Leela Prasad, professor of religious studies, has been elected vice president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). The leadership role puts Prasad in position to serve as president-elect next year and as the association’s president the following year. Prasad’s research focuses on the intersection of religious studies, anthropology, history and literature, with particular attention to South Asia. Her first book, “Poetics of Conduct: Narrative and Moral Being in a South Indian Town,” explored how everyday… read more » about Leela Prasad Elected to Leadership Role in American Academy of Religion
“I've spent most of my life since I was 13 working very hard to learn other people's languages,” says J. Lorand Matory. He has just come from a midterm exam in his advanced undergraduate Chinese language and culture class, Chinese being the most recent of the numerous languages he has studied. “I find it liberating to think in the terms of others who grew up thousands of miles away and have a totally different cultural history, and to try on their ways of thinking,” he says. “How can you understand other people's point of… read more » about J. Lorand Matory’s “The Fetish Revisited” Wins J. I. Staley Prize
Opportunities for three postdoctoral scholars could impact hundreds thanks to a new postdoctoral fellowship program led by Nicki Washington, professor of the practice of Computer Science and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Shaundra Daily, professor of practice of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology. The three faculty were already collaborators on the NSF-funded Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (… read more » about Duke Team Awarded $1.25 Million to Create New Identity-Inclusive Postdoc Program
Emily Bernhardt, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor and chair of Biology, was elected as an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellow. AGU, a nonprofit organization that supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences, annually recognizes a select number of individuals as part of its honors and recognition program. Since 1962, the AGU Union Fellows Committee has selected less than 0.1% of members as new fellows. Bernhardt, who is also a professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment, is… read more » about Emily Bernhardt Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
The Arts & Sciences Council’s Committee on Undergraduate Teaching has announced this year’s recipients of awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Each recipient was recognized at the council’s Sept. 8 meeting, where Committee Chair Connel Fullenkamp expressed appreciation for the many nominations across all three Trinity divisions that included “creative and inspiring” portfolios. “It made our decision very difficult because there are so many varieties of excellence that we see in our community at Duke,” he… read more » about Four Trinity Faculty Honored with 2022 Undergraduate Teaching Awards
Ying Wu, professor of Physics and associate director for light sources at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), is the co-winner of the prestigious 2022 Free Electron Laser (FEL) prize. The FEL prize recognizes researchers whose outstanding achievements have contributed significantly to the advancement of the field of free-electron lasers. Wu studies the nonlinear dynamics of charged particle beams, such as those used in particle accelerators to understand the behavior of subatomic particles. His… read more » about Duke Professor Wins Prize for Creating New Field of Physics Research
Experts know COVID-19 won’t be the last major pandemic. What they don’t know is where, or when, the next one will begin. An interdisciplinary team from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM) is hoping to change that. Thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the team is pinpointing the factors that are likely to turn a local outbreak into a global pandemic. At Duke, the research… read more » about Duke Team Awarded $1 million to Predict the Next Pandemic
The Office for Research and Innovation has awarded funding to nine best-in-class projects for the inaugural Duke Science and Technology (DST) Spark Seed Grant program. This year’s winners include early- to mid-career faculty from across campus and the School of Medicine who were selected from a pool of 52 finalists for delivering innovative and creative ideas in pursuit of new directions and the enhancement of research and scholarship at Duke. “As new scientific discoveries and breakthroughs continue to surface at Duke, we… read more » about Duke Announces Winners of the 2022 DST Spark Seed Grants
The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) has received an award for $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to upgrade a critical component of one of its particle accelerators, the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. If you’ve ever been to a science museum, you may have seen a miniature Van de Graaff generator. They often look like a sphere on top of a pedestal. If you touch them, your hair stands straight up on your head, showcasing one of the most entertaining effects of a low-voltage electric field… read more » about Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory Receives $1.5 Million Department of Energy Award
Professor of Political Science Kerry Haynie has been named the incoming Dean of Social Sciences for Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Biology Susan Alberts will begin her term as Dean of Natural Sciences next year, Dean Valerie Ashby announced this spring. Haynie is currently the chair of the Department of Political Science, and he led Duke’s Academic Council from 2019–2021. His research focuses on the examination of how underlying structures and practices of American political institutions affect… read more » about Haynie, Alberts to lead Social Sciences and Natural Sciences; Reiter Appointed as Interim
Duke University has awarded distinguished professorships to 24 faculty members representing five Duke colleges and schools. The 2022 honorees, as well as those distinguished professors named in 2021 and 2020, were recognized by President Vincent Price and Provost Sally Kornbluth during a reception at the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center Wednesday evening. Appointment to a distinguished professorship is the highest honor the university can bestow upon a member of the faculty, recognizing faculty who are well-established… read more » about Economist, Mathematician Awarded Distinguished Professorships
Dan Scolnic has a modest goal: understanding the fundamental nature of the Universe. His ambition was recognized this year with a Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Scolnic, assistant professor of Physics and Trinity’s first Packard Fellow, is a cosmologist. His research seeks to determine the rate at which our Universe is expanding by comparing what we know about the Universe’s compact infancy to the size it has reached now, at the proud age of around 13.5 billion years (a number itself intricately… read more » about Meet Trinity’s 2022 Sloan Fellow
Duke professors Shaundra (Shani) B. Daily and Nicki Washington were among the people recognized Tuesday by NC Gov. Roy Cooper as Black leaders and organizations in the science, technology, engineering and math fields who are doing critical and innovative work that is helping communities across the state.“North Carolina is a stronger state thanks to the contributions of many talented Black leaders, including those who work in STEM fields and who deserve recognition,” Governor Cooper said. “As we celebrate their achievements… read more » about NC Governor Honors Two Duke Faculty as Black Leaders in STEM
