dukenvironment Fa l l 2 0 0 0A n E nv i ro n m e n t f o r S o l u t i o n s

N I C H O L A S S C H O O L O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T

survival of the sea turtle

AdministrationNorman L. Christensen Jr., DeanBruce H. Corliss, Acting Chairman, Division of Earth & Ocean SciencesCurtis J. Richardson, Chairman, Division of the EnvironmentMichael K. Orbach, Director, Marine LaboratoryPeggy Dean Glenn, Associate Dean, External AffairsJames Haggard, Associate Dean, Finance and AdministrationRobin Puckett, Assistant to the Dean

Office of External AffairsPeggy Dean Glenn, Associate DeanCindy Baldwin Adams, Assistant Director of Development, Marine LabScottee Cantrell, Director of CommunicationsJan K. Pender, Director of Foundation and Corporate RelationsJill S. Range, Director of Alumni Affairs and the Annual FundGretchen Parker, Staff Assistant and Office ManagerGrace A. Badiali, Staff Assistant

Board of VisitorsDouglass F. Rohrman, Lord, Bissell & Brook, Chicago, IL (Chairman)Lawrence B. Benenson,The Benenson Capital Company, New York, NYJohn O. Blackburn, Maitland, FLJosephine Cooper, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers,Washington, D.C.Timothy J. Creem, Bridgton, MEBruce Cummings, Elben LLC, New York, NYMarshall Field V, Old Mountain Company, Chicago, ILF. Daniel Gabel Jr., Hagedorn & Company, New York, NYHarvey Goldman, Syska & Hennessy, Inc., New York, NYGilbert M. Grosvenor, National Geographic Society,Washington, D.C.Richard G. Heintzelman, Janney Montgomery Scott, Allentown, PAGeorge C. Hixon, Hixon Properties Inc., San Antonio,TexasChristian Holmes IV, Enron Ventures Corp., Houston,TXWalter S. Howes, Critical Resources Fund, McLean,VARichard E. Hug, Environmental Elements Corporation, Baltimore, MDThomas C. Jorling, International Paper, Purchase, NYSally Kleberg, New York, NYJuanita Kreps, Duke University, Durham, NCAndrew J. Laska,Weston, MAJames W. Moorman,Taxpayers Against Fraud,Washington, D.C.Bettye Martin Musham, Gear Inc., New York, NYJ.K. Nicholas,The Northpoint Domain, Boston, MAPatrick Noonan,The Conservation Fund, Arlington,VAJohn Nutter, Potomac Electric Power Company,Washington, D.C.Elizabeth B. Reid, Bedford Hills, NYJohn C. Reid, Comet Systems, New York, NYSimon B. Rich Jr., Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas,Wilton, CTTruman T. Semans,

Brown Investment Advisory and Trust Company Baltimore, MDTruman T.Semans Jr., Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NCBartow S. Shaw Jr., Shaw, McLeod, Belser & Hurlbutt Inc., Sumter, SCThomas A. Shepherd, Shepherd Miller Inc., Fort Collins, CORonald J. Slinn, Slinn & Associates, Princeton, NJ (Emeritus member)James A. Spangler, Spangler Environmental Consultants, Inc., Raleigh, NC Fred Stanback, Salisbury, NCPeter W. Stroh, Stroh Brewery Company, Detroit, MIWayne F.Wilbanks,

Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management, Norfork,VALaDane Williamson, Ocean Harbour Golf-Real Estate, Ocean Isle Beach, NCPlato S.Wilson, High Point, NCGeorge M.Woodwell,

Woods Hole Research Center,Woods Hole, MAWilliam Wrigley Jr.,The Wm.Wrigley Jr. Company, Chicago, IL

Marine Lab Advisory BoardWayne F. Wilbanks,Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas, Norfolk,VA (Chairman)Elsa Ayers, Greensboro, NC (Vice Chairman)James H.P. Bailey Jr., Cape Lookout Marine, Inc., Atlantic Beach, NC Richard H. Bierly, Morehead City, NCCharles F. Blanchard, Blanchard, Jenkins & Miller PA, Raleigh, NC Lillian Wooten Bland, Goldsboro, NCMabel Bugg, Raleigh, NCF. Nelson Blount Crisp, Blount & Crisp, Greenville, NC Sylvia Earle, Deep Ocean Exploration & Research, San Leandro, CA Robert W. Estill, Raleigh, NCJohn T. Garbutt, Jr., Durham, NCCecil Goodnight, CP&L, Raleigh, NCC. Howard Hardesty Jr., Andrews & Kurth,Washington, D.C.Robert G. Hardy, Strevig, Cornerstone Ventures LP, Houston,TX Mary Price Taylor Harrison, Beaufort, NC Susan Hudson,Wainwright Farms,Wilson, NCSandra Taylor Kaupe, Palm Beach, FLWilliam A. Lane Jr., Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation Inc., Coral Gables, FL.Henry O. Lineberger Jr., Raleigh, NCStephen E. Roady, Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund,Washington, D.C.Norwood A.Thomas Jr.,Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas, Norfolk,VA Elizabeth Thrower,Vero Beach, Fla., and Nantucket, MA

Alumni CouncilJames A. Spangler,

Spangler Environmental Consultants, Inc., Raleigh, NC (President)Joe Aldy, President’s Council of Economic Advisors,Washington, D.C.Brad Dethero, Geo-Source, Inc., Florence ALJeff Dye, Environmental Science &

Performance Management, New Orleans, LASusan Erickson, DuPont Chamber Works, Deep Water, NJPeter Griffith, North American Collection and

Location by Satellite, Largo, MDLynne Rhodes Hawkes, Cary, NCCraig Hedman, International Paper, Bainbridge, GARobert Beerits Lyon, Jr.The Link Oil Company,Tulsa, OKDaniel Markewitz, Daniel B.Warnell School of Forest Resources, Athens, GABarrett B. McCall, Larson & McGowin, Inc., Mobile, ALJames B. Miller, USDA Forest Service,Washington, D.C.Thomas Dwight Nager, U.S. Forest Capital, Chapel Hill, NCNancy Ragland Perkins, NOAA/NOS, Silver Spring, MDTimothy H. Profeta, Environmental Counsel/ Legislative Assistant

to Senator Joseph Liberman,Washington, D.C.Susan M. Regier, NC Division of Parks and Recreation, Raleigh, NCLori Sutter, NOAA Coastal Services Center, Charleston, SCMark Tukman, Pacific Meridian Resources, Sacramento, CAKeith Weitz, RTI Center for Environmental Analysis,

Research Triangle Park, NC

dukenvironment is a publication of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

dukenvironment Contents

2 Fault Lines: Seeking Seismic Insights Along the Restless San Andreas by Monte Basgall

12 Survival of the Sea Turtle: Sea turtles are awe-inspiring, endangered,and carefully studied here at Duke’s Marine Laboratory by Monte Basgall

18 Testing the Toxins: Impact on Biological Development Examined by Monte Basgall

The Log: School News 6Scope: Faculty & Staff Notes 10

Sightings: Alumni News 16Nature & Nurture: Campaign & Annual Fund News 20

Monitor: Upcoming Events 24

Produced by the Office of Creative Services & Publications Copyright © Nicholas School of the Environment, 2000

Photography contributed by Jim Wallace / Duke University Photography, Scott Taylor, Jim Rattray, Nancy Hardison and Elwood Linney

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The Nicholas School of the Environment’sPeter Malin is leading 22 Duke undergrad-uates up one of Earth’s most remarkableplaces: the red-tinted cathedral of stonespires called Pinnacles National Monument.This magnificent setting is especially amaz-ing for what isn’t there. Experts like Malin,a Professor of Seismology at the school’sDivision of Earth and Ocean Sciences,know that part of the central Californiarampart is actually missing. The other halfhas been located far down in southernCalifornia’s Mojave Desert, where scientistsdeduce that the now-extinct volcano splitapart after forming 23 million years ago.Since then, the western side – today’sPinnacles – has shaken its way 195 milesnorthwest to its present location along anincredibly slow and fitful geological railroadscientists call the San Andreas Fault.

Malin roughed it on the San Andreasfor a week last fall, hiking, caravanning and camping with students along one of the world’s most famous earthquake zones.This San Andreas expedition brings himonce again to his open-air laboratory of 30 years. It’s where he hopes to soon par-ticipate in a massive drilling project that would probe the heart of the fault. He callsit “my uncoded Rosetta stone, full of hid-den meaning.” Malin’s quest is to use thelatest instruments of science to catch thefault in movement. That motion can be asinconspicuous as a few millimeters “creep.”It can also be as dramatic as the 32-odd feetthe earth snapped in an 1857 earthquake atone of the more dramatic surface breaks on their itinerary. In the back of Malin’smind is the ever-present possibility ofcatching another major quake in person.

For Malin’s students, not all of themgeology majors, this field trip class is anopportunity to experience more than theycan get from the classroom. “I’m probablynot going to pursue a career in geology, but it gets you into the feel of being a field geologist,” says Jordan Gootnick, athen-junior from north of San Francisco.Gootnick vividly remembers his own brushwith the 1989 Loma Prieta quake on a fifth grade field trip. “It was something out of Universal Studios,” he says.

f a u l t l i nesS e e k i n g S e i s m i c I n s i g h t s

by Monte Basgall

D I S C O V E R

Hiking in an Earthquake ZoneThe San Andreas Fault is a major earth-quake zone because it separates two of the massive plates at the Earth’s surface.The North American plate forms the eastside of the fault line, and it constantlygrinds and strains against the northwest-moving Pacific plate on the west. It wasabout 30 million years ago when the NorthAmerican plate first began overriding thePacific plate. That set up a chain of sub-duction and mountain building that alsocreated the San Andreas, which todaystretches 650 miles from near the Mexicanborder to north of San Francisco Bay. This line of tension is technically known as a “strike-slip” fault because the western-most plate is moving sideways past the other one. In parts of the San Andreas, the western plate does seem to slip in a very slow and quiet crawl, which scientistscall “aseismic creep.” But other sectionsare “locked up,” for reasons experts canonly speculate about. There, the Pacificplate’s movement can be arrested for yearsuntil pressures build up to the fracturingpoint. Energy is finally released in moder-ate to severe earthquakes that redistributethe fault’s tension.

During their passage south from SanFrancisco, itself the scene of a famous 1906San Andreas quake, Malin’s students visitboth creeping and locked segments as theyfollow a series of increasingly scenic stateroads along a largely rural inland corridoreast of California’s coastal ranges. Studentslearn how to read evidence of the fault asMalin leads the way on foot, or points outfeatures via radio during intervening vanrides. Just northwest of the quaint missiontown of San Juan Bautista, a fenceline hasbeen bent by aseismic creep of about 7 millimeters a year. In the town of Hollister,creep has offset curbs, walls, streets, sidewalks and parts of a nearby winery.

Tracing a Complex TopographyWhile the term “fault line” conjures upimages of a straight, knifing chasm, actualsurface traces can be difficult for eventrained geologists to follow. At San JuanBautista, for example, the San Andreas isknown to pass with chalk-line precisionalong the edge of an easy-to-define ravine.In other areas, tortured geology gets in the way. As the Northern Pacific Plateunrelentingly presses on, streams can beforced into detours that carve out new valleys. Whole blocks of land get pushed up into “pressure ridges,” or dropped intowater-filled depressions called “sag ponds.”

A l o n g t h e R e s t l e s s S a n A n d r e a s

Peter Malin, Professor of Seismology

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With hot chinook winds drying thestarkly magnificent hill country, the caravan begins descending yet anotherbrake-stomping grade down to what’s calledthe “Earthquake Capital of the World.” The boastful slogan is painted above another, “Be There When It Happens,” on the side of a wooden water tank outsidethe Parkfield Café, an occasionally-openeatery in Parkfield, Calif. (population 37).A sign inside the earthquake-reinforceddining room relays the stoic humor of residents who have learned to live with the San Andreas, which crosses at the town’s edge. “If you feel a shake or a quake, get under your table & eat yoursteak,” it says. The café is near the rusticParkfield Inn, where students will spreadtheir sleeping bags. Both buildings wereconstructed by a local family largely toaccommodate visiting news reporters. The reporters began flocking to the tinyranching community in pursuit of geologists like Malin, who were themselvesthere as part of what became internationallyknown as the “Parkfield EarthquakePrediction Experiment.”

