physics

Honors Day Rewards Student Excellence

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Honors Day Convocation
More than 250 students including Rebecca Chan ’22 were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, at the Honors Day Convocation at Stetson Chapel.

Family Weekend served as the backdrop for the Honors Day 2019 convocation. More than 250 students were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Physical Education. Recipients of prestigious scholarships were recognized, as were members of national honor societies and students who received special Kalamazoo College awards. Student athletes and teams who won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards also were honored. The students receiving Honors Day awards or recognition are listed below.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

Brian Gougeon Prize in Art
Kate Roberts
Beth Schulman
Zoe Zawacki

The Margaret Upton Prize in Music
Sophia Yurdin

Cooper Award
Maria Jensen

Sherwood Prize
Rebecca Chan
Brianna Taylor

Theatre Arts First-Year Student Award
Rebecca Chan

MODERN AND CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES DIVISION

LeGrand Copley Prize in French
Rebecca Chan
Thomas Saxton

Hardy Fuchs Award
Christian Zeitvogel

Margo Light Award
Daniel Fahle

Romance Languages Department Prize in Spanish
Emiley Hepfner
Hayden Strobel

Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin
Kelly Hansen

Provost’s Prize in Classics
Jessica Chaidez
Annabelle Houghton

Classics Departmental Prize in Greek
Lydia Bontrager

HUMANITIES DIVISION

M. Allen Prize in English
Abigail Cadieux
Jessica Chaidez

John B. Wickstrom Prize in History
Fiona Holmes

Department of Philosophy Prize
Mitch Baty
Julia Bienstock
Emma Fergusson

L.J. and Eva (“Gibbie”) Hemmes Memorial Prize in Philosophy
Max Bogun
Zoe Celeste Schneberger
Nick Wilson

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

Winifred Peake Jones Prize in Biology
Natalie Barber
Abigail Gray
Madeline Harding
Grace McKnight

Department of Chemistry Prize
Aleksandra Bartolik
Grace McKnight

First-Year Chemistry Award
Robert Barnard
Saudia Tate
Andrew Walsh

Professor Ralph M. Deal Endowed Scholarship for Physical Chemistry Students
Leonardo Sota

Lemuel F. Smith Award
Christopher Vennard

Computer Science Prize
Shruti Chaturvedi
Caroline Skalla

First-Year Mathematics Award
Haley Crabbs
Thomas Saxton
Carter Wade

Thomas O. Walton Prize in Mathematics
Lisa Johnston
Dahwi Kim
Samuel Ratliff

Cooper Prize in Physics
Revaz Bakuradze
Samuel Barczy
Kate Roberts

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Departmental Prize in Anthropology and Sociology
Yuridia Campuzano
Mauricio Guillén
Jillian Lynk

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Economics
Rebekah Halley
Chaniya Miller

William G. Howard Memorial Prize
Georgie Andrews
Jade Jiang
Zachary Ray
Adam Snider

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Business
Nathan Micallef
Sage Ringsmuth

Irene and S. Kyle Morris Prize
Mihail Naskovski

William G. Howard Memorial Prize in Political Science
Ava Keller
Christian Zeitvogel

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

Division of Physical Education Prize
Walker Chung
Kaytlyn Tidey

Maggie Wardle Prize
Darby Scott

COLLEGE AWARDS

Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award
Yasamin Shaker

Henry and Inez Brown Prize
Mya Gough
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Rosella LoChirco
Elizabeth Munoz
Erin Radermacher

Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award
Jilia Johnson

HEYL SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Samuel Ankley
Ben Behrens (’20)
Carter Eisenbach
Rachel Kramer
Rachel Lanting
Alexis Nesbitt
Suja Thakali
Elizabeth Wang

POSSE SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Jayla Ekwegh
Naile Garcia
Devin Hunt
Juan Ibarra
Angel Ledesma
Milan Levy
Katharina Padilla
Milagros Robelo
Emilio Romo
Diego Zambrana

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Donald Brown
Claire Kvande

VOYNOVICH SCHOLARS

Audrey Honig
Nikoli Nickson

ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA
CLASS OF 2022

Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year. The Kalamazoo College chapter was installed on March 5, 1942.

Elizabeth Abel
McKenzi Baker
Natalie Barber
Samuel Barczy
Aleksandra Bartolik
Mitchell Baty
Julia Bienstock
Alexander Bowden
Haylee Bowsher
Irie Browne
Elizabeth Burton
Abigail Cadieux
Rebecca Chan
Gabriel Chung
Haley Crabbs
Sofia Diaz
Adam Dorstewitz
Imalia Drummond
Daniel Fahle
Emma Fergusson
Kaitlin Gandy
Levon Gibson
Jessica Gracik
Madeline Guimond
Emiley Hepfner
Ellie Jones
Joseph Jung
David Kent
Yung Seo Lee
Marissa Lewinski
Donna Li
Isabella Luke
Deven Mahanti
Clara Martinez-Voigt
Mihail Naskovski
Rushik Patel
Houston Peach
Anthony Peraza
Lucas Rizzolo
Marco Savone
Isabella Shansky-Genovese
Caroline Skalla
Emily Smith
Abby Stewart
Emily Tenniswood
Carter Wade
Samantha White
Zachary Worthing
Christian Zeitvogel

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Performing Arts: Music
Marilu Bueno
John Carlson
Emily Dudd
Sarma Ejups
Peter Fitzgerald
Rose Hannan
Garrett Hanson
Koshiro Kuroda
Milan Levy
Matthew Mueller
Clarice Ray

MIAA AWARDS

These teams earned the 2018-2019 MIAA Team GPA Award for achieving a 3.3 or better grade-point average for the entire academic year:

Men’s Baseball
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Cross Country
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Men’s Lacrosse
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

Student Athletes 2018-2019

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association each year honors students at MIAA member colleges who achieve in the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average for the entire academic year.

Hayleigh Alamo
Georgie Andrews
Hunter Angileri
Lauren Arquette
Brooklyn Avery
Julia Bachmann
Sonal Bahl
Nicole Bailey
Lillian Baumann
Brad Bez
Rose Bogard
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Alexander Bowden
Molly Brueger
Jane Bunch
Pierce Burke
Alexander Cadigan
Gabriel Chung
Isabelle Clark
Noah Coplan
Rachel Cornell
Chase Coselman
Eva Deyoung
Alexis Dietz
Adam Dorstewitz
Amanda Dow
Sydney Dowdell
Thomas Fales
Colton Farley
Anders Finholt
Clifton Foster
Jakob Frederick
Brendan Gausselin
Sarah George
Jacob Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Sophia Goebel
Preston Grossling
Garrett Guthrie
Rebekah Halley
Emily Hamel
Grace Hancock
Megan Heft
Alyssa Heitkamp
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Matthew Howrey
Benjamin Hyndman
Samantha Jacobsen
Benjamin Johanski
Jaylin Jones
Jackson Jones
Claire Kalina
Grace Karrip
Lucas Kastran
Maria Katrantzi
Greg Kearns
Jackson Kelly
Brandon Kramer
Benjamin Krebs
Matthew Krinock
Stefan Leclerc
Kathryn Levasseur
Rosella LoChirco
Molly Logsdon
Nicholas Ludka
Andrea MacMichael
Rachel Madar
Deven Mahanti
Cydney Martell
Samuel Matthews
Eliza McCall
Benjamin Meschke
Hannah Meyers
Nathan Micallef
Zachary Morales
Max Moran
Amanda Moss
Elizabeth Munoz
Kelly Nickelson
Nikoli Nickson
Ian Nostrant
Drew Novetsky
Michael Orwin
Dylan Padget
Paul Pavliscak
Calder Pellerin
Anthony Peraza
Erin Perkins
Eve Petrie
Zach Prystash
Daniel Qin
Erin Radermacher
Harrison Ramsey
Zachary Ray
Jordan Reichenbach
Benjamin Reiter
Lucas Rizzolo
Margaret Roberts
Scott Roberts
Lily Rogowski
Marco Savone
Ashley Schiffer
Nicholas Schneider
Justin Schodowski
Darby Scott
Justin Seablom
Sharif Shaker
Drew Sheckell
Nathan Silverman
Maya Srkalovic
Abby Stewart
Grant Stille
Shelby Suseland
Garrett Swanson
Jacob Sypniewski
Nina Szalkiewicz
Jack Tagget
Leah Tardiff
Emily Tenniswood
Cade Thune
Matt Turton
Madison Vallan
Zachary Van Faussien
Travis Veenhuis
Tejas Vettukattil
Vanessa Vigier
Maija Weaver
Megan Williams
Hannah Wolfe
Sophia Woodhams
Austin Yunker
Christian Zeitvogel

K Professor Serves Neural Networks Conference as Honorary Chairman

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Neural Networks Conference Honorary Chairman Peter Erdi
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez applauded International Joint Conference on Neural Networks Honorary Chairman Peter Erdi when Erdi presented his Lucasse Lecture this spring.

