Academics

Category: Academics

Training your brain for a better you the focus of lecture series presentation

Would you like to “change your brain” to make yourself happier, more creative, more compassionate?

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Richard Davidson

Renowned psychology researcher Richard Davidson says scientific evidence suggests you can do just that by cultivating positive habits of mind.

Davidson presents “Well-being is a Skill” Thursday, Oct. 29 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel in the second installment of Lawrence University’s Liberal Arts in the Century of the Brain lecture series. He also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema. Both events are free and open to the public.

Research conducted by Davidson show a range of characteristics, including a person’s happiness, resilience, compassion and emotional balance, can all be shaped, modified and improved within one’s brain. Davidson will share how using mental training techniques to cultivate well-being can positively impact an individual’s happiness, creativity and productivity in the work place and at home.

“Dr. Davidson is a pioneer in the scientific study of emotion and has applied a neuroscientific lens to the study of ancient traditions for cultivating attention and compassion,” said Lori Hilt, assistant professor of psychology at Lawrence. “We are fortunate to have him speak on a topic sure to be broadly appealing.”

The William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UW-Madison, Davidson is one of the country’s leading experts in the field of neuroplasticity — the capacity of the brain to develop and change throughout life — as well as methods to promote human betterment, including meditation and related contemplative practices.

A member of the UW faculty since 1984, Davidson is the director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the UW’s Waisman Center.

In 2006, Time magazine named Davidson one of the “100 most influential people in the world” and the following year Madison Magazine named him its Person of the Year. The American Psychological Association recognized him with its highest honor — the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award — in 2000.

His scholarship has resulted in more than 320 articles, numerous book chapters and reviews. He is the author of the 2012 book “The Emotional Life of Your Brain” and has edited 14 other books.

The Liberal Arts in the Century of the Brain series will incorporate the interdisciplinary areas of neuroscience and cognitive science to create connections with other disciplines at Lawrence by examining questions ranging from whether the brain processes literary fiction differently than formula fiction to how perception, emotion and cognitive processing impact creative expression.

Other series speakers include:

• Darya Zabelina, post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University, Feb. 17, 2016. Zabelina’s presentation will examine the neural aspects of creativity. Her research focuses on ways of enhancing and fostering the development of creative thinking and problem-solving ability.

• John Iverson, associate project scientist at University of California-San Diego’s Institute for Neural Computation. February 2016. A cognitive neuroscientist, Iverson will discuss his research on rhythm perception and production in music and language, work that spans behavioral and neuroscience approaches. He is currently overseeing a study of the effect of music training on children’s brain and cognitive development.

• Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the department of philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. April 12, 2016. The author of five books and more than 100 published articles, Sinnott-Armstrong is a scholar of moral psychology and brain science, which his presentation will focus on, as well as uses of neuroscience in the legal system.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Theatre Arts Department Presents Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Rimers of Eldritch”

The question of truth versus appearance is explored in the Lawrence University theatre arts production of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson’s “The Rimers of Eldritch.”

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Courtroom testimony during a murder trial pits residents of Eldritch against each other. (Photo by Nathan B. Lawrence)

Four performances in Stansbury Theatre are scheduled May 14-16 with an 8 p.m. show each night and an additional 3 p.m. matinee on Saturday, May 16. Tickets, at $15 for adults, $8 for students/seniors, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

An off-Broadway hit that won the Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award, this poetic, haunting 1966 drama chronicles a month in fictional Eldritch, Mo., a one-time prosperous mining town gone to seed by the mid-20th century, when the play is set.

When the town hermit, Skelly Mannor (played by sophomore Jacob Dalton), is murdered by Nelly Windrod (played by freshman Jenny Hanrahan) in uncertain circumstances, the townspeople must ask themselves how such a crime could be committed in their midst. The subsequent trial, presided over by the Judge/Preacher (played by sophomore Kip Hathaway), peels back the layers of Eldritch to reveal an intolerance and religious hypocrisy the townspeople never wanted to see.

Director Kathy Privatt said the play was chosen for production in part because of the unusual way Wilson tells the story.

“The events of the story are offered in a collage format, not linearly,” said Privatt, associate professor of theatre arts and James G. and Ethel M. Barberr Professor of Theatre and Drama. “This technique offers interesting juxtapositions of scenes happening back-to-back or on top of each other, even though they aren’t that way in time.”

