Duke University Alumni Magazine

     Sutherland, who did graduate work in classical studies at Duke, gave a slide presentation in March on the glass artistry and told how he documented all seventy-seven windows. While a member of the Chapel Choir in the Eighties, he says he spent much of his time staring up at the glass, but could never figure out the sequence in which the biblical images were displayed.

      When he started asking around, he discovered there was no more than a superficial understanding of the windows. University Archives had a list, but it only identified the main figures in each window. Examining the windows through binoculars proved to be a literal pain in the neck, so he devised a project to photograph each window for proper identification.

Sutherland: project documents chapel windows Photo: Les Todd

     Sutherland and his assistants would unbolt several pews and roll the bottom section of the metal scaffolding in place. They could move only twenty feet of scaffolding at a time. If the tower were any higher, it could topple. Once it was positioned, the team would assemble the upper thirty feet on top of the base. Sutherland would climb the shaky structure and fasten it to columns inside the chapel. Then he would wait for the sunlight. "The morning sun only hits the north-side windows briefly," he explains. "I would have the tower built, and I would be sitting at the top waiting for dawn. The light would hit the windows and it would take me about two hours to photograph each one." Then, to photograph the south side, the team would have to dismantle the scaffolding, rebolt the pews, unbolt another set, and again manipulate the steel framework into place. In all, the project took five weeks. Sutherland studied the Bible as he went about his project and figured out the windows' patterns. Old Testament figures appear on the upper level. The lower level depicts episodes in the lives of Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John. The lower level begins with the Annunciation, when an angel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her she would give birth to a divine messenger; the lower-level windows end with an illustration of an aged John on the Greek island of Patmos.

     Duke Chapel's stained glass was created by G. Owen Bonawit of New York, who, with the help of fifteen other artists and craftsmen, worked for five years to fashion the windows, according to dates Bonawit recorded in one of the panes. University Archivist William E. King '61, A.M. '63, Ph.D. '70 says Sutherland's project is valuable because it serves as a kind of insurance policy in case of damage from vandals or storms. Before the photography project, there was no detailed record of the chapel's windows in case replacements or repairs were necessary. Sutherland's slides are available for viewing at Duke University Archives in Perkins Library.

     While "total body photography" has become a common tool to help physicians screen patients at high risk for melanoma, physician James Grichnik believes that he is the first to take the additional step of preserving photographs of his patients' skin on compact discs for computers. Bringing this new technology to the clinical setting is important, he says, since the incidence of malignant melanoma is in-creasing faster than any other cancer--and because the earlier a melanoma is removed, the higher the cure rate. For high-risk patients, the key to early detection is regular, thorough skin examinations to identify suspicious changes in existing moles, according to researchers.

     In recent years, dermatologists have used photographs of patients' skin surfaces-total body photography-to create a baseline to guide future examinations. Grichnik, an assistant professor of medicine, combines conventional photography with compact disc technology to create a digital baseline. He also uses hand-held microscopy and a new computer database to track his patients.

     Patients who come to the pigmented lesion clinic directed by Grichnik and who are determined to be at high risk for melanoma are photographed from thirty-three different angles, covering as much of the skin surface as possible. Instead of being stored as slides or prints, the images are transferred to CD-ROMs, which look like the compact discs that transform digital messages into music. The discs are economical to create, easy to store, and convenient to use, according to Grichnik.

     Each patient has his or her own CD-ROM. When the patient comes in for a visit, Grichnik pops the disc into his computer and makes a direct comparison between moles on the patient's skin and the images on his computer screen, where he can easily zoom in on specific moles. For now, the CD-ROM record remains at Duke. However, it may one day become a part of the patient's electronic medical record. "As other clinics develop the technology, it potentially could be transferred with the patient and electronically reproduced," he says.

     Epiluminescence, a procedure carried out with a hand-held microscope, allows Grichnik to look even more closely at any moles that appear to have changed.

     The results of each screening are entered into a computerized database that Grichnik developed with the assistance of Cancer Center computer programmer Barry Shelton. The database facilitates patient care, Grichnik says, and will provide data for his research into the factors that result in melanoma. The primary goal of the high-tech approach, according to the physician-scientist, is the earliest possible recognition of the changes that signal a potential cancer. "The real key is for patients to recognize their risk and to get regular, high-quality screens," Grichnik says. "CD-ROMs and epiluminescence just give us new tools to determine moles that are changing and, therefore, need to be removed."

     The rewards of prompt detection can be substantial. The five-year survival rate for patients with localized malignant melanoma is 94 percent. Five-year rates for disease that has spread regionally and distantly are 60 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

     "If you catch melanoma in its earliest, thin stages, local surgical treatment alone can often result in a high cure rate," Grichnik explains. "More invasive, thicker tumors are more lethal and require more aggressive treatment."

     Since 1973, the growth rate of new melanoma cases has been approximately 4 percent each year, according to the American Cancer Society, which anticipates 38,300 new cases and 7,300 deaths this year. "According to various estimates, the risk of contracting melanoma in 1935 was about one in 1,500," Grichnik points out. "It looks like now we are approaching a risk of one in ninety, with some estimates approaching one in seventy-five by 2010."

Eiko & Koma: to perform at Duke Gardens pond Photo: Yuta Otake

     Since graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964, where she studied dance, composition, and music, Monk has created more than eighty music/theater/dance and film works. She received a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 1995, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis Creative Arts Award, three Obies (including an award for Sustained Achievement), two Villager Awards, a Bessie for Sustained Creative Achievement, the 1986 National Music Theater Award, sixteen ASCAP Awards for Musical Composition, and the 1992 Dance Magazine Award. Her recordings "Dolmen Music" and "Our Lady of Late" were both honored with the German Critics prize for Best Records of 1981 and 1986. Her film Ellis Island won the CINE Golden Eagle Award, was awarded prizes at the Atlanta and San Francisco Film Festivals, and was shown nationally by PBS.

     In 1994, her "American Archaeology," a site-specific music-theater dance work performed outdoors, premiered on Roosevelt Island in New York City. She is working on an opera, tentatively titled "The Politics of Quiet," scheduled to premiere in Copenhagen and Avignon this summer.

     The ADF also announced its summer schedule, year two of its five-year celebration of a hundred years of modern dance. Returning in June and July are the popular Pilobolus Dance Theater; the dance companies of Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor; Dayton Contemporary Dance Company; the Mark Morris Dance Group; and Mark Dendy Dance & Theater. Eiko & Koma will be performing in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at twilight within the Teien-oike Garden Pond, with "seating" along the north shore. Debuting are the Parsons Dance Company, featuring Paul Taylor alumnus David Parsons, and the American Repertory Dance Company. International performers include Lenka Flory from the Czech Republic and Joao Fiadeiro & Vera Mantero from Portugal. Tickets and information are available by calling the Page Auditorium Box Office at (919) 684-4444

     Bradley focused his remarks on the need for national leadership. A strong leader gives people a sense of hope, unlocks their potential, and takes them to task for lying to themselves about problems like race relations, he said. He said his vision for the country is a "pluralistic, multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic democracy where people not only vote, but participate-a democracy with a growing economy that takes everybody, not just a few, to higher ground."

     Stagnant wages and the "downsizing" of businesses have people fearful about the economy, he said. An "economic security platform" would require companies to pay for at least one year of health care for a laid-off worker and his or her family; it would also provide for portable pensions and a lifetime education, allowing people "to ride the rapids of these times." Bradley said the public should use its collective power to judge corporations not only on their profit margins but also on their environmental record, their involvement in the community, and their treatment of workers.

     Bradley urged deeper consideration of the moral and spiritual dimensions of individual lives, a searching for something "deeper than material possessions." He said the level of materialism in American culture is "shocking." He also called for more direct and honest conversations about race relations. "How do you have better race relations without engagement? How do you have engagement without candor? How do you have candor without trust?" Americans should challenge those whites who play the "race card" and those blacks who play the "racist card," he said.

     Declaring he would not be leaving public life entirely after eighteen years in the Senate, Bradley said he wants to "think through this next chapter of the American story," and would push for campaign finance reforms, among other priorities. "Money in politics is a little like ants in the kitchen," he said. "You've either got to get them all out or the few you don't will find a way to stay in."

     Bradley's speech was the first in the newly created Lester Crown Lecture Series in Ethics. The series will bring outside speakers to campus to discuss the ethical implications of arts, sciences, medicine, business, and other fields.

Goodall: celebrating the Primate Center's thirtieth Duke University photography

     Goodall began her research in 1960, recruited by anthropologist Louis Leakey to study the chimpanzees of Tanzania. In 1965, she earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge University and returned to Africa to establish the Gombe Stream Research Center. She has conducted research there ever since.

     Among her findings: Chimpanzees are more closely related to humans, biologically and behaviorally, than any other living creature; they show higher-level intellectual abilities once thought unique to humans; they make and use tools; they communicate not only through calls, but with gestures such as kissing, embracing, and holding hands; and they maintain close family bonds throughout life.

     In 1977, Goodall established The Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The institute supports a wide range of programs to help chimpanzees and encourage environmental literacy in young people. For example, the in-stitute's Chimp Guardian Program supports rehabilitation and conservation of orphan rescued chimpanzees. The institute's ChimpanZoo Project aids behavioral studies of captive chimpanzees. And the Roots & Shoots Program for youth supports hands-on envi-ronmental education activities.

     Duke's Primate Center began with a small collection of lemurs moved to Duke from Yale University in 1966 by primatologist John Buettner-Janusch. In 1977, anthropologist Elwyn Simons became the center's director and was the principal architect in building the col- lection to its current size and scope. Simons, James B. Duke professor of biological anthro pology and anatomy, is now the center's scientific director.

     The Primate Center is supported by the National Science Foundation, the university, and private donations. Duke is the only university that concentrates on studying and protecting prosimians such as lemurs, lorises, and galagoes. The center houses about 500 animals of twenty-two species; it also houses the country's most important collection of lemur fossils, numbering in the thousands, as well as fossils of the earliest evolutionary ancestors of monkeys, apes, and humans.

     Maria Sanders of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and Robert "Bill" Schloss Jr. of Sumter, South Carolina, will receive $3,000 each in their senior year and up to $27,000 each for graduate study in preparation for careers in public service. Truman Scholars also participate in leadership development programs and have special opportunities for internships and employment with the federal government. The scholarships were established by Congress in honor of President Harry Truman.

     Sanders, a political science major, plans to enter a joint degree program after graduation that will lead to a J.D. in law and a master's in political science. Her career goals include working as a public defender and then public office, or possibly a judicial position.

     Schloss is completing two majors-biology and visual arts-as well as a certificate in neuroscience. He is attorney general of Duke Student Government and chairs its Academic Affairs Committee. He plans to pursue a joint doctor of medicine and master of public health degree, with a career goal of working in a public health institution.

     Duke was one of seventeen colleges and universities nationwide to be selected as a 1996 Truman Scholarship Honor Institution. The new award acknowledges outstanding contributions to the Truman Scholarship Foundation. Since the competition began in 1977, Duke has had twenty-two Truman Scholars, who are chosen based on their commitment to a public service career, their leadership potential, and their academic record.

     Elizabeth Ayer of Los Angeles, California, was selected by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States to receive its prestigious scholarship. Founded in 1959, the program awards just ten scholarships annually for graduate work in engineering,mathematics, and science. A political science major, she will study next year at England's Churchill College of Cambridge University. The award covers all tuition and fees, as well as living and travel allowances, totaling $22,000.

     Among her accomplishments, Ayer is credited with creating the ACES (Automated Computer Enrollment System) catalogue on the World Wide Web, an Internet site that allows students to index and read about courses offered at Duke. She is also an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar.