T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
The Chronicle
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2012
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 69
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
Deforestation endangers rare lemurs
Vandalism found at Freeman
Nobel laureates
by Michelle Menchaca THE CHRONICLE
by Kristie Kim and Jack Mercola
The Duke Lemur Center, which has the largest population of lemurs outside of Madagascar, held its first symposium Monday to discuss environmental issues facing Madagascar and its endangered lemurs. The day-long conference, “Forests, Families, Lemurs & Guitars: Rights to Madagascar’s Resources,” focused on the political, social and economic issues affecting Madagascar in the wake of an ecological crisis. The day began with an introduction to lemurs and the destruction of their habitat—90 percent of Madagascar’s original forest that has been destroyed—and ended with a concert at Duke Coffeehouse by singer, songwriter and Madagascar native Razia Said. “Madagascar is a beautiful and unique place, but we’ve learned today it is also really messy,” said Duke ecologist Meredith Barrett, Nicholas ’11. “There are a lot of issues to tackle, and it requires a multidisciplinary approach.” The event included panel discussions with experts on the state of conservation in Madagascar, the implications of deforestation there and the fight against timber thieves. Barrett spoke about the ecological crisis in Madagascar. Increasing erosion, soil depletion and slash and burn agriculture have taken
The Freeman Center for Jewish Life has cleaned graffiti on its sign along campus drive, but suspects in the incident of vandalismn have yet to be found, said Rebecca Simons, director for Jewish life. The building sign, located on Campus Drive, had blue spray paint over the words “Jewish” and “Rubenstein,” Simons said, who learned of the vandalism Monday morning. The Freeman Center reported the damage to Duke Police Sunday afternoon. The spray paint has since been removed, and the sign has been cleaned. “We are not aware of any further vandalism or any indicators of who the perpetrators may have been,” Simons wrote in an email Monday. Rabbi Jeremy Yoskowitz, an assistant director for Jewish life, said he did not believe the incident suggests significant anti-Semitism or bigotry on campus. “I certainly do not believe that this is in any way indicative of a larger campus issue as this is generally a very respectful campus,” Yoskowitz wrote in an email Monday. “I believe that this is an isolated
THE CHRONICLE
PETE SOUZA/ OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, professor of medicine and winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry, met President Barack Obama in the White House last week.
SEE FREEMAN ON PAGE 2
SEE LEMURS ON PAGE 2
Duke TIP expands Marshall Scholar once a to Indian students creationist, now a biologist by Margot Tuchler THE CHRONICLE
The University’s collaboration with Shiv Nadar University is not confined to the college level. The Duke University Talent Identification Program, which has provided programming for academically gifted students since 1980, has been working with Indian students since summer 2008. In the past, Duke TIP’s presence in India had been restricted to a three-week summer program, housed at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where Duke Corporate Education has offices, said Martha Putallaz, executive director of Duke TIP. But with the signing of a memorandum of understanding Thursday, Duke TIP and SNU will work
Sulaimon and Plumlee earn ACC honors, online at The Chronicle’s sports blog
together to pursue new modes of identifying and educating academically gifted students. The first initiative, as part of the collaboration, will be a conference hosted by both universities to discuss the best methods of teaching and creating curricula for gifted students. “We’re going to jointly offer the conference to share with [Indian educators] the best practices for working with academically talented students—ways to frame the curriculum so it’s a hands-on, creative problem solving, as opposed to rote learning,” Putallaz said. In 2010, TIP began collaborating with Educational Initiatives, an educational talent search company based in India, said SEE TIP ON PAGE 2
by Julian Spector THE CHRONICLE
FAITH ROBERTSON/THE CHRONICLE
Senior Kenneth Hoehn recently won a Marshall Scholarship.
When senior Kenneth Hoehn arrived at Duke his freshman year, he walked right into a job in a biology lab. Come this summer, he will leave the lab to continue his research in Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. Hoehn, a native of Canton, Ga, grew up in a town where evolution was not much discussed. When he discovered evolution in high school, it spurred a desire to study what makes living things the way they are. Upon arrival at Duke as an A. B. Duke Scholar, he earned himself a spot in the lab of Mohamed Noor, Earl D. McLean professor and associate chair of biology,
ONTHERECORD
“That silence is the single greatest ammunition for perpetrators....” —Rajlakshmi De in ‘A culture of reporting.’ See column page 6
and has already published two papers, with a third on its way. “He impressed me so much on that first meeting that I said, ‘We have got to get him in our lab,’” Noor said. “I wouldn’t say this about many people, but he’s one where I have full faith that he will absolutely exceed me and blow me out of the water.” The Marshall Scholarship sends 40 American students each year to the United Kingdom to pursue graduate degrees at the university of their choice. Hoehn will study at Oxford’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. He has not yet decided which of Oxford’s many SEE MARSHALL ON PAGE 3
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