Colgate University Athletics

Complete Bio

Get to Know Faculty Liaison -- Ephraim Woods

The Colgate faculty liaison program provides Colgate student-athletes with the opportunity to develop working relationships with Colgate faculty members outside the classroom or formal advising environment in an effort to enhance their academic and athletic experience.
 
Faculty liaisons can function in many roles, including providing additional academic guidance for student-athletes and coaches, educating student-athletes about educational expectations and policies, and providing a link between academic faculty and the Colgate athletic program. The program also establishes a formal connection between each head coach and a member of the academic faculty.
 
This collaboration can provide an additional level of assistance for student-athletes in developing a positive and productive balance among academic, athletic, and co-curricular commitments. The faculty liaison program is administered jointly by the offices of the Dean of the Faculty and the Vice President/Director of Athletics.
 
Name and Liaison to Which Team
Ephraim Woods III, Men's Basketball
Professor of Chemistry
 
What I Like About Being a Faculty Liaison
I enjoy getting to know the student-athletes on the team.
 
Influential Person in My Career
Fleming Crim, my Ph.D. advisor
 
Idea or Invention I Wish I Had Thought of...
Fake answer: Density Functional Theory
Real answer: Google's search ranking algorithm
 
Favorite Hero
Richard Feynman
 
Favorite Possession
My guitars. They aren't as cool as Aaron Robertson's, but, hey, are still pretty cool.
 
Favorite Sports Memory
I have many great memories, but the 1978 NCAA men's basketball tournament championship is a particularly fond one. Kentucky beat Duke 94-88 and Goose Givens had 41 points. I got to meet all the starters on that team (as is every Kentuckian's right) and it was a really big deal to me. I have some good memories of being an athlete myself, but they are better left in my head.
 
Favorite Memento
A baseball whose cover I knocked off – I don't think it was in great condition before I hit it, but still.
 
Favorite Magazine, Hard-Copy or Online
Science
 
Favorite Music Genre, Singer or Group
My favorite group is Yes, especially the stuff between 1970 and 1978. Although there's plenty of good stuff before and after that period, too.
 
Favorite Book
I just spent way too long thinking about this one, and I'm no closer to an answer. Pass.
 
Favorite Movie
Star Wars
 
Favorite Quote
"Chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost maniacal impulse to seek their pleasures amongst smoke and vapor, soot and flames, poisons and poverty, yet amongst all these evils I seem to live so sweetly that I would rather die than change places with the King of Persia."
– Johann Joachim Becher, Physica subterranea (1667)

Full bio HERE