News & Events 08/2008

August 29, 2008

Warmer Nests Mean Healthier Mothers and Chicks, Finds Amherst College Research Team

AMHERST, Mass. – Heating the nests of tree swallows enables them to spend more time incubating their eggs and maintain higher egg temperatures as a result, according to Amherst College biology professor Ethan Clotfelter and his team of collaborators, who conducted a series of experiments investigating the energetics of reproduction in tree swallows in 2006 and 2007. Through the studies, Clotfelter and his research group also discovered that swallows whose nests had been experimentally warmed had higher body mass and fed their babies at higher rates, leading to healthier nestlings overall.

August 20, 2008
Contact: Sara Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195

AMHERST, Mass. – Amherst College music professors David Schneider, clarinet, and Karen Rosenak, piano, will present a concert of contemporary works on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College.

Wyoming Governor To Amherst College Class of 2012: “Don’t Be Afraid to Try”

August 26, 2008
Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

Hear the audio of the talk.

AMHERST, Mass.—“History is shaped by ordinary people doing ordinary things… So don’t be afraid to try and don’t be afraid to fail,” David Freudenthal, governor of the state of Wyoming and Amherst College alumnus, urged the members of the school’s Class of 2012, who packed Amherst’s Johnson Chapel the evening of Monday, Aug. 25.

Ceramicists, Debaters and Irish Folk Harpists: A Look at Amherst College’s Class of 2012

August 25, 2008               
Contact: Marjan Hajibandeh ’09E
Media Relations Intern
413-542-2321
Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Under blue summer skies, the *440 members of Amherst College’s Class of 2012 converged on campus Sunday, Aug. 24, to begin the first semester of their college careers at their new alma mater. The first-years—who range from ceramicists to champion debaters to Irish folk harpists—represent an extraordinary array of beliefs, ambitions, passions, backgrounds and talents, according to Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Tom Parker.

August 20, 2008
Contact: Sara Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195

AMHERST, Mass. – Amherst College jazz faculty and instructors will perform for first-years and returning Amherst undergraduates on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College.

August 19, 2008         
Contact: Caroline J. Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass. — Eric Sawyer, associate professor of music at Amherst College, has been named one of three winners of an Abraham Lincoln-themed composition competition sponsored by the Ravinia Festival, the oldest music festival in North America.

August 19, 2008
Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass. – Nature, one of the world’s leading academic journals, has recognized the 1996 research of Amherst College physics professor Jonathan Friedman as a major scientific development in spin physics. Friedman’s work exploring mesoscopic spin systems was noted in the publication’s “Milestones in Spin” supplement, highlighting the most influential discoveries in the field since 1896.

August 18, 2008                
Contact: Caroline J. Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass. — Adam Sitze, assistant professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought at Amherst College, has received a prestigious International and Area Studies Fellowship, an award from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).