We’re in Carnegie Science Hall, peering into a vintage display case of stuffed birds.

The nameplate says it’s the Waterman Collection. That would be Willard H. Waterman of Auburn, an avid birder of the early 20th century and a longtime director of the local , which gave the collection to �ֲ���ý many years ago.

The Waterman Collection is in Carnegie Science Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The bird club is named for legendary �ֲ���ý professor Johnny Stanton (1834–1918), a polymath who taught ornithology, among other topics, and had a tradition of taking students on

Stanton assembled his own prodigious collection of stuffed birds, and in the photograph below he poses with his birds in Carnegie Science Hall shortly before his 1918 death.

Jonathan Stanton poses with his bird collection in Carnegie Science Hall in this circa 1918 photograph. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

Most of Stanton’s collection went from �ֲ���ý to the Maine State Museum around 1980 but a few specimens stayed behind, and they share the Carnegie display case along with Waterman’s birds.

The style of the tag on this common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula europoea, indicates that it was part of Stanton’s collection.

This preserved common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula europoea, was part of Stanton’s collection. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Though preserved birds are used in �ֲ���ý classrooms and research today, these older birds aren’t — arsenic was likely used to preserve them.

And while Stanton collected a lot of specimens from around the world (�ֲ���ý publications of his era say he netted the kestrel in his collection while tramping about the ruins of the Parthenon), his collection never was particularly useful to later researchers. Besides the poison problem, the tags on his specimens all lack dates and locations.

The tag on this Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica, is of a different and, perhaps, better style, telling that the bird was taken on July 10, 1949, on Herring Island, famous for its puffins, off Labrador.

Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

�ֲ���ý does maintain a varied collection of bird specimens that are safe for teaching and research, including this snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus

Its tag says that the bird was found dead in 1991 in Rangeley, Maine, and also gives the bird’s weight (1,110 grams) and says that starvation was the cause of death.

Snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

As a healthy snowy owl weighs between 1,400 and 3,000 grams, explains �ֲ���ý Professor of Biology Don Dearborn, finding a bird weighing just 1,100 grams would be a clue that starvation did it in.

Other clues would be a “lack of subcutaneous fat and, more extreme, reduced size of major muscles due to catabolism, when an organism meets its metabolic needs by breaking down its own muscle.”

Catabolism can happen when an animal is badly injured and unable to obtain food.

“A broken wing would do that,” Dearborn suggests. “If the bird could get to a safe perch, it would then slowly starve. A rotten way to go.”

Here’s a red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, native to North and Central America. Like the osprey, red-winged blackbirds can be seen around Lake Andrews, where they nest in the cattails.

Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In his research, Dearborn and colleagues have used museum specimens to make a discovery about red-wing blackbird feather colors.

They found low levels of the hormone corticosterone in their feathers correlates with brighter red epaulets.

Since bright epaulets attract females, and since birds release corticosterone when they are stressed, it might follow that a stressed male with less-bright epaulets will have trouble finding a mate — which is sad for the male but, under Darwinian thinking, the way it goes.

Here are a few more images of birds in the Woodman display case:

Eastern rosella, Platycercus eximius, native to Australia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Ending our avian meet-and-greet is this resplendent quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno, found from southern Mexico to western Panama. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Spruce grouse, Falcipennis canadensis, native to North America. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Common snipe, Capella gallinago, native to northern Europe and northern Asia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, a species that can be found on all continents except Antarctica. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Carla Essenberg, a pollination ecologist, joined the �ֲ���ý biology faculty as assistant professor in August 2015. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

When you see a bee stuffing its pollen baskets in a field of flowers, economics may not be the first science that comes to mind. But it’s more relevant than you might think.

For bees and other insect pollinators, “foraging behavior is a lot like economics,” says Carla Essenberg, a pollination ecologist who joined �ֲ���ý as assistant professor of biology in August. “We think about the costs and benefits of different things, and how the animal can maximize the benefits it gets.”

Essenberg studies how insect pollination behavior affects plants — and, perhaps more surprising, how plants interact through their pollinators, both within a plant species and between species.

“If two plant species share pollinators, they can help each other,” she says. For instance, “sometimes having another plant species growing nearby can increase the number of pollinators in the area, so that a plant might get more visitors.”

Meet other tenure-track faculty members new to �ֲ���ý in fall 2015:

• Henry Boateng, mathematics
• Leshui He, economics
• Alison Melnick, religious studies

“But they can also harm each other,” Essenberg adds. A species very attractive to pollinators might monopolize them, to the detriment of neighboring species. Or insects may carry pollen between species, wasting it for reproduction, if not bee nourishment. Some species’ pollen can even poison the stigmas of other species.

Essenberg doesn’t focus on the threats to the honeybee that are so prominent in the news, but her work is certainly related. “Most plant species use animal pollinators, at least to some extent, to achieve sexual reproduction,” she says (as opposed to asexual propagation, such as forming runners).

“Many of our favorite foods rely on animal pollinators to get decent yields — coffee, chocolate, fruits and nuts, and so on.” The essential importance of pollination, she says, is “a big part of why I ended up studying this area.”

More broadly, Essenberg wants to raise awareness of so-called ecosystem services, of which pollination and consequent food production are one example. “We all need to be aware of the degree to which our standard of living relies on natural ecosystems,” she says, and in turn, “how our way of living affects whether those systems will continue to support us.”

“I realized kind of late that it was important for me that my work mattered beyond my own life and satisfaction,” Essenberg explains. “It needed to benefit other folks.

Pollen foraging behavior is a lot like economics.

“That’s what got me into ecology. I saw this as a way my research could improve the ability of people to manage land, and get things we need from the natural environment with the fewest possible long-term impacts.”

How do you study pollinators? In her lab, Essenberg keeps bumblebee colonies that she exposes to artificial flowers. (The bees can be ordered from green-agriculture companies like Koppert Biological Systems and Biobest.) “You can manipulate the bees’ sensory cues, how the flowers are distributed, and the rewards from pollination. And so you see how the bees respond.”

There’s also fieldwork, of course — pollinating wildflowers, collecting stigmas, observing pollinator behavior and so on. It’s something that “you do on warm, sunny days,” she says. “Going out and looking at wildflowers — it doesn’t get much better than that. And I’ve always enjoyed looking at insects, especially bees.”

Essenberg, who encourages her students to take the lead in research she does with them, says that the value of studying science transcends specific lessons or benefits that research produces.

The basis of science, she says, “is that you don’t just assume that what somebody’s told you is right.” The scientific method, she explains, is an algorithm for creating knowledge. “That’s very powerful for anybody.”

Essenberg and her husband, Tim Stott, a therapist, live near campus. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, dancing and making music: a devotee of Renaissance music, she plays folk harp and viola da gamba, and has dabbled with such early wind instruments as recorder and crumhorn.

Essenberg comes to �ֲ���ý from the University of Arizona, where she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Insect Science. Her undergraduate degree, from St. Olaf College, is in philosophy and music. She received a doctorate in evolution, ecology and organismal biology from the University of California, Riverside.

Henry Boateng joined the �ֲ���ý faculty in August 2015 as an assistant professor of mathematics. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

If you wanted a computer model that would precisely simulate the chemical behavior of a substance — say, coffee — you could have it.

But a model that performed a discrete calculation for every molecular change in even a microscopic amount of coffee would take serious computing power, explains Henry Boateng, who joined �ֲ���ý’ mathematics faculty in August as an assistant professor.

And simulating the chemical activity in a whole cup of joe would be out of the question. “This is on the order of 10²³ atoms,” says Boateng, pointing to a cup of coffee during a conversation in the Den. “And we can’t simulate that on a computer,” at least not without streamlining the process somehow.

But that streamlining is just what Boateng does.

A computational scientist, he designs algorithms, or sequences of computer operations, that dramatically speed up computer simulations and enable them to model large systems. With a doctorate in applied and interdisciplinary mathematics (University of Michigan, 2010), Boateng works on simulations in chemical engineering and materials science.

Meet other tenure-track faculty members new to �ֲ���ý in fall 2015:

• Carla Essenberg, biology
• Leshui He, economics
• Alison Melnick, religious studies

In his current research, he’s seeking more precise ways to model electrical charges at the atomic level. “If you describe the charge better, then our simulations will be more accurate,” he says.

His research has also encompassed models for the process of growing germanium crystals on a substrate of silicon — materials used in all manner of high technology, from LED lights to computer chips to photovoltaic cells.

“I’m not at the forefront of the product design,” Boateng says. “That’s the engineers and material scientists.” Instead, his interest lies in how math can be used to facilitate research in chemistry and physics.

His work often involves what’s called a Monte Carlo simulation — which, to drastically oversimplify, is a system for using randomly generated numbers to test the assumptions in a computer model. (The inventor of the Monte Carlo method, mathematician Slanislaw Ulam, named the process in honor of his uncle, who would borrow money from relatives to gamble at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco.)

“�ֲ���ý has students you can learn from, who will push you.”

As a rough example of Monte Carlo: What if you need to know the area of a circle, but you only know how to calculate the area of a square? Boateng draws a circle inside a square, and then adds a bunch of dots to the diagram.

If you compare the number of the dots inside the circle to the number outside it, you can then run that information through some simple calculations to estimate the area of the circle.

“You have to do it several times to get it perfect,” Boateng says. “But this is the simple idea, and it’s just random numbers.”

�ֲ���ý, says Boateng, “is exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a liberal arts place where there’s a focus on students, teaching, and research, and where there’s a good balance.”

He adds, “I like that �ֲ���ý has good students, students you can engage with and have an impact on — and also students you can learn from, who will push you. This is important to me.”

He is married to Francesca Kaglar-Boateng and they have a son, Aiden. In his spare time, in addition to reading and film, “I follow all sports,” Boateng says. “I only play soccer and some tennis, but I follow most sports except for maybe NASCAR — but even NASCAR, I can talk to someone about it.

“I’m looking forward to �ֲ���ý soccer games.”

Boateng, a native of Ghana, came to the United States to attend the Mississippi University for Women (co-ed since 1982), where he earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and mathematics. He received a master’s degree in physics from the University of Michigan.

Prior to �ֲ���ý, he served as a computational scientist at the STFC Daresbury Lab, Daresbury, Warrington, in the UK; and taught at the University of Akron, in Ohio.

Here’s what it is like to spend the summer as a funded research assistant in a �ֲ���ý geology lab that, among many other steps, melts chemical mixes in an oven at temperatures up to 1750 degrees Celsius, or 3182 degrees Fahrenheit.

With the drill press in the background that she uses to take cores from slabs of glass, Paige Guevarra ’18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., is shown in Genevieve Robert’s geology lab. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Name: Paige Guevarra ’18

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Major: Undecided, leaning toward the natural sciences

Summer funding: Science Fellows Program Faculty-Student Grant, part of a �ֲ���ý program giving first-year students a solid introduction to STEM research.

1. Tell us more about your research project.

It’s titled “Synthesis of Mixed-alkali Aluminosilicate Glasses,” and it’s designed to determine how changes in chemical composition affect the heat capacity and viscosity, or resistance to flowing, of certain types of glass.

I’m assisting Rebecca Smith [a rising senior from South Freeport, Maine] with her thesis research and Genevieve Robert [Smith’s adviser, assistant professor of geology, and an authority on factors affecting how molten rock flows].

We’re synthesizing and preparing test samples of glasses with different chemical compositions. And we’re testing the viscosity, density, heat capacity of each sample.

We’re looking to see more clearly the effect that the ratios of sodium, potassium, and silica have on viscosity, and therefore on the properties of magma within the Earth.

2. What are some of the overarching lessons you’ve taken away from this experience?

In the lab, when we’re not actively doing something with our hands, there’s a lot of free time, which I use for reading geology literature about silicate glasses and melts.

“It’s on me to use my time wisely and be productive.”

I realized this is a great chance to learn more about the experiments we are conducting, and that I should take advantage of this opportunity that I wouldn’t have had if not for the Science Fellows program.

3. How is this different from coursework?

I don’t have assignments due, and Genevieve isn’t saying, “Hey, read this, do this.” It’s on me to use my time wisely and be productive. What I’ll be able to take away from this experience will reflect the effort I put into being a part of the lab. This knowledge is giving me more motivation and incentive to engage myself in my work, which I hope will carry on through the rest of my years at �ֲ���ý and in life.

Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Assistant Professor of Geology Genevieve Robert. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., pours an experimental glass mixture onto a copper sheet to solidify. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

With the drill press that she uses to take cores from slabs of glass in the background, Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., is shown in Genevieve Robert's geology lab. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

The lab work has given relevance to things that I learned throughout high school about the whole scientific process — having a hypothesis, a purpose, making a clear procedure and documenting everything.

People always laugh, “Do we really have to write everything down?” But you do. When I have to write about this at the end of the summer, or when Rebecca is writing her thesis a year after the first experiments were conducted, we do need to know everything that was done.

4. Genevieve and Becky Smith are serving as mentors to you. How is that going?

Becky is a really good geology mentor, considering that I had very little knowledge of it and she was in the same place not too many years ago. I appreciate her presence as both an older student and friend who is able to offer guidance not only in lab, but also in classes and �ֲ���ý life in general.

Genevieve has guided me through a lot of what we’re doing and explained concepts in a way that I could understand without extensive background knowledge.

Working with them has also shown me where I could potentially go. In a year at �ֲ���ý, Genevieve has created a lab and found students to work in it, and maybe that will be the path I’ll pursue one day.

5. Why would you recommend someone do research over the summer?

It’s your school, and the relationships you build with professors or other students over the summer — whether it’s with people in your lab or in another lab, or other students here in the summer — could really be beneficial.

I’ve been in contact with other student science researchers on campus, but I wasn’t aware how many students on campus are doing things besides science research, such as economics research, working in our art museum, or working in the Lewiston and Auburn communities.

Assistant Professor of Physics Travis Gould (center) works with Armando Morales Urrutia ’16 (left) of Fraijanes, Guatemala and Daniel Paseltiner ’16 of Devon, Pa., during the Short Term course “Microcontroller Laboratory.” (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Gould’s is the latest significant grant awarded to �ֲ���ý faculty who are utilizing powerful microscopes in the fields of biology, neuroscience, nanotechnology and photophysics.

Tom Wenzel, Dana Professor of Chemistry, poses with three students whom he recently brought to the 27th International Chirality Conference in Boston, which he chaired. Shown from left are biochemistry major Anna Berenson ’16 of Topsfield, Mass.; Wenzel; neuroscience major Tayla Duarte ’17 of Dorchester, Mass.; and Caroline Holme ’16 of Winnetka, Ill., also a biochemistry major. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

If you’re listing ways that �ֲ���ý is distinctive, here’s another.

�ֲ���ý was the only undergraduate educational institution to take part in a recent international conference dedicated to research in an intriguing branch of chemistry.

Tom Wenzel, Dana Professor of Chemistry at �ֲ���ý, chaired the 27th edition of the International Symposium on Chiral Discrimination, aka Chirality 2015, in Boston June 28–July 1. The event attracted some 250 scientists representing 24 countries.

“It’s highly unusual for a science faculty member from an undergraduate institution to be asked to chair a conference of this stature,” says Wenzel, only the second researcher from a U.S. undergrad school to chair the chirality event, founded in 1988.

Wenzel brought nine current and former �ֲ���ý students along. All the �ֲ���ý students helped Wenzel with conference operations, and seven of them presented research. The �ֲ���ý contingent’s travel and participation were paid for by a combination of college funds, an alumni gift, and Wenzel’s own National Science Foundation grant.

Considered the premier conference in the field, the chirality symposium is dominated by research universities. “Usually when I attend this conference, I’m the only attendee from an undergraduate institution,” Wenzel says, “and any students of mine who present are the only undergraduates at the conference.”

Yolanda Rodriguez ’15 of North Miami Beach, Fla., was one of the students Wenzel invited. “It was cool to see how there was a community,” she says. “It was interesting to see how most of the researchers at the conference knew each other and how they collaborate, because I think there were some collaborations that even began there.”

A chemistry major, Rodriguez presented research that she had done with Wenzel, assisted by Tayla Duarte ’17 of Dorchester, Mass. Her classmate and fellow chem major William Patton of Asheville, N.C., presented research as well.

“It was similar to a Mount David Summit experience,” Patton says, “but with people who knew everything you are talking about — plus way more.”

“It was great to be with a group of people that are so highly regarded and at the top of their field, a field that’s of interest to me.”

The entire �ֲ���ý contingent poses at Chirality 2015. Back row, from left, William Patton ’15, Mira Carey-Hatch ’14, Yolanda Rodriguez ’15, Tom Wenzel, Alison Dowey ’15. Front row, from left, Tayla Duarte ’17, Cira Mollings Puentes ’16, Caroline Holme ’16, Brielle Dalvano ’16, and Anna Berenson ’16.

Also showing research at Chirality 2015 were Mira Carey-Hatch ’14 of Laconia, N.H.; Alison Dowey ’15 of Pound Ridge, N.Y.; Brielle Dalvano ’16 of Wyckoff, N.J.; and Cira Mollings Puentes ’16 of Kingston, Jamaica.

Anna Berenson ’16 of Topsfield, Mass., and Caroline Holme ’16 of Winnetka, Ill., two rising seniors who work with Wenzel’s chemistry department colleague Paula Schlax, joined the seven Wenzel protégés as they helped with myriad on-site organizational details.

And what is chirality? Pronounced kai-RAL-ity, it’s a phenomenon in which two molecules are mirror images of each other, like your hands. In some cases, such compounds have significant reactive differences.

Wenzel is known internationally for his research in the field. His work has resulted in more than 150 publications and attracted more than $2.9 million in external grants, including seven rounds of research funding from the National Science Foundation.

During Wenzel’s time at �ֲ���ý, 125 students have collaborated in his research and 77 have co-authored peer-reviewed publications about the work (four high school teachers have also co-authored Wenzel publications). He has been particularly active in involving students from groups historically underrepresented in the sciences in his work.

A distinguished career researching Arctic climate change has led Professor of Biology William Ambrose to a one-year position at the National Science Foundation leading the Arctic Observing Network program.

Professor of Biology Will Ambrose has been appointed program director, a one-year position, of the NSF’s (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

As an NSF program director, Ambrose will have authority over $12 million in research funding that in large part defines how scientists study climate change in the Arctic.

The program directorship, a one-year appointment with the potential for a second-year extension, is a powerful opportunity to help set the direction and strategy of Arctic research on a national scale, Ambrose said.

“I’ll be managing all the research that the program funds,” Ambrose said, “soliciting proposals, evaluating them with external reviewers, deciding with my NSF colleagues which projects get funded, and overseeing funded projects.”

It’s a great opportunity, he said, “to make a broad impact on Arctic science by helping set NSF policy.”

The that gather data and information on the environmental conditions in the Arctic.

Data from the AON enables researchers, governments, and advocates to better understand the wide-ranging, significant, and rapid environmental changes occurring there.

�ֲ���ý College professors Michael Retelle, at left, and William Ambrose on the island of Ingøya, Norway. (© Randall Hyman)

Because appointments of this type typically go to scientists at research universities, Ambrose’s selection speaks to his compelling body of Arctic research and the strength of the natural sciences at �ֲ���ý, said Dean of the Faculty Matt Auer.

“Will’s command of both short-term and long-term observations of environmental change make him an ideal candidate to serve as the director of the NSF’s Arctic Observing program,” Auer said.

As a biologist and oceanographer, Ambrose has made a name for himself among Arctic scientists by looking for clues to climate change in the shells of certain types of clams, and he and �ֲ���ý colleague Michael Retelle, professor of geology, recently received a three-year, $337,228 NSF grant to pursue research in this area.

“A remarkable range of expertise.”

Together, they are analyzing environmental changes that have been captured in clam shells over the course of a millennium. By studying changes in clam shells, they are able to plot fluctuations in sea temperature where the Barents and Norwegian seas meet.

