NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE • DUKE MAGAZINE PAID DUKEMAGAZINE PPCO DUKE UNIVERSITY, BOX 90572 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27708-0572 SPRING 2017 COVERSTORY SPRING 2017 MAGAZINE + At the Marine Lab, and other labs across campus, DRONES and ROBOTS are taking research to new heights. What’s going on up there? With the advances made in drones and robots, are people still necessary? We explore that issue and more in our cover story. Here, graduate student Rett Newton, far right, launches a copter-style drone while fellow student researchers John Wilson, Elizabeth Mason, Julian Dale, and Nick Alcaraz look on. Go to dukemagazine.duke.edu to watch senior writer Scott Huler’s short video on drones at the Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. Photo by Chris Hildreth Carol Ensinger ’82, Ph.D.’88, never forgot that her chemistry education flourished under the mentorship of the late Duke professor emeritus of chemistry Pelham Wilder Jr. “Pelham believed in me,” said Ensinger. “He was the key to my success at Duke and beyond.” Named after her professor, mentor, and friend, Ensinger made April 7-9, 2017 a bequest in her will to endow a professorship in the chemistry department. Her gift will Time changes everything, except true Blue enable chemistry faculty to continue to friendships. Come back to reconnect, deliver an impactful classroom experience recapture, and recreate all of your special like she had. “I hope my gift will strengthen moments at your 2017 Duke reunion. chemistry at Duke and foster meaningful connections between students and faculty.” Your reunion begins online at: YOUR INSPIRATION IS JUST THE STARTING POINT. www.DukeReunions.com No matter what inspires you to give back, our expert team can help you honor the memories, people, and places that matter to you. Smart Strengthen charitable planning—at any giving level— may enable you to do more than you thought CLASSES Duke Chemistry possible while propelling Duke forward. Contact 1957, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, us today to unleash your inner philanthropist. 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and the Half Century Club faculty-student OFFICE OF GIFT PLANNING bonds (919) 681-0464 | [email protected] dukeforward.duke.edu/inspiration Go online to register today! www.DukeReunions.com Duke Alumni Association Reunions Office • Box 90572 • Durham, NC 27708-0572 inside SPRING 2017 | VOL. 103 | NO. 1 4 FEATURES: FORUM Kris Hauser 7 32 With or without you By Scott Huler THE QUAD Duke researchers are using drones, robots, and other autonomous systems to do things people can’t do. Ugly produce for sale, Sanford students take on gerrymandering, what killed those lemurs 40 Rise! (& Shine?) By Lucas Hubbard Early birds love them, but for everyone else 8:30 a.m. classes are a test of endurance and skill. 46 The treasure seekers By Louise Jarvis Flynn 26 Curators at the Rubenstein Library track down SPORTS research-worthy artifacts, then help collectors let them go so that their life’s work can live on. Members of the track team explain their tattoos. 62 52 Mining data for all it’s worth By Scott Huler ForeverDuke The Information Initiative at Duke puts students to work with outside companies to help them solve complex issues. Mark Hecker ’03 founded a nonprofit to take on youth literacy. 56 The diplomat By Robert J. Bliwise 88 However murky the motivations, warming up to Russia is a good idea, says a onetime U.S. ambassador to the former Soviet Union. DEVILIST Must-have items for your dorm room COVER: A drone captured this image of Duke graduate students on a Marine Lab skiff and the whale they’re researching in the waters near Beaufort, where the lab is located. Photo courtesy David W. Johnston istock FULLFRAME FEAR NOT, DUKE FANS: The fervor that has character- contest—with more than a hundred signing up in the first twelve ized its student section is still present. Even before the start of hours of registration. the spring semester, undergraduates looking to score tickets to As demand far outstripped supply, the head line monitors ad- the game between Duke and UNC on February 9 had announced justed the long-standing policy of waitlists to incorporate a new their intensity. While only seventy spots were saved for the most ranking system. The tent groups were asked to answer a round fanatic tenting groups (classified as “black” tenters, followed of Duke basketball trivia questions related to the current sea- by “blue” tenters), more than 160 parties registered for the op- son; the most knowledgeable groups earned spots at the front portunity to brave the cold in the three weeks leading up to the of the line. Photo by Duke Photography Forum UNDERTHEGARGOYLES hen the White House imposed a leaders. Each of the universities “has a global mis- ban on travelers from seven