The Duke Digest - October 18, 2010

 

In Today's Issue:

  • Federal Stimulus Grants to Duke Top $200 Million
  • List of Duke Experts on Election 2010 Issues
  • Sanford Professor Speaks at National Policy Forum in DC
  • Duke Students and Faculty to Participate in DC Science Fest 
  • Opinion: The Fed Needs to Soup Up New Stimulus Package


FEDERAL STIMULUS GRANTS TO DUKE TOP $200 MILLION
Duke University researchers recently hit an important milestone in total funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The federal grants for academic research and development are intended to create long-term health benefits and economic opportunity.

Through the end of September, Duke has won 360 competitive grants for research and construction totaling $202 million from seven federal agencies. More than 80 percent of the funding has come from the National Institutes of Health.

Read More:
Doing Good: Duke Research and Development (Durham Magazine)
Federal Stimulus Grants to Duke Top $200 Million (DukeNews)


LIST OF DUKE EXPERTS ON ELECTION 2010 ISSUES
Duke University faculty and staff are available to provide expertise on a variety of issues that may arise during the 2010 elections.  The experts list covers issues that range from the economy and education to immigration and national security. Please feel free to contact any of the researchers on the list directly.

Check out the List: Duke University Election 2010 Experts


SANFORD PROFESSOR SPEAKS AT NATIONAL POLICY FORUM IN DC
The Obama Administration should identify and strategically use its sources of leverage to achieve foreign policy objectives, said Bruce Jentleson, Duke professor of public policy and political science, during a national policy forum held Tuesday at the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC. Jentleson, who also holds a consulting appointment as senior adviser to the US State Department policy planning director, outlined five key principles of how the United States should exert its leverage during a session entitled "Constraints, Austerity, and US Foreign Policy." 

Read More:
A Strategic Foreign Policy (DukeNews)


DUKE STUDENTS AND FACULTY TO PARTICIPATE IN DC SCIENCE FEST
Duke Alumni, Friends and Family who are in the Washington DC area are invited to stop by the USA Science and Engineering Festival on  Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 23 and 24 to meet a great team of Duke students and faculty who are showing off their research.

Duke's booths  in this first-ever national science festival will be in Freedom Plaza at Pennsylvania Ave. and 14th Street. Look for the blue polo shirts!

If you can't you can't be there in person, you can follow the group's tweets @dukeresearch, #scifest.  Learn more about the USA Science and Engineering Fest at usasciencefestival.org


OPINION: THE FED NEEDS TO SOUP UP NEW STIMULUS PACKAGE
Duke Economics Professor Connel Fullenkamp writes that in order for the Federal Reserve System to create a truly successul stimulus, it needs to produce a plan to bail out homeowners.

"Mounting evidence suggests the economy won't get moving again until the housing market stabilizes...Within a few months, the Fed could [do this] simply by paying down millions of underwater mortgages so families owe less than the value of their homes again. This could be paired with a program to enable these homeowners to refinance at far better terms than they currently face.

If millions of struggling families suddenly had manageable mortgages, they could look forward to the future again and resume spending. And keeping additional foreclosed homes from the housing market would allow home prices to stabilize.  Only then can a true recovery get underway."

Read More:
The Fed Needs to Soup Up New Stimulus Package