“Will studies how recent and ongoing changes in the environment affect bottom-dwelling marine organisms,” Auer said. “And by studying the hard parts of the shells of clams, he also measures changes to benthic (ocean floor) communities over hundreds of years.

“That’s a remarkable range of expertise and the right combination to help NSF shape a program dealing with a region where climate change is especially pronounced.”

“�ֲ���ý makes this possible by providing financial support for student research  and by requiring seniors complete a thesis before graduation.”

For the last year, Ambrose has been in Norway on sabbatical at the University of Tromsø’s geology department studying .

Ambrose, who started his Arlington, Va.-based appointment on June 15, said the NSF job would not have happened without the research assistance provided by his �ֲ���ý students and the support he has received from colleagues.

An NSF director, Ambrose explained, must have an active research program and a strong record of NSF funding and scholarly publication.

In his case, “I have outstanding colleagues in geology and anthropology with whom I interact and co-write many proposals,” he said.

�ֲ���ý students enter the equation by “doing much of the research work,” he said, work that �ֲ���ý actively supports through “financial support for student research and by requiring seniors to complete a thesis before graduation.”

Don’t think that Ambrose is trading in his hip waders exclusively for a desk job.

His NSF appointment allows him to spend up to 20 percent of his time conducting his own research, although he acknowledges he’ll likely have to cobble together research trips in conjunction with weekends and vacations.

He also anticipates the appointment with AON will greatly influence his teaching and present new opportunities for �ֲ���ý students.

“I will be able to teach the newest research in Arctic science and climate change,” he said. “Typically, NSF proposals are several years ahead of the published work. I also expect to make many contacts in the field that I can use to help place students in appropriate graduate programs.”

Rebecca Herzig presents her professorship lecture on Dec. 2 (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Rebecca Herzig marks her appointment to an endowed professorship at �ֲ���ý with a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, in the Keck Classroom, Room G52 of Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

The Christian A. Johnson Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Herzig offers a talk titled Knowledge Incarnate: Feminism, Science and the Problem of Suffering.

The lecture is open to the public at no cost. A reception follows immediately in Pettengill’s Perry Atrium. For more information, please call 207-786-8371.

Herzig is a historian of science whose research focuses on the relationships between technology, race and gender in the United States.

Her book Plucked: A History of Hair Removal in America, to be published by NYU Press in January 2015, examines techniques that Americans have used to remove their own hair, and the array of social forces — including beliefs about beauty and self-determination — that create expectations about hair and hair removal.

Herzig received a National Science Foundation grant in 2008 to support her research into cosmetic applications of studies of the human genome, including gene-based hair retardation.

In 2005, Herzig published Suffering for Science: Reason and Sacrifice in Modern America (Rutgers University Press), exploring the rise of an ethic of “self-sacrifice” in American science. The book describes how supposedly rational scientists came to embrace a culture of toil, danger and even lethal dismemberment.

Co-edited with Evelynn M. Hammonds, Herzig’s second book was The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics (The MIT Press, 2009). This collection addresses changing scientific studies of human variation.

Herzig is chair of the Program in Women and Gender Studies at �ֲ���ý, where she has taught for more than 15 years. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the college’s Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Herzig received her doctorate in the history and social study of science and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her bachelor’s degree in American cultural and environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The Johnson Professorship, supported by an endowment established by the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, recognizes a faculty member who has made transformative contributions to interdisciplinary studies.

The innovative �ֲ���ý Summer Scholars program is aimed at academically superior incoming students whose backgrounds may not have prepared them for aspects of college life that may be old hat to families with college histories.

The scholars live on campus and take one math and one science course, each the equivalent of an academic-year course — but compressed into six weeks. Mastering the course work and labs involves evening and weekend study, and intense, one-on-one collaboration among the scholars and with faculty.

The program teaches time-management skills and study practices, and introduces students to laboratory environments and to such insider information as course registration tactics.

And the program instills confidence that the Summer Scholars carry into the start of the academic year. “I felt comfortable enough to ask questions,” says Akinyele Akinruntan, a 2009 Summer Scholar from Memphis, Tenn.