Author, scientist and musician Benzon highlights Student Research Symposium;

Fifth annual conference at Goshen College April 12

GOSHEN, Ind. — Author, scientist and musician Dr. William Benzon will highlight a day of student research as the plenary speaker on April 12 at 12:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Room of College Mennonite Church during Goshen College’s Fifth Annual Student Research Symposium. His speech is titled “Magic of the Bell: Music and the Making of Community” and he is the author of “Beethoven’s Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture” (2001). The lecture is free and open to the public.

The day will begin at 8:30 a.m. in College Church and sessions during the day will include 20-minute presentations by students from many disciplines across campus.

Benzon’s career spans cognitive science to art and music to the World Wide Web. Currently a free-lance writer, he was previously a senior scientist with MetaLogics Inc., where he worked on knowledge representation and information design for Web-based health services. He developed a Web-based tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. that was recognized by Publisher’s Weekly. He has been a consultant to NASA, the U.S. Air Force, New York State and private corporations.

He previously taught in the department of language, literature, and communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has published scholarly articles, reviews and technical reports on African-American music, literary analysis and theory, cultural evolution, cognition and brain theory, visual thinking and technical communication.

As a jazz musician, Benzon plays trumpet and flugelhorn, and has shared the stage with Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, Frank Foster, Al Grey and Nick Brignola. He is cofounder of the AfroEurasian Connection, a musical ensemble which has been supported by the New York State Foundation for the Arts, and has exhibited computer art in the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island.

The diversity and breadth of Benzon’s interests parallels that of student research presentations during the rest of the day. Topics of the presentations range from short-term memory capacity to the community band tradition to Mennonite masculinity to perfect numbers.

David Mosley, professor of music and humanities and symposium coordinator, said the presentations represent months and years of intensive research in the sciences, social sciences or humanities subjects, outside of students’ regular class assignments.

The mission of the Goshen College Research Symposium is to acknowledge original undergraduate research, which already plays an essential role in the college’s academic program, and to encourage students and faculty to contribute to the larger conversation about knowing and knowledge that sustains the academy.

The conference is free and open to the public. Those who want lunch will need to register at 8:30 a.m. in the hallway outside the Fellowship Room in College Church, though there is no charge for lunch. For more information, call (574) 535-7368.

Goshen College is a national liberal arts college known for leadership in international education, service-learning and peace and justice issues in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program and exceptional educational value, GC serves about 1,000 students in both traditional and nontraditional programs. The college earned citations of excellence among U.S.News & World Report and Barron’s Best Buys in Higher Education. For more information, visit www.goshen.edu.

Editors: For information, contact Jodi Hochstedler at (574) 535-7572 or jodih@goshen.edu.

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