Nov - Dec 2004 Issue

Over the summer, ninth and tenth graders enrolled in Duke's Talent Identification Program for academically gifted students found out just how talented they really are. Fifteen of the teenagers had their letters to the editor accepted for publication in The New York Times over a period of just five weeks.

Since being named president, Richard H. Brodhead has reveled in all things Duke. He's the eager student, the committed scholar, with this new campus as his text. And so he is working enthusiastically to understand the characters, to explore the rhythms--the poetry and prose--of this place, before he sets about writing his own chapters.

 Photo: Les Todd

At the age of twenty-two, Jason Rubell '91, then a fledgling collector of contemporary art, was pondering postgraduation plans to work for a large dealer or in a gallery. But, as he told Duke Magazine in 1992, "I decided to jump right in myself. I figured, whatever I needed to know, I would learn on my own.

When Christopher Phillips shows up to work, he's the boss--sort of. At his magazine, he's the art director, writer, circulation manager, mail clerk, receptionist, publisher, editor in chief, and sometimes the janitor.

Among its many precious holdings, the Duke Rare Book Room and Special Collections Library has two copies of an especially rare and important book, volume four of Horace Traubel's nine-volume With Walt Whitman and Camden.

Gerontologists have long recognized that the elderly can have a very different physiology from the young. And among these differences can be bad reactions to drugs that would be perfectly well tolerated by younger people.

Middle-Eastern managers: Al-Jassim, from K

Taking advantage of a unique labyrinth of Texas caves festooned with tree roots, Duke biologists have given trees the most exacting root-to-twig physical of their circulatory system yet.

Researchers at Duke Medical Center have received a $4-million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study infectious diseases that plague AIDS patients in Tanzania.

Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, whose research concentrates on the new field of personalized medicine, is the new director of the Center for Genomic Medicine. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Boston University and has been a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty since 1990.

Wainwright: zoologist, sculptor, entrepreneur for young artists. 

Scientists testing gene therapies have found that insinuating a gene into a patient's cells is easy, but persuading it to function properly to correct a disease or malfunction is not.

Food for Thought I think your low-carb article was great ["The Skinny on the Low-Carb Craze," September-October 2004], but what I don't understand is that if it is important enough to put on your cover, why aren't the Duke students benefiting from any of this? Have any of you tried to eat in a Duke campus facility lately?

 Poems by John K

Students whose parents are involved in their schooling have higher career and educational goals, according to a new study of middle- and high-school students. And parents' influence on how their children think about the future and perform in school continues through adolescence, according to the study, which followed nearly 500 black and white children from seventh through eleventh grades.

Last spring, freshmen in Alma Blount's public-policy class "Civic Participation and Community Leadership" had to demonstrate what they'd learned by preparing to lead class discussions themselves. Four student teams were each assigned broad topics ranging from democracy and the media to grassroots political organizing. Cathy Fisher of Boca Raton, Florida, says the course, part of Duke's Hart Leadership program, showed her that "leadership can't be taught by a text like most Duke courses. It is a process."

A pulmonary intensive care unit might be the last place you would expect to find poetry. But it is here, every day."This is a place where 25 percent of patients die. Most are strangers to us when they arrive. Most suffer greatly," says physician Peter Kussin. "Medical students here see the whole range of human suffering. They immerse themselves in the details of patient care to ward off thoughts about the misery around them. When the suffering does become apparent, they are frequently overwhelmed. The poems help."

Dr.

When you enter Yale's Sterling Memorial Library, you come across constant reminders of ancient wisdom and treasured tradition: a painting of Alma Mater surrounded by allegorical figures that represent the areas of learning, stone carvings with images of students and scholars, decorative window panes inspired by great literary works, and rows and rows of card catalogues that long ago should have been supplanted by searches in cyberspace.

Two years after transforming human fat cells into what appeared to be nerve cells, a group led by Duke Medical Center researchers has gone one step further by demonstrating that these new cells also appear to act like nerve cells.

A study by researchers at Duke Medical Center has found a strong correlation between caffeine intake at mealtime and increased glucose and insulin levels among people with type-2 diabetes.

 Wild Man, 15th century Red sandstone 40 1/2 by 15 inches 

Susan Bennett King '62, a Duke trustee for more than a decade, died July 22 at Duke Health Community Care hospice after a long battle with lung cancer. She was sixty-four.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s still resonates in our cultural memory as a tragic, traumatic event. Each dry summer brings the dread of a return of the near-apocalyptic landscape of dust-covered, wind-blasted farmlands.

 Photo: Les Todd

 Aldrich: "Now you can actually tell Republican candidates from Democratic candidates". Photo: Les Todd

Science nexus: new center, above left, faces engineering school's Hudson Hall. Photo: Chris Hildreth

Seeing spots: Reed with buckeye butterfly. Photo: Les Todd

  I'm looking for increased responsibility and have been offered a job that sounds really interesting and pays more money. The trouble is, it's in a city to which I don't want to move. I'm also about to be interviewed for a job that has many of the same advantages but is in a better location. Since the first job is a definite, I'm thinking about accepting it and subsequently turning it down if the second job comes through. What do you think?

Team Alumni: Miller, left, ne

 Taking a stand: Brodhead at Durham's Judea Re

 Mapping Sandy Creek: Richardson with Duke Forest 

A new internship program is bringing together leading sports enterprises with undergraduate students who demonstrate a strong interest in sports business.In 2004, the program's inaugural summer, ten organizations hired twelve Duke students as interns. Participating companies included Comcast, ESPN.com, the Seattle Mariners, the Philadelphia 76ers, the United States Golf Association, and the World Golf Foundation.

Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence By Evelyn Savidge Stern Ph.D. '94. Cornell University Press, 2003. 304 pages. $34.95.

Catherine Lynch Gilliss B.S.N. '71, professor and dean of the nursing school at Yale University since 1998, has been named dean of Duke's School of Nursing and vice chancellor for nursing affairs. She succeeds Mary Champagne, who was dean for thirteen years.

 Finding diamonds in the rough

 Political pair: Betsy, left, and Patsy Keever

 Howe: Injuries haven't stopped her game. 

Most of his life, William P. "Bill" Miller '77 has been preparing, unknowingly, for his role as president of the Duke Alumni Association. His late grandfather was a Trinity College graduate. His father, Jim Miller '47, played football for the legendary coach Wallace Wade, and his late brother, James T. Miller '74, was Duke's first wheelchair graduate.

Alumni and friends of the university are recognized annually with Charles A. Dukes Awards for outstanding volunteer service to Duke. The awards, sponsored by the Duke Alumni Association, are named for the late Dukes '29, director of Alumni Affairs from 1944 to 1963. The citations honor individuals who reflect his dedication to the university. Award winners are selected by the DAA board of directors and the executive committee of the Annual Fund.