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Kip Hathaway as the Preacher delivers a sermon that puts responsibility for a murder on the entire town of Eldritch. (Photo by Nathan B. Lawrence)

In a review, the New York Times praised the way Wilson “used the art of counterpoint to illuminate the people of Eldritch, a town that is itself an entrapment.”

What the Village Voice once called the “exactness and inner logic” of Wilson’s dialogue are also on display in the play, which is as humane as it is incisive.

Privatt cites an interview Wilson gave when the play was first staged as evidence of this fact.

“At one point, the interviewer asked why Wilson wrote about such losers. Wilson got a shocked look on his face and admitted that he’d never thought of them as losers, but as survivors doing whatever they had to, to survive. He admitted that they might be ‘in deep yogurt,’ but fundamentally, they were just humans who wanted to survive,” said Privatt.

The play’s mix of criticism and compassion is reflected by its title. “Rime” refers to hoar frost, a coating of white crystals that is both beautiful and harsh.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Mozart Music: LU Students get rare opportunity to study composer’s hand-written score

Thanks to the thoughtfulness of a Lawrence University alumnus, music history and music composition students recently had the rare privilege of viewing an autograph leaf — a hand-written page — of a Wolfgang Mozart score.

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A 1773 two-sided autograph leaf from the fourth movement of Mozart’s “Serenata,” K. 185 offered students a rare glimpse into the hallmarks of his writing style.

Over the course of four days, more than 60 students visited the Seeley G. Mudd Library to see the autograph and hear presentations by Assistant Professor Jill Thomas, director of technical services and Associate Professor Antoinette Powell, music librarian.

Loaned to the college by a 2010 Lawrence graduate who wished to remain anonymous, the autograph provided intriguing insights both into the historical context of the piece and Mozart’s composing style.

The single, two-sided autograph leaf is from the fourth movement of Mozart’s “Serenata,” K. 185 and includes the final 10 measures of the Menuetto on one side and the first 16 measures of the Trio on the other. It was written in Austria in 1773, when Mozart was just 17, to mark the college graduation of a family friend.

“With the Mozart autograph we were able to briefly become a contemporary of Mozart,” said Assistant Professor of Music Asha Srinivasan, who took students from her Techniques of the Contemporary Composer class to one of the presentations. “We are all composers, so we put ourselves in that time period and thought about how and where Mozart composed that work. It was enlightening and awe-inspiring.”

According to Powell, at the time the piece was written, “Americans were wearing hats made out of raccoons and dumping tea into Boston Harbor, while in Salzburg, people were wearing elegant clothes and listening to Mozart in a refined setting.”

Comparing the autograph to a published edition, students were able to see that the hallmarks of Mozart’s writing style – working quickly, composing pieces in his head before committing them to paper – were already present, even at such a young age.

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Music librarian Antoinette Powell conducted a series of presentations for students on a hand-written 1773 score by Mozart that was on loan to Lawrence.

“It was so exciting to see Mozart’s original serenade and minuet,” said Annie Mercado, a freshman from Des Plaines, Ill., who participated in a presentation as part of Instructor Ann Boeckman’s music theory class. “It’s not every day that even conservatory students get to be in the presence of musical history that changed the way we look at music today.”

Cosette Bardawil, a freshman from Brookline, Mass., also a member of Boeckman’s class, found the informative background presentation  helped bring the centuries-old autograph to life.

“I especially enjoyed the forensics section about the different types of paper, the way that each paper was made and how that helped to identify the era of Mozart’s compositions,” said Bardawil.

Since students in Lawrence’s composition department are required to write music by hand, Srinivasan said the autograph presented “a wonderful opportunity to trace the practice of composition by seeing a renowned composer’s actual handwriting from that era.

“Seeing the quality and nature of the strokes of musical notation brought to life the human hand and mind behind this work in a way that published printed music simply cannot do,” said Srinivasan. “Many of my students really appreciated seeing the back of the autograph, the more ‘messy’ side that the librarians revealed by taking it out of the original casing. As composers, a lot of our work might be initially messy, too, so that was just very visceral for us all.”

