Major: Biology
Thesis Advisor: Caroline Goutte
Q: What is your thesis about?
At 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, a rumor began to spread amongst the student body that there was a gunman on campus. Mass texts and Facebook statuses propelled the rapid spread of the story, until Amherst College Police issued a campus-wide email at 9:45 p.m. that the incident had been resolved and there was no threat to students. According to the police report, a student had jumped up during a film screening in Pruyne Lecture Hall in Fayerweather, startling his classmates and prompting the panicked calls to campus police.
With all construction comes destruction, and this is exactly what worries members of the Amherst community about the upcoming Pratt Field renovations.
Scheduled to start in October, the Pratt Field project “reconfigures and reorients the track and football field such that the field is moved off its current axis and the bleachers are located outside of the track,” said Jim Brassord, Director of Facilities and Associate Treasurer for Campus Services.
On August 28, some Amherst students receive da string of emails from the Office of Residential Life. The messages informed them that Moore, one of the several dormitories on campus that provide free storage for students, had suffered a steam leak in the basement sometime in the summer. In the time between the leak and the discovery of the damage, high moisture levels combined with humidity caused the entire storage area and all boxes present to be contaminated with mold.
Major: Physics
Thesis Advisor: David Hanneke
Q: What is your thesis topic?
A: I’m trying to triple the frequency of a laser beam using an affordable apparatus. I have to start by calculating different quantities, like the power output that I could get out of my design, so that I can optimize it and decide what kinds of mirrors and equipment to buy.
Q: For us non-physics majors, what is a laser beam?
The Amherst College Farm, initiated to be an educational resource as well as to provide fresh, organic, local produce for Valentine Dining Hall, is currently under development. On Monday, the College finished accepting applications for an experienced farmer to run the 4.5-acre operation, said Alex Propp ’13, one of the students involved in bringing the idea of a farm to fruition. By the end of the semester, the College will have chosen a farmer, and then by the spring they will be growing and harvesting vegetables.
For over a hundred years the only known image of Emily Dickinson has been a daguerreotype taken of the famously reclusive poet when she was just 16, long before she had penned any of her famous works. Now, a new image has come to light, and it may soon be able to fill in the gaps in Dickinson’s mysterious persona.
