Boston College

Fourteen students and two faculty members took part in a two-day ”Clowning Intensive Workshop” January 25 and 26, at the Brighton Dance Studio. Taught by Susan Thompson of the theater department, who studied at the Jacques Lecoq International Theater School in Paris, the program is part of a series of movement workshops created to augment department offerings. Workshop activities included improvisation exercises, nonverbal games of one-upsmanship, and an outlandish fashion show—all designed to sharpen students’ abilities to play the fool in order to establish audience rapport. “It was difficult because we were asked to do things we’re not used to doing,” commented theater faculty member Sheppard Barrett (above, center, in the red vest). “But we got to keep our noses. That was good.”

More than 250 members of the Boston College community attended an ecumenical gathering in the Heights Room on the evening of January 21 to celebrate the “calling and legacy” of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hosted by Campus Ministry, the program included choral music by the United Voices of Freedom—a choir comprising Against the Current, the Liturgy Arts Group, and Voices of Imani—as well as a presentation by Phaymus, a campus dance ensemble. Former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania Charles Stith, who is director of Boston University’s African Presidential Archives and Research Center, delivered a homily. Two student speakers, Jeremy Marks ’09 and Jacqueline Grant ’08, the current Martin Luther King Scholar, offered reflections. Above (l-r), Benjamin Lee ’08, Ambassador Stith, and Gabriel Shirley ’12, take part in the celebration.

The December 2007 issue of the scientific journal Nature reported findings by a team of University researchers on superconductivity—the transmission of electricity with zero energy loss at very low temperatures. Vidya Madhavan, assistant professor of physics, led a team of researchers whose findings shed light on the “glue” that enables electrons to bind during superconductive transmission, thereby eliminating the resistance that causes energy loss. In the photo above (l-r), Madhavan speaks with Ph.D. candidates Francis Niestemski and Shankar Kunwar on January 11 in their Higgins Hall laboratory, which contains a scanning tunneling microscope and related apparatus that measure the flow of electricity with atomic-scale precision. “If you can understand how superconductors work, you might be able to develop technologies that function at room temperature,” according to Madhavan. Such technologies, she explained, could more than double the efficiency of electricity transmission.