Mus- sion, and each derives immeasurable benefit from lim-majority countries in late Jan- the contributions of diverse students, faculty, and uary, Duke was caught in a winter scholars from around the world.” The universities Wwhirlwind. The federal courts quickly moved to said they believe that “safety and security concerns block the ban. But just what a future border-control can be addressed in a manner that is consistent with policy might look like is an open question, and it’s the values America has always stood for, including one that has stirred anxiety across the higher-educa- the free flow of ideas and people across borders and tion landscape. the welcoming of immigrants to our universities.” In early February, Duke president Richard H. Outside the realm of collective statements and le- Brodhead was among the forty-eight university gal arguments, one perspective was offered by Negar leaders who sent a message to President Trump. The Mottahedeh, a Duke professor of film and media letter urged him “to rectify or rescind the recent studies who, for the past fifteen years, has taught in executive order,” which, if left in place, “threatens the Program in Literature. Mottahedeh is a Norwe- both American higher education and the defining gian who was born in Iran to Iranian parents; most principles of our country.” of her work is focused on Iran. In an essay for the The letter added that American higher education online Observer, she wrote that the ban on immi- historically has benefited from embracing immi- grants isn’t only grants from around the world. “Their innovations a measure that targets “bad people.” Rather, “America’s educational, scientific, economic, and artistic “[i]t is an exec- leadership depends upon our continued ability to attract the utive order that keeps a bunch extraordinary people who for many generations have come to of really smart, exceptionally this country in search of freedom and a better life.” talented and much-needed and scholarship have enhanced American learning, members of the added to our prosperity, and enriched our culture…. professional and labor classes grounded.” America’s educational, scientific, economic, and ar- The work she does, she added, takes her all over tistic leadership depends upon our continued ability the world for academic conferences, film festivals, to attract the extraordinary people who for many and research collaborations with colleagues. But generations have come to this country in search of on a research sabbatical, she could not, when the freedom and a better life.” ban was still in force, go anywhere: “Not to the BP Later that month, Duke joined sixteen other archives at Warwick University in England to con- universities in filing an amicus brief opposing the tinue the work that I have started on petrocultures immigration order. That’s a pretty dramatic gesture, and film, not to Norway to sit on a festival panel on but it’s not without precedent for Duke. Duke film and censorship in the northern city of TromsØ, joined a group of peer universities about four years and not to Spain to be with my dad, that eighty- ago in an amicus brief. What drew them together year-old sports fiend, who just recently got hit by an was Fisher v. University of Texas, an affirmative-action eighteen-wheeler while biking near his home after case before the Supreme Court. The argument then work.” was that universities have a compelling educational Mottahedeh’s story is just one illustration of how a interest in building a diverse student body and that policy decision can have personal resonance. As she consideration of race and ethnicity as factors in ad- put it, “Going anywhere for work or family means mission is a legitimate and necessary way to achieve not knowing I can come back to pursue my dreams such a goal. or to serve my profession doing what I adore more The latest brief reinforced themes, or accented de- than anything in the world.” fining values, expressed in the letter from university —Robert J. Bliwise, editor 4 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu Duke Photography LETTERS & COMMENTS NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE DUKE MAGAZINE PAID DUKEMAGAZINE PPCO DUKE UNIVERSITY, BOX 90572 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27708-0572 vice president of Duke, and • FALL 2016 Duke University, in making FALL 2016 MAGAZINE possible the rise of Durham. WHATEVER Leaves I also believe the article HAPPENED of absence TO FREDDY Amid growth, the university in the forest focuses on and enhances its CLARK? remaining greenery. p. 26 would have been helped by a FIND AN OLD FRIEND — WE OR DISCOVER A NEW ONE. map that highlighted where the various projects were taking place in downtown Durham. I always enjoy Duke Maga- zine and congratulate you for WANT the consistently fine issues. Credit where it’s due A. Morris Williams Jr.