News & Events

Colgate University President Rebecca S. Chopp has been awarded the 2008 Professional Achievement Citation from her alma mater, the University of Chicago.

The alumni citation honors Chopp for being a "pivotal figure in the field of higher education and a renowned scholar of religion and culture."

Vic Mansfield, a longtime professor of physics and astronomy who helped lead an insightful workshop during the recent campus visit by the Dalai Lama, died Tuesday after a two-year battle with lymphoma. He was 67.

Mansfield joined the Colgate faculty in 1973, armed with a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics from Cornell University and burning interests in cosmology, computational methods, and the conjunction of science and spirituality.

In his 35 years at Colgate, he lectured in physics, astronomy, numerical analysis, and in all components of the core curriculum, inspiring students with his eloquence, enthusiasm, expertise and high expectations.

At a time when many small-town movie houses have gone dark, the Hamilton Theater -- once on the brink of closing -- is thriving now more than ever.

The movie theater remains a fixture of Hamilton in an era of mega-multiplexes and Netflix, according to The Post-Standard (Syracuse).

Thanks to a prestigious $1.2 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Colgate will be one of the few primarily undergraduate colleges or universities in the country where students can study systems biology, an important interdisciplinary field that uses complex mathematical analysis to study networks of interactions within living systems.

The grant will allow Colgate to hire a tenure-track systems biologist with a joint appointment in mathematics and biology, who will work with members of both departments to develop courses, laboratory modules, and pedagogical tools that will help students integrate the complex material associated with this rapidly expanding field.

Colgate also will introduce a new major -- in mathematical biology -- in fall 2009.

During his recent visit to campus the Dalai Lama met with Colgate President Rebecca Chopp and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson for a special episode of Colgate Conversations, the university's podcast series that highlights members of the campus community.

The discussion, which also was videotaped, delves more deeply into some of the topics His Holiness raised during his public appearance at Colgate on April 22, when he spoke to nearly 5,000 people.

Politics may be partly to blame for the demise of Syracuse's once vibrant salt industry.

That's according to Colgate geography professor William Meyer, whose research about the Salt City's salt springs was highlighted this week in The Post-Standard (Syracuse).

Meyer's research project was one of five funded this academic year by the university's Upstate Institute, a resource for organizations seeking regional expertise and information about upstate New York.

Anna Keegan '08, whose love of adventure led to numerous opportunities during her four years at Colgate, was presented with the 1819 Award at Tuesday's awards convocation.

The award is the most selective and prestigious the university gives to a graduating senior, and Keegan was among dozens of students and several faculty members honored during the year-end ceremony.

Keegan will graduate May 18 with degrees in sociology and anthropology and in Africana studies. Besides the 1819 Award, she also earned the Ramshaw Service Award from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Arthur Schomburg Award for Excellence in Africana Studies.

On the second day of his Colgate visit, the Dalai Lama was given a glimpse of home when he was treated to a presentation on the constellations of the night sky over Lhaso, Tibet, in the visualization lab of the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center.

His Holiness then participated in "A Dialogue on Science and Religion" in the center's Meyerhoff Auditorium with faculty panelists Lyle Roelofs, Vic Mansfield, Harvey Sindima, and David Dudrick.

Mansfield, professor of physics and astronomy, presented his new book Tibetan Buddhism and Modern Physics to the Dalai Lama, who had written the book's foreword.

Former presidential candidate Walter Mondale said, "Modern politics today requires a mastery of television."

On April 8, while the rest of America was flipping channels in search of the latest 2008 presidential campaign news, a capacity crowd of more than 200 alumni and friends gathered at the Paley Center for Media in New York City to gain election insights first-hand from a panel of Colgate's modern political experts.

Last Friday I stepped into the Ho Lecture Room in Lawrence Hall to get a sense of what life was like many centuries ago on another continent.

I came away with just that, and more.

The Colgate Medieval Colloquium focused on literature from that time period, and the expression "medieval literature" flooded my mind with images of warriors in thick armor sitting on the steps of a grey castle somewhere in Scotland and composing poetry.