When he received the email announcing that he had won the 2021 Herman Feshbach Prize, Berndt Mueller was in the hospital recovering from surgery. “Suddenly I get that email,” Mueller said. “It was totally unexpected.” Awarded each year by the American Physical Society, the $10,000 Feshbach Prize honors “outstanding research in theoretical nuclear physics.” Mueller was selected for his contributions to the scientific understanding of the quark-gluon plasma that filled the universe shortly after the Big Bang, which has proven… read more » about Mueller Enters Next Phase With Feshbach Prize
The National Science Foundation has awarded Duke University a $3 million, five-year Research Traineeship grant to develop a program for graduate students to develop expertise in using artificial intelligence (AI) for materials science research. The aiM (AI for Understanding and Designing Materials), program will fill a vital workforce gap by training the next generation in the new convergent field of materials and computer science research.“To achieve the promise of the U.S. Materials Genome Initiative of… read more » about Filling an AI and Materials Science Training Gap
The Duke University Herbarium houses samples of roughly half of the known mosses in North America. It total, it holds 800,000 specimens. Soon, they will all be available to explore online. A collaboration between Duke and 24 other universities across the country has received a $3.6 million National Science Foundation grant to digitize and study nearly 1.2 million specimens of lichens and mosses housed in their collections. The project will allow for deeper investigation of species that “have global relevance and perform… read more » about Duke Herbarium Part of $3.6 Million Grant
Duke University researchers Jungsang Kim and Christophe Monroe will join peers from the national labs, universities, federal agencies and industry on a new National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC) recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The NQIAC’s mission is to “counsel the Administration on ways to ensure continued American leadership in quantum information science” and was established by Executive Order as part of the… read more » about Duke Joins Peers on New National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee
Assistant professor Matthew Masten has been awarded a CAREER Award by the National Science Foundation. NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program “supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.” This prestigious award is specifically given to junior faculty, and provides recipients with a federal grant for research and education activities for five years. … read more » about Professor Matthew Masten Wins National Science Foundation CAREER Award
Michael Troxel has always liked puzzles, especially challenging ones. Which is fortunate, since his job is solving some of the most perplexing, fundamental mysteries of the universe. “At some point in middle school I asked myself, What’s the hardest thing that I could try to do?” he said. “And at that point the hardest thing I knew about was astrophysics, so I think that was probably the first motivation for choosing this career, if I’m honest. But that was before I understood what it actually meant.” A cosmologist and… read more » about Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe by Seeing the Invisible
Emily Derbyshire wants to help people—and she wants to do it at scale. Derbyshire became a professor because she felt the university setting offered opportunities she wouldn’t get elsewhere: pursuing research on diseases that drug companies wouldn’t fund and mentoring a diverse group of future chemists to expand access to the field. In April, the assistant professor of Chemistry was named a 2020 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar in recognition for her work on both fronts. “I definitely felt honored and humbled,” Derbyshire… read more » about Fighting Malaria in the Classroom and the Lab
Merlise Clyde and Jerome Reiter, both professors of Statistical Science, have been named 2020 Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) Fellows. Founded in 1935, IMS is a member organization devoted to “fostering the development and dissemination of the theory and applications of statistics and probability.” Fellows are selected on the basis of the contributions to the field, as assessed by a committee of their peers. Approximately 12 percent of the 3,500 active IMS members have earned the status of fellowship. The 2020… read more » about Two Duke Professors Named Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows
At a very basic level, the digital technologies we depend on everyday operate by manipulating the charge of electrons. But a Duke chemist is searching for materials that would allow engineers to build electronics that can do more than that — which could open the door to faster computing, increased data storage, even entirely new kinds of technology. “In information storage, manipulating the ones and zeroes of binary data fundamentally involves controlling the charge of the electron,” said Michael Therien, the William R.… read more » about Chemist Puts New Spin on Organic Materials
Five Duke professors with demonstrated excellence in research and undergraduate instruction have been selected as the 2020 Bass Fellows.“This moment of crisis has highlighted the importance of having faculty who excel, both in teaching and in research,” said Gary Bennett, vice provost for undergraduate education. “Bass Fellows represent the best that Duke offers -- faculty with a commitment to discovery and delivering a transformational undergraduate education, one that changes lives and strengthens our global communities… read more » about Five New Bass Professors Named for Excellence in Teaching and Research
Bold thinking is an essential part of Duke’s approach to scholarship, and three ongoing projects show the unexpected results. Adriane Lentz-Smith, Gabriel Rosenberg, and Aarthi Vadde have been named 2020–21 National Humanities Center Fellows. They will spend a year away from their regular teaching duties as resident scholars at the Research Triangle Park–based center, researching and writing new books. Chosen from 673 applicants, they join 30 other humanists from the U.S. and four foreign countries working in 18 different… read more » about The Police State, Livestock Breeding and Web 2.0: Research by 3 Duke Professors
Duke University has awarded distinguished professorships to 29 faculty members from eight Duke colleges and schools. While the annual University Distinguished Professors dinner will be postponed until social gathering restrictions are lifted, Provost Sally Kornbluth is ready to congratulate this year’s recipients now. “I am thrilled to honor this wonderful cohort of scholars, teachers, and members of the Duke community,” Kornbluth said. “Becoming a distinguished professor at Duke is a great achievement, and one that is… read more » about Duke Awards 29 University Distinguished Professorships
"I've been on guard for some mischief," Kyle Beardsley said, expecting a joke when he received the announcing email on April Fools Day, but he was surprised with delight to hear that he received the 2020 Inclusive Faculty Award from the Duke Graduate & Professional Student Council. For the past three years, Dr. Beardsley has served as the department's Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), a job that includes carrying on important academic traditions like the End of Year Conference, also known as Beramendi Day, but… read more » about Kyle Beardsley Honored with Inclusive Faculty Award from GPSC
In 2011, at the unveiling of a highway marker honoring Pauli Murray — the lawyer, priest, civil rights advocate, and Durham native — Helen Solterer began a literary journey through time and place. It was there that Solterer, a professor of Romance Studies, first learned of Murray’s poetry. Solterer was particularly struck by Murray’s 1944 poem “Dark Testament,” calling it Murray’s “freedom song” about “the curse of lynching in North Carolina.” It’s a stunning work of literature in its own right, and Solterer also heard a… read more » about Duke Guggenheim Fellow Asks What Makes Literature Feel Timely
Research could help pave the way to more versatile, low-cost MRI for studying metabolic reactions in real-time Duke professor Warren Warren has been awarded the 2020 Günther Laukien Prize for his contributions to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and its cousin, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI, which uses magnetic fields and radio waves to measure signals from spinning protons, has been used in medicine since the 1980s as a noninvasive way to create pictures of the inside of the… read more » about Duke Professor Warren Warren Wins Award for Magnetic Resonance
Name: John V. Brown Title: Director of Jazz Program, Professor of the Practice of Music Years at Duke: 19 What he does: When he’s teaching courses, directing student musicians in Duke’s jazz ensembles or performing for or alongside members of the Duke community, Brown works to make jazz a quintessential part of the overall Duke experience. “My mission at Duke is to make sure that no one comes through these walls without being touched by jazz in some way,”… read more » about Blue Devil of the Week: Fueling Duke’s Love of Jazz
An assistant professor in chemistry has been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for her “potential to revolutionize” the field. Amanda Hargrove has been named a 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry in honor of her success as a chemist. The fellowship acknowledges Hargrove’s work on the small-molecule targeting of RNA, which may hold the key to curing a number of hard-to-fight diseases. “Many of the drugs in our pharmacies today are molecules that work by binding to proteins,” said Katherine Franz,… read more » about Amanda Hargrove Has a Target on Hard-to-Fight Diseases
The Graduate School has announced the recipients of its 2020 Dean's Awards, which recognize outstanding efforts in mentoring, teaching, and creating an inclusive environment for graduate education at Duke. The recipients will be honored at a reception on Wednesday, March 25. Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Faculty William Darity, Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Jennifer Roizen, Assistant Professor of Chemistry David Wong, Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer… read more » about 10 Dean’s Awards Recipients Named for 2020
Duke Economics professor Peter Arcidiacono has been named as one of the top education scholars in the United States by American Enterprise Institute director of education policy studies and Education Week blogger Frederick M. Hess. The ranking was released Wednesday, January 8. Coming in at #152 on the list, Arcidiacono specializes in research involving applied microeconomics, applied economics, and labor economics, with a focus on education and discrimination. Most recently, his work… read more » about Professor Peter Arcidiacono Recognized for Contribution to U.S. Education Policy Research
DURHAM, N.C. – Seven members of the Duke University faculty have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.Duke’s 2020 inductees are among 443 new fellows this year who are being recognized for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. They are:Ravi Bellamkonda, Ph.D., Vinik Dean of Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering… read more » about Seven From Duke Named Fellows of American Association for the Advancement of Science
The exploration the public lives of the “first ladies” of America’s Christian evangelical megachurches and an intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life in Appalachia are among the new noteworthy books by Duke authors this fall. Many of the books, including new editions of previous titles, can be found on the "Duke Authors" display shelves near the circulation desk in Perkins Library. Some are available as e-books for quick download. Most can also be purchased through the Gothic Bookshop. [Duke Today will… read more » about Fall Books: Clean Hands, Aging Brains, Evangelical Women and Other Great Reads
Nicole Barnes, Assistant Professor of History at Duke University, has been awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize for her recent book, Intimate Communities: Wartime Healthcare and he Birth of Modern China, 1937-1945 (University of California Press, 2018). This award, administered by the American Historical Association, is awarded every year for “the book in women's history and/or feminist theory that best reflects the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by the life and work of Joan Kelly (1928–… read more » about Nicole Barnes awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize
If you ask Duke assistant professor Dan Scolnic what amazes him about cosmology, he’ll say, it’s “really the only field in all of science where you could stand in front of people and say, ‘we understand 5% of what’s going on,’ and still think we’re kind of smart.” That’s because all the stars, planets and galaxies that scientists see today make up just 5% of the universe. The other 95% is made of mysterious stuff called dark matter and dark energy that scientists can’t see or detect directly. Scolnic says scientists may be… read more » about Prestigious Packard Fellowship Supports Duke Cosmologist in Answering Questions About What Makes Up the Universe
A Duke statistician is part of a three-member team awarded $13.8 million by the European Research Council to conduct a planet-wide inventory of life over six years, with particular emphasis on insects and fungi. David Dunson, the Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistical Science, received notification of the award this month. His expertise in managing big data and the development of novel statistical methodologies will help interpret a collection of DNA, audio samples and camera trap images from over 450 locations around… read more » about Statistician Receives European Research Council Grant to Aid in Mapping Biodiversity Around the Globe
Gregory Samanez-Larkin, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, has received an Early Career Award from the Society for Neuroeconomics for research that examines how aging affects motivation and cognition across the lifespan. The award given this month recognizes significant contributions to understanding the neural basis of decision-making, or the impact of this knowledge on formal understanding of decision behavior, according to the society website. “So many people invested so much in training me that… read more » about Samanez-Larkin Recognized for Research on the Neuroscience of Decision-Making
A banner year for Rong Ge, Duke University Assistant Professor of Computer Science, in 2019 he has received both a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a Sloan Research Fellowship.The CAREER program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the… read more » about Rong Ge Receives 2019 NSF Career Award and Sloan Fellowship
If you asked Jenny Tung’s parents, “no one’s kids that they knew of went off to Africa every summer to look at monkeys.” But Tung has been doing just that since her first trip to Kenya in 2006 to study the wild baboons of Amboseli. She joined a research project that year that had been watching the same troops of free-ranging baboons within sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro since 1971, witnessing pairings, births, fights, deaths. Many generations of baboons later, the Amboseli Baboon Research Project is still going on, and… read more » about Duke's Jenny Tung Wins $625k MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
Michael Tomasello’s book “Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny” (Harvard University Press, 2019) has received the 2019 Williams James Book Award from the American Psychological Association, among the most prestigious awards in the field. In making the award, the association lauded the book as offering “an exceptionally broad, multi-level, and cross-cutting scope [that] engages with basic, enduring questions. It exemplifies the best that can be accomplished from the standpoint of a truly general psychology.” The book… read more » about Michael Tomasello Receives William James Book Award
Over the past 50 years, John Aldrich and David Rohde have shared many academic milestones. They met as graduate students at the University of Rochester. Both launched their teaching careers at Michigan State University. And they both ended up as political science professors at Duke. On Friday, they will share the American Political Science Association’s Barbara Sinclair Legacy Award. The award – named after a former colleague who also earned a Ph.D. at Rochester -- recognizes “the work of a scholar or set of scholars… read more » about Aldrich and Rohde: 50 Years of Shared Milestones
Two chemists from the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Pratt School of Engineering have been nationally recognized for their work in mentoring and materials science by the American Chemical Society. Kathy Franz, chair and professor in the Department of Chemistry, received this year’s ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. She was nominated by two former graduate students – Louise Charkoudian (’08) and Kathryn Haas (’10). “Kathy’s faith in me gave me the ambition to pursue my… read more » about Professors, Alumna Honored by American Chemical Society