Hunting for Geothermal Energy with a Seismologist’s Spear:Malin’s Research Applied in Kenya

Kenya is one of several countries worldwide that could generate all its electricity needs using geothermal

steam. The challenge is to find the capital to develop the turbine-powered generator plants and to cut the high

costs of drilling by locating the faults that contain the richest steam reserves.

Faults, of course, imply earthquakes, and therein lies the interest of KenGen, the competitive national

electrical generating company of Kenya, in seismological research at the Nicholas School of the Environment’s

Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences (EOS). After hearing and reading about basic geothermal earthquake

research going on in the lab of Professor Peter Malin and Dr. Eylon Shalev, KenGen seismologist Dr. Silas Simiyu

spent nine months at Duke under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsorship. The focus of their initial

collaboration was the development of a plan for geothermal earthquake research and exploration in the Rift

Valley in central Kenya. The plan called for focusing on Longonot Volcano near Lake Naivasha, where Kenya’s

only geothermal power plants are currently located.In mid-1999 DOE approved the plan, and by early 2000 the

hunt for geothermal earthquakes at Longonot was on.

As you could learn from any of the Masai – who do not hunt wild animals, but live alongside them – it takes

even the lion several tries to catch a meal. So it was for capturing the earthquake signals needed to track the

geothermal prey. The team had to first adapt earthquake-recording methods developed primarily in the

western United States to geological conditions in the Rift Valley. Unlike geothermal locations in the West, the

blanket of pumice and ash found around Longonot obscures the signals of the microearthquakes used to map

the hidden resources. In June and July, the EOS group joined the KenGen group in the field to modify the

earthquake-recording techniques and to relocate instruments to the most promising areas.The seismographs

lie in wait as the project’s efforts now turn toward keeping data flowing and finding further financial support.

D I S C O V E R

The Parkfield section of the SanAndreas has been scientifically instru-mented more densely than any other faultin the world because of its unusual historyof repeating earthquakes. Magnitude 6-sized temblors, which are powerfulenough to cause significant structuraldamage, were recorded there in ‘66 and ‘34 as well as in 1922, 1901, 1881 and 1857, an average of every 22 years.Whatever is occurring underneathParkfield makes it “an ideal place to tryand get in and catch an earthquake,” says Malin. Other scientists agreed in the 1980s, as did government fundingagencies. Researchers began setting up the latest state of the art equipment toreveal any early warning signs for the next Magnitude 6 temblor, which a century of statistical records predictedwould happen sometime between 1985and ‘93. The world is still waiting.Scientists’ statistically based predictionswere “badly wrong,” Malin acknowledges,although the instruments did record apeculiar sequence of earth movementsand smaller quakes that are part of theearthquake cycle.

Monitoring a MountainA dramatic spot to see the experiment atwork is Middle Mountain. The road up had to be relocated after the groundslipped about 200 feet in a landslide,Malin tells students as they nervouslyobserve where whole trees have sunk intothe earth. Several instruments are beingfilmed there by yet another TV crew,including a sensitive seismograph Malinand colleagues encased in concrete down an 800 foot well. Protected from surfacevibrations, the deep-seated instrument can sense very slight “microearthquakes”with magnitudes as little as minus-1.

Antennas beam down data to theHalliburton Ranch, where an array of computers, “creep” meters and monitoringcameras stay constantly primed. When bigger quakes shake Middle Mountain,another special seismometer there signalsthe ranch below by radio, which turns onthe cameras. “The theory is we will catchthe next Parkfield event on videotape,” saysRich Liechti of the U.S. Geological Service.“Radio waves travel faster than earthquakewaves, so we’ll have the cameras rolling bythe time the earthquake waves get here.”

It was Malin who developed a methodto drop compact seismographs into wellbore holes in a search for very small earth-quakes. While big earthquakes are rareevents, scientists hypothesize that tiny ones occur much more frequently. Malinreasoned that microearthquakes unde-tectable at the surface could be successfullyrecorded nearer the two-mile depths where quakes are thought to originate inthe San Andreas. So he went looking foran abandoned oil well within a mile of thefault. A lucky technician found such a dry hole, the 5,000 foot deep Varian Well,below Middle Mountain near Parkfield.Malin’s 30 seismometers operated aboutfive years in Varian Well, yielding severalscientific papers.

Today Malin is one of many scientists involved in the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), a multimillion-dollar National ScienceFoundation drilling proposal under consideration by Congress. If funded, theproject would provide direct observationaldata on the composition, physical state and mechanical behavior of a major faultzone at depth. The drilling site is slatedfor the fault’s Parkfield segment near some of Malin’s earlier study areas.

Field trips are an essential part of an environmental education. In 1999-2000, Earth and Ocean Sciences Field Trips

were made possible by the Thomas Vaclav Laska Memorial Fund and the following contributors to the Geology

Field Trip Fund: Gregor Bond ‘82, Chevron, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, Kevin Hefferan ‘92, John

Hodge ‘77, Sarah Kemp ‘76, Thomas Medary’84, Charles Munch ‘57, Joan Popowics ‘88, the Proctor and Gamble

Fund, the Raytheon Company, Elizabeth Schwarze ‘87, and the TRW Foundation. For information on how you can

support the Field Trip Fund, contact Grace Badiali or Jill Range at (919) 613-8001 or mail your contribution

directly to Geology Field Trip Fund / NSOE / Duke University / Box 90328 / Durham, NC 27708.

Childhood Asthma ResearchMarie Lynn Miranda’s children’s environmentalhealth project got a boost this summer with a $35, 000bridge grant from the Wallace Genetic Foundationto start collecting data for an asthma/allergen/fire riskmodel in six North Carolina counties.

Miranda, the Nicholas School Director of Under-graduate Programs, also has submitted a large grantproposal to the Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment to launch the four-phase project called“Mapping for Prevention.” It will involve using GISspatial analysis to predict the location of houses withyoung children at risk for exposure to allergens, asth-ma triggers, and fire hazards. The bridge funding fromthe Foundation will allow Miranda to start data collec-tion while awaiting additional support.

