SUNY Geneseo Student Ambassador Matthew McClure, the 2014 Gerard Gouvernet Ambassador in French Language and Culture in the Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development, has spent time in Haiti improving his oral French and Haitian Creole while making lasting friendships. The center is accepting ambassadorship applications for 2016-17 through Jan. 29.

GENESEO, N.Y. – Gwendolyn Simmons, professor of religion at the University of Florida, will deliver the keynote address Jan. 27 during Geneseo’s weeklong commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Her address, titled “Inconvenient Hero: Martin Luther King” begins at 7 p.m. in Alice Austin Theatre and is open to the public without charge.

GENESEO, N.Y. – SUNY Geneseo’s production of the musical “Nine” will employ aerial arts and live-feed video rarely used in Rochester-area theatrical productions.

The Department of Music is staging the Tony Award-winning production Jan. 20-24 in Wadsworth Auditorium. The Wednesday through Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m.; the Sunday matinee begins at 2 o’clock. General admission tickets are $15 and are available online. Due to some adult situations, the musical is not appropriate for young children.

GENESEO, N.Y. – The 2001 Nobel Laureate in physics, Wolfgang Ketterle, will deliver the 2016 Robert “Duke” Sells lecture in physics Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. in Newton Hall Room 202.

Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will address “The Coolest Use of Light – How to Make the Coldest Matter in the Universe.” The lecture is free and open to the public. 

A 2006 SUNY Geneseo graduate, Liz Allen, has been named White House deputy communications director and deputy assistant to the president.

Allen has served in the Obama administration in various capacities since his election in 2008, most recently as special assistant to the president for message planning. She also served in Vice President Joe Biden’s press office and eventually became his deputy director of communications.

Allen majored in political science and international relations at Geneseo.