The autograph’s owner first approached Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory of music, about displaying it in the conservatory, but security concerns nixed that idea. As an alternative, it was decided library staff would invite classes at appointed times for presentations in the Mudd’s Milwaukee-Downer Room so students could compare the autograph to a modern published score.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Enhanced Curriculum: Lawrence participating in $335,000 project to develop hybrid courses

Lawrence University and five other liberal arts institutions are embarking on a project to collaboratively develop and teach new hybrid courses. The project, “Hybrid Liberal Arts Network: High Touch Learning for the 21st Century,” is supported by a $335,000 grant from the New York City-based Teagle Foundation.

Teagle-Grant_picket_newsblogWorking together as the Midwest Hybrid Learning Consortium — Lawrence, Albion College, DePauw University, Grinnell College, Hope College and Wabash College — the six-member alliance will combine the best of classroom teaching with digital technology to try new approaches involving online learning.

“We are very pleased to be part of this group working on hybrid courses,” said David Burrows, Lawrence provost and dean of the faculty. “One of the great challenges of the digital revolution is making use of the power of technology to enhance the goals of liberal education. We want our students to develop skills of analysis, problem solving, creativity and understanding ambiguity. These are abilities that require human interaction. If well-constructed, hybrid courses can combine the use of technology with the enrichment of human dialogue, leading to effective liberal learning.”

The project will see teams of faculty from across a wide range of disciplines from each of the institutions cooperatively developing hybridized courses over the rest of 2015, beginning with a workshop this summer. The new courses will be traditional face-to-face classroom offerings, not online courses, although they may incorporate some online components

The first new courses are scheduled to be offered in the spring semester of 2016 with additional new courses introduced in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017.

David Berk, director of instructional technology at Lawrence said technology offers so many opportunities “to engage students in new ways.”

“This project will allow faculty to explore new instructional methods such as the flipped classroom to deliver content online and enrich the face-to-face experience with new forms of team-based learning,” said Berk, a member of the grant’s implementation leadership team.

“We already have faculty that are beginning to dabble in these areas. This grant will take those experiments to the next level by supporting a series of workshops for faculty to share course materials and activities and to develop a common set of best practices that are proven to work well within the residential liberal arts experience.”

Lawrence associate professors Adam Galamobos, economics, David Hall, chemistry, and Martyn Smith, religious studies, were involved in crafting the grant and likely will be involved in the development of the new courses.

Joining Berk on the grant’s implementation leadership team will be Barry Bandstra, director of academic computing and a professor of religion, Hope College; James Brown, professor of physics, Wabash College; David Lopatto, professor of psychology, Grinnell College; Donnie Sendelbach, director of instructional and learning services, DePauw University; and John Woell, associate provost and professor of religion, Albion College.

Founded in 1944, the Teagle Foundation works to support and strengthen liberal arts education though innovation in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Milwaukee artist Jason Yi opens new Wriston Art Center Galleries exhibition

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Jason Yi’s installation “Terraform” is featured in the Kohler Gallery.

Milwaukee-based multi-media artist Jason S. Yi discusses his work Friday, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m. in the opening lecture of Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center Galleries newest exhibition, which runs through March 15. A reception follows Yi’s remarks. Both events are free and open to the public.

Yi is  featured in the Kohler Gallery with his sculpture installation “Terraform.” Through large-scale, site-specific sculptures and installations, Yi transforms everyday materials into massive architectural and topographic forms, juxtaposing natural and man-made environments.

The Hoffmaster Gallery showcases Sarah Gross’ installation “Continental Drift.” Gross, who is serving as Uihelin Fellow of Studio Art at Lawrence, uses repetition and pattern to create an installation that references architecture and ceramic history. Her hand-made brick/tile hybrids “hover” above the gallery floor, creating interlacing paths for the eye to track.

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Sarah Gross’ installation “Continental Drift” is featured in the Hoffmaster Gallery.

“Wisconsin Wolf Stories,” shown in the Leech Gallery, highlights the work of 20 Lawrence students from Professor of Biology Jodi Sedlock’s environmental studies symposium “Art and Biodiversity Conservation.” Through various media, including video, photography and hand-drawn pieces, students explore the human-wolf interaction in Wisconsin and how wolves have impacted the state’s environment.

The Quirk Print Gallery also features student work focused on the influences of Greek, Roman and Byzantine portraiture coins from Lawrence’s own Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday noon – 4 p.m; closed Mondays.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Lawrence Signs Partnership Agreement with UW Colleges to Assist Transfer Students

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Lawrence President Mark Burstein announces a partnership agreement with the UW Colleges that will make things easier for students from any of the state’s 13 two-year campuses to transfer to Lawrence and earn a bachelor’s degree.

An historic partnership between the University of Wisconsin Colleges  and Lawrence University will soon help students transfer more efficiently from the two-year institutions and earn a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence. The partnership agreement was formally signed Wednesday (9/24) in ceremonies at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley.

Lawrence President Mark Burstein, Provost and Dean of the Faculty David Burrows and Lawrence Special Assistant to the President and Professor of French and Milwaukee-Downer College and College Endowment Association Professor of Liberal Studies Eilene Hoft-March joined UW Colleges/UW-Extension Interim Chancellor Aaron Brower, UWFox CEO and Campus Dean Martin Rudd and UW Colleges Provost and Vice Chancellor Greg Lampe in the signing ceremony.

The agreement is designed to minimize barriers faced by independent transfers from UW Colleges, including UWFox, and ease the transition process so students can reach their academic and career goals.

Under terms of the agreement, Lawrence will provide specialized advising, registration, financial information and orientation opportunities for UW Colleges transfer students. Academic credits will still be transferred on a case-by-case basis. All UW College transfer students will be eligible for a merit-based scholarship up to $20,000 per year.

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Aaron Brower. (Photo by Bryce Richter/UW-Madison)

“Through small classes and engaging hands-on learning experiences, UW Colleges students from our campuses around the state are well prepared to succeed when they transfer to four-year institutions, including private schools such as Lawrence University,” said Aaron Brower, interim chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension. “This partnership serves our students, both institutions and our state well as we all strive to increase the number of Wisconsin residents earning high quality bachelor’s degrees.”

Chuck Erickson, associate director of admissions at Lawrence, will serve as a transfer advisor and hold office hours every other week at UWFox during the academic year to meet with students interested in transferring.

“This agreement is another step in our effort to increase access to
a rigorous Lawrence education and help make it affordable
to more residents of Wisconsin.”
— President Mark Burstein

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Martin Rudd

“Some of our very best students have transferred to Lawrence, but there have been struggles with that process that detract from students’ focus on their studies,” said Rudd.  “Lawrence and UWFox want our students to succeed at the highest level wherever they may go once they leave us, and we feel that this partnership presents guidelines as to how we can do that.”

Lawrence currently has 10 students who have transferred from UW Colleges among its 1,500-member student body, including eight from UWFox. The majority of the transfers enroll at Lawrence after one year at one of the UW Colleges campuses. With the partnership agreement in place, Lawrence hopes to increase that number of transfer to between 10 and 15 per year.

“We are very excited to formalize our relationship with the UW Colleges and specifically UWFox,” said Burstein. “This agreement is another step in our effort to increase access to a rigorous Lawrence education and help make it affordable to more residents of Wisconsin.”

In addition to Menasha, UW Colleges have two-year campuses in Baraboo, Fond du Lac, Janesville, Manitowoc, Marinette, Marshfield, Rice Lake, Richland Center, Sheboygan, Waukesha, Wausau and West Bend.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Matriculation Convocation Officially Opens Lawrence’s 166th Academic Year

President Mark Burstein officially opens Lawrence University’s 166th academic year as well as the 2014-15 convocation series Thursday, Sept. 18 with the matriculation address “Sustaining Dialogue: Educating for a Diverse Society.”

The event, at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public. The convocation also will be available via a live webcast.

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President Mark Burstein

In his address, Burstein will discuss the importance of dialogue across different viewpoints and the role universities must play to foster this engaged exchange. As our society becomes more segregated by socioeconomic class, race, and political view, universities, as training grounds for citizenry, are obligated to create campus communities where a diversity of viewpoints are explored.  Last spring’s rash of cancelled commencement speakers calls into question whether universities are fulfilling this role.

Lawrence’s 16th president, Burstein began his tenure in July 2013 after nine years as executive vice president at Princeton University. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Columbia University as a vice president working in human resources, student services and facilities management.