This project is an extension of an earlier Centers forDisease Control-funded initiative that uses spatialanalysis to create a household-level predictive modelof lead exposure risks across the state.

This was the second grant from the Wallace GeneticFoundation that Miranda received this year. She alsowas awarded $20, 000 to develop a Senior CapstoneSeminar on Pesticides and the Environment.

Richardson Named FellowInternationally acclaimed wetland ecologist and soilscientist Curtis J. Richardson has been named aFellow of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA).The honor is the highest bestowed by the society.The SSSA is the professional home for more than 6, 000professionals worldwide who are dedicated to theadvancement of soil science.

Richardson, the new head of the Nicholas School’sDivision of the Environment and Director of the DukeUniversity Wetland Center, has devoted his career toconducting research on phosphorus biogeochemistryin wetland ecosystems around the world. He has beendirector of the Wetland Center since its inception in1989 and is professor of resource ecology.

Corporate ForumThe Nicholas School of the Environment will join withthe Fuqua School of Business to present the first of twoEnvironmental Leadership Forums for corporateleaders on Monday, April 9, at Fuqua’s Thomas Center.

More than 75 CEOs will be invited to take part inthe one-day forum, which is designed to providecorporate leaders with information on emergingenvironmental issues.

Funding for the leadership forums is being providedby a $250, 000 grant from The Starr Foundation.

NSF CAREER AwardDharni Vasudevan, assistant professor of environ-mental chemistry at the Nicholas School, is therecipient of the most prestigious honor given by theNational Science Foundation to junior facultymembers, the Faculty Early Career Development(CAREER) Award .

As part of the award, Vasudevan will receive anestimated $200, 000 over four years to further herresearch and teaching on “Interfacial ProcessesI m p a c t i n g t h e C h e m i c a l Fate o f O rg a n i cContaminants.” She also will offer summer lab oppor-tunities for female high school students to encouragetheir interest in science and engineering.

Vasudevan is studying what happens to organiccompounds such as pesticides and herbicides on thesurface of soil particles to determine what factorsinfluence their reaching groundwater. Her researchcould aid in the development criteria for pesticides andherbicides that are structured to have a reducedpotential for groundwater contamination. She also islooking at innocuous tracer compounds that are struc-turally similar to pesticides and herbicides that cansafely be used as a surrogate in the field.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation InternsWatershed assessment. Sustainable living. Populationgrowth and resource use. Economic benefits oflow water-use landscapes. These are all projectstackled this summer by eight Nicholas School studentsas part of an internship funded by the Doris DukeCharitable Foundation.

In its second year, the Doris Duke ConservationFellowships program provides a scholarship grantand a stipend for an internship with a nonprofitorganization or government agency. Fellows arechosen for their potential as outstanding future lead-ers in the conservation field.

This year’s fellows, their programs and their intern-ship organizations were: Lee Hayes Byron, ResourceEconomics and Policy, The Nature Conservancy,Sarasota, Fla.; Jay Griffin, Coastal EnvironmentalManagement, Hanalei Heritage River Program, Hawaii;Michael Hessling, Resource Economics and Policy,Southern Nevada Water Authority, Las Vegas, Nev.;Jeffrey Lin, Resource Ecology, The Nature Conservancy,Delaware Chapter, and the Smithsonian EnvironmentalResearch Center, Edgewater, Md.; Amanda Medori,Resource Ecology, The Wildlands Project, Durham, N.C.;Carla Norwood, Resource Ecology, US EPA/NSOE Officeof Continuing Education; Shane Staten, ResourceEcology, The Nature Conservancy, Upper KlamathBasin, Oregon; Emi Yoda, Resource Economics andPolicy, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

S C H O O L N E W S

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Dharni Vasudevan

Curtis J. Richardson

the log

Marie Lynn Miranda

Healy Heads CenterRobert G. Healy’s research on environmental policy inthe United States, Canada and Mexico made him theperfect candidate to become director of Duke’s Centerfor North American Studies earlier this summer.

The Center, created in 1997, fosters interdisciplinaryresearch and teaching activities in North America andhas about 15 affiliated faculty members.

As director, the Nicholas School professor says,“I hopeto involve more Duke faculty in the Center’s programs,and to increase opportunities for students to study inMexico and Canada.”

Healy has taught at Duke since 1986. He developedthe course “Protected Areas, Tourism and LocalDevelopment” (ENV275S) after teaching courses inMexico and Canada. He currently is studying how to usetourism to generate financial benefits for people wholive around protected areas in Mexico.

Ronald Perkins RetiresAlumni, colleagues, family and friends reminisced,roasted, and honored Professor Ronald Perkins overLabor Day weekend for his 32 years of service to DukeUniversity. Perkins, Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciencesand former Chair of the Department of Geology, retiredJune 30.

At a reception on Friday and an alfresco campus quaddinner on Saturday, speeches by friends of longstanding addressed Perkins’s professional career, fromhis days at Shell Oil through his years at Duke. Speakersincluded Dean Norm Christensen, Bruce Corliss,Gene Shinn, Sue Halsey, Mike Lloyd, Robin Smith Wells,Gary Dwyer and Jeff Karson.

The celebration was a fitting close to an era of earthsciences at Duke University represented by emeritusProfessors Perkins, Orrin Pilkey, and S. DuncanHeron. All three retired during the past three years.

The highlight of the celebration was a multimediapresentation created by Perkins and Heron. Entitled“DUDOG: 50 Years in Review,” its photographs andsongs showcased over one half century of Dukegeology students, faculty and field trips.

In honor of the numerous contributions of Perkins, anendowment has been created to fund a permanentLectureship in Applied GeoScience. The Lectureship,with an endowment goal of $100,000, will bringprominent scientists and industry leaders to campuswith the aim of continuing and enhancing the strongties between academia and business. Contributionsto the Perkins Lectureship in Applied GeoScience maybe sent to: Perkins Fund / NSOE / Duke University /Box 90328 / Durham, NC 27708. Checks should bemade payable to Duke University.

Board Mentoring ProgramThis past year, 23 second-year students in the NicholasSchool had a chance to “learn from experience.” Theywere paired with members of the Board of Visitors for aone-on-one mentoring opportunity that gave them avery personalized view of the professional world. TheBoard Mentoring Program was deemed such a successthat it will be continued this fall.

Students completed a biographical sheet and werematched with Board members by Wendy Dedzins whooversees the program for Career Services at the NicholasSchool. MEM student Emily Lindow initially contactedher mentor Peter Stroh by phone, and later visited him inDetroit when she was home on semester break.

“The mentoring program at Duke has been an excel-lent opportunity to bridge my environmental educationwith the professional business world. The discussionsMr. Stroh and I had about my goals and his environmen-tal experience demonstrated that conservation andcapitalism can co exist,“ says Lindow.

Lindow, who is now a Knauss Fellow working withthe Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, andTransportation, said that Stroh has a fascinating back-ground in the environment that she would never have beenaware of if she hadn’t had the opportunity to talk with him.

The mentoring program was spearheaded by Boardmember Chris Holmes, who says he wanted to start theprogram because the Board has members with a broadrange of experiences and insight that he knew would be ofgreat value to the students. “I felt the mentoring wouldenable Board members to develop a better understandingof the student’s education and expectations,“ he says.

“The mentoring program is an opportunity forstudents to have access to highly placed professionalswho share their interest in the environment. Programslike this give students a way to develop themselvesprofessionally,“ says Dedzins.

Landscape LegaciesThe Nicholas School of the Environment will be one of themajor sponsors of “Landscape Legacies,“ a January 2001forum bringing together ecologists, historians and landmanagers to examine managing landscapes in thecontext of human history and ecosystem change.

The three-day conference, scheduled Jan. 8-10,will focus on such issues as “Significance of Land UseHistory,“ “Environmental Advocacy, “ and “Wildlife andRecreation.” The aim is to develop a common, compre-hensive framework for environmental decision-making.Conference activities will take place in Love Auditorium atthe Levine Science Research Center and at the DavidThomas Executive Conference Center, both on campus.Parts of the program are open to the public.

Joining the Nicholas School as sponsors are the U.S.D.A.Forest Service, the Forest History Society and the DorisDuke Charitable Foundation. Norman Christensen,Dean of the Nicholas School, is conference chair.

End of an Era:Orrin Pilkey, Ron Perkins & Duncan Heron

Robert G. Healy

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Dean SearchA nine-member search committee chaired by NSOEprofessor Randall Kramer is making a rigorousnational search for the successor to the NicholasSchool’s founding dean, Norman L. Christensen Jr.Kramer says the committee expects to wrap up its workby early spring 2001.

Appointed by Duke University Provost Peter Lange,the committee includes NSOE faculty membersRichard Barber, Richard DiGiulio and Emily Klein;John Harer, vice provost for academic affairs; IrwinFridovich, James B. Duke professor of biochemistry;Robert Keohane, James B. Duke professor ofpolitical science; Miguel Medina, professor of civil andenvironmental engineering; and Douglass Rohrmanof the NSOE Board of Visitors.

Kramer says the committee began work this summer,submitting ads to Science, Nature and the Chronicle ofHigher Education and writing to a large number ofindividuals to seek nominations. (See position ad athttp://www.env.duke.edu/dean_ad.html.) The inter-view process will start late fall, and Kramer expects thecommittee to submit three final candidates to DukeUniversity President Nannerl O. Keohane and ProvostLange by early spring.

Christensen, who has served as dean since July 1991,announced late last year that he will return to teachingand research in July 2001.

Business and the EnvironmentHow have company strategies for dealing with environ-mental issues evolved over time? What are companiesdoing now and how best can they deal with non-government organizations and government agencies toachieve environmental solutions?

Some 30 undergraduates and MEM students willexamine these issues through case studies, lecturesand discussions in the new “Business and theEnvironment” (ENV 185) survey course being offeredto undergraduates this spring in the Nicholas Schoolof the Environment.

Developed and team taught by Ronie Garcia-Johnson, assistant professor of environmental policy,and Erika Sasser, visiting assistant professor, thecourse will look at interactions of businesses, civil soci-ety and government actors, focusing on firms in theauto, chemical and forestry industries. Students willhave an opportunity to examine issues from both adomestic and global perspective, and to hear fromguest industry speakers.

The course development is part of a larger project onsocial and environmental certification that they areconducting with Gary Gerefii, professor of sociology,under a $100,000 Ford Foundation Grant. Thestudents in Environment 185 will benefit from thecutting-edge research generated from this project.

Coastal Ecosystem ProcessesHuman population density is increasing on the coastsmore rapidly than any other area of the globe. Theconflict between human activity and natural coastalfunction has gone critical, says Joe Ramus, professorof biological oceanography.

“From upland terrestrial systems, through wetlandsand rivers, the coastal ecosystem is being substantiallyaltered by human development,“ he says.

To give students a look at this very important part ofthe environment, Ramus has developed the course“Coastal Ecosystem Processes” (BIO 219L, ENV 224L),which is being offered to MEM and undergraduates inEnvironmental Sciences this fall.

Students will look at the physical, biogeochemicaland biological processes that control trophic dynamicrelations in the coastal zone of the Carolinas.The unify-ing theme will be the coupling of soils and watersheds,river basins, wetlands, estuaries and the coast oceanthrough the movement of ground and surface waters.

Western Field Trip 2000Judson Edeburn headed west again this past Maywith a contingent of 21 Nicholas School students inEnvironment 260 to introduce them to real-worldnatural resources and environmental issues that theyread about in the classroom. Edeburn, Duke ForestResource Manager, has been taking students to theNorthwest for more than 10 years.

This year’s seven-day trip included some 11 stopsranging from the Grand Coulee Dam to the PotlatchTimber Co. in Headquarters, Idaho. They started inSpokane, Washington, with an overnight stay at thedam to examine fisheries and recreational issues. Theythen traveled to the Panhandle National Forest, northof Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and spent an afternoon withEPA’s Earl Liverman at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site inKellogg/Smelterville, for a graphic view of the damageand recovery from years of the smelter’s operation.

In Missoula, Montana, they spent the day withDon Carroll at the Lolo National Forest. Carroll replacedDave Stack (MF 65), long-time host of the group, whoretired recently.

The trip west then took the group down the LachsaWild and Scenic River Corridor, with a stop at the JerryJohnson Hot Springs, and to Potlatch Timber Co.’sbunkhouse in Headquarters, Idaho, with hosts DavePritchard (MF 74), Dan Jones and Jim Mallory. Beforeheading home, the students went back to Spokane tothe Lower Granite Falls dam on the Snake River.

S C H O O L N E W Sthe log

Joe Ramus

Western Field Trip

Randall Kramer

Barber Attends White House EventThis summer Richard T.“Dick” Barber, Harvey W.SmithProfessor of Biological Oceanography, visited the WhiteHouse to participate in the ninth Millennium Evening,“Exploration Under the Sea Beyond the Stars.”

Hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton, the MillenniumEvenings are a series of lectures and cultural showcases.

The Ninth Millennium Evening featured MarciaMcNutt, president and CEO of the Monterey BayAquarium Research Institute, and Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson,the Frederick P.Prose Director of the HaydenPlanetarium in New York City. They examined what weare learning from deep sea and deep space research andwhat these fields have in common.

Barber sat with deep-sea scientist Cindy Van Dover, a1994-95 Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at theDuke Marine Lab, and astronaut Kathy Sullivan, the firstwoman to walk in space.

Pilkey Geological Society AwardAlready well-known for his efforts to educate the publicabout beach geology and the recipient of numerous hon-ors, Orrin Pilkey Jr. has added one more award to hisshelf. The James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Geologyhas received The Geological Society of America’s 2000Public Service Award.

This is the second year the society has presented thisprestigious award, which was created in 1998. It is givenfor contributions that have “materially enhanced thepublic’s understanding of the earth sciences, or signifi-cantly served decision-makers in the application of sci-entific and technical information in public affairs andpublic policy related to earth sciences.”

Pilkey retired in September 1999, but continues todirect the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelinesand to advocate for sensible beach development. At hisretirement, the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences inthe Nicholas School launched the Orrin Pilkey CoastalFellowship to provide yearly support for a graduatestudent in coastal studies. That fund has now surpassedthe $200, 000 mark.

Contributions to the Orrin Pilkey Coastal Fellowshipmay be sent to the Pilkey Fellowship / NSOE / DukeUniversity / Box 90328 / Durham, NC 27708-0328.Checks should be made payable to Duke University.

Grant to Fund Wetlands RestorationAn area along Sandy Creek near the Washington DukeInn and Golf Course will be transformed into an eight-to-10 acre wetland and four-acre impoundment thanksto grants totaling $626,000 from the Clean WaterManagement Trust Fund and The North CarolinaWetlands Restoration Program.

Engineering work will begin immediately on the DukeUniversity Wetland Center project, which will improveSandy Creek’s water quality and create several wetlandareas. Increasing development over the years has madesuch important pollution filters more scarce.

Construction is scheduled to begin in April 2001, saysCurtis Richardson, Center Director and Nicholas Schoolprofessor, who also is developing the Duke Forest site asa major teaching and research area. “We know of noother school that has a wetland study area like this,where students and scientists will be able to work alongan active waterway,“ says Richardson.

The completed project will include a controlled-release earthen dam near the golf course according toJudson Edeburn, Duke Forest Resource Manager. Landgrading and vegetation planting will then turn theresulting impoundment area upstream into differentwetland environments, resulting in a standing lake,marshy areas and lowland woodland. All of this willserve to naturally filter out pollutants and slow downwater movement.

First Nicholas ProfessorAquatic toxicologist David E. Hinton of the Universityof California, Davis, has been named the NicholasProfessor of Environmental Quality. His appointmentwas effective Sept. 1.

Hinton’s is the first of four professorships endowedby a 1995 gift from the family of Boston businessexecutive Peter M. Nicholas and his wife, Virginia.The $6 million endowment was part of a $20 million giftby the Nicholas family, one of the largest gifts ever tosupport environmental education and research.

Hinton is noted for his research in chemical carcino-gensis in fishes, and morphometry of pollutant inducedalterations in fish tissues. At UC-Davis, Hinton wasprofessor of aquatic toxicology and director of theEcotoxicology Lead Campus Graduate program, a UCsystemwide toxic substances research and teachingprogram. Before coming to UC-Davis in 1990, he heldpositions at the West Virginia University Medical Centerin Morgantown, W.Va., and at the Medical College ofOhio in Toledo.

Born in Hattiesburg, Miss., Hinton received his bachelorof science degree in zoology from Mississippi College inClinton, Miss., and his master’s of science and doctoraldegrees in anatomy from The University of MississippiMedical Center in Jackson, Miss.

He is a member of the Society of Toxicologic Pathologists,the Society of Toxicology and the International Academyof Pathology.

New Communications DirectorLongtime media relations specialist and journalistScottee Cantrell has joined the Nicholas School asDirector of Communications.

Cantrell comes to Duke after 10 years at North CarolinaState University, where she last was Assistant Director ofNC State’s News Services office. At NC State, she was oneof the chief architect’s of the award-winning “Back Homewith NC State,“ the new chancellor’s statewide tour. Sheoversaw the office’s writing and clerical staff, playing akey role in developing an annual media relations plan,overseeing the staff of the university’s faculty-staff pub-lication and managing major projects and activitiesincluding a faculty experts guide. She has worked atnewspapers across North and South Carolina, last servingas a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal.

David E. Hinton

Scottee Cantrell

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AwardsAaryn Kay, Director of Community Education in theCenter for Environmental Education, received theNewcomer of the Year award from the EnvironmentalEducators of North Carolina, Sept. 10.

Daniel A. Livingstone, James B. Duke Professor ofZoology and Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences,received an honorary Doctor of Science degree anddelivered the Commencement address at theUniversity of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada, on June 16.

Robin Puckett, administrative assistant to theNicholas School dean and a 16-year employee withDuke University, was named one of this year’sPresidential Award winners. The awards honoremployees who have made t ru ly d ist inc t ivecontributions to Duke. Puckett received the highesthonor in the Office/Clerical category.

