From Quarks to Quacks
4/21/2006
Last week Nobel Laureate/current Dominican Lund-Gill Chair holder Leon Lederman took a group of our students on a tour of Fermilab where we got to see how cutting edge (if there is such a thing as an edge) high-energy physics research on neutrinos, quarks and the very nature of space and time is taking place. It was just fascinating and our students were even filmed for a documentary that's being made about Nobel Prize winners, with several being interviewed in depth—so stay tuned.
Last week we also got to hear Arts and Sciences student Jill Bergman's superb presentation on "Extraction and Filtering of Oscillatory Potentials in P23H Transgenic Rats: An Analysis of Latency and Amplitude as Effects Light Rearing and Aging." Her shorthand title was "Who Gives a Rat's Eye?" Jill's was the first of several Honors Presentations. It's one of my favorite spring semester things: A student makes a major presentation and there's a strong turnout from faculty, staff and other students—all part of our Honors Program. Yesterday Brian Beck presented "Red Ken Strikes Again: A Case Study of Ken Livingstone's Political Opposition to the British Government's Plan to Modernize London's Underground," and later today I'll get to hear Julie Weber discuss "The Delta Landscape: Through the Lens of Visual Sociology." Next week it will be Derek Schriewer on "Anarchic Utopian Society," Kristen Mulligan on "The French Connection: The Beur Generation in France," and Victoria Egizio on "Depression, Stress, and Health-Promoting Practices in a Sample of College Students." I always learn so much from these students!
Tomorrow I'll be hanging in our college office a framed painting by art student Jennifer Bozek, recipient of this year's Dean's Purchase Prize. Stop in some time to see it along with the prize winning artworks from the last few years as well. I felt my own modest sense of accomplishment when I told Jenny what I thought her painting meant and she didn't indicate that I was utterly delusional.
Later today we'll be announcing the winner of the first annual Sr. Mary Ellen O'Hanlon Essay Prize in Social Justice and Diversity. It's a superb piece by student Christine Barry, a poignant reflection on her recent participation in a protest at the School of the Americas which, she writes, "has forever altered my outlook on human rights and social justice."
This evening I'll get to hear two seniors' Art History thesis presentations: Diana Jaskierny on "Conservation, Restoration and the Ethics of Art," and Marcella Scaduto on "Lee Krasner: Woman Artist." After that it's the annual Volunteer Recognition Reception including a special award for students involved in our outstanding Service Learning program, then the annual Student Talent Show. I had to miss that one last year but not this time!
We're truly strapped in for the wild ride that is the end of the semester. SO MUCH happening, almost all of it good—celebrations, completions, next steps pondered. Today in my own class Christianity Among the World's Religions, the students imagined a conversation between three of our authors—Paul Knitter, advocate of a theocentric, pluralist approach to interreligious dialogue, Joseph Ratzinger a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI, defender of Truth and Revelation in an age of watered-down spirituality and shallow relativism, and Thich Nhat Hanh, exiled Vietnamese Buddhist monk and sublime spokesperson for a mindfulness beyond words who keeps statues of both Buddha and Jesus on his altar in France and criticizes exclusivist religious claims that he says foster intolerance and discrimination. The students were utterly superb as they got together in groups and created scripts for these authors' imaginary encounters and then performed a series of one-act plays that probed the issues with insight and great good humor.
And finally, as I arrived this morning there were ducks (actual ducks) right outside my window. I wonder if they were auditioning for our summer courses advertisement.
Last week Nobel Laureate/current Dominican Lund-Gill Chair holder Leon Lederman took a group of our students on a tour of Fermilab where we got to see how cutting edge (if there is such a thing as an edge) high-energy physics research on neutrinos, quarks and the very nature of space and time is taking place. It was just fascinating and our students were even filmed for a documentary that's being made about Nobel Prize winners, with several being interviewed in depth—so stay tuned.
Last week we also got to hear Arts and Sciences student Jill Bergman's superb presentation on "Extraction and Filtering of Oscillatory Potentials in P23H Transgenic Rats: An Analysis of Latency and Amplitude as Effects Light Rearing and Aging." Her shorthand title was "Who Gives a Rat's Eye?" Jill's was the first of several Honors Presentations. It's one of my favorite spring semester things: A student makes a major presentation and there's a strong turnout from faculty, staff and other students—all part of our Honors Program. Yesterday Brian Beck presented "Red Ken Strikes Again: A Case Study of Ken Livingstone's Political Opposition to the British Government's Plan to Modernize London's Underground," and later today I'll get to hear Julie Weber discuss "The Delta Landscape: Through the Lens of Visual Sociology." Next week it will be Derek Schriewer on "Anarchic Utopian Society," Kristen Mulligan on "The French Connection: The Beur Generation in France," and Victoria Egizio on "Depression, Stress, and Health-Promoting Practices in a Sample of College Students." I always learn so much from these students!
Tomorrow I'll be hanging in our college office a framed painting by art student Jennifer Bozek, recipient of this year's Dean's Purchase Prize. Stop in some time to see it along with the prize winning artworks from the last few years as well. I felt my own modest sense of accomplishment when I told Jenny what I thought her painting meant and she didn't indicate that I was utterly delusional.
Later today we'll be announcing the winner of the first annual Sr. Mary Ellen O'Hanlon Essay Prize in Social Justice and Diversity. It's a superb piece by student Christine Barry, a poignant reflection on her recent participation in a protest at the School of the Americas which, she writes, "has forever altered my outlook on human rights and social justice."
This evening I'll get to hear two seniors' Art History thesis presentations: Diana Jaskierny on "Conservation, Restoration and the Ethics of Art," and Marcella Scaduto on "Lee Krasner: Woman Artist." After that it's the annual Volunteer Recognition Reception including a special award for students involved in our outstanding Service Learning program, then the annual Student Talent Show. I had to miss that one last year but not this time!
We're truly strapped in for the wild ride that is the end of the semester. SO MUCH happening, almost all of it good—celebrations, completions, next steps pondered. Today in my own class Christianity Among the World's Religions, the students imagined a conversation between three of our authors—Paul Knitter, advocate of a theocentric, pluralist approach to interreligious dialogue, Joseph Ratzinger a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI, defender of Truth and Revelation in an age of watered-down spirituality and shallow relativism, and Thich Nhat Hanh, exiled Vietnamese Buddhist monk and sublime spokesperson for a mindfulness beyond words who keeps statues of both Buddha and Jesus on his altar in France and criticizes exclusivist religious claims that he says foster intolerance and discrimination. The students were utterly superb as they got together in groups and created scripts for these authors' imaginary encounters and then performed a series of one-act plays that probed the issues with insight and great good humor.
And finally, as I arrived this morning there were ducks (actual ducks) right outside my window. I wonder if they were auditioning for our summer courses advertisement.
