ForeverDuke Newsmakers
President Barack Obama nominated Lawrence Robert Silverman A.M. ’80 as the ambassador to Kuwait and appointed Geeta Pasi ’84 as ambassador to Chad. Silverman has since been confirmed by the Senate.
Denise Cetta ’90 produced a 60 Minutes spot on a Duke University therapy that uses the polio virus to attack glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
Paul Zwillenberg ’89 is the new chief executive of Britain’s Daily Mail.
Renzo Lara M.B.A. ’05 is the new country manager of Teradata Peru, a big-data firm.
Melissa Harris-Perry A.M. ’97, Ph.D. ’99 is now editor-at-large of Elle.com. Tico Almeida ’99 was honored with the 2016 Stevens Award from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation for work on LGBTQ civil rights cases. He heads and cofounded Freedom to Work, an organization that works to prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Paramount Pictures optioned the life rights and forthcoming autobiography of drone-warfare fighter Brett Velicovich M.B.A. ’12 for a planned biopic.
Dawn Kernagis Ph.D. ’12 was part of the NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Missions Operations) mission in which crew members lived in an undersea habitat in the Atlantic Ocean to simulate space exploration.
3Rachel Boillot M.F.A.
’14 produced “Post Script,” a photography project featuring the disappearing post offices of the rural South.
William Kaelin ’79, M.D. ’83 wins 2016 Albert Lasker Award, known as the “American Nobel,” along with two other physician-scientists for discovering the pathway by which cells from almost all multicellular animals adapt to changes in oxygen levels. Their research is leading to new trials for treating cardiovascular diseases and cancers.
Cultural historian Josh Kun ‘93 was awarded a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, aka the “genius grant.” He’ll receive a no-strings-attached $625,000 over the next five years. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 70 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu