The Duke Digest - July 8, 2011
In Today's Issue:
- Duke Announces New Board of Trustees Members
- Duke Prof: The Damage of Not Raising the Debt Limit
- Duke Study of Innovative Health Program in India Supported by Gates Foundation
- Opinion: Uncle Sam's Chokehold on Innovation
- Opinion: The Wonder of the Last Space Shuttle
- President Brodhead Addresses First Graduates of Duke-NUS Graduate School of Medicine
Six new members and three new observers joined the Duke University Board of Trustees on July 1, the university announced Wednesday.
Serving six-year terms on the governing body are Allyson Duncan, a judge on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals; Gerald Hassell, president of BNY Mellon; Bill Hawkins, former chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic, Inc.; Betsy Holden, senior adviser to McKinsey & Co.; and the Rev. Ashley Crowder Stanley, executive director of the Transition Into Ministry program.
Also, Robert Penn, president of three privately held independent oil and gas production companies, will serve a two-year term beginning July 1. Penn will complete the six-year term of Kimberly Jenkins, who vacated her position to become Duke's senior adviser to the president and provost for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In addition, Jeff Howard, president-elect of the Duke Alumni Association, will serve two years as an observer, then two years as a voting member. Michelle Sohn, the undergraduate young trustee, will serve one year as an observer and two years as a voting member. Ali Saaem, the young trustee from graduate/professional students, will serve as an observer for one year, then as a voting member for one year.
Read More:
Duke Announces New Board of Trustees Members (duke.edu)
DUKE PROF: THE DAMAGE OF NOT RAISING THE DEBT LIMIT
Duke Professor David Schanzer writes on the damage being done to the "American Mystique" by the debt limit discussions:
"Politicians, pundits and voters are working on the assumption that if a deficit reduction/debt limit deal can be brokered before the August 2 deadline, that the crisis will have been averted, our representatives will have risen to the grand occasion, and the system -- warts and all --is functioning as it is supposed to by accomondating all the conflicting interests in our diverse, complex society.
But this view does not take into account the damage that the failure to raise the debt limit (and the accompanying discussion of potential default) has already inflicted and continues to inflict every day. The drip, drip, drip that you hear is the slow, but unmistakeable, dimuntion of American power."
Read More:
The Damage Already Being Done (dukegridlock.blogspot.com)
DUKE STUDY OF INNOVATIVE HEALTH PROGRAM IN INDIA SUPPORTED BY GATES FOUNDATION
A large-scale evaluation of an innovative health care program in the Indian state of Bihar has been awarded a $3 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Bihar Evaluation of Social Franchising and Telemedicine (BEST) study will be led by Manoj Mohanan, an assistant professor of public policy and global health at Duke University.
Mohanan and his co-principal investigators at COHESIVE-India, a multi-institution research collaboration, will assess the impact of the World Health Partners (WHP) telemedicine and social franchising program. Specifically, they will assess the program's impact on health outcomes associated with four priority diseases in 12 districts in Bihar: childhood diarrhea, childhood pneumonia, tuberculosis and visceral leishmaniasis, the second-largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria.
Read More:
Study of Innovative Health Program in India Supported By Gates Foundation (Duke.edu)
OPINION: UNCLE SAM'S CHOKEHOLD ON INNOVATION
Vivek Wadwha, executive in residence and adjunct professor at the Pratt School of Engineering, wrote in a column appearing in The Washington Post on Thursday:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating whether Google is using its dominance in Web search to give its own services an unfair advantage. The FTC is also looking into whether Twitter is abusing its position to lock out competitors. But government intervention here is misguided. These investigations, and whatever results from them, won’t level the playing field. They will only stifle innovation and yank lawyers out of unemployment lines.
Read More:
Uncle Sam's Chokehold on Innovation (washingtonpost.com)
OPINION: THE WONDER OF THE LAST SPACE SHUTTLE
Alex Roland, a former NASA historian and professor emeritus of history at Duke University, writes in The Globe and Mail on the final flight of the space shuttle program:
The retirement of the space shuttle – the final launch is set for Friday, weather permitting – may turn out to be a larger turning point in the history of human space flight than appears on the surface. The problem is not that the shuttle was so bad, but that it was so good.
Read More:
The Wonder of the Last Space Shuttle (The Globe and Mail)
PRESIDENT BRODHEAD ADDRESSES FIRST GRADUATES OF DUKE-NUS GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
President Brodhead delivered remarks on Monday at the commencement ceremony of the Duke-NUS Graduate School of Medicine in Singapore. The Class of 2011 is the first class to graduate from the Duke-National University of Singapore program.
Read More:
President Brodhead's Address to the Duke-NUS Graduating Class (duke.edu)