The Duke Digest - January 24, 2012

In Today's Issue:
  • NEW: Dukies on the Move
  • Duke Twitter Chat on SOTU Tonight
  • Opinion: Global Warming and Severe Weather: Is There an Impact? (featured in NY Times)

NEW: DUKIES ON THE MOVE
The White House announced Tuesday that Jeffrey Zients (T '88), deputy director for management and chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget, will become acting OMB director when Jacob J. Lew, the current director, replaces William Daley as White House chief of staff at the end of the month. Zients, who has been at OMB since June 2009, was formerly chairman and CEO of The Advisory Board Co. He was acting OMB director for about four months in 2010 after the departure of Peter Orszag.

Know of any Duke alumni who have recently taken a new post on the Hill, in the Administration or elsewhere in Washington? Let us know about it! Send Dukies on the Move tips to landy.elliott@duke.edu.


DUKE TWITTER CHAT ON STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Several Duke political science and public policy experts will participate in a live Twitter chat during President Obama's state of the union address Tuesday night at 9pm EST.

Professors David Schanzer and Don Taylor of the Sanford School of Public Policy will join political science professors Paula McClain and Michael Ward and religion professor Ebrahim Moosa. Postdoctoral associate Natalie Jackson of SSRI will also take part in the chat. Each will share their analysis, reaction and reflections on the president's speech in the public forum.

Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtags #DukeChat and #SOTU.

Read More:
Duke Twitter Chat on SOTU(duke.edu)


OPINION: GLOBAL WARMING AND SEVERE WEATHER: IS THERE A LINK?
The Green Gork, the blog of Nicholas School of the Environment Dean Bill Chameides, was featured in the New York Times this weekend.  In the featured post, Chameides writes:

"Looking back, many will recall 2011 as a momentous year. It sure seemed to be a doozie when it came to disasters. Hurricane Irene. The Joplin tornado. Floods in Mississippi. Fukushima. And so on. But how unusual was it really? And if it was, why? Did global warming have anything to do with it?"

Read More:
Global Warming and Severe Weather: Is There a Link? (Nicholas.duke.edu)
Tallying Disasters and Gauging Global Warming (NewYorkTimes)