Peter Erdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies at Kalamazoo College, served as the honorary chairman of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks in July. The conference, with 850 participants in Budapest, Hungary, aimed to build bridges between theories of biological and artificial neural networks, sometimes referred to as natural and computational intelligence respectively.

Artificial neural networks are a set of algorithms, inspired by functions found in the human brain, that recognize patterns. Such systems learn to perform tasks by considering examples, through processes such as image recognition, for example. The networks might learn about those images to identify similar images, then label them and organize them.

The conference featured plenary talks from world-renowned speakers in neural network theory and applications, computational neuroscience, and robotics and distributed intelligence. Along with poster presentations, the conference included special sessions, competitions, tutorials and workshops.

“The conference was a big success in many respects,” Erdi said, noting commendations he received from colleagues applauding the conference, the city of Budapest and the organizers.

Erdi received the 2018 Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship. It is the highest award bestowed by the Kalamazoo College faculty, and it honors the recipient’s contributions in creative work, research and publication. His Lucasse Lecture was titled “Ranking: The Hidden Rules of the Social Game We All Play” after a nonfiction book he has in production. The book examines how and why humans rank certain aspects of our lives and how those rankings are viewed.

Erdi has been a prolific researcher with more than 40 publications and two books published since joining Kalamazoo College. In that time, he has given more than 60 invited lectures across the world. He is also serving as the editor-in-chief of Cognitive Systems Research and as a vice president of the International Neural Network Society.

Support for Erdi’s research program has come from varied sources such as collaborative National Science Foundation awards, NASA, the Hungarian National Research Council, Pharmacia, Pfizer and the European Integrated Project grant program. He has also helped to establish a popular study abroad program in his native homeland of Budapest, Hungary, where he holds a research professor position at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Get Versed in National Poetry Month

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If your knowledge of poetry is limited, April is the perfect time to expand your horizons and practice your writing. That’s because it’s National Poetry Month, and Assistant English Professor Oliver Baez Bendorf has creatively developed ways for students to hone their skills and develop their interests in poetry to celebrate.

Kayla Park National Poetry Month
Kayla Park read at the Belladonna* Collaborative Reading last spring. She interned with Belladonna*, an independent feminist avant-garde poetry press, through the New York Arts Program during the winter 2018 term at K.

Among his classes, Baez Bendorf teaches an advanced poetry workshop, which is participating in a 21-day challenge to write every day. Students are assigned poetry-inspired aliases and write about their praxis, or practice, of writing. “Writing about writing” might sound redundant, but its purpose is to help students learn about themselves, their influences and their processes to discover what inspires them.

Audrey Honig ’21, for example, is an English and religion major with a concentration in Jewish studies from Elmhurst, Illinois. She is writing erasure poems under the alias Lyra based on what she sees through social media. Erasure poetry erases words from an existing text in prose or verse and frames the result as a poem. The results can be allowed to stand on their own or arranged into lines or stanzas.

“I thought it would be interesting to bring what normally is a distraction into my writing,” said Honig, of the social media she analyzes. “I thought I wrote a lot before this class started, but I really wasn’t creating much. I was working on my writing, but I was mostly working on the editing process. Now I’m doing something small every day.”

Her biggest takeaway from the course has been how to better give and receive feedback to classmates and other writers.

“As students, we’re used to getting feedback when a professor might say, ‘This is a B,’” she said. “In this class, we’re really thinking about the specifics of what we’re doing as writers, so we can give honest and helpful feedback without tearing anyone down.”

For her 21-day challenge, Kayla Park ’19 selects a book at random off her shelf every day and writes a poem inspired by the last sentence on page 21 in that book.

Audrey Honig Recites During National Poetry Month
Audrey Honig presents during a class at Kalamazoo College’s Humphrey House. Honig is is writing erasure poems under the alias Lyra based on what she sees through social media.

Park, who writes under the alias Pegasus, earned a Heyl Scholarship when she matriculated at K to study within a science major, and she double majors in English and physics. She said she can see how a writing genre such as poetry helps make her a better scientist.

“When you continue doing a lot of work in one field and you get used to a certain mode of thinking, that’s beneficial in making you an expert in your subject, although you can also restrict your thought patterns that way,” she said. “In poetry, I’m expressing knowledge under a set of conventions that is different, but no less valuable than in science. Engaging with different modes of thinking helps me to see connections across disciplines and approach all situations from a broader point of view.”

The creativity poetry stirs for Park complements what she does with two a cappella groups at K, Premium Orange and A Cappella People of Color (ACAPOC), as well as with Frelon, the campus’ student dance company. It also helps her deal with her own perfectionism.

“Sometimes when I sit down to write, regardless of the assignment, I get hung up on making it perfect,” she said. “Forcing myself to write every day is beneficial in letting a little of that perfectionism go. It helps me write more freely and produce something that I can always go back and edit later.”

Baez Bendorf also offers an intermediate poetry workshop. That class this month is memorizing poems such as Truth Serum and 300 Goats by Naomi Shihab Nye and To Myself by Franz Wright with the goal of reciting them in May.

“We approach it as a kind of ultimate close reading of the work, and then aim to know it by heart, hopefully for a lifetime,” Baez Bendorf said.

National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. It since has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets celebrating poetry, according to the American Academy of Poetry.

The organization drew inspiration for National Poetry Month from Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, and it aims to highlight the legacies and ongoing achievements of American poets, encourage the public to read poems, and increase the number of poetry-themed stories in local and national media. Read more about National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets’ website.

YouTube Math Pioneer, Author to Speak at K

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YouTube Math Pioneer Eugenia Cheng
Eugenia Cheng was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed around 15 million times to date. She will deliver two lectures May 1 at Kalamazoo College.

A YouTube math pioneer, author, pianist and scientist interviewed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and featured in the New York Times, Wired and the Wall Street Journal will deliver two lectures on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, at Kalamazoo College.

Eugenia Cheng, Ph.D., the Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will address “Inclusion and Exclusion in Math” at 4:10 p.m. in Room 207 at Olds Upton Science Hall. This lecture, designed for math majors and faculty, will encourage less divisive conversations to explore why women are underrepresented in math.

“The Art of Logic,” part of the Jennifer Mills Lecture Series, will attempt to find the truth buried beneath sound bites, spin, memes, divisive arguments and “fake news” by teaching attendees to think like a mathematician to decipher what people are really saying. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. in Room 103 at Dewing Hall; it is free and open to the public.

Cheng’s work encompasses research in category theory, undergraduate teaching, authoring mathematics books for a general audience, public speaking, professional development for teachers, mathematical art and music. Cheng was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed around 15 million times to date. Her books, which will be available for purchase after the evening lecture, include:

Cheng earned tenure in pure mathematics at the University of Sheffield in England, where she now is an honorary fellow. She also has taught at Cambridge University, the University of Chicago and the University of Nice. She holds a Ph.D. in pure mathematics from Cambridge. Learn more about her at her website.

Jennifer Mills ’82 earned a degree in math and physics from K. After graduating, she worked a few years as a teacher in the physics laboratory at the General Motors Institute, now Kettering University, before beginning graduate work in physics at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Shortly before her death in 1990, Mills created a fund at K to support public lectures in science and math by women or minority speakers. The lecture series each year brings experts in the natural sciences, math, computer science, history, philosophy or sociology to the College.

Honors Day 2018 Celebrates Student Achievements

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Kalamazoo College Family Weekend served as the backdrop for the Honors Day 2018 convocation. More than 250 students were recognized Friday, Nov. 2, for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Foreign Languages, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences and Physical Education. Recipients of prestigious scholarships were recognized, as were members of national honor societies and students who received special Kalamazoo College awards. Student athletes and teams who won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards also were honored. The students receiving Honors Day awards or recognition are listed below.

5 students and Provost on stage during Honors Day 2018 Convocation
Interim Provost Laura Lowe Furge applauds students receiving awards in the Fine Arts Division during the Honors Day 2018 convocation at Stetson Chapel.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

The Brian Gougeon Prize in Art
Isabel McLaughlin
Angela Pastor

The Margaret Upton Prize in Music
Dylan Beight

Cooper Award
Alysia Homminga
Megan Wilson

Sherwood Prize
Christina Diaz

Theatre Arts First-Year Student Award
Christina Diaz
Ynika Yuag

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION

LeGrand Copley Prize in French
Avani Ashtekar
Jessica Gougeon

Hardy Fuchs Award
Emily Eringaard

Margo Light Award
Grace Stier

Romance Languages Department Prize in Spanish
Sophia Goebel
Samantha Vasquez

Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin
Madeline Ward
Zhi Nee Wee

Provost’s Prize in Classics
Mara Hazen

HUMANITIES DIVISION

O.M. Allen Prize in English
Avani Ashtekar
Ynika Yuag

John B. Wickstrom Prize in History
CJ Martonchik

Department of Philosophy Prize
Johanna Jeung
Rosella LoChirco
Merrick Richardson

L.J. and Eva (“Gibbie”) Hemmes Memorial Prize in Philosophy
Max Fitzell
Daniel Qin

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

Winifred Peake Jones Prize in Biology
Alexa Dulmage

Department of Chemistry Prize
Joseph Keller
Priya Pokorzynski

First-Year Chemistry Award
Lillian Baumann
Camden Gardner

Lemuel F. Smith Award
Sean Walsh

Computer Science Prize
Josephine Hosner
Ian Nostrant

First-Year Mathematics Award
Samuel Ratliff
Minh Dang

Thomas O. Walton Prize in Mathematics
Austin Cramer
Ethan Cuka
Michael Orwin
William Tait
Madeline Ward

Cooper Prize in Physics
Andrew Backer
Adam Decker
Emily Eringaard
Daniel Qin
Eleri Watkins

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Departmental Prize in Anthropology and Sociology
Julia Bachmann
Nyima Coleman
Vivian Enriquez
Marcos Ferguson Morales
Yasamin Shaker

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Economics
Jade Jiang
Zachary Ray

William G. Howard Memorial Prize
Shayaan Dar

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Business
Georgie Andrews
Valentina Cordero

Irene and S. Kyle Morris Prize
Nick Klepser

William G. Howard Memorial Prize in Political Science
Alaq Zghayer

Department of Psychology First-Year Student Prize
Cavan Bonner

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

Division of Physical Education Prize
Alex Dupree
Hannah Wolfe

Maggie Wardle Prize
Sophia Goebel

COLLEGE AWARDS

Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award
Anthony Diep
Malak Ghazal

Henry and Inez Brown Prize
Alex Cadigan
Sarah George
Nicholas Ludka
Amanda Moss

Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award
Sara Lonsberry

Heyl Scholars – Class of 2022
Evelyn Bartley
Eva DeYoung
Thomas Fales
Madeline Guimond
Alina Offerman
Molly Ratliff
Syeda Tooba
Tatianna Tyler

Posse Scholars – Class of 2022
Sonia Arreguin
Nicholas Davis
Nathan Garcia
Zy’ere Hollis
Tytiana Jones
Aaron Martinez
Udochi Okorie
Joshua Pamintuan
Anthony Peraza
Samantha Rodriguez
Fiorina Talaba

National Merit Scholar – Class of 2022
Carter Wade

Voynovich Scholars
Haley Harris
Kathryn Martin

Alpha Lambda Delta – Class of 2019
Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year.

Nicole Bailey
Angel Banuelos
Catherine Carlberg
Justin Christopher-Moody
Nyima Coleman
Karli Crouch
Alexandro Cruz
Sela Damer-Daigle
Shayaan Dar
Adam Decker
Julia Dobry
Talea Fournier
Anna Gambetta
Camden Gardner
Sophia Goebel
Stanton Greenstone
Emily Hamel
Kelly Hansen
Kaylee Henderson
Amelia Hensler
Audrey Honig
Samantha Jacobsen
Madeline Jump
Liza Kahn
Joseph Keller
Hannah Kerns
Lu Liu
Rachel Madar
Natalie Markech
CJ Martonchik
Daniel Mota-Villegas
Kelly Nickelson
Nikoli Nickson
Abigail O’Keefe
Daniel Qin
Sage Ringsmuth
Maelle Rouquet
Kimberly Schmidt
Lily Shearer
Hannah Shiner
Caitlin Tremewan
Carter Vespi
Claire Ward
Maija Weaver
Ehren White

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Performing Arts: Music
Robert Barnard
Irie Browne
Rebecca Chan
Nolan Devine
Daniel Fahle
Grace Hancock
Julia Leet
Thomas Saxton
Lia Schroeder
Matthew Swarthout
Jonathan Townley
Ethan Tuck
Andrew Wright

MICHIGAN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (MIAA) AWARDS

The following Hornet teams earned the 2017-2018 MIAA Team GPA Award. Team members achieved a 3.3 or better grade point average for the entire academic year.

Men’s Baseball
Men’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Men’s Soccer
Men’s Swimming and Diving
Men’s Tennis
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Golf
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Tennis
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

The MIAA each year honors students at member colleges who achieve distinction in the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at minimum a 3.5 grade-point average for the entire school year.

Alexandrea Ambs
Georgie Andrews
Ryan Andrusz
Hunter Angileri
Lauren Arquette
Julia Bachmann
Nicole Bailey
Zoe Barnes
Lillian Baumann
Jacob Bonifacio
Thomas Bryant
Jane Bunch
Alexander Cadigan
Charles Carson
Claire Cebelak
Joshua Claassens
Noah Coplan
Chase Coselman
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Anders Finholt
Matthew Flotermersch
Benjamin Forhan
Maria Franco
Alex Fultz
Andre Gard
Sarah George
Jacob Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Beau Godkin
Sophia Goebel
Connor Grant
Keenan Grant
Preston Grossling
Rebekah Halley
Griffin Hamel
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Matthew Howrey
Briana Huisken
Shannon Irvine
Samantha Jacobsen
Tim Jeske
Benjamin Johanski
Katherine Johnson
Lisa Johnston
Jackson Jones
Madeline Jump
Claire Kalina
Grace Karrip
Maria Katrantzi
Donald Kearns
Sai Klein
Emily Kozal
Matthew Krinock
Rosella LoChirco
Molly Logsdon
Nicholas Ludka
Rachel Madar
Cydney Martell
Eliza McCall
Courtney McGinnis
Clayton Meldrum
Tytus Metzler
Nathan Micallef
Madison Moote
Amanda Moss
Elizabeth Munoz
Kelly Nickelson
Nikoli Nickson
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Ian Nostrant
Abigail O’Keefe
Ryan Orr
Michael Orwin
Alexandria Oswalt
James Paprocki
Cayla Patterson
Caleb Patton
Zachary Prystash
Erika Pueblo
Daniel Qin
Erin Radermacher
Zachary Ray
Joshua Reuter
Julia Riddle
Scott Roberts
Anna Roodbergen
Justin Roop
Peter Rossi
Matthew Ryder
Claire Schertzing
Nicholas Schneider
Eleanor Schodowski
Justin Seablom
Sharif Shaker
Reagan Shapton
Danielle Simon
Jordan Skidmore
Adam Snider
Grant Stille
Shelby Suseland
Jack Tagget
Liam Tait
Kathryn Thamann
Alayna Tomlinson
Madison Vallan
David Vanderkloot
Zachary VanFaussien
Travis Veenhuis
Maija Weaver
Alex White
Jessica Wile
Jordan Wiley
Clayton Wilkey
Hannah Wolfe
Madeline Woods

Grant Empowers Alzheimer’s Research at K

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Kalamazoo College Professor of Biology Blaine Moore and Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences Jim Langeland ’86 have secured a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant worth more than $440,000 over three years to help K students research the origin and evolution of key proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

The research will examine the evolutionary origins of two interacting protein molecules, the beta-secretase enzyme (BACE1) and the amyloid beta (A-beta) sequence within the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). The findings will further the general understanding of key Alzheimer’s proteins, specifically how and when they evolved their pathogenic interaction.

Student Prepares for Alzheimer's Research
Nkatha Mwenda ’19, a biology major from Grand Rapids, Michigan, performs research in Professor of Biology Blaine Moore’s lab. Moore and Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences Jim Langeland have secured a National Science Foundation grant worth more than $440,000 that will empower students to perform Alzheimer’s research regarding the degenerative brain disease’s key proteins.

Langeland said such work will have no direct therapeutic application and won’t offer a specific cure for the degenerative brain disease. It could, however, lead to future research toward such outcomes. The immediate impact of the grant is the recruitment of underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students to work on the project.

Bright and motivated K students generally are recruited by word of mouth for such projects, which can inspire their senior individualized projects (SIPs). Such a setup provides students with hands-on experience and independent scholarship, which are two of the four key tenets to the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College’s distinctive approach to an education in the liberal arts and sciences.

The grant, worth a total of $444,941, also represents a rare opportunity for students to participate in research with, and benefit from, two professors with varied expertise. Langeland works with molecular genetics, developmental biology and evolution, and Moore is a neurobiologist who examines neurodegeneration and cell death in particular diseases.

Moore said, “This grant is unique in its interdisciplinary approach to a neurodegenerative disorder. Most scientists in the Alzheimer’s field are focused on molecular mechanisms, not evolutionary context. It’s only at a liberal arts college that you can you find professors with such disparate backgrounds working together with students on a project like this. It’s a perfect confluence of skillsets.”

Both professors said the grant represents the culmination of about 10 years of partnering to secure such funds and opportunities for students, providing a satisfaction unsurpassed in their careers. The fact that the two are friends as well as colleagues makes this research particularly satisfying. It also continues a notable year for K’s Biology Department, which has been involved with:

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science and advance national health, prosperity and welfare, making such research and developing future scientists a priority. For more information on NSF, visit its website.

Grant to Foster Inclusive Science, Math Programs

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Kalamazoo College has been awarded a $1 million, five-year grant to participate in a nationwide quest to find ways to better serve students from demographic groups that are underrepresented in science and mathematics. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced that K will be one of 33 colleges chosen for the Inclusive Excellence initiative. Efforts under the initiative will focus on closing what biology professor Jim Langeland ’86, who will lead the program, calls the “persistence gap.”

Two Students in Science lab for Inclusive Science and Math story
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced that Kalamazoo College will be one of 33 colleges chosen for the Inclusive Excellence initiative.

K is attracting talented students from a variety of backgrounds who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, including students of color, first-generation college students and students from low-income families. Those students enroll in roughly proportionate numbers in introductory science and math courses. In the long run, however, they are more likely than students from more privileged circumstances not to continue in those fields, said Langeland,  Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences.

“We would like our senior major classes in the science field to look like our incoming classes in terms of demographics,” he said.

Associate Provost Laura Lowe Furge, Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry, said K will use the HHMI grant to take a three-fold approach:

  • Developing culturally competent faculty and staff who are better able to connect with the varied backgrounds and value systems of students.
  • Revising introductory science and math curriculum to integrate career guidance, emphasize shared concepts among disciplines and enhance academic support centers.
  • Revising hiring, tenure and promotion policies to reward cultural competency and inclusive practices.

Langeland said the first approach of the initiative will be addressed by expanding the College’s existing training in recognizing systemic and often unconscious racism and bias.

“We’ve been diversifying our student body and the idea is that there are institutional barriers to access and we’re trying to eliminate those,” he said.

The second part of the initiative will seek to provide students taking entry-level science and math courses with clearer entry points to those disciplines and guidance to potential careers, he said.

“One of the things we have identified is that we think there are a lot of aspects of our curriculum that are hidden—things that we assume students know and can navigate without being explicit about them,” he said.

Some students come to K steeped in that knowledge, gained from family members or teachers at high-achieving schools, Langeland said; others need a “roadmap” to follow because the route is unfamiliar.

Bringing accomplished alumni into classrooms is another way to help students understand the possibilities for careers in science and math, he said.

In the third approach, the Kalamazoo College Provost’s Office will work with faculty on ways to reward professors for developing skills that help ensure diversity and student success, Langeland said.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said the HHMI grant recognizes K’s existing commitment to inclusiveness and will build momentum for efforts to achieve that goal.

“Talent comes in many forms, and our mission is to recognize and nurture it in the most effective ways,” he said. “We are proud to have the most diverse student body ever at Kalamazoo College, and we firmly believe that with the help of our dedicated faculty and staff, we can ensure that our liberal arts curriculum and our historic strength in sciences and mathematics will provide access to those professions for all students.”

Events Offer Students Opportunities in the Sciences

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Two Kalamazoo College events coming soon will give students new experiences and learning opportunities in the sciences.

First, Brendan Bohannan – a professor of environmental studies and biology at the University of Oregon – will present a keynote address titled “Host-Microbe Systems: a Rediscovered Frontier in the Life Sciences” in the annual Diebold Symposium from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday at 226 Dow Science Center.

Sciences JA Scott Kelso
J.A. Scott Kelso will provide the Tourtellotte Lecture at 5:30 p.m. May 7 in 103 Dewing Hall.

The Diebold Symposium offers senior biology majors a chance to present their Senior Individualized Projects (SIP), regardless of their SIP discipline. The event is dedicated to the memory of Frances “Dieb” Diebold, who was a member of the Kalamazoo College Biology Department for 44 years.

Bohannon focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of microbial biodiversity.  He began his research career studying microbes in non-host environments such as soil, water, air and built environments. However, over the past 12 years, his group has focused more on the microbiomes of humans and other animals including fish, birds and primates.

Then, the Kalamazoo College Physics Department will welcome J.A. Scott Kelso, of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University and the Intelligent Systems Research Centre at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, for the Tourtellotte Lecture at 5:30 p.m. May 7 in 103 Dewing Hall.

The lecture will explain some fundamental governing laws behind the behavior of complex physical, biological and social systems.

For most of his scientific career, Kelso has studied human beings and human brains, individually and together, and how they coordinate their behavior from cells to cognition to social settings.

Since the late 1970s, his approach has been grounded in the concepts, methods and tools of self-organizing dynamical systems tailored to living things, a theoretical and empirical framework called Coordination Dynamics.

From 1978 to 1985 Kelso was the senior research scientist at Yale University’s Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut. Since then, he has held the Glenwood and Martha Creech Eminent Scholar Chair in Science at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, Florida, where he founded The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences.

Kelso has held visiting appointments in Moscow, Stuttgart, Lyons and Marseille, and is an emeritus professor of computational neuroscience at Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

K Senior Wins Prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowship

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It’s a high achievement to receive a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Just 16 percent of those who submitted proposals this year were chosen for the prestigious program.

National Science Foundation Fellowship Winner Megan Hoinville works with professors
Megan Hoinville ’18 (right), discusses her research with Physics Professor Tom Askew and Biology Professor Amanda Wollenberg. The two have mentored Hoinville, a double major who has received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to continue her studies at the University of Chicago.

Megan Hoinville ’18 is part of an even more exclusive group. Though Kalamazoo College alumni are regular recipients of the fellowship, she is the first K student to receive one as an undergraduate since 1997.

Her proposal focused on how the conformational flexibility of proteins can be used in drug-discovery efforts for proteins that are implicated in cancer.

The fellowship provides a three-year stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 allowance for tuition and fees. The NSF says the fellowship, awarded for almost 60 years, is the oldest of its kind and that its reputation “follows recipients and often helps them become lifelong leaders” who “contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.” Among past recipients: former U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and “Freakonomics” co-author Steven Levitt.

After her graduation in June, Hoinville will enter the biophysical sciences Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. She says she plans on using biophysical techniques to study topics in immunology, and wants to help pioneer more effective treatments for autoimmune diseases.

In the long term, she hopes to become a research scientist.

“I have had wonderful physics and biology professors who were incredibly supportive and fostered my love of science,” she says.

Although her fellowship proposal was based on research she conducted at the University of Michigan for her K Senior Individualized Project, she started doing research as a first-year student under Kalamazoo College Biology Professor Amanda Wollenberg, and since has been a co-author on two peer-reviewed publications.

She says she would not have gotten such extensive research experiences at many other colleges, and that played a large part in her decision to attend K.

“The size of Kalamazoo College lets you have this kind of opportunity,” she says. “You get to really know your professors, and have a relationship with them.”

Another K advantage was that she could double-major in biology and physics, a combination that isn’t allowed at many schools because of the intense demands both place on a student. Physics Professor Tom Askew pushed her to apply for the fellowship and write the required proposal.

Both Askew and Wollenberg say Hoinville’s interdisciplinary background was likely irresistible for the NSF. Apparently, it had big appeal for graduate schools, as well. The University of Chicago, Cornell University and University of Michigan “were fighting over her,” Askew says.

Wollenberg says she has high expectations for Hoinville in graduate school, and is sure they will be fulfilled.

“She’s going to contribute great things to whatever field she chooses to pursue,” she says.

The emphasis that Kalamazoo College places on individual scholarship and scientific research has not only been instrumental in Hoinville’s academic career, but also in that of her uncle, Jay Hoinville ’86, who received a postdoctoral National Science Foundation fellowship to pursue studies in magnetic recording. He now is an entrepreneur and works at Western Michigan University.

Astronomers Honor K Student for Her Research

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An organization of professional astronomers is honoring Kalamazoo College senior Hayley Beltz for her Senior Individualized Project and summer research, which Beltz presented to the group’s members.

Hayley Beltz astronomers
Hayley Beltz was one of five undergraduates from across the country to earn a Chambliss medal from the American Astronomical Society, a group of professional astronomers.
Hayley Beltz Presents at Astronomers Meeting
The American Astronomical Society, a professional astronomers group, is honoring Kalamazoo College senior Hayley Beltz for her research in quasar spectroscopy.

The Astronomy Achievement Student Awards, which were bestowed in January through the American Astronomical Society (AAS), recognize exemplary student presentations offered at its organizational meetings. Beltz’s research involved quasar spectroscopy, meaning she analyzed light that is billions of years old to find and measure the large concentrations of hydrogen that develop as stars form.

The highest AAS honorees, including Beltz – a double major in physics and math from St. Joseph, Michigan – are given a Chambliss medal. Beltz was one of five undergraduate medal winners, who included students from the University of Colorado, the University of Louisville, California State Polytechnic University and Rollins College.

Beltz said she is very excited about the award and it feels validating to win it considering she wants to attend graduate school in astronomy after graduating from K.

The AAS, established in 1899 and based in Washington, D.C., has about 7,000 members including physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers and other researchers from the broad spectrum of astronomy-related fields. Its mission is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe.