The Duke Digest - April 16, 2010
In Today's Issue:
- House Passes Resolution Honoring Duke Men's Basketball Team for NCAA Championship
- Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Recognizes Duke-Brookings Report as Key to Immigration Reform
- Former Senator Bob Krueger: Duke Sets Standard for Combining Athletics and Academics
- Duke Graduate Schools Remain Solid in Latest US News Rankings
- Duke Researchers: Patents Block Competition, Slow Innovation in Gene Testing
- Duke Professor Linda Burton Presents at National Science Funding Event on Capitol Hill
HOUSE PASSES RESOLUTION HONORING DUKE MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM FOR NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
The House of Representatives voted this week to pass a resolution honoring the achievements of the Duke men's basketball team. The resolution, authored by Rep. David Price, congratulated the Duke Blue Devils for their recent NCAA Championship win as well as for their outstanding academic record.
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Full Text of H. Res. 1242
Final Vote Results
WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED RECOGNIZES DUKE-BROOKINGS REPORT AS KEY TO IMMIGRATION REFORM
Michael Barone writes in the Wall Street Journal that the GOP would be wise to avoid shrill rhetoric when it comes to immigration reform and argue instead for more visas for the highly skilled. This strategy is put forward by a 2009 report of a bipartisan panel assembled by the Brookings Institution and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Noah Pickus, associate research professor of public policy at Duke, is the director of the Kenan Institute.
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Immigration Reform: The New Third Rail (Wall Street Journal)
Breaking the Immigration Stalemate: A Report from the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable (pdf)
FORMER SENATOR BOB KRUEGER: DUKE SETS STANDARD FOR COMBINING ATHLETICS AND ACADEMICS
Former Texas Senator Bob Krueger writes in an opinion piece for the San Antonio Express-News: "...Duke has played in the final game for the Men's Division I national basketball championship eight times in the last 24 years, almost twice as often as any other team. But Duke's real sports success lies elsewhere. In 71 years, except for Stanford University in 1942, Duke is the only one of America's academically rated Top 10 universities ever to have competed in the final round of the national basketball championships."
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Duke Sets Standard for Combining Athletics and Academics (San Antonio Express-News)
DUKE GRADUATE SCHOOLS REMAIN SOLID IN LATEST U.S. NEWS RANKINGS
Duke University’s graduate and professional schools rank among the top institutions in their disciplines, according to the latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report. Duke’s medical school remained tied for sixth place for research, its law school tied for 11th and its business school was ranked 14th. The Pratt School of Engineering rose two places to tie for 33rd compared to last year’s rankings.
Provost Peter Lange, the university’s top academic officer, said the U.S. News & World Report rankings “recognize Duke’s excellence across a range of disciplines, reflecting the high quality of the programs that train thousands of Duke graduate and professional students every year. As always, we remind prospective students to consider these kinds of rankings as just one factor as they evaluate which school might offer the best match for their own goals and interests.”
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Duke Graduate Schoos Remain Solid in Latest U.S. News Rankings (DukeNews)
DUKE RESEARCHERS: PATENTS BLOCK COMPETITION, SLOW INNOVATION IN GENE TESTING
Researchers at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) say that exclusive licenses to gene patents, most of which are held by academic institutions and based on taxpayer-funded research, do more to block competition in the gene testing market than to spur the development of new technologies for gauging disease risk.
The findings emerge from a series of case studies that examined genetic risk testing for 10 clinical conditions, including breast and colon cancer, cystic fibrosis and hearing loss. Robert Cook-Deegan, director of the IGSP Center for Genome Ethics, Law & Policy, said the case studies, originally undertaken at the request of the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (SACGHS), show that gene patenting itself is not necessarily the main problem. Rather, he says, the culprit is a troublesome combination of overly broad patents that are exclusively licensed to single companies.
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Patents Block Competition, Slow Innovation (DukeNews)
DUKE PROFESSOR LINDA BURTON PRESENTS AT NATIONAL SCIENCE FUNDING EVENT ON CAPITOL HILL
Linda Burton, James B. Duke Professor of Sociology, was a presenter at the Coalition for Nation Science Funding's Annual Exhibition and Reception in Washington, D.C.. The Capitol Hill event highlighted the vital role the National Science Foundation plays in supporting the nation's research and education goals. Burton, nominated by the NSF, presented a poster titled "Poverty, Marriage and Trust: New Insights for Policymakers," featuring her path-breaking research on the role of trust in romantic union's of low-income mothers. While in Washington, Burton also visited several offices of the North Carolina congressional delegation to discuss her work.
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Distrust of Men Doesn't Keep Low-Income Mothers from Romantic Unions (DukeNews)