Yi (Daniel) Xu, professor of Economics, has been awarded the 2025 Robert E. Lucas Jr. Prize for the most interesting paper in the area of Dynamic Economics published in the Journal of Political Economy in the last two years.The biannual Lucas Prize was established in 2016 to celebrate Lucas’s seminal contributions to economics and his Phoenix Prize award.Xu, along with co-authors Chris Edmond (University of Melbourne) and Virgiliu Midrigan (New York University), have been awarded for “How Costly are… read more » about Daniel Yi Xu Awarded 2025 Robert E. Lucas Jr. Prize
As a young Duke art history professor in 1979, Caroline Bruzelius convinced officials at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to let her climb scaffolding during a renovation to get a close look at the architecture.It was, she thought, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She’d return many times over the next seven years until the work was completed in 1986.Decades passed – her work on Paris Cathedral was published in 1987, and she moved on to other projects. Then in 2019, Notre Dame suffered a devastating fire. The cathedral… read more » about At Notre Dame Cathedral, a Hidden History Revealed
It was 15 years ago. Social media emerged, citizen journalism proliferated, newsrooms struggled and computer science professor Jun Yang had an idea. Could AI lead to faster fact-checking? Yang had been working with large language models – then an emerging technology – and he cared about investigative reporting. Working with Bill Adair, journalism and public policy professor and creator of PolitiFact, Yang created an AI that could fact-check in real time.“[Politicians] will basically spin the data in a particular way and… read more » about Using Data to Fact-Check in Real Time
Charmaine Royal, the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African & African American Studies, Biology, Global Health and Family Medicine & Community Health was recently selected as one of The Hastings Center 2024 Fellows. The Hastings Center fellows are a distinguished group of around 300 experts whose work has shaped scholarship and public understanding of ethical challenges in health, healthcare, science and technology. These prestigious fellowships reflect influence in advancing ethical scholarship, policy and… read more » about Charmaine Royal Named 2024 Hastings Center Fellow
DURHAM, N.C. -- Since the first fiber optic cables rolled out in the 1970s, they’ve become a major part of everything from medical devices to high-speed internet and cable TV. But as it turns out, one group of marine mollusks was way ahead of us.A new study reveals that clams called heart cockles -– so-named because of their heart-shaped shells -- have unique structures in their shells that act like fiber optic cables to convey specific wavelengths of light into the bivalves’ tissues.Researchers from Duke University and… read more » about To Build Better Fiber Optic Cables, Ask a Clam
Two Duke alumni, Carlee Goldberg, T’22, and Faraan Rahim, T’23, have received the Samvid Scholarship. They were among 20 scholars selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants. The program awards up to $100,000 towards tuition and fees for two years of graduate study.Carlee Goldberg, originally from Parkland, Fla., graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in political science and history with high distinction. She was an A.B. Duke Scholar and a Nakayama Public Service Scholar. Following her undergraduate studies, Goldberg… read more » about Two Duke Alumni Named to 2024 Samvid Scholars Cohort
Three days after the national election, Duke historian Adriane D. Lentz-Smith stood in front of nearly 300 people at the Hayti Heritage Center. Like the audience, she was looking to Rev. William J. Barber II, the national civil rights leader and one of the country’s leading theologians, to help her process her complex feelings about the election’s outcome.Weeks before the election, Lentz-Smith said she had attended a Stevie Wonder concert in Greensboro, where the legendary recording artist taught the audience that love is… read more » about William Barber on Building a Moral Movement
Michèle Longino, professor emerita of Romance Studies at Duke, died after a brief but valiant struggle with cancer at Transitions Hospice in Raleigh on Nov. 21. She was a valued participant in the intellectual life of the university, an exacting and inspiring mentor to her graduate students, and ground-breaking scholar in the field of 17th Century French studies.Longino was born in Paris, and raised in the United States, primarily New York City and Washington, DC, and in Europe, primarily France and Italy. She… read more » about Michèle Longino, Leading Scholar of French Studies, Dies
Nik (middle ) with members of the Mount Sinai Schiller Lab at Broadway Comedy Club in Hell’s Kitchen after a show. Photo courtesy of Nik Narain. Physics major Nik Narain has been obsessed with the brain since elementary school. “I’d spend most of my time either reading, researching, watching or creating videos about the brain,” he confesses. As a first-year student at Duke, Narain couldn’t decide which career to pursue: scientist or physician. He resolved the issue by taking… read more » about Mind, Matter & Visual Media
Marie-Hélène Tomé, a senior Mathematics major, will be awarded the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) 35th Annual Alice T. Schafer Prizes for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman. Tomé's research interests are in number theory and algebraic geometry. Through her participation in numerous research experiences, she has built an impressive body of work, including a solo paper published in the Journal of Number Theory. Her mentors praise her intuition, describing her as a fast learner and a deep… read more » about Marie-Hélène Tomé Wins Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman Award
Professor of Chemistry Ben Wiley was honored with the Cleantech Research Innovation Award at the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC)’s annual awards ceremony.The Cleantech Research Innovation Award recognizes an individual or team from industry or within an institution of higher education that is pursuing a research-based solution to a pressing cleantech challenge. Wiley’s work is focused on the reduction of industrial carbon emissions through the production of green hydrogen. Carbon emissions from the… read more » about Ben Wiley Receives Clean Energy Research Innovation Award
