly borrowing from classical, contemporary, and ceremonial musical influences that one wouldn’t regularly associate with rock — all for the sake of creativity and the celebration of identity,” Juarez said. The events kicked off with panel-style discussions at the Keck Center for Language Study, where Sak Tzevul members engaged with students and organizations in Spanish, with bilingual students aiding in translation. These sessions delved into the challenges faced by Indigenous communities in navigating tradition amidst a rapidly changing global landscape. Just one challenge the band addressed was that of keeping Indigenous languages, such as their native Tzotzil, alive. Sak Tzevul incorporates many different Mayan languages into their songs, both to aid in the preservation and appreciation of these languages as well as strengthen their connection to their cultural heritage. Another issue discussed by the band was the dual judgment that they experienced as a result of not speaking Tzotzil from birth, both from their Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities viewing their lack of fluency as a lack of Indigeneity. “When you do not speak a language fluently, you can feel a bit of rejection sometimes,” explained lead singer and guitarist Damian Martinez. “For me, singing in Tzotzil is a way to neutralize that feeling of rejection. It is my way of connecting with my people again and saying very clearly, ‘I am from here, and as much as I can speak it, I am going to sing it.’” A powerful moment in the band’s residency was their presentation on the genre of Bats’i Rock at Lawrence Hall. Here, Sak Tzevul illuminated how their music serves as a means of reclaiming cultural roots while envisioning an Indigenous future for all peoples, not just North Americans. “Sak Tzevul’s music and their message is not just for Mexicans or Latin Americans. It is for everyone globally to think about where they are from and how they connect to the land,” said Juarez. The culmination of Sak Tzevul’s visit was a full-capacity concert at Arts at the Palace Theater. Amidst smoke machines and vibrant purple and green stage lighting, the band delivered a performance that transcended language barriers. From guitar solos to rhythmic beats, every song was infused with energy and celebration. As the lead guitarist Martinez expressed gratitude to the crowd, he threw a fist into the air in classic rock fashion, and the audience erupted in cheers. “Thank you very much, Colgate. Just to have so many of us here in New York together. It is so good!” Reflecting on the concert, Juarez expressed the unexpected emotional impact that seeing the band had on him. “Listening to Sak Tzevul live brought me back to that moment 15 years ago when I first listened to their music and felt a sense of connection to my ancestral roots. Their music has helped and continues to help me to explore Indigeneity, my identity, and how these factors have impacted my family, my culture, and the world at large.”Arts Faculty & Staff Photo by Santiago Juarez

New York Times Correspondent David Sanger Describes the Era of ‘New Cold Wars’ sdevries@colgate.edu Fri, 04/12/2024 - 10:48 In his more than four decades covering national security for the New York Times, David Sanger says he can’t recall when there was so much turmoil abroad. Meanwhile, the United States faces two cold wars — with Russia and China. Sanger, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the White House and national security correspondent for the New York Times covering diplomacy, cyber conflict, national security, and geopolitics, visited Colgate on March 26 for a lecture and discussion about his new book, New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West. The lecture was sponsored by the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs as part of its spring lecture series. Sanger says, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States was lulled into thinking the entire era of superpower conflict was over and that we were entering a permanent era of peace. Instead, he says we are in the midst of a more complex and dangerous era than any we have faced in nearly a century, adding that almost everything we think about the next few decades — how we defend ourselves, how we build our microchips, how we nurture our international alliances, and how we handle more than $30 trillion in national debt — faces contentious debate at home and around the world. “Clearly we have to begin to rethink in very fundamental ways what the structure of our national security is going to be like,” he said, noting that, unlike the old Cold War, now the United States is dependent on our adversaries for products we use every day. Sanger says the last national security strategy written by the Biden administration states “the post-Cold War era is over, but we don’t know what era we’re heading into,” noting the “old Cold War” had a beginning, a very long middle, and a surprise ending. “If we are looking for this one to follow the same pattern, to end with the collapse of our opponents and a clear victory for the West, we are likely to be sorely disappointed,” Sanger says. “There’s no guarantee that these cold wars will stay cold. We have to think hard about why we misjudged the last 30 years and make sure we don’t make the same mistake going into the next 30.” David Sanger: Over a 40-year career at the Times, Sanger has become known for the depth of his sources in the world of national security, his painstaking reporting and research, and his in-depth investigations into the complex events of our time. He is a CNN contributor on national security and politics and the bestselling author of four books — The Inheritance, Confront and Conceal, The Perfect Weapon, and New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West. Sanger also teaches national