Back in 2006, an Alfred University (AU) freshman named Ian Cramer (AU ’10) had a vision, one in which student transportation and the scenic outdoors of Alfred could complement, rather than contrast, one another. The means towards accomplishing his vision? The bicycle.

Alfred University inducted five former student-athletes into its Athletics Hall of Fame during an on-campus banquet Saturday, Oct. 6, during the University’s annual Homecoming celebration.

Actor and Academy Award nominee Robert Forster, an Alfred University (AU) student in the ’60s, will return to campus Thursday, Oct. 18, for the first time since 1998 when he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University.

Professor Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, will deliver the annual Leonard and Saradona Lefkowitz Lecture in Jewish Studies at Alfred University on Monday, Oct. 22, at 5:15 p.m. in Nevins Theater, Powell Campus Center. The lecture is free and open to the public; a reception and book-signing will follow.

The Music Department in the Performing Arts Division, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Alfred University will present Organ Spectacular III on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. at the Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church, 5 Church St.

The event is free to the public; free-will donations will be accepted to benefit the church’s organ fund.

New products for energy, environmental, and medical applications depend on development of new materials, many of them ceramic-based. Alfred University (AU), with its international reputation in ceramics, glass, and materials science, is helping to create those new materials.

And a new Center for High-Temperature Characterization of Materials, dedicated Friday (Oct. 5) afternoon, will help researchers analyze the new materials and their characteristics, an integral step in development of new products.

The School of Art and Design at Alfred University will welcome visiting artist Mark Dion on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7:15 p.m., in Holmes Auditorium, Harder Hall, when he will present a multi-media lecture, “An Illuminating Explication of Recent World-Wide Experiments in Thinking in Three Dimensions.”

The program is open to the public free of charge.

Gary Ostrower, the Joseph K. Kruson Distinguished Professor of history at Alfred University (AU), will present “Searching for Auschwitz” as the next installment of AU’s ongoing Bergren Forum series.

Chris Wood, eBird and neotropical birds project leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will present “eBird: Where Birding, Science and Conservation Meet” as part of Alfred University’s Environmental Studies Seminar Series.

E-news is an electronic newsletter for Alfred University alumni and friends to provide the latest in alumni news and events, campus happenings, and sports. If you have news to share in classnotes or in our online magazine, please contact Debbie Clark, alumni publications editor, or you may call her at 607.871.2040.