The Lens Magazine is proud to announce it has received the Gold Medalist ranking from Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), garnering 995/1000 points in the evaluation. The CSPA, one of the most prestigious press associations in the country, serves student journalists by conducting yearly contests in order to encourage improvements in undergraduate literary publications. Besides obtaining the 2009 Gold Medalist ranking, the Lens has received a number of other accolades: First Class from the Associated Collegiate Press, Silver Crown Award from the CSPA, and Second Place Newspaper of the Year Award presented by the National College Newspaper Convention.

"Monster," a short story by Rebekah Frumkin '12 (Libertyville, Ill.), is featured in the 2009 edition of Best American Nonrequired Reading (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), edited by award-winning author Dave Eggers. Described by its editors as an "offbeat but vital anthology," Best American Nonrequired Reading is renowned for bringing together the country's best fiction, journalism, humor, essays and comics while simultaneously introducing a vast readership to dozens of new writers and publications each year.

Alex Freeman, assistant professor of music, will have his chamber composition "Blueshift" performed by The Society for New Music in Syracuse in conjunction with Syracuse University's Syracuse Symposium celebrating light in October.

Professor of Physics Nelson Christensen, along with research associate Marie Anne Bizouard (on sabbatical from the University of Paris-South), Tomoki Isoagai (Carleton Class of 2010), Greg Ely (Carleton Class of 2008), and Santiago Caride (Carleton Class of 2008), are the co-authors of an important paper recently published in Nature Magazine entitled "An Upper Limit on the Amplitude of Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background of Cosmological Origin."

Professor of Psychology and Director of Neuroscience, Julie Neiworth, recently published an article in Current Directions of Psychological Science on "Thinking About Me: How Social Awareness Evolved." This invited piece in this prestigious journal reviews much of Neiworth's research on social awareness in primates.

Associate professor of mathematics Eric Egge gave a talk on "Permutations Invariant under rc and Avoiding 4321" in July at the seventh annual international conference on permutation patterns in Florence, Italy.

Nicholas "Nico" Vreeland, Carleton Class of 2003, has been nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre (IT) Award for Outstanding Short Script for his play "The Interview," which was part of an evening of one acts called "Elephants on Parade 2009," produced by the EBE Ensemble. The nominees were announced at a sold-out event in New York City in July that was attended by over 500 artists and guests. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on September 21, 2009.

Jennifer A. Pietenpol, Carleton College Class of 1986, and the B.F. Boyd Jr. Professor of Molecular Oncology and professor of biochemistry, cancer biology and otolaryngology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been elected to The Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. Pietenpol and 14 other esteemed scientists and clinicians were honored during the Society's 50th induction ceremony on May 20 and again at the University's commencement ceremony on May 21.

Steven Schier, Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, has published a new edited volume from the University of Pittsburgh Press, entitled "Ambition and Division: Legacies of the George W. Bush Presidency."

Neil Lutsky, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Psychology, gave the keynote address at Spelman College's opening faculty retreat on August 13. His talk was entitled "Curricular Sudoku: Quantitative Reasoning Across The Curriculum." He also served as the consultant for Spelman and Smith Colleges' collaborative workshop at Spelman held August 12 on ePortfolios and QR Assessment.

Alex Freeman, assistant professor of music, will have his Sonata for Piano (2000) featured in an alumni recital at Wheaton College in September. Freeman's composition will be performed by Brian Lee, who recorded the work this summer, thanks to a targeted opportunity grant from Carleton, and who visited the College in 2008 as part of the Christopher U. Light Lectureship in Music.

Professor of Linguistics Michael Flynn recently gave two talks in Japan: "Ideogram and Morpheme at Kanji" at Kyoto University and "Kanji from a Linguistic Point of View" at Chuo University.