A native of Cedar Grove, N.J., Burstein earned a bachelor’s degree in history and independent studies from Vassar College and a master of business administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lawrence’s 2014-15 convocation series also includes:

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David Gerard
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Kwame Appiah
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Sian Beilock

• Nov. 4, University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, “Leveraging Mind And Body To Perform Your Best Under Stress.” Beilock is an expert on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors that influence different types of performance, from test-taking to your golf swing.

• Feb. 17, 2015, Author and New York University Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, “A Decent Respect: Honor and Citizenship at Home and Abroad.” Known as a postmodern Socrates, Appiah asks probing questions about identity, ethnicity, honor and religion while challenging people to celebrate our common humanity.

• May 14, 2015, Honors Convocation, Lawrence University economist David Gerard, “Is it Warm in Here?: The Intractable Challenges of Climate Change.” Gerard will examine the economic, social and technological obstacles confronting the issue of global climate change.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

New “D-Term” Offers Students Additional Enrichment Opportunities

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Government professor Jason Brozek will teach the course “9/11 in Context: Terrorism as Lived Experience” as part of Lawrence’s new “D-Term” this December. The course includes a trip to the 9/11 memorial and museum in New York City.

Lawrence University is adding a fifth class session this fall with the launch of the two-week December Term, or “D-Term.”

The term will feature 18 new Lawrence courses ranging from an introduction to the art of making books, to the political and cultural forces that shape what we eat, to an exploration of how neurobiology, genetics, physiology and ecology direct animal behavior.

The D-Term also provides opportunities for students to enroll in one of several non-Lawrence courses. Students enrolled in a CNA training or medical terminology class offered through Fox Valley Technical College can receive credit from FVTC, but not from Lawrence.

An intensive business fundamentals course designed to immerse students in the fundamentals of business and build upon the necessary skills and behavior for success in today’s 21st century global workplace will be taught by faculty of the Fullbridge Program. This will be offered as a non-credit class.

Available only to current students, the classes will be conducted the first two weeks of December (12/1-12). The Lawrence courses will provide three units of credit toward the required number for graduation. Classes will be conducted each weekday, with some involving weekend work. Class meeting times will vary during the day.

“The December Term is being offered as an enrichment program. Credits are awarded, but students are not required to take a course,” said David Burrows, provost and dean of the faculty in announcing the program. “The term is designed to provide exciting experiences that offer new perspectives, unusual content or exploration of interesting activities. These won’t just be accelerated versions of courses currently offered during the Fall, Winter or Spring Terms.”

Each course will require at least five students to be conducted and students will only be allowed to register for one D-Term course. If a particular course does not meet the enrollment minimum, students will be able to sign up for a second course.

Registration for D-Term courses begins Sept. 15 with the start of Fall Term classes.

Complete details on the D-Term are available here.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Research Road Trip: Lawrence Students Enjoy Rare Opportunity to Study at Argonne National Laboratory

A team of three Lawrence University students recently completed a rare research opportunity at one of the nation’s premier laboratories in an effort to shed new light on how liquids can solidify.

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Lawrence physics students Erika Roedl (l.), Leo Sussman (c.) and Ben Clark (r.) recently had the rare opportunity to conduct a five-day experiment at the prestigious Argonne National Laboratory.

Senior Leo Sussman and juniors Ben Clark and Erika Roedl, under the direction of Nick Mauro, visiting assistant professor of physics, conducted a five-day-long experiment at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

The project involved collaborations with students working with Lawrence Assistant Professor of Chemistry Allison Fleshman and a research group at Washington University in St. Louis.

The research project focuses on the underlying governing principles that dictate how a liquid forms into a particular kind of solid — glass. Almost any liquid can be formed into a type of glass if cooled quickly enough.

“Physicists are primarily interested in the discovery of new knowledge and new technology and the field of condensed matter physics is an area where we realize both at Lawrence,” said Mauro. “Materials known as metallic glasses have very unique physical, electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. In our lab, we use advanced experimental techniques to try and understand how and why these unique materials form.”

The student researchers heated samples of liquids and glasses in advanced furnaces that generate temperatures of nearly 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing them to examine the samples’ atomic structure using extremely bright X-ray beams.

