ACADEMICS
More Power
Bates faculty won $3.5 million in new outside grant funding last year.
Bates’ four academic divisions: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, interdisciplinary studies.
JAY BURNS
BATES IN BRIEF SPRING 20I7
It’s the type of computer that draws visitors. In this case, the visitor was Jeffrey Oishi, a new computational astrophysicist at Bates, who stopped by a ground-floor hub room in Kalperis Hall at 65 Campus Ave. to check out the college’s new high-performance computing cluster. Oishi and his student researchers are power users of the powerful new setup, using it to run models that explain how gases flow inside the atmospheres of giant planets like Jupiter. The Bates HPPC links 12 separate computers, known as nodes, with a total of 336 cores, the processing units that do the work. The whole setup is neatly stacked in an open-air cabinet in the hub room. Importantly, the HPCC is a shared resource. And while such clusters are not uncommon today, at some colleges they tend to be appropriated by a few faculty members. The Bates HPCC, however, is designed as a “community-based resource,” explains Andrew White, director of academic and client services for Information and Library Services. “Ours is for anyone who has the need to examine data in a deep way.” Jeffrey Oishi stands next to the cabinet holding the neatly stacked high-performance computing cluster.
Bates’ HPCC bates.edu/hpcc
Bavis Is New Papaioanou Professor A Bates professor since 2003, Ryan Bavis in 2016 became the second holder of the Helen A. Papaioanou Professorship in Biological Sciences, succeeding Pam Baker ’69, who retired in 2013. A respiratory physiologist, Bavis researches how the brain controls breathing, and his work is helping to explain how premature babies develop in highor low-oxygen settings. For the impressive way he involves students in his research, Bavis recently received a 2016 Mentor Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Biology Division. As one of his students told CUR, Bavis inspires his students to view “science as an ever-evolving collection of facts, ideas, and windows of opportunity.” Troop Count
Ryan Bavis credits “an army of students” with supporting his research. Here’s a count: 59: Number of thesis students he’s advised since 2003 27: Number of presentations at scholarly meetings PHYLLIS GRABER JENSEN
with student co-authors
20: Number of publications that include student co-authors
10
Spring 2017