Union in the Media

Union recently hosted the 11th annual Rube Goldberg Engineering Competition at Memorial Fieldhouse.

The contest is named for the late Rube Goldberg, an engineer and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. His cartoons, depicting “inventions” that epitomized “man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results,” appeared in thousands of daily newspapers between 1914 and 1964.

Teams of middle and high school students had to build a machine that could plant a tree.

James N. Hedrick, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the contest chair. The competition was coordinated by the Engineering program. Other event sponsors include GE Volunteers, KAPL, Bechtel and the Schenectady Museum.

The Daily Gazette

Baruch Samuel Blumberg ‘46, whose work led to an effective hepatitis B vaccine and earned him a Nobel Prize in Medicine, died Tuesday, April 5, after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 85.

Blumberg was expected to return to campus for ReUnion weekend next month to deliver the keynote address at the dedication of the Peter Irving Wold Center, a $22 million, three-story, 35,000-square-foot research and education facility.

He earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in physics at Union in 1946, and received an honorary doctor of laws from the College in 1977.

In October 2007, Blumberg was among the first group to be featured in Union Notables, a rotating exhibit in Schaffer Library that celebrates the great men and women who have studied at Union over two centuries and gone on to make leading contributions in their fields.

Dozens of Newspapers and publications around the world published an obituary on Blumberg, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.

Charles Steckler, professor of theater and resident scenic designer, is the featured artist in a solo exhibition, “Charles Steckler: Sketcher Recalls,” at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy. The show features a selection of 24 pen and ink drawings from Steckler’s series, Per Passa il Tempo, meaning passing of time. The exhibit runs through April 22 in the President’s Gallery.

To read about the exhibit in the Times Union, click here.

Geology professor John Garver was quoted in a Times Union story about two area nuclear reactors that sit near two fault lines in a region with a history of earthquakes.

Hilary Tann, the John Howard Payne Professor of Music, will be spending her spring break as guest composer for the 2011 Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Highlights of her stay include open rehearsals, composition master classes and a University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra concert featuring two of Tann’s orchestra works.

The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester

Union hosted the third annual conference on the physical aspects of the Mohawk River watershed on Friday, March 18.

The daylong symposium in the F.W. Olin Center featured nearly two dozen presentations on topics including flooding, ecosystem analysis, water quality, and the management and future of the watershed.

U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko was the keynote speaker

The conference was organized by John Garver, geology professor and Jaclyn Cockburn, who teaches Earth science and geology at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The Daily Gazette

Ballet legend Jacques d’Amboise, former New York City Ballet principal dancer, visited campus recently to work with dance students, have afternoon tea at the President’s House and sign copies of his new book.

“I Was a Dancer: A Memoir” (Knopf) recounts his 35 years with the company as a protégé of founder and choreographer George Balanchine, one the 20th century’s iconic artists.

D’Amboise, 76, led students in their warm-up on stage at the Yulman Theater Thursday before the evening’s performance of the Winter Dance Concert.

The Times Union

Geology Professor John Garver, an expert on the water flow of the Mohawk River, recently talked to CBS affiliate WRGB Channel 6 about the potential for flooding due to heavy rains and snow melt.

The Daily Gazette recently featured U Break, a new student club on campus.

Christopher F. Chabris, an assistant professor of psychology, recently reviewed David Brooks' "The Social Animal," for the Wall Street Journal.

Chabris joined Union in the fall of 2007. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University, where he was a research associate and lecturer.

Chabris and Daniel J. Simons, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, are the authors of the recent book, “The Invisible Gorilla, And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.”