The Duke Digest - June 18, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • Duke Awarded Grant for International Business Research
  • Nicholas School Professor to Take Part in UN Global Leaders Summit
  • The Mind's Grey Areas
  • The Economics of Identity
  • Duke Researcher Finds New Neural Link that Enables Speech


DUKE AWARDED GRANT FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RESEARCH
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business a $1.5 million grant to fund the center’s ongoing research programs from October 2010 to September 2014. Duke CIBER, one of a series of university CIBERs established by the U.S. government to promote knowledge of international business, will use part of the grant to fund the InterCultural Edge (ICE), a research program studying and promoting effective cross-cultural communications. Fuqua’s Offshoring Research Network (ORN) will also receive grant proceeds.

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Duke Awarded Grant for International Business Research (DukeNews)


NICHOLAS SCHOOL PROFESSOR TO TAKE PART IN UN GLOBAL LEADERS SUMMIT
Deborah Rigling Gallagher, assistant professor of the practice of resource and environmental policy at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, will attend the United Nations Global Leaders Summit, June 23-25 in New York City, at which a new Web-based strategy for corporate sustainability, developed by Nicholas School students and faculty, will be presented. More than 1,000 leaders from government, business, academia and nonprofit organizations have been invited to attend the summit, which will be chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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Nicholas School’s Gallagher to Take Part in UN Global Leaders Summit (DukeNews)

THE MIND’S GREY AREAS
Dan Ariely, Duke Professor and behavioral economist, is one of 25 “great minds” asked to contribute an idea to change the world.  He discusses the mind's grey areas and finds that by controlling situations that create conflicts of interest, we can combat frauds and scandals better.

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Dan Ariely: The mind's grey areas (Forbes)


THE ECONOMICS OF IDENTITY
Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Does gender, race or community influence your decisions, income, purchases or well-being? Duke economics professor Rachel Kranton thinks they do. She has embarked on groundbreaking research with Nobel Laureate George Akerlof from the University of California at Berkeley to better understand the influence of identity in economic outcomes.

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The Economics of Identity (DukeNews)


DUKE RESEARCHER FINDS NEW NEURAL LINK THAT ENABLES SPEECH
Some animals can imitate sounds they've heard. Other creatures may understand the meaning of sounds, but they can't mimic them. Why?  The reason, as Erich Jarvis of Duke University and other neurobiologists have found in birds and humans, some animals have evolved a special neural connection that makes this possible. It's a direct link from the forebrain to motor neurons in the brainstem that are responsible for vocalization. It's this link that enables our speech.

Read More:
Repeat After Me (PBS)