This column by President Taylor Reveley originally ran in the summer 2009 issue of the William & Mary Alumni Magazine.
2008 News Archive
A protein known as the thyroid hormone receptor shuttles in and out of the cell's nucleus, where it goes about the all-important business of turning genes on and off.
Richard Price's ethnographic account of a "trip down the rabbit hole" with a Saramaka curer has won the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Memorial Award for Caribbean Scholarship.
Scientists from the Center for Conservation Biology banded two peregrine falcon chicks June 18 at the bottom of a stack at Dominion Energy's Possum Point Substation in Prince William County.
Rogers Hall has been renovated and is now part of the Integrated Science Center. The labs are working, even as unpacking continues.
Sylvia Stout, business manager for the Physics Department, is to be honored for 40 years of service at William & Mary's annual Employee Appreciation Day luncheon.
Henry Hart hopes that "appetizer" booklets will spur publication of ambitious post-World War II literary anthology.
George Harris, Chancellor Professor of Philosophy at William and Mary, believes lack of a tragic ethic creates more tragedy in the world.
The Solar Cells on the Roof of Small team is investigating a key sustainability question.
Serge Kovaleski, a member of William & Mary's Class of 1984 and a reporter for The New York Times, received a Pulitzer Prize today as part of a news team that covered the Gov. Elliot Spitzer scandal.
W&M alum Thomas Shannon ('80)was nominated May 27 to be U.S. Ambassador to Brazil by President Barack Obama.
Christina Romer ('81) presented a diagnosis of the ailing economy and outlined the government's treatment strategies.
Members of the Class of 2009 were featured on a BBC America news program profiling graduates entering the job market.
Our Center for Conservation Biology invites the public to watch the growth and development of Azalea, an eagle chick hatched at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.
Carl Strikwerda, Dean of Arts & Sciences at William & Mary, recently sent the following end-of-year report to members of the faculty. - Ed.
The following are the prepared remarks of Justin Schoonmaker ('09), the student speaker for William & Mary's 2009 Commencement ceremony. - Ed.
William & Mary senior Elizabeth LaPrelle has opened for music great Ralph Stanley and toured the west coast singing songs of the Appalachia.
As the 2009 student Commencement speaker, he will be joining the featured Commencement Speaker, Tom Brokaw. A common student would be intimidated by the prospect, but Schoonmaker believes he has a lot of life and ideas to share.
About 40 kindergarteners from Matthew Whaley Elementary School flocked around the dock at William & Mary's Keck Environmental Field Lab today to release the baby turtles they had raised from eggs.
W&M senior Elizabeth LaPrelle appeared with the Whitetop Mountain Band during a master class at the college. The class is being aired on City of Williamsburg Cox Cable channel 48 beginning May 8.
Gen. David McKiernan, a member of the William & Mary Class of 1972, has been named as one of Time Magazine's 100 "Most Influential People in the World."
Brown and Harpole met at the College as roommates, and knew then that they would join forces on a project in their shared field of archaeology.
You can't feel them, but neutrinos are passing through your body in large numbers. They have no charge and very low mass, but their scientific value is priceless.
W&M's government department and Reves Center for International Studies hosted a forum marking the 20th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
It is official. The bacteriophage discovered in the Crim Dell at the College of William and Mary never had been seen before.
H. Burton "Burt" Kester, a lecturer in flute and bassoon at William & Mary, died at his home on Sunday, April 19. The orchestra's spring concert, scheduled for 8 p.m. on April 29, is being dedicated to his memory.
A thesis published in the April 2009 issue of the William & Mary Quarterly reveals the discovery of nearly 50 letters to, from or about Benjamin Franklin previously not known to exist.
It's an experience that Mann will not soon forget, and it's for lessons like this that he and his fellow William & Mary ROTC cadets participated in field training exercises at Fort Pickett recently.
The William & Mary Law School, School of Education, School of Business and graduate program in colonial history were all recognized in US News and World Report's graduate school rankings for 2010.
Without so much as a map or an "X" to mark the spot, a group of William & Mary students recently uncovered some historical "treasure" that is expected to shed new light on the lives of early 20th-century African-Americans, including Maggie L. Walker, the first woman to found a bank in the United States and a black woman who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of other black women.
William & Mary's Committee on Sustainability (COS) has awarded four Student Summer Research Grants for projects that will focus on areas such as campus recycling, GIS mapping of campus habitat and ecosystems and a new program to increase the College's use of locally grown and sustainable food.
Tenuous internal conditions-complicated by difficult relationships with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria-pose the greatest challenges to Iraq's future.
A Balinese sacred performance workshop came a day after Wayang Kali, an experimental shadow theater troupe, performed in the Kimball Theatre as the final event in this year's Ewell Concert Series.
William & Mary is renowned for its emphasis on undergraduate student research, and supporting that research just became much easier.
For Charlie '01 and Sarah Park '01, their new business started out as a way not to make money, but to help themselves get their finances in order.
Direct from Japan (and the mercury sGIG)...it's Future Shock, a whirling look into the fast-food culture infecting Japan.
W&M's George Grayson meets with Clinton prior to March trip to discuss U.S. - Mexico relations.
The United States is the best place to be a Muslim, says William and Mary senior Madeeha Hameed, who traveled with the "Journey into America" program.
Students in Tamara Sonn's class Women in the Muslim World received a rare treat when guest-lecturer Akbar Ahmed led discussion.
Graduate students from different disciplines in Arts & Sciences come together once each year to unite in a display of intellectual firepower.
An ethnographer writes of a master curer, spirit possession and a race of sea gods that control the ebb and flow of the world’s money supply.
Bassett was one of three William & Mary undergraduates who joined History Professor Lu Ann Homza on a research trip to Pamplona, Spain over Spring Break to peruse two sets of archives and get a better understanding of Spanish history through the hand-written accounts of the people who lived it.
Our graduate students (and those of some other fine institutions) show their work in a two-day symposium.
W&M professor David Aday was at personal and professional crossroads when students invited him to serve as advisor for an international medical mission initiative.
On the heels of the Darwin bicentennial and at the end of women's history month, a William & Mary scholar will present her one-person play exploring the life of Victorian-era fossil-hunter Mary Anning.
W&M faculty member Joanne M. Braxton to disscuss Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" on NPR's Diane Rehm Show March 18 at 11 a.m.
The Middle Eastern Music Ensemble offers a window into a culture that is becoming more and more a part of our own.
The instruments for making Middle Eastern music are a blend of the familiar and the exotic.
If you missed the William & Mary faculty's observance of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, you can view Darwin Across the Disciplines on Channel 48. The symposium explores Darwin's influence across the spectrum of intellectual life.
W&M presents the 2nd annual global/local film festival, Global Film Migration, March 16 - 22.
Joseph Galano told the national Democratic Caucus that failure to treat adverse childhood experiences 'upstream' represented a 'national shame.'
Adam Potkay's book "The Story of Joy" has been named co-winner of a major literary award.
Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA)talked with an Econ. 300 class about Chesapeake Bay Rcovery.
Charles Hobson is among the historians interviewed in an hour-long documentary titled "Judicial Independence in the New World," which explores the early history of the court system.
"When the Purple Settles," an original "hip-hopera" by Francis Tanglao-Aguas, is set for its American premiere at William & Mary's Phi Beta Kappa Hall Feb. 26 - March 1.
Haulman discusses his book "Virginia and the Panic of 1819." It deals with America's first modern economic depression.
Matt Pinsker, who was both an ROTC cadet and a cheerleader, decided to write about his experiences in bridging the gap between the two little-connected worlds. The result is now the feature-length movie "Sergeant Cheerleader."
Members of a freshman seminar have found a strain of bacteriophage that may be previously unknown to science. The phage was found in William & Mary's landmark Crim Dell.
You, too, can now understand Cuban films, thanks to Anne Marie Stock.
Anthropologist Barbara King discusses the emotional life of apes at the nation’s largest gathering of scientists.
From Obama to Kennedy, what have been the private and public faiths of modern American presidents? For almost a decade, Professor of Religious Studies David Holmes has studied this and other questions about the faiths of American presidents.
ISC 1 is open and producing science. ISC 2 is under construction. Just wait until we build ISC 3.
Assistant Professor of Government Stacey Pelika featured on local public radio program, HearSay with Cathy Lewis, Feb. 13.
On Feb. 10, six graduate students from the College of William and Mary participated in the fourth annual Graduate Student Research Forum, held at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.
The Linnean Society of London has awarded Darwin-Wallace medals every half-century since 1908. The most recent class includes H. Allen Orr ’82, ’85 and Mohamed Noor ’92.
After his freshman year at Princeton University, Robert Engs spent the summer working at Colonial Williamsburg, where the mission is "That the future may learn from the past."
Katherine Kulick, Associate Professor of French and Modern Languages, received the Thomas Jefferson Award on Charter Day.
Paleontologist Rowan Lockwood received the 2009 Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, the highest award given to young faculty members at the College of William and Mary.
On Feb. 7, during William & Mary's annual Charter Day celebrations, Kelly Hallinger received the Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy for her work in biology and ornithology.
Devin Oller, a senior English major and biology minor, received the 2009 Monroe Prize in Civic Leadership during the William & Mary's Charter Day ceremony Feb. 7.
William & Mary's two major service programs will merge into one, and a new minor in community studies is currently under serious discussion and has enthusiastic faculty support, Provost Geoff Feiss announced during the Board of Visitors meeting Thursday.
The weather vane that sits on top of the Wren building is a familiar sight to anyone who has walked around William & Mary's campus.
Oxidative damage of protein happens to us all, but our bodies usually fix the problem. Usually.
Carl Strikwerda, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, discusses the relationship between humanities and science at the College.
William and Mary signs a collaboration agreement with Virginia Commonwealth University centering around W&M's Center for Conservation Biology.
Two William & Mary faculty members received the state’s highest honor for professors, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia announced today.
Three English faculty members were recently recognized for their outstanding contributions to scholarship and teaching.
Selected grants received by faculty members at the College of William and Mary as supplied by the grants office.
David Holmes, Walter G. Mason Professor of Religious Studies, discusses the faith of President-elect Barack Obama.
Fourteen W&M professors featured in Presidential Inaugural issue of local publication.
Most people can kick up their heels to the steady beats of hip-hop or techno, but the dancers of "Transcending Rhythms," a piece choreographed by Professor Leah Glenn and originally performed at Orchesis's DANCEVENT in November, 2008, had to adapt to an entirely new style of rhythm. Well, two in fact.
Albany Records, a label devoted to American Music, releases a CD of music by William & Mary music professor Brian Hulse.
Fear and other negative emotions make your world completely different. But don't worry--it happens to everybody.
W&M alumna Glenn Close ('74) to be recognized for award-winning acting career with "star" on Hollywood Walk of Fame.
What can an understanding of the genetics of yeast do to get us closer to a cure for cancer? Plenty.
William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research celebrates 20 years of work, opens a new lab and produces an index of projects.
Tom De Haven, the artist-in-residence at the College of William & Mary, teaches the principles of narrative and storytelling to undergraduates.
It's an impressive list - one that includes 20 individuals who are among the best and brightest faculty at the College of William and Mary. Now, they are also the inaugural recipients of the Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence.
Theater professor Steven Mitchell brings his experience with Nickelodeon and the Disney Corporation to the William and Mary Theater Department.
The College of William and Mary has established an endowed professorship in honor of a legendary bird conservationist who remains active even in retirement.
Susan Wise Bauer's "The Art of the Public Grovel" details the rise in the demand for public confession in America.
A music professor at the College of William and Mary has been named the Walt Whitman Distinguished Chair of American Culture by the Fulbright Center of the Netherlands. Katherine K. Preston, the David N. and Margaret C. Bottoms Professor of Music, will spend the spring 2009 semester at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Christina Romer ('81), who received her undergraduate degree in economics from the College of William and Mary, was named Nov. 24, 2008 as President-elect Obama's new director of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Students and faculty members in William and Mary's Department of Music have recently been treated to the time and talents of world-renowned violinist Charles Castleman.
With a few snips, a small group of scientists and leaders at William and Mary cut through a gold ribbon at the Integrated Science Center Thursday night, beginning a new era of research at the College.
Biologists complete a new aerial bird census of the Panama coastline. They logged more than 490,000 waterbirds—many of them familiar migrants.
The Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations issued an independent task force report on the Ministry of Interior in Iraq Nov. 14.
The Committee on Sustainability at the College of William and Mary has awarded the first round of projects for a greener campus.
Legum Professor of History Scott Nelson's childrens book, "Ain't Nothin but a Man" was recognized in October by the American Folklore Society's (AFS) 2008 Aesop Award.
George Srour ('05), who visited his alma mater recently, is just one of several recent William and Mary alumni who have gone on to create their own nonprofit and service organizations.
The vice provost for research at the College discusses his vision for research, the academic progression of students and the fact that "there are no excuses in the big leagues."
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller spoke on campus Oct. 31 about the FBI in the age after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
PLAID researchers spend the summer--along with the rest of the year--updating development data.
The College of William and Mary recently received nearly $2 million in grants to help prepare students to become science and math teachers in high-needs schools.
Paul Davies, associate professor of philosophy, suggests that advances in neuroscience and psychology call into question the existence of free will.
A panel discussion by W&M faculty on the fiscal crisis will be broadcast live via web stream at http://www.wm.edu/forum on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.
Four William and Mary faculty members will address issues surrounding the current financial crisis in a forum on Oct. 15.
William and Mary Theatre worked to bring the musical comedy "Damn Yankees" to life.
The College of William and Mary will host a forum, "Understanding the Current Financial: A Panel Discussion by William and Mary Faculty," Oct. 15, 2008 at 6 p.m. at the auditorium in the William and Mary Office of Admission.
Biosensors and other nanotech applications may hinge on gold-carbon films only a few atoms thick created by César Clavero and Ale Lukaszew.
The Devil's Advocate was named the winner of this year's Raft Debate, which challenged respresentatives from humanities, social sciences, and natural and computational sciences to defend their respective disciplines.
Three William and Mary professors are getting ready to duke it out in a battle of words, wits and cheap tricks during the annual Raft Debate, scheduled for Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Sadler Center.
William and Mary faculty are contributing to the Encyclopedia of Earth, which is described as "like Wikipedia with quality control."
Policy makers discussed how implementation of electronic health records could impact healthcare reform in Virginia.
PLAID, an interdisciplinary program at the College of William and Mary, will receive nearly $2 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
William and Mary students participated in the College's first combination service-learning, study-abroad trip to South Africa this summer.
Ravi Gupta, professor of religious studies at the College, thought it was a prank when he was first asked to meet the Pope.
William and Mary's theoretical physicists are anticipating the arrival of data that just may prove them wrong.
Meghan Dunne ('09) received a 2008 President's Award for Service to the Community.
William and Mary chemist William Starnes is a member of the inaugural class of the Southwest Virginia Walk of Fame.
Professor Dennis Taylor was recently awarded with one of the 2008 President's Awards for Service to the Community.
Winnie, the record-setting shorebird that surprised researchers with her long-distance flights, is down.
Mercury pollution is the subject of one of the first sustained Global Inquiry Groups at the College of William and Mary.
When associate professor of history Scott Nelson met rock star Bruce Springsteen backstage prior to a concert, their conversation reflected a chat between history buffs.
Now a few select students can spend the summer getting a head start on honors thesis research
The William and Mary internship at U.S. headquarters in Brussels for NATO is a unique opportunity for undergraduates at a unique time in history, according to Mitchell Reiss.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine visited the Integrated Science Center at the College of William and Mary as part of his Cabinet Community Day.
Eleven recent graduates of the College of William and Mary have been selected to receive Fulbright U.S. student or Austrian government scholarships.
William and Mary anthropologist Barbara King has refuted what she calls the mischaracterization of apes in The Washington Post.
A story featuring a William and Mary chemist's work with highly colored molecules has been featured on the LiveScience web site, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation.
Randy Coleman, associate professor of chemistry, has been recognized by Campus Technology Magazine.
The Early Music Ensemble, which performs medieval, renaissance and baroque music, released its first CD.
Roshan Patel may not be the king of beasts, but he seems to have found his place in the circle of life.
William and Mary professor Martin Fusi and one of his students produce a feature film on the campus.
Professors who are retiring from the College this summer plan to remain as busy as ever.
Audio feature: Barbara King talks about the scholarship behind her book 'Evolving God.'
Students in professor Larry Evans government class created their own campaign commercials.
So how do you put your best face forward when the audience is constantly changing?
Ah, fixed lifetime annuities. They're the sure thing: A check every month until you die. No matter what the market is doing - bull, bear or pig in a tutu - you're going to get paid.