Presentations and ConferencesCelia Bonaventura, Director of the Duke UniversityMarine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center,together with Dan Baden at the UNC-WilmingtonCenter for Marine Science, convened the CarolinaConference on Coastal Waters and Health, Sept. 7-8,at the Center for Marine Science at UNCW.The meetingbrought together ocean scientists and health profes-sionals to identify critical issues and plan for newinterdisciplinary and inter-institutional approaches toincrease our understanding of the role of coastalwaters in human and environmental health.

Daniel A. Livingstone delivered the keynote address,“Let’s Clean Up Our Act, “ at the 8th InternationalPaleolimnology Symposium in Ontario, Canada, Aug.21. On June 1, he presented a lecture, Where Do We GoFrom Here?, at a workshop on Paleograssland Researchorganized by the Carnegie Institution of Washingtonand Wesleyan University in Westbrook Conn.

Curtis J. Richardson, Director of the Duke UniversityWetland Center, and Panchabi Vaithiyanathan,Associate Professor, co-chaired the 6th InternationalAssociation of Ecology Wetland Conference(INTECOL VI) symposium The Everglades Experiments:An Integrated Approach to Wetland Ecosystem Science. Thesymposium was part of Quebec 2000: The MillenniumEvent, which brought together four distinguishedwetland and peat organizations in Quebec, Canada,Aug. 6-12. Wetland Center researchers and studentsgave a total of 19 papers and four poster presentations.Dr. Yongxing Yang, Wetland Center visiting scholarand Deputy Director of the Changchun Institute ofGeography, also chaired a symposium.

Daniel D. Richter, Associate Professor of Forest Soilsand Ecology, presented a poster, Five Tales from theCalhoun and a Proposal for Long-term Soil EcosystemExperiments, at the National Science Foundation’sLong-Term Ecological Studies Meeting in Snow Bird,Utah, in August.

William H. Schlesinger, James B. Duke Professor ofBiogeochemistry, has given numerous presentations andseminars throughout the year. He most recently present-ed a seminar, The Global Carbon Cycle and the Duke ForestFACE Experiment, at Lehigh University, at the University ofVirginia and the University of Massachusetts. He alsogave an invited presentation before the Committee forResearch and Exploration, National Geographic Society,in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11.

Jonathan B. Wiener, Professor of Law andEnvironmental Policy, spoke at the Harvard Conferenceon the Internet and Society (“IS2K”) on the topic Right toKnow – How Far Does It Go?, which examined the risks ofposting information on the Web.

Robert L. Wolpert, Associate Professor of Statistics andDecision Sciences and of Environment, presentedan environmental talk, Biomass Inference for RemoteLaser Profile Data, at Aalborg Universitet, Aalborg,Denmark, in June.

F A C U L T Y & S T A F F N O T E Sscope

In Print Ronie Garcia-Johnson, Assistant Professor ofEnvironmental Policy, authored ExportingEnvironmentalism, U.S. Multinational ChemicalCorporations in Brazil and Mexico, published by MIT Press(June 2000).This is the first book to examine industry’stransnational promotion of environmental ideas andpractices and challenges other theoretical approachesto the study of international environmental politics.

Daniel D. Richter, Associate Professor of Forest Soilsand Ecology, and colleagues have completed a two-yearstudy funded by the US EPA and NC DENR entitledEconomic and Ecological Impacts Associated with WoodChip Production in North Carolina, the first product of theSouthern Center for Sustainable Forestry, a cooperativetechnical research group. Richter, also co-authored withDaniel Markewitz, Understanding Soil Change, to bepublished by Cambridge University Press, UK. The bookexamines the substantial changes in the soils of south-eastern United States that have occurred over the pastseveral centuries.

William H. Schlesinger, James B. Duke Professor ofBiogeochemistry, had two articles published recently:Nutrient losses in runoff from grassland and shrublandhabitats in southern New Mexico: II: Field plots,” inBiogeochemistry; and “Soils and the global carbon cycle”,The Global Carbon Cycle, Cambridge University Press.

Paul F. Steinberg,Visiting Assistant Professor, has hada book manuscript, Environmental Leadership inDeveloping Countries, accepted for publication by MITPress, Fall 2001. It examines biodiversity policy reformsin Costa Rica and Bolivia over the past four decades.

Jonathan B. Weiner, Professor of Law andEnvironmental Policy, authored Policy Design forInternational Greenhouse Gas Control, Climate Issues BriefNo. 6, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.,(July 2000), and Toward Sustainable Governance,AEI-Brookings Joint Center on Regulatory Studies,(June 2000). Both are available on the Web.

Robert L. Wolpert, Associate Professor of Statisticsand Decision Sciences and of Environment, has authoredor co-authored several environmental papers this year:“Spatial Poisson regression for health and exposure datameasured at disparate spatial scales”, Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association; “Combining modelsof health and exposure data: the SAVIAH study”,Spatial Epidemiology: Methods and Applications, OxfordUniversity Press; and “Modeling the impact of traffic-related air pollution on childhood respiratory illness”,Case Studies in Bayesian Statistics, Springer-Verlag.

Ronie Garcia-Johnson

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survival of the sea turtleSea turtles are awe-insp iring, endangered, and carefu lly

People just can’t seem to get enough of sea turtles.Perhaps it’s their leathery faces, which make themlook wizened and ancient. Perhaps it’s their star-tling transformation from plodding, ungainly animals on land to champion athletes in the water.Perhaps it’s their impressive sizes, up to seven feetlong and 1,200 pounds in weight. Air-breathingreptiles who stay mostly in the water, marine turtles have evolved to possess their own live-inarmor, plus limbs modified for exceptional swimming and compressible bodies that can divedeep and make the most of available oxygen.Abandoned by their mothers as eggs, they beginlife by bursting from the beach sand wherein theyhatch, then frantically race from sand to surf toopen sea past the jaws of waiting predators. Thosehatchlings that survive this frenetic start – mostdon’t – benefit from pre-programmed homingsenses that will serve to guide them around anentire ocean. Scientists who keep learning new and wondrous things about them are workingamid a sense of urgency. That’s because all seaturtle species – the greens, blacks, flatbacks, log-gerheads, hawksbills, olive ridleys, kemp’s ridleysand leatherbacks – are officially listed as eitherendangered or threatened.