“The work we conducted will help us to better understand how liquid atomic
structure evolves and how to tailor metallic alloys for particular applications.
These students are helping make these advances possible.”
              — Assistant Professor of Physics Nick Mauro

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Leo Sussman ’15

“My week at Argonne gave me a fantastic glimpse into life as a professional scientist, complete with triumphs and tribulations alike and inspired additional work when we returned,” said Sussman, a physics and flute performance major from San Francisco, Calif. “It was exhilarating when the moment finally came to see the data we’d been preparing to collect for months start to appear on a monitor right before our eyes.

“I came away from the experience with a profound sense of awe for the amount of collective human knowledge, expertise and talent that went into building the facility,” Sussman added. “One of the most thrilling aspects was working among dozens of other research groups, all striving toward the same overall goal of better understanding the world.”

The experiments were carried out 24 hours a day with the team working in shifts over the course of five days. More than 60 different experiments using 35 various liquids and glasses were performed.

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Ben Clark ’16

Clark called the opportunity to conduct work at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source “an incredible experience.”

“Before working at the APS, I was both terrified and exhilarated, but being able to assist in the experimentation and sometimes even running parts by myself, with some supervision, gave me a sense of confidence I’ve never felt before,” said Clark, a physics major from St. Louis, Mo. “This was by far one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life.”

The APS is a state-of-the-art facility that accelerates electrons to nearly the speed of light, creating very intense and highly energetic X-rays. The APS is one of the brightest X-ray sources in the world and researchers from across the globe go there to conduct research in many different fields.

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Erika Roedl ’16

“As a student participating in the engineering track at Lawrence, I was looking forward to seeing what the experimental side of physics was really like,” said Roedl, a physics major from Minneapolis, Minn. “At the lab I could feel the dedication the countless graduate students, professors and professional experimentalists have for their respective fields. Being in that atmosphere, as well as seeing Professor Mauro so enthused about the research we were conducting, was so inspiring.”

Mauro, a 2005 Lawrence graduate who returned to his alma mater last fall, said the trip to Argonne was “a unique study experience for the entire research team.”

“It is extremely difficult to get access to Argonne since the competition for beam time is very high. Our students had the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research at a world-renown institution. The work we conducted will help us to better understand how liquid atomic structure evolves and how to tailor metallic alloys for particular applications. These students are helping make these advances possible.”

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lawrence Anthropologist Part of $1M NSF-Funded Research Project on Responses to Natural Disasters

Lawrence University anthropologist Peter Peregrine will join a team of Yale University researchers on a project designed to better understand how cultures facing regular but unpredictable natural disasters develop resilient strategies.

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Professor of Anthropology Peter Peregrine

Supported by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the four-year project begins this fall. It will be worldwide in scope and encompass contemporary countries, traditional societies of the recent past and ancient societies in prehistory.

The grant also will provide funding for 2-4 Lawrence students per year to work as research assistants with Peregrine, whose role in the project will focus on ancient societies.

With scientists predicting greater impacts of extreme climate events (droughts, floods), such “hazards” are more likely to create serious social consequences, including famine, displacement and increased violence.

The project will explore how human societies with varying livelihoods and vulnerabilities have responded to and invented solutions to natural hazards and resulting disasters both past and the present. Among the questions the research will look are: how often do events have to occur for humans to plan for them?; do unpredictable hazards lead to different cultural transformations than do more predictable hazards?; and under what conditions are contingency plans overwhelmed in the face of natural hazards that are more severe or more frequent than normal?

“If we’re going to find solutions to lessen the consequences of extreme events, we need to understand the methods humans have developed over decades, centuries or millennia,” said Peregrine. “We assume most societies that have survived for long periods of time did so by employing some resilient solutions, particularly when these types of natural hazards were recurrent.

“This project also will provide valuable opportunities for some of our students to gain hands-on training in interdisciplinary comparative research,” Peregrine added.

An archaeologist specializing in the evolution of complex societies, Peregrine joined the Lawrence faculty in 1995. He was elected in 2011 a Fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, which recognizes “meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications,” becoming just the second Lawrence faculty member elected an AAAS Fellow.

He is a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute, an accomplished group of scholars that includes a Nobel Laureate, numerous National Academy members and two Pulitzer Prize winning authors.

The author of numerous books and scholarly articles, Peregrine was a 2012 recipient of Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, which honors a faculty member who has demonstrated sustained scholarly excellence for a number of years and whose work exemplifies the ideals of the teacher-scholar.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.