The Duke Digest - June 4, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • Duke Environment School Launches Gulf Oil Spill Website
  • Duke Men's Lacrosse National Champions
  • Copper Nanowires Enable Bendable Displays, Solar Cells
  • Duke Names New Dean of Natural Sciences


DUKE ENVIRONMENT SCHOOL LAUNCHES GULF OIL SPILL WEBSITE
Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment has launched a new website, http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/oilspill, to provide reporters, policymakers and concerned citizens with the latest news and images of the spill, along with links to a list of researchers from Duke and North Carolina Sea Grant who can provide timely commentary on spill-related science, economics and policy.
The researchers listed on the site cover a wide range of topics, from the potential short- and long-term effects of the spill on endangered species, fisheries and coastal communities, to expertise on offshore drilling, underwater oil and gas exploration, energy policy, marine wildlife and ecology, natural resource economics, coastal geology, and oceanography.

Read More:
Duke Environment School Launches Gulf Oil Spill Website (DukeNews)


DUKE MEN’S LACROSSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Sophomore CJ Costabile scored the game-winning goal five seconds into overtime to give Duke University its first NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Title in program history. Winning the opening faceoff, the longstick midfielder raced down the middle of the field, dodged several Notre Dame defensemen and unleashed a high shot into the net to lift the No. 5 seed Blue Devils to the 6-5 overtime victory in front of 37,126 fans at M&T Bank Stadium on Monday afternoon.

Read More:
National Champs! (GoDuke.com)


COPPER NANOWIRES ENABLE BENDABLE DISPLAYS, SOLAR CELLS
A team of Duke University chemists has perfected a simple way to make tiny copper nanowires in quantity. The cheap conductors are small enough to be transparent, making them ideal for thin-film solar cells, flat-screen TVs and computers, and flexible displays.
 
“If we are going to have these ubiquitous electronics and solar cells,” Wiley said, “we need to use materials that are abundant in the earth’s crust and don’t take much energy to extract.” “The fact that copper nanowires are cheaper and work better makes them a very promising material to solve this problem,” Wiley said.
 
Read More:
Copper Nanowires Enable Bendable Displays, Solar Cells (DukeNews)


DUKE NAMES NEW DEAN OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Robert Calderbank, director of the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University, will become dean of natural sciences at Duke University, school officials announced Tuesday. Calderbank, a professor of electrical engineering and mathematics at Princeton, will assume his new role at Duke July 1. At Duke, he also will be a full professor in the department of computer science, with joint appointments in mathematics and electrical engineering.

Read More:
Duke Names Princeton Professor Dean of Natural Sciences (DukeNews)