Larry Crowder, the Stephen Toth Professorof Marine Biology who both studies and teachesabout sea turtles at the Nicholas School of theEnvironment Marine Laboratory in coastalBeaufort, N.C., first began investigating themduring the early 1980s. A University of Wisconsindoctoral student interacting with Crowder was try-

ing to make sense of all the loggerhead sea turtlepopulation information she had collected. Sheturned to him because of his known expertise in the arcane field of mathematical modeling.“She knew everything about sea turtles and nothing about modeling, and I was just about the opposite,” Crowder recalls with one of his signature belly laughs. Their collaboration, plusfollow-up work by others, showed ties betweenloggerheads who turned up dead along SouthCarolina beaches and shrimp trawling. Thisresearch, in turn, led to regulations to equip trawl nets with turtle excluder devices to preventthe animals from being inadvertently caught anddrowned during shrimping activities.

Math Models Aid Turtles“That paper was published in 1987, and I thoughtI would be in and out of sea turtles,” Crowdersays. “But I haven’t been able to extract myselfsince.” His analysis and modeling talents in great demand, he continues to co-author turtlestudies. One report predicted small declines insurvival rates of loggerhead adult and sub-adultfemales in Australia could be enough to lead to their vulnerable colony’s extinction. That study also found that programs to protect newly hatched loggerheads from early deaths should have comparatively little impact because “survivalin the first year of life is relatively less importantin these long-lived and slow maturing animals.”

In 1999 Crowder – also a field biologist who studies estuarine-dependent fish – began

by Monte Basgallstudied at Duke’s Marine Laborator y

S T U D Y

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co-teaching a class entitled The Biology andConservation of Sea Turtles during the marinelab’s second summer term. The turtlecourse, and the interdisciplinaryConservation Biology and Policy course that he also leads in the summer, are both among the offerings of the lab’sIntegrated Marine Conservation Program,which attracts a number of internationalstudents. Crowder’s main sea turtle coursecollaborator is Jeanette (Jan) Wyneken, a sea turtle biologist at Florida AtlanticUniversity. The most common sea turtlespecies in the waters around Beaufort areloggerheads, followed by Kemp’s ridleys.There are also Atlantic leatherbacks,“mostly offshore,” Crowder says, and greensea turtles and hawksbills that “wanderaround here occasionally.” Loggerheads areofficially listed as threatened, and the restare all considered endangered.

The Struggle to Survive“Why have they become so rare?” Crowderasks. There are lots of potential reasons. Seaturtle eggs have been collected by humans asa delicacy, though environmental concerns

are now curbing the practice.Adult sea turtles, as well as thediamondback terrapins that livein coastal marshes and lagoons,have long been trapped for cuisine such as turtle soup.When baby turtles hatch, hun-gry animal predators – birds,mammals and other marine life – are waiting to eat them at their most vulnerable stage.“Probably the problem wasoverharvesting initially,” heconcludes. “And then, because

they live a long time, they aren’t very resistant to harvesting at any stage.” Indeed,green sea turtles may not begin reproducinguntil they are 35 or 40. Even Kemp’s rid-leys, probably the shortest-lived of sea tur-tles, first reproduce only at 10 or 12. That’sa lot of time to “live in a dangerous world,”he says. Besides the danger of running into“Jaws,” they can also collide with speedboatsor drown in fishing nets. That point wasreemphasized last August when more than200 dead sea turtles, mostly loggerheads,mysteriously washed ashore on the Outer Banks, some with netting on them.

With ancestries stretching back to theage of dinosaurs, sea turtles are “such evolutionary survivors,” says an admiringSara Maxwell. “They’re so archaic in a sense,and yet they’ve made it all this way.”A visitingsenior pre-veterinary animal science majorfrom the University of Florida, Maxwell was planning to become a conventional veterinarian before she had a career-alteringepiphany at the Duke Marine Lab in 1999.Maxwell was finishing up a different MarineConservation Program course when she wentout with Crowder and other students to res-

cue turtles from pound fishing nets, “Idecided I wanted to go into marine biology,”she says. “It was the day that changed myentire life.” She quickly persuaded theUniversity of Florida to rearrange her courseschedule so she could change her majorand pick up more marine biology training. She’ll still become a vet, but will try her best to work with turtles.

Students Awed by ExperienceDuring the sea turtle course, students get thechance to observe leatherbacks feeding on jel-lyfish off Cape Lookout, visit a hospital for sickand injured sea turtles on Topsail Island, helpcollect live sea turtles from pound nets (which,unlike shrimp trawling nets, just trap ratherthan drown them), and observe dead turtlesbeing dissected at a National Marine Fisheriesfacility next to the Duke lab. Duke seniorJamie Kelley, an art major, took the course inthe 1999 because she needed a natural sciencecredit. “When I started taking the course I wasastounded. They are the most interesting ani-mals! They can do the most incredible things:the way that they travel, how far they travel,theories on the way that they navigate. I neverreally knew how much was programmed intothem before they hatch. I was astounded whenI saw how small their brains were.”

Sea turtle navigation amazes Crowder too. After emerging from their buried beachnests, hatchlings make a beeline for the surf.There they seem to establish ocean naviga-tional headings which they maintain long afterthey swim beyond the site of land. Scientiststhink they may initially orient themselves to the contrasting light of the water. Onceimmersed, they may orient themselves to thewaves. Then they seem to make use of theirown internal compass.

“They can sense the earth’s magnetic field,”he says. These mysterious navigationalinstincts are so keen that female adults mayreturn to lay eggs on the same beach, or at least the same area, where they began life so many years and thousands of milesbefore.”What they learn about the environ-ment after they hatch must be things theypick up when they’re leaving the beach.Somehow they retain all that informationfor 20 or 30 years,” he says.

International ImpactChristien Ismuranty is one of a number of international students who have come toDuke to take courses in the marine conser-vation program summer session. Havingenrolled in the 1999 conservation biologyand policy course, “I also got interested inthe turtle class,” she recalls in an e-mailinterview from Indonesia, where she worksