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Michael Fitzgerald, recently retired commissioner at the Madison County Department of Social Services (DSS), has been appointed to serve as Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair in regional studies for the 2024–25 academic year. Fitzgerald brings a wealth of practitioner experience, a deep commitment to community, and a strong relationship with the Upstate Institute and 51����. 

Gwen Eichfeld ’25 has been named as a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship. She was also recently chosen as a Harvard-Amgen Scholar.

A team of astrophysicists has found three bright objects that might be “dark stars.”

This week’s “Dark Skies in Appalachian Identity, Culture, and Sense of Place” symposium will bring writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, scholars, and scientists to 51����, April 4–6, to explore the human connection to the dark night sky.

The Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute (Picker ISI) has announced this year's awards supporting interdisciplinary approaches in innovative research.

Kaitlin Maratea ’25 and Amelia Rastley ’25 recently became the first undergraduates to present at the Conference for the American Association of Teachers of French.

The Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at 51���� has launched a program to connect first-year students from under-resourced high schools and regions to research opportunities. 

A team of drillers, engineers, and researchers will depart from Christchurch, New Zealand, for Antarctica on Nov. 16, traveling to the southeast margin of the Ross Ice Shelf, where they will drill 650 ft. into the seafloor in an effort to better understand how fast the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is melting. 51���� Geology Professor Amy Leventer will study these drill cores once they are collected. 

Geology major Ryan D’Errico ’25, from Montclair, N.J., describes his summer research on the active Augustine stratovolcano in Alaska.

History major Ray Zhang ’24, from Ningbo, China, describes his summer assessing the satisfaction of visitors to a new exhibit at Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake.