Our Current Team

LEVITT RESEARCHER

Simon Le (Hamilton ‘25) is an Economics major with a minor in History. Simon is passionate about analyzing the dynamics between economic systems and historical events and aims to explore socio-economic relationships across different markets. While analyzing documents of materia medica, he hopes to center more Latin American voices in a historical context.

LEVITT RESEARCHER

Lara Barreira (Hamilton ’25) is a Posse Scholar and majors in History. Her work will focus on adding Latin-American and Spanish archives to our dataset, as well as tracing the intersections of magic and healing practices in early modern medicine. Lara aims to give credit and voice through interviews and oral histories to create a more holistic and ethical historical understanding of pharmacopeias.

Emma Tomlins (Hamilton ’23) has been a member of New World Nature since 2020. At Hamilton, she studied history with a double minor in French and literature. Her senior honors thesis is titled “The Physician Inside the System: The Botanical Contributions of Euricius Cordus’ Botanologicon (1534), Laurent Joubert’s La Pharmacopee (1592), and Andrea Cesalpino’s De Medicamentorum Facultatibus (1593).” She is continuing on to complete an MPhil in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine at the University of Cambridge.

EMERSON FELLOW

Annie Kennedy is an undergraduate student concentrating in chemistry and economics at Hamilton College. She is originally from Chicago, Illinois. She is interested in sustainable energy systems, inorganic chemistry, and the history of science. After graduation, she plans to enter the field of science communication.

Naima Akter is a rising senior at Hamilton College. Previously a member of the New World Nature 2022 Summer Research Group, she now conducts interdisciplinary research under the guidance of Professor Mackenzie Cooley and Professor Max Majireck. She hopes to use the history of several medicaments and materia medica to guide current biochemical research. Naima is also interested in the idea of using biochemical analyses to understand historically renowned but understudied plants such as the Manchineel and Chichen.

LEVITT RESEARCHER

Cole Wassiliew, a rising sophomore at Hamilton , joins the group to engage in interdisciplinary research. His research focuses on quantifying material medica through a comparative price index to trace evolving values over time. Cole is particularly interested in the Cairo Genizah collection’s medicinal inventories.