Ruth J. Weaver was chosen by the faculty to speak at graduation. The daughter of Katie Kent and Ben Weaver of Williamstown, she has completed seven Advanced Placement courses and spent a semester in a Williams College dual enrollment seminar studying 19th-century British literature. Exceptionally talented, she has a passion for acting, music and classics. In roles as varied as Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly! to The Tempest s Prospero, Weaver has mesmerized all with her on-stage theatrical performances for the past six years both in school and at local repertory companies. She also participated in the performing arts band playing both the alto and baritone saxophones. Her performances in Greylock Plays are captivating, and she is as generous on stage as she is talented. As a member of the Junior Classical League, she moved through the leadership ranks serving as a local technical coordinator, publications editor, local president and eventually the state secretary.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Bob Rawle recently published a paper that corrects some misunderstandings about how the West Nile Virus operates and creates a pathway for further research that could lead to the development of an anti-viral drug in the future. Chemistry majors Olivia Graceffa ’22 and Abe Park ’22 contributed to his research and co-authored the paper, published in the November issue of the American Chemical Society’s
Infectious Disease journal.
Before joining the Williams faculty in 2018, Rawle, a biophysical chemist, was a postdoctoral fellow in a joint research collaboration between Stanford University and the University of Virginia. At Stanford, he used a computer model developed to understand West Nile Virus to study a virus from the same family Zika Virus. Viruses in this family are transmitted by mosquitos and can cause everything from mild symptoms to severe illness.