security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. At the Times, Sanger’s previous investigative work led to Pulitzers for the investigation into the causes of the space shuttle Challenger disaster and into Chinese technology investment in the United States. His coverage of the Iraq and Korea crises won the Weintal Prize, one of the highest honors for diplomatic reporting. He also won the White House Correspondents’ Association Aldo Beckman prize for his coverage of the American presidency. The Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs, named after Edgar Lampert ’62, was first established in 2008 as the Institute of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and renamed the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs in 2014. The Institute's mission is to teach students to apply the fundamental tools of a liberal arts education — identifying substantive questions and reading and writing with clarity, balance, and public purpose — to the most significant policy issues of the day, during their time at Colgate and beyond. Academics Centers and Institutes People Faculty & Staff New York Times White House and national security correspondent David Sanger discusses his new book, “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West” (Photo by Andy Daddio)

Ivory Tower Comes to Colgate kputman@colgate.edu Wed, 04/10/2024 - 09:10 As part of the Ivory Tower on the Road series, Colgate University will host an episode of WCNY’s longest-running television series April 17 in Colgate Memorial Chapel. The hour-long live-to-tape episode will feature discussions on current events and local issues with panelists Anirban Acharya, Ben Baughman, Barbara Fought, Nina Moore, Tara Ross, Ty Seidule, and Chad Sparber hosted by David Chanatry. “Ivory Tower is a model for how to have well-reasoned debates about controversial topics, and from multiple academic and political angles,” says Nina Moore, Colgate professor of political science and director of the forum on race and public policy. Moore has authored Governing Race: Policy, Process and the Politics of Race, The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice, and Toeing the Line: The Supreme Court and Race, and is a regular contributor to the cable news show Capital Tonight in addition to Ivory Tower. Chad Sparber is the W. Bradford Wiley Chair in international economics at Colgate University and an external research fellow at the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London, and The Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany. He also directs a forum on economic freedom for Colgate’s Center for Freedom and Western Civilization. “I think the show is at its best when we lean into who we are — professors who use academic data and evidence to support our arguments and help the audience think more deeply about policy issues,” Sparber says. “There are plenty of pundits on TV; few offer that perspective.” The April 17 event is open to all Colgate students, faculty, staff, and community members. Doors to the event will open at 6:00 p.m. and close at 6:45 p.m. for a 7 p.m. recording. The recorded episode will air Friday, April 19, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m. on WCNY-TV. Ivory Tower has also visited and recorded shows on the campuses of Hamilton College and Utica University as part of the series.Faculty Profiles News and Updates Faculty & Staff

Colgate Celebrates Second Annual Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend  mdonofrio@colg… Mon, 04/08/2024 - 15:47 Before a standing-room-only crowd in Colgate Memorial Chapel on Friday, April 5, National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman invited the audience to “become part of the performance,” demonstrating how spectators at poetry readings often snap their fingers when they hear something that particularly resonates. “I want to hear you, Colgate,” she explained. “You are part of this, so please feel free to make some noise for me.” Her visit was the keynote event during the second annual celebration of arts, creativity, and innovation at Colgate, which once again brought hundreds of alumni, parents, and friends to campus for performances, workshops, presentations, and panel discussions. Gorman’s talk was sponsored by the Kerschner Family Series Global Leaders at Colgate. Gorman, who graduated with a B.A. in sociology from Harvard, began her talk with three poems from her 2021 bestselling book, Call Us What We Carry. She then joined Professor of English and Africana & Latin American Studies Kezia Page for a lively conversation that ranged in topics from sociology and Black history to her “speech impediment turned superpower" and texting with Oprah. (It was Oprah, Gorman explained, who gifted the young poet with the now-iconic yellow Prada coat for her reading at the 2021 presidential inauguration, along with her “caged bird” ring and earrings — a nod to the late Maya Angelou, she said.) Much of Call Us What We Carry, including the titular work, was inspired by Gorman’s observations during COVID-19 — and the pandemic’s “lasting impact on social trust and human connection,” she said. In her poem “Fugue,” Gorman writes about “the importance of small moments of being in a room or being connected or interacting with people that actually create the fabric of social trust that a nation depends on.” The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, Gorman also shared how dramatically her life changed after delivering her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” before millions as part of President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. “I remember stepping off the podium. I was like, ‘Oh, that went better than I expected,’ and I remember … looking at my phone, and it was basically on fire. I literally couldn't even hold it,” she said. “And I think I'm still processing that change, what that is, what that did to me, what that did to my relationships, and what that did to my craft. I'm just trying to handle that growth with as much intentionality and grace as I can.” Prior to the Gorman keynote, the weekend’s events began in the chapel on Thursday, when former University president Rebecca Chopp joined Douglas Johnson, dean of academic and curricular affairs and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Ellen Kraly, professor of geography and environmental studies, for a discussion on Alzheimer's disease. Chopp, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago, shared how she has coped mentally and physically in her book, Still Me: Accepting Alzheimer’s Without Losing Yourself. On Friday afternoon, campus guests participated in a series of faculty-led, ACI-focused workshops. Hosted by faculty in music, computer science, art and art history, earth and environmental geosciences, peace and conflict studies, museum studies, and theater, students, alumni, and guests experienced Colgate’s innovative arts curriculum firsthand through experiments and improvisation. Other Friday events included a talk with Ann Pancake, author of the award-winning novel Strange as the Weather Has Been, part of the Dark Skies in Appalachia symposium. The Future of Middle Campus Saturday’s program began with a panel discussion featuring arts and innovation faculty members and alumni: Aaron Gember-Jacobson, associate professor of computer science, chair of the department of computer science; Jeffrey Sharp ’89, executive director, The Gotham Film and Media Institute; Ashleigh Cassemere-Stanfield, assistant professor of film and media studies; Ryan Chase, assistant professor of music; Christian DuComb, associate dean of the faculty for faculty recruitment and development and associate professor of theater; and Julian Farrior ’93, CEO and founder, Sunblink Entertainment. Mary Simonson, the Daniel C. Benton ’80 Endowed Chair in arts, creativity, and innovation, professor of film & media studies and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, served as moderator. The panelists shared their thoughts on how the new Bernstein Hall — the former Benton Center, at the heart of a new Middle Campus — will help foster collaboration and innovation across disciplines and inspire student and faculty creativity. “We're thinking really carefully about arts and technology and the fact that these two things are increasingly impossible to separate out,” said Simonson. “That's something that many of us in our work think about all the time — how we can help our students understand that those two worlds are increasingly one world.” Student entrepreneurs, including Chayce Canty ’27, presented their ventures during the TIA Showcase. Exploring Innovative Student Ventures At Saturday’s Thought Into Action Entrepreneur Showcase, presented by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, student and alumni entrepreneurs presented their ventures at booth displays. They competed for investment certificates (called “iggies”) given to attendees, with the instructions to award their dollars to the start-ups most worthy of their investment. The informal showcase was followed by the presentation of the Colgate Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Craig Hatkoff ’76, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Disruptor Awards. In his acceptance remarks, Hatkoff shared his insight into the rise of AI and how budding entrepreneurs should think about tools like ChatGPT. “The winners in this coming chaos and tumult will be the people who can tell the stories the best,” said Hatkoff. “Storytelling is humanity’s killer app.” In the “Shark Tank” portion of the event, five groups of student and alumni entrepreneurs presented their ventures, which included a line of farm-grown lavender products, a collectible sports card resale business, and a soy-free soy sauce. The winner and the recipient of a $5,000 prize as chosen by the panel of entrepreneur judges: Pair + Care, a student-run childcare service founded by Chayce Canty ’27, Maddie Theveny ’27, and Henry Galicich ’27. Judges praised the students for their “confident pitch with elements of humility, which is exactly what we see in founders,” noted judge Don De Laria. Pair + Care was also the first-place winner of the “iggie” investment game, taking home an additional $605 to grow their venture. The TIA Showcase also featured the first live performance by the student-led Colgate Symphonic Band. Other events on Saturday included the annual spring a cappella concert with the Mantiphondrakes, the Swinging ’Gates, and the Colgate Thirteen. On Sunday, guests took in a lesson in the Japanese Way of Tea in the newly renovated tea room in Lawrence Hall led by Ruriko Yamakawa, a certified instructor of the Omote-senke Japanese Tea Tradition. The weekend’s final event was a performance from the Colgate Chamber Players, directed by Professor of Music and Africana & Latin American Studies Laura Klugherz. In his remarks before the TIA Showcase, President Brian Casey shared his vision for the future of arts, creativity and innovation at Colgate — and its burgeoning Middle Campus. “We are just a couple hundred yards away from what will be Bernstein Hall, which is the physical manifestation of an institution embracing creativity in all its expressions,” he said. “From my vantage point, this is a weekend filled with energy, excitement, intelligence, and a sense of the future.”Student ventures receive funding during Entrepreneur Weekend Misty Copeland to Headline Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend Generous Gift Supports Middle Campus Plan for Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Alumni Third Century Arts Entrepreneurship Alumni Faculty & Staff Student ARTS Thought Into Action global leaders

Former Colgate President Rebecca Chopp Participates in Campus Panel on the Science of Alzheimer’s amayne@colgate.edu Fri, 04/05/2024 - 17:03 Having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years ago, former Colgate University president Rebecca Chopp has embraced the visual arts and dance as part of her “prescription” to live life to the fullest. She spoke about her experience Thursday night in Memorial Chapel during a panel discussion titled “Still Learning” with Ellen Percy Kraly, professor of geography and environmental studies emerita, and Doug Johnson, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of psychological and brain sciences. The event kicked off the University’s Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend. “It was at Colgate where I began to realize how the arts, science, and athletics come together in the phrase we always use, ‘the spirit that is Colgate’ — and it’s about being a full person, a whole person, and how all of this can combine into making a life worth living,” Chopp said. She was in the prime of her life when she was diagnosed, explained Chopp, who was chancellor of the University of Denver at the time. The first neurologist she saw gave Chopp a grim prognosis: that she wouldn’t even be able to button her shirt in a few years. But, as the liberal arts taught her, “if you didn’t like the answer you got, ask the question again; ask it deeper,” Chopp recalled. When she asked a second neurologist for an opinion, that doctor said, “There’s so much more living you can do.” “She told me I could live with joy, and she gave me a prescription of how to do that,” Chopp said. “I turned her prescription into gifts.” She’s written about those gifts in her book, Still Me: Accepting Alzheimer’s Without Losing Yourself, and she shared them with the Colgate audience. “What’s good for the brain is good for the body,” emphasized Chopp, who touted the benefits of creativity, diet, exercise, sleep, and social engagement. She has made life changes that include eating the MIND diet, painting, and combining social activities with intellectual opportunities. As we age, we need to “exercise our ability to solve problems and think creatively,” agreed Johnson, who is a member of the Robert Hung Ngai Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative (MBBI) advisory committee. Through the MBBI, Colgate faculty and staff members are looking at the intersection of brain science and the arts. Kraly pointed out that, as this weekend centers around Middle Campus, the panel discussion “resonates with what our aspirations are for our students.” She said, “They’re given opportunities to make good choices, interesting choices about enriching themselves and bringing joy to their lives and also their community.”New Endowed Humanities Chair Honors Colgate’s 15th President Third Century News and Updates Faculty & Staff Former Colgate President Rebecca Chopp (Photo by Mike Roy)

Gwen Eichfeld ’25 Receives Goldwater Scholarship mniedt@colgate.edu Thu, 04/04/2024 - 16:49 Gwen Eichfeld ’25 has been named as a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship. She was also recently chosen as a Harvard-Amgen Scholar. The Goldwater Scholarship Program, one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics in the United States, identifies and supports college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming this nation’s next generation of research leaders in these fields. Aside from the stipend and support, the Goldwater scholarship is often an integral stepping stone in the scholar’s research and scientific career. Eichfeld is a neuroscience major from Winnetka, Ill. In high school, she was named a finalist at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair for her independent research in computational biology and epidemiology and published this work in a peer-reviewed journal. At the beginning of her Colgate career, Eichfeld joined Professor Jeanne Hansen’s research investigating ovarian cancer cells. She also studied the microbiome through a research project with Professor Ken Belanger. Eichfeld credits these experiences with teaching her foundational lab skills and giving her the opportunity to practice them. After her sophomore year, Eichfeld interned at the National Institutes of Health where she researched rare genetic diseases in the nematode C. elegans. Her work at the NIH became the focus for her Goldwater application. Currently, she is working with Professor Priscilla Van Wynsberghe to understand the genes underlying developmental timing in C. elegans. Outside of the lab, Eichfeld is a member of the Colgate Women’s Ice Hockey team, which won the ECAC championship this year and advanced to the NCAA’s Frozen Four. She grew up playing hockey, and this was the driving force for her to attend Colgate. Eichfeld, a Golden Fellow, also co-founded the neuroscience club on campus and is a certified EMT — she is the head first responder for club and intramural sports. This summer, Eichfeld will travel to Cambridge, Mass., where she has been accepted into the Harvard-Amgen Scholars Program. “The Amgen program is an opportunity to collaborate and learn from diverse peers and mentors who have the confidence to pursue interesting questions in their fields,” Eichfeld states. “It is also an opportunity to continue to expand my curiosity and problem-solving skills as a scientist.” The Amgen Scholars Program at Harvard is a 10-week residential summer research program for undergraduates interested in doing research in biotechnology and related biomedical sciences. Scholars conduct hands-on, innovative research in cutting-edge facilities of Harvard under the mentorship of faculty and direct project supervisors. Laboratory hosts are affiliated with a variety of divisions of the University as well as Harvard’s research institutes and professional schools. After Colgate, Eichfeld plans to obtain an MD/PhD focusing on neuroscience. She aspires to conduct research as well as design and implement science-based therapies at the intersection of neuroscience, genetics, and disease. Eichfeld wants to share with her peers that “preparing fellowship applications is real work, like having another class, but it’s all been worth it. Writing the essays has helped me to see and describe my strengths and appreciate how much and how fast I am learning from my professors, mentors, and peers.” To learn more about the Goldwater Scholarship, Amgen Scholars Program, or other national competitive awards, reach out to Meghan Niedt, mniedt@colgate.edu, in the Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships to schedule an appointment.Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Outcomes News and Updates Student Neuroscience Program

James Webb Telescope Catches Glimpse of Possible First-Ever Dark Stars: Update Contributing Writer Thu, 04/04/2024 - 16:49 Editor’s note: The publication referenced in this article, which was originally published on July 14, 2023, has received the Cozzarelli Prize, acknowledging papers that reflect scientific excellence and originality. The co-authors will be recognized at an awards ceremony during the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting this month. Stars beam brightly out of the darkness of space thanks to fusion, atoms melding together and releasing energy. But what if there’s another way to power a star? A team of three astrophysicists — Katherine Freese at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Cosmin Ilie and Jillian Paulin ’23 at Colgate University — analyzed images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and found three bright objects that might be “dark stars,” theoretical objects much bigger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter annihilating. If confirmed, dark stars could reveal the nature of dark matter, one of the deepest unsolved problems in all of physics. “Discovering a new type of star is pretty interesting all by itself, but discovering it’s dark matter that’s powering this — that would be huge,” said Freese, director of the Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Jeff and Gail Kodosky Endowed Chair in physics at UT Austin. Although dark matter makes up about 25% of the universe, its nature has eluded scientists. Scientists believe it consists of a new type of elementary particle, and the hunt to detect such particles is on. Among the leading candidates are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. When they collide, these particles annihilate themselves, depositing heat into collapsing clouds of hydrogen and converting them into brightly shining dark stars. The identification of supermassive dark stars would open up the possibility of learning about the dark matter based on their observed properties. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Follow-up observations from JWST of the objects’ spectroscopic properties — including dips or excess of light intensity in certain frequency bands — could help confirm whether these candidate objects are indeed dark stars. Confirming the existence of dark stars might also help solve a problem created by JWST: There seem to be too many large galaxies too early in the universe to fit the predictions of the standard model of cosmology. “It’s more likely that something within the standard model needs tuning, because proposing something entirely new, as we did, is always less probable,” Freese said. “But if some of these objects that look like early galaxies are actually dark stars, the simulations of galaxy formation agree better with observations.” The three candidate dark stars (JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0) were originally identified as galaxies in December 2022 by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Using spectroscopic analysis, the JADES team confirmed the objects were observed at times ranging from about 320 million to 400 million years after the Big Bang, making them some of the earliest objects ever seen. “When we look at the James Webb data, there are two competing possibilities for these objects,” Freese said. “One is that they are galaxies containing millions of ordinary, population-III stars. The other is that they are dark stars. And believe it or not, one dark star has enough light to compete with an entire galaxy of stars.” Dark stars could theoretically grow to be several million times the mass of our sun and up to 10 billion times as bright as the sun. “We predicted back in 2012 that supermassive dark stars could be observed with JWST,” said Ilie, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Colgate University. “As shown in our recently published PNAS article, we already found three supermassive dark star candidates when analyzing the JWST data for the four high redshift JADES objects spectroscopically confirmed by Curtis-Lake et al, and I am confident we will soon identify many more.” The idea for dark stars originated in a series of conversations between Freese and Doug Spolyar, at the time a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. They wondered: What does dark matter do to the first stars to form in the universe? Then they reached out to Paolo Gondolo, an astrophysicist at the University of Utah, who joined the team. After several years of development, they published their first paper on this theory in the journal Physical Review Letters in 2008. Together, Freese, Spolyar, and Gondolo developed a model that goes something like this: At the centers of early protogalaxies, there would be very dense clumps of dark matter, along with clouds of hydrogen and helium gas. As the gas cooled, it would collapse and pull in dark matter along with it. As the density increased, the dark matter particles would increasingly annihilate, adding more and more heat, which would prevent the gas from collapsing all the way down to a dense enough core to support fusion as in an ordinary star. Instead, it would continue to gather more gas and dark matter, becoming big, puffy, and much brighter than ordinary stars. Unlike ordinary stars, the power source would be evenly spread out, rather than concentrated in the core. With enough dark matter, dark stars could grow to be several million times the mass of our sun and up to 10 billion times as bright as the sun. Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics program and the Vetenskapsradet (Swedish Research Council) at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics at Stockholm University.Academics Natural Sciences and Mathematics Faculty News Research Outcomes News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Department of Physics and Astronomy These three objects (JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0) were originally identified as galaxies in December 2022 by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Now, a team including Katherine Freese at The University of Texas at Austin speculate they might actually be “dark stars,” theoretical objects much bigger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter annihilating. (Image credit: NASA/ESA)

‘Dark Skies’ Symposium to Explore Humanity’s Connection to the Night Sky sdevries@colgate.edu Wed, 04/03/2024 - 09:59 This week’s “Dark Skies in Appalachian Identity, Culture, and Sense of Place” symposium will bring writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, scholars, and scientists to Colgate, April 4–6, to explore the human connection to the dark night sky. Symposium sessions will feature many artistic and creative works influenced by the night sky including poems, novels, artworks, and songs. Others will focus on the physical nature of excessive artificial lighting at night and how it impacts human health and other species such as birds and insects. All of the events are free and open to the Hamilton community with the exception of the banquet on Saturday night, which is for registered participants of the symposium. “To our knowledge, this will be a first-of-its-kind symposium bringing together a broad range of people with similar interests in the night sky,” says Jeff Bary, Sweet Family Chair and associate professor of physics and astronomy. “As such, we hope to raise awareness in the scholarly community of the cultural significance of a dark night sky, while tying this awareness to the work of advocates working in the Appalachian region, but also across the country and internationally. The symposium will bring these like-minded individuals from vastly different academic and scholarly worlds together, building a community of scholars and advocates whose work may be shared broadly in support of dark sky preservation.” The symposium will begin on the evening of Thursday, April 4, with an opening reception at 6 p.m. followed by a 7 p.m. Ryan Family Film Series screening of King Coal and Q&A with filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon in Golden Auditorium in Little Hall. Friday’s events will include several sessions, including “Sense of Place and Preserving Dark Sky Places” and “The Night Sky in Indigenous Culture,” the keynote event with author Ann Pancake, concluding with a Dark Sky Star Party beginning at 7:30 p.m., featuring Perry Ground, Haudenosaunee storyteller and cultural educator. On Saturday, the final day of the symposium will feature additional sessions, including “Composition and the Night Sky,” dinner with Lost Creek Farms, and will conclude with a concert and community square dance at the Palace Theater. A full schedule of sessions, exhibits, speakers, and other events is available at the Dark Skies Symposium website. The symposium is sponsored by groups across campus, including:Colgate Arts Council Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute Sweet Family Endowed Chair Live Music Collective Faculty Development Council Upstate Institute Department of Physics and Astronomy Environmental Studies Program Core Communities Beyond Colgate Faculty News Research Centers and Institutes Faculty & Staff

From Benton Center to Bernstein Hall ddevries@colgate.edu Tue, 04/02/2024 - 09:52 Colgate University’s Center for Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, which is nearing completion and expected to open in the fall, will be named Bernstein Hall in honor of the lead donor’s genealogical roots. When Dan Benton ’80, H’10, P’10, decided to support the creation of a new center designed to bring together the arts and technology through a $25 million principal gift, the new anchor building on Colgate’s Middle Campus was announced in 2021 as the Benton Center. For Benton — who made his first gift of $15 to Colgate as an undergraduate in his senior year and has donated to the University every year since — the name of the building became something he spent considerable time contemplating as construction continued. It was during construction that Benton read a history of Jews at Colgate, written by six Colgate students and titled, Repression, Re-Invention, and Rugelach: A History of Jews at Colgate. That book, edited by Professor of Jewish Studies and Russian and Eurasian Studies Alice Nakhimovsky, was created as a culmination of a Jewish Studies seminar course and paints an unvarnished picture of a time when the Jewish experience on campus was marred by admission quotas and bias. Reading about the history of Jews at Colgate caused Benton to reflect on his own family history, and he started to consider changing the name of the new building to honor his family’s Jewish identity. Benton’s grandfather had changed his family’s last name from Bernstein to Benton in the 1940s to defend against rampant anti-semitism of the era. In late October, Benton made the decision to explicitly connect his identity and his family's legacy to his support of his alma mater, officially giving the new building the name Bernstein Hall. “In choosing to dedicate this building as Bernstein Hall, I honor my family’s history. I underscore our resilience and the resilience of the Jewish people,” Benton said. “And just as the blending of the arts, entrepreneurship, and computer science has magical potential, so does the blending of diverse thought, talent, and ethnicity in a student body. It enriches everything. And with both at work, we deliver on our mission to prepare our students to navigate the challenges of the world they will graduate into. Isn’t this what the liberal arts must do? “As a leading donor to Colgate, I am dedicated to working with, rather than against, President Brian Casey, Provost Lesleigh Cushing, my fellow trustees, and the rest of the administration, faculty, students, and alumni. I hope that Colgate will set an example for other universities by understanding how freedom of expression coexists and integrates with a diverse and inclusive community.” For President Brian W. Casey, seeing the new building’s structure take form between the James C. Colgate Student Union and Dana Arts Center is a major milestone in the University’s plans for an expanded Middle Campus and a clear signal of Colgate’s commitment to the Initiative in Arts, Creativity, and Innovation. Casey, a historian by training, notes that the renaming also harkens to other moments of history at Colgate. “From the Benton Scholars program to the excellent career services offerings in Benton Hall, Dan’s commitment to the liberal arts at Colgate and to our students is clear. And now he is helping us recognize part of our past in a thoughtful way,” said Casey. “Jewish students, faculty, and staff have persevered on this campus throughout the years, even in the face of profound discrimination during the Cutten administration and beyond. Naming Bernstein Hall may help to address and ameliorate this history. It feels reminiscent of when we were able to name a building in the academic core of the campus for one of our first women faculty members, Jane Pinchin. Naming buildings and places can help a college recognize those who have gone before and who have shaped an institution. The buildings of a campus can, and ought to, reflect the history of those who have been here as students, staff, and scholars.” Faculty, staff, and students will utilize the building, slated for completion this summer, in the fall semester for classes and creative endeavors facilitated by the building’s fabrication labs, a robotics lab, a digital recording studio, five computer labs, an experimental exhibition and performance space, a media archaeology lab, and flexible classrooms. Lesleigh Cushing, provost and dean of the faculty and Murray W. and Mildred K. Finard Chair in Jewish studies, describes the new building as dynamic and exciting. “We brought together faculty from a range of disciplines to see what they could imagine at the intersection of visual arts, technology, theater, dance, music, and innovation. The building is a material manifestation of their imagination — a place where students can experiment, try new things, learn with the newest technologies,” Cushing said. “The building will be welcoming and inviting not just to the concentrator who is immersed deeply in the fields of film and media studies or computer science, but also to the student who has come for an event or to explore a course outside their regular fields of study. From Whitnall Field and Peter’s Glen, the building will draw people in. It will be a place on campus where curious, creative students can let their imaginations really roam.”Alumni Third Century Institutional News People News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Student Colgate Fund

Next Up on 13: The Colgate Live Music Collective kputman@colgate.edu Fri, 03/29/2024 - 09:11 On the latest episode of 13, Jeff Bary, Sweet Family Chair and associate professor of physics and astronomy, and Joshua Finnell, director of research and scholarly initiatives in the University Libraries, discuss how the Colgate Live Music Collective operates and share a glimpse of some of the exciting artists that will be coming to campus. The Colgate Live Music Collective is a group of faculty, students, and staff that works together to bring live music to the Colgate campus and surrounding community. Launched officially in the spring of 2022, the collective was inspired by house shows and the Brown Commons Coffeehouse to build “an intentional community around live performances — both on campus and in our village,” Finnell shares. Previous performances include Wednesday, Hotline TNT, Babehoven, Ana Egge, Serengeti, Leslie Mendelson, Soul Glo, Chemical-X, All Around, and Toy Machine. Along with various performances throughout the academic year, the collective also hosts the annual Fall Music Festival showcasing many local artists and most recently headlined by indie rock band Speedy Ortiz. Each episode of 13, Colgate’s award-winning podcast, digs into the work of a University community member by asking questions. Episodes highlight the wide array of academic disciplines at Colgate, with interviews featuring faculty from political science, sociology and anthropology, physics and astronomy, women’s studies, English, Africana and Latin American studies, and many more. Find 13 on your favorite podcast platform, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Campus Life Faculty Profiles News and Updates Faculty & Staff

Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Launches Creative Endeavors Workshop tmfonda@colgate.edu Mon, 03/25/2024 - 16:17 This winter, Colgate’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation launched the Creative Endeavors Workshop, an eight-week arts and business seminar open to Colgate students and community members. The workshop was proposed by Henry Howard, director of the Arts at the Palace, and implemented by Carolyn Strobel-Larsen, the director of entrepreneurship and innovation at Colgate, and Melissa Davis, Hub director at Hamilton’s Partnership for Community Development (PCD). “For many creatives, there’s a huge chasm between their craft and being able to envision how it could turn into a career,” says Strobel-Larsen. “Henry, Melissa, and I put the workshop together with this in mind.” Their first session welcomed Professor of Art Lynn Schwarzer, who facilitated group introductions with the goal for participants to get to know each other as creatives. Following Schwarzer’s introduction, Jillian LaRussa — an arts, creativity, and media adviser at Career Services — led interactive goal formation exercises. “Our main focus for the second session will be around business planning,” says Strobel-Larsen. “We’re going to do a hands-on session about mapping out the business, locating funding, and talking to potential customers.” Subsequent sessions will address a variety of learning outcomes, including:The development of a potentially viable business idea based on their creative talent Basic business frameworks and support that are required to successfully establish and administer a business entity Funding approaches and resources available for next steps Student participant Olivia Saman ’25 attended the workshop to explore how she might develop her passion for photography into a career in the arts. “I’ve always discouraged myself from considering my art in terms of a career,” says Saman. “But once I became aware of all the Creative Endeavors Workshop had to offer, I thought it might be the time for me to break that negative cycle of thought.” By attending the workshop, Saman has realized her potential. “I am so grateful for the experience that I’ve had in this program,” she says. “Not only have I made professional progress as an artist, but I’ve also met such passionate people. We have been able to truly push one another to grow as artists and business owners.”Career Development Entrepreneurship News and Updates Faculty & Staff Student

Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute Announces 2024 Research Awards Contributing Writer Fri, 03/22/2024 - 11:19 The Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute (Picker ISI) has announced this year’s awards supporting interdisciplinary approaches in innovative research. The awards bring together Colgate faculty and other researchers with complementary expertise to open new areas of study and to tackle existing problems in creative, new ways. “I am pleased by the breadth and depth of research projects that we funded this year,” said Professor of Biology and Mathematics Ahmet Ay, director of the Picker Institute. “While distinct in scope, they all reflect Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute's dedication to interdisciplinary research.” This year, there are six Picker ISI awards: Paul Harnik, assistant professor of earth and environmental geosciences; Rebecca Metzler, professor of physics; and Damhnait McHugh, professor of biology, have received a $100,000 award for their project “Determining the Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change on Calcifying Marine Animals.” Cosmin Ilie, assistant professor of physics — in collaboration with Katherine Freese (University of Texas), Andreea Petric (the Space Telescope Science Institute), and Jillian Paulin (University of Pennsylvania) — has been awarded $84,500 in funding for the project “Probing the Nature of Dark Matter With the First Stars and Galaxies in the Universe.” Kelly Isham, assistant professor of mathematics — in collaboration with Kartik Lakhotia (Intel) and Laura Monroe (Los Alamos National Laboratory) — has been awarded $31,250 for the project “Exploring the Mathematics of Large-scale Computer Network Design: Toward Zettascale.” Anzela Niraula, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences and neuroscience, in collaboration with Jacques Robert (University of Rochester), has been awarded $9,581 for the project “The Immune System as the Brain’s Sculptor During Metamorphosis.” Associate Professor Wan-chun Liu and Professor Spencer Kelly, from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Neuroscience, have received an award of $8,344 for their project “Song-Entangled Beat Gesture in Songbirds: A Window to the Mind and Brain.” Professor of Physics Beth Parks, with colleagues Silver Onyango (Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda) and Crystal North (MGH/Harvard), has received an award of $7,120 for the project “Sensors for Enabling Personal Behavior Changes to Reduce Air Pollution Exposure in Uganda.” “These projects are important not only because of their scholarly merit but also because they will enrich the research opportunities our university provides for our students,” Ay said. “Furthermore, they lay the framework for creating new interdisciplinary courses and expanding our university’s curricula.” A brief description of each project can be found on the Picker ISI Funding History page.Academics Faculty News Research Centers and Institutes Faculty & Staff Picker ISI

A performance of the opera Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage, on Matilda Gage’s efforts — alongside those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — for women’s right to vote, made its way to campus on March 24. The post Opera Explores Untold History of Upstate New York’s Women’s Suffrage Movement first appeared on Colgate University News.