Jul - Aug 2004 Issue

Duke has renewed its trademark license contract with Lands' End, following the resolution of complaints about labor practices at an apparel factory in El Salvador that produces clothing bearing Duke trademarks.

Reading List We asked ocean-sciences professors in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences: What is your favorite beach read--literally, a book about the ocean?

A little more than six years ago, Orin Starn, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Duke, went looking for Ishi's brain. Ishi was the last survivor of the Yahi, a small Native American tribe that inhabited the foothills of northern California. In 1911, Ishi wandered into the town of Oroville, California.

Sharks have always fascinated people, and fictionalized horror stories such as Jaws have fueled America's sensationalized view of these ancient predators as bloodthirsty man-eaters.

 

From 1958 to 1962, Italy was booming. "Everything grows," wrote the novelist Luciano Bianciardi.

Two Duke rising seniors have won Truman scholarships, which recognize academic accomplishments, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in public service. Philip Kurian, a public-policy and physics major from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and Anthony Vitarelli, a public-policy and economics major from Marlton, New Jersey, were notified of their award in April by President Nannerl O. Keohane.

 Devil’s delight: dancing at fund-raising celebration. 

Engineers from Duke say they have made progress building so-called "smart nanostructures," including billionths-of-a-meter-scale "nanobrushes" that can selectively and reversibly sprout from surfaces in response to changes in temperature or solvent chemistry.

I just graduated from Duke and I don't have a job. Help!

Even small amounts of alcohol boost the pleasurable effects of nicotine, inducing people to smoke more when drinking alcoholic beverages, according to tests conducted by Duke Medical Center researchers. The findings provide a physiological explanation for the common observation that people smoke more in bars.

Paper

 

  Pilobolus: Making six equal two. Photo: John Kane

In the third annual Duke Magazine Campus Forum, retiring Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane had a public conversation with Frank H.T. Rhodes, a geologist who is president emeritus of Cornell University. When he retired in 1995, after eighteen years, Rhodes was recognized as the longest-serving Ivy League president and as an eloquent national advocate for education and research.

Charles Ogburn has a surprising answer for people who want to know where he took his family for vacation this year."I took them to the Persian Gulf," says Ogburn '77. "They had a great time."

On March 26, 1989, in East Rutherford,New Jersey, the Blue Devils won the East Regional Finals of the NCAA Tournament, defeating Georgetown 85-77 in overtime. Last November, they did it again, this time on a TV screen in the parking lot outside Wallace Wade stadium. Duke had just lost to N.C. State in football, but one group of middle-aged Duke fans--turtlenecks, cuffed khakis, wedding rings, penny loafers--refused to end the day in defeat. Instead, they gathered around a mini TV set up on the tailgate of a Toyota Landcruiser, popped a tape into the VCR, and relived the glory:

When Duke's eighth president, Nannerl O. Keohane, delivered her Founders' Day address last October, something annoying happened. The Duke Chapel carried not just Keohane's voice but also the persistent beeping of a construction vehicle as it shifted into reverse gear. Annoying, yet appropriate.

Duke's board of trustees, meeting in May, created the Nannerl O. Keohane University Professorship to honor the university's eighth president, who steps down June 30. In announcing the award, trustee chair Peter M.

Every year, Trinity College and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing present awards to recognize excellence in teaching undergraduates.This year's winners are:

Portrait of Mary Lillian DukeBy Joaquin Sorolla y 

Dzau: medicine’s new leader. P

Duke has been in the news for getting rid of eight o'clock classes and fighting sleep deprivation among students. Both facts are true, but the two actions actually have nothing to do with each other, despite press reports to the contrary.

 Composed and awarded: from left, Mallonée, Schimmel, and Mayrose. 

 Snyderman: repositioning the medical center. Photo: Chris Hildreth

In the spring, Duke officials unveiled a proposed fifty-year plan for the development of Central Campus before an audience of area residents, neighborhood leaders, and business owners gathered at a local church.

Kimerly Rorschach, director of the University of Chicago's David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, has been named the first director of the new Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. The $23-million museum, which was designed by Rafael ViÒoly, is scheduled to open in October 2005. The museum will have a strong focus on modern and contemporary art and will be a cornerstone in Duke's commitment to support the arts on campus and in the Durham-Raleigh community.

 Photo: Jon Gardiner

May’s day: New graduates. Photo: Chris Hildreth

In the decades following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, racial isolation in the nation's schools declined markedly. But as federal courts have begun to step back from active desegregation efforts, many school districts are returning to assignment policies based on neighborhood schools, says a Duke professor who has written a book analyzing school integration efforts in the U. S.

Peter LangeProvost, political scientist, avid learner, team builder, music lover Describe yourself in three words:Humorous, direct, analytic

Current efforts to disentangle whales that become trapped in fishing gear, although essential, are "really only a Band-Aid," says a Duke marine-mammal expert who has participated in past whale rescues.

Mendelssohn: A Life in Music By R. Larry Todd. Oxford University Press, 2003. 683 pages. $31.50.

With three advanced degrees between them, Amy Hackney Blackwell and Christopher Blackwell are anything but dummies--they just write for them.

 

The Pratt School of Engineering's alumni association honored alumni and volunteers at its annual awards banquet in April. Alan L. Kaganov B.S.M.E. '60 was presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award; Gregory R. Maletic B.S.E. '90 the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award; and William H. Younger Jr. the Distinguished Service Award.

Duke's Medical Alumni Association recognized eight distinguished graduates and faculty members during Medical Alumni Weekend last fall.Recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award:

 One of the behind-the-scenes traditions of graduation weekend is a dinner for honorary-degree recipients. This year's gathering had a certain familiarity--and a certain poignancy, with the impending retirement of the host, President Nannerl O. Keohane.