http://www.lafayette.edu RSS Feed For Lafayette Academics When talking about London, Suzanne Westfall, professor and head of English, cites Samuel Johnsons famous line: He who is tired of London is tired of life. She will lead a new semester-abroad program in fall 2010 that will give students ample exposure to the vibrant United Kingdom capital. Students will live and study at Goldsmiths College of University of London. They will take a variety of liberal arts classes including Westfalls Alternative Londons course focusing on the literature, culture, and arts of multicultural London and its marginalized populations. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14370 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14370 Neuroscience major Lauren Howland 11 (Vestal, N.Y.) is the executive chair of Lafayette Activities Forum, an intern for the Lafayette Leadership Education Committee, and involved in a number of other campus organizations. She believes the organizational, communication, and teamwork skills she has developed through these leadership roles are helping her in the classroom and will help her in her future career. "My experiences with student organizations have helped me refine my leadership skills and learn how to interact in the professional world," she says. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14363 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14363 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14364 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14364 Olga Anna Duhl, professor of foreign languages and literatures, has edited Amour, sexualit et mdecine aux XVe et XVIe sicles (Love, Sexuality, and Medicine in the 15th and 16th Century). Published by Editions Universitaires de Dijon, France, the book contains the proceedings from an international conference that Duhl organized at University of Bourgogne in 2006. For the conference, Love and Medicine in the Renaissance, Duhl brought together scholars specializing in numerous academic disciplines from several countries. The conference was inspired by her involvement with an international team of scholars at the University of Bourgogne Research Center, Interactions Culturelles Europennes (European Cultural Interactions). http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14356 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14356 The grass is always greener...on the roof of Acopian Engineering Center. A 588 square-foot section of the building's roof has been planted with a specialized lawn that will bring environmental benefits to the building and educational opportunities to students. Civil engineering major Daniella Colon '10 (Bronx, N.Y.) and students in LEAP (Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection) and SEES (Society of Environmental Engineers and Scientists) researched and helped design the roof. It is planted with sedum plants, hearty native grass species that store water in their leaves, allowing the vegetated roof to thrive with minimal maintenance. The plants are expected to flourish for several years. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14345 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14345 Gone are the days when students completed weekly labs with predetermined outcomes designed to illustrate a specific concept. Instead, a new format in General Biology 101 allows students to have more autonomy in open-ended, interdisciplinary lab modules. This is crucial in our first semester biology courses since these types of experiments form the basis of long-term research projects, says Laurie Caslake, associate professor and head of biology. We hope that exposing students to this type of research will stimulate them to learn and improve their technical and scientific reasoning skills, as well as interest them in continuing in biology and, ultimately, performing independent research or an honors thesis in biology. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14346 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14346 ASTM International has awarded Scott Hummel, associate professor and head of mechanical engineering, with the Frank C. Brautigam Award for outstanding and effective work as a task group chairman in the development of a new ASTM standard in the area of galling (metal on metal) wear. This establishes Hummel as one of the worlds leading experts in this field. During the 10 years that Hummel conducted the standard research, Lafayette students, including Ryan Waite '04, Ben Partlow '03, and Alex Herr '00, contributed to the project and were co-authors on papers published by Hummel. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14339 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14339 When WWII in HD begins airing Nov. 15, nine Lafayette students will know they had a hand in one of the History Channels most ambitious projects to date. They served as interns with Lou Reda Productions of Easton. Donald L. Miller, John Henry MacCracken Professor of History, was writer and chief historical consultant for the full-color, high definition series narrated by Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise. As head of the history department internship program, Miller helped the students secure the internships with the documentary filmmaking firm. I was provided the opportunity to witness exactly what goes into the formation and production of a documentary and how all of these components work together to create the finished project, says Emily Caracandas 10. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14328 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14328 This spring, James Ferri, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, will lead a new semester-abroad program in Spain. Twenty-five students, consisting mostly of second-semester engineering sophomores, will participate study at Saint Louis Universitys Madrid campus. The Madrid program will complement Lafayettes faculty-led program at Jacobs University Bremen in Germany, where students are able to study engineering and German language and culture. This spring, Anne Raich, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will serve as faculty host. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14321 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14321 Stephanie Fosbenner 10 (Perkasie, Pa.) and Max Minckler 10 (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) have been selected as finalists in the 2010 Marshall Scholarship competition.  Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Up to 40 scholars are selected each year to study at the graduate level at a U.K. institution in any field of study. Each scholarship is held for two years. Fosbenner and Minckler are both scheduled to be interviewed by a regional Marshall selection panel this month. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14313 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14313 Mechanical engineering major Tiffany Patafio 10 (Staten Island, N.Y.) got a taste of life in the finance industry during a summer internship with Daniel Kilmurray 75 at UBS Financial Services in New York City. "This opportunity not only exposed me to the world of finance, it also helped me to network and connect with people in all different fields. I worked with so many wonderful people who had so much advice to offer about possible career paths and how to approach my upcoming job search. I learned so many valuable things about the finance world and gained so many beneficial contacts in all industries, that I truly feel this internship will help to shape my career and, consequently, the rest of my life," she says. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14297 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14297 Soon students taking Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy and Introduction to Policy Studies will have a new software program at their disposal called Urban Development Tools (UDT). The twist is that fellow students studying computer science are creating the program. Miguel Haruki Yamaguchi 11 (Akashi, Japan) and Rhodes Baker 10 (Columbus, Ohio) developed the UDT concept and a basic prototype this past summer as EXCEL Scholars under the guidance of Chun Wai Liew, associate professor and head of computer science. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14289 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14289 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14281 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14281 A new team-taught course will provide students with a look at Russian and Eastern European art, government, history, literature, music, and religion, both in and out of the classroom. The interdisciplinary class, which includes a free trip to Russia, will allow students to experience the country firsthand. History, Art, and Culture of Russia and Eastern Europe, taught by Joshua Sanborn, associate professor of history, andIda Sinkevic, associate professor of art, will allow students to learn from experts in two different disciplines in the same classroom. http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14282 http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14282