Stories about "Academic Life"
Musical firsts take Miura from Prague to the Left Coast and shakuhachi to shamisen

Thursday, November 14, 2019 9:34 am

The composer and Bates music professor already had a lot on on his plate when a Czech music festival made an offer he couldn't refuse.

Jim Weissman '84, Chief Business Officer at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is establishing a scholarship in honor of tCharles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Tom Wenzel, who is teaching for his last year in 2019-20. The scholarship fund will benefit summer research opportunities, an area that Tom, when asked, would like to see funded through philanthropy. Jim was one of Tom's thesis students whose work was subsequently published.Also in the photographs, posed in laboratories in Dana Chemistry, are Kyoko Weissman, Jim's wife and Associate Professor of Chemistry Matt Côté along with the following chemistry students:Jake O' Hara '21 in green, Shanzeh Rauf '21 in purple, Maddie Murphy '20 in stripes, Owen Bailey '22 in stripes, and Nick Jones /20 in red.
A national award and Bates tribute to legendary chemistry professor Thomas Wenzel

Thursday, November 14, 2019 8:30 am

A former student established — and named for Wenzel — a new endowed fund to support student summer research.

he college’s Philip J. Otis Committee invites members of the Bates community to attend:The 23rd Annual Otis LectureMonday, November 4, 7:30pmOlin Concert HallRESERVE TICKETSTickets free but required.Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights, will deliver the 2019 lecture:“Delight, Gratitude, Joy: Entangle Me”Ross Gay is the author of three books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released by Algonquin Books in 2019.Ross is also the co-author, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, of the chapbook “Lace and Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens,” in addition to being co-author, with Richard Wehrenberg, Jr., of the chapbook, “River.” He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin’, in addition to being an editor with the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press. Ross is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ross teaches at Indiana University.Gay’s lecture is made possible by the Philip J. Otis ’95 Endowment.
Dinner on the farm with poet and essayist Ross Gay

Friday, November 8, 2019 1:16 pm

Environmental studies major Alex Cullen '20 writes about a conversation-rich dinner, with faculty and students, at nearby Nezinscot Farm to honor and welcome this year's Otis Lecturer.

=Economics class sends team to Fed Challenge at Federal Reserve Bank in BostonThe course is “Central Banking and the College Fed Challenge” taught by visiting professor Michael OseiCourse meets Tue-Thur, 11-12:20, Pettigrew 300, The final team will be chosen on 10/31.11:05: Five-person team has moot presentation on Tues, Nov. 5.The team goes to the 2019 Boston Regional Fed Challenge competition at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Friday, Nov. 8. Other students will go to Boston and support the team.The team presents their views on the ideal course of U.S. monetary policy and field questions from outside economists. Here is a report containing the class’s views on the current state of the U.S. economy and the outlook as of Oct. 14.If they win, the team will then advance to the National Competition at the Board of Governors in Washington D.C. Heads-up: so a total of 26 teams (23 University/College teams and 3 community colleges) have registered for the competition. Here are the lists:Presenters (5)Jackson DavisRyan RigioneThomas DodgeJonathan NicholsJames MacDonaldSophie Matt (alternate)Espen Wheeler (run slides)Jeff Yang (participant)Ethan Johnson (participant)Chris Bierwirth (driver)
At the College Fed Challenge, Bates students learn about ‘the economy we live in’

Friday, November 8, 2019 9:00 am

At the competition in Boston, students become the Federal Reserve: They analyze the economy, predict the future, and make recommendations for monetary policy.

For the first time, astronomers watch a galaxy eject gas into space

Wednesday, October 30, 2019 11:27 am

A Bates professor is one of a group of scientists who have found a possible explanation for how gases like oxygen get into the empty space around galaxies: galactic wind.

Bates in the News: Oct. 25, 2019

Friday, October 25, 2019 10:51 am

Recalling Elijah Cummings and Benjamin Mays, a friendship between American and Chinese artists, and a math professor explains her favorite theorem.

Faculty and students find low cost, versatility in open educational resources

Thursday, October 24, 2019 2:36 pm

Faculty, staff, and students across Bates are using advances in information technology to make course materials cheaper and more accessible.

Supervised by Holly Ewing, Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, environmental studies major Christopher Castaneda ’20 takes water samples from Lake Auburn. He’s studying nutrients produced by algae and consumed by other organisms in the lake. Related to the impacts of algae blooms on water quality, the research supports community efforts to deliver unfiltered public water at the lowest price. On the boat with Water treatment manager and lab director Chris Curtis (in blue shirt) and Lindsay Bates and Dan Fortin, water quality technicians (Bruins sweatshirt)
Bates scientist has pivotal role in $6 million project to better predict lake cyanobacterial blooms

Wednesday, October 23, 2019 9:06 am

Holly Ewing is integral to the National Science Foundation-funded project to use big data and robotics against the growing hazard of blue-green algae blooms.

11 words: Students describe indigenous archaeology in an Alaskan village

Friday, October 11, 2019 12:25 pm

At the site of an abandoned Alaskan village, an alumnus hears 11 words illuminating experiences of students and their professor conducting indigenous archaeology.

Jane Costlow and Sue Inches, who has worked in community and economic development for more than 25 years, at the rally. Inches has taught a practitioner-taught course on "Advocating for Sustainability" at Bates.“I can't believe I'm even having to protest this.”.— Muskan Verma '21 of Shimla, India, shares the frustration of inaction on global climate change after she addressed a crowd of at least 2,000 at Portland City Hall gathered for the student-mobilized Global Climate Strike, ahead of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and the Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23..“I'm not from this country,” she said. “But that shouldn't matter. This is affecting us all. And whether we like it or not, we have to take action.”.A representative of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led movement for climate-change action, Verma is a double major in theater and in rhetoric, film, and screen studies. She joined a large contingent of Bates students and several faculty who attended the event, organized, in part, by the Bates Environmental Coalition..
My Last Year: Jane Costlow, a professor-activist ‘in solidarity with others who really care’

Friday, October 11, 2019 11:00 am

A teachable moment during the Global Climate Strike prompts a veteran Bates professor to examine her history of activism.

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