Professor of Physics David Hall ’91, working with a team of recent physics graduates, has published a paper about his recent discovery of a three-dimensional skyrmion in an experiment with unusual electromagnetic-like properties.
Though trained as an atomic physicist, Hall was drawn to topology, a branch of mathematics that focuses on the continuous deformation of shapes. “Topology is that thing that lets you distinguish shapes from one another, and it involves taking a shape and possibly deforming it in some way,” he said.
The tendency for residential counselors (RCs) to underspend their budgets, coupled with a lack of clear communication to RCs on Residential Life policies, have raised concerns among some RCs about the Office of Residential Life’s lack of transparency.
On-campus student residents are charged a fee — $59 in Fall 2017 and $60 in Spring 2018 — part of their semester bills, which is intended for residential programming and community activities such as Tea Times. This fee is the basis of each RC’s budget for student programming within the dormitories.
Amherst College’s life sciences departments, after receiving a substantial research grant, plan to select students for participation in an independent research program.
The college received the grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which honors the legacy of the late Dr. Arnold Beckman, a chemist and philanthropist.
12 other colleges around the nation, including Barnard College, Boston College, the College of William and Mary and Texas A&M University, were also selected to receive a portion of the $1.5 million grant.
Days after the announcement of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, introduced by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Nov. 2, the college publicized its concerns with various elements of the bill, including a proposed excise tax on some colleges’ endowments.
President Biddy Martin’s email, sent to the Amherst community on Nov. 7 and published online, outlined the elements of the bill that she said may threaten the college’s ability to fully support its mission and students.
The student-led “Being Human in STEM” (HSTEM) program, which was developed to promote discussion and research on inclusiveness as well as the role of personal identities and diversity within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, will offer a course for students in Spring 2018.
The college held an event called “Decolonization in Comparative Context,” which took place in in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry on Oct. 27 and 28 and featured a variety of panels with guest speakers.
Panel participants attempted to define decolonization and discuss “its origins and its connection to the histories and memories of a given geographical space,” as well as the “legacies [that] decolonial thinking pass[es] on to contemporary thought,” according to the event’s official description.
Direct Action Coordinating Committee (DACC), a student-run group that aims to promote student rights and social justice on campus, hosted a three-day event called Climate Camp on Oct. 11-13. The event, intended to raise campus-wide awareness and support for divestment of the college’s endowment from fossil fuels and indirect investments in private prisons, took place as a camp-out on the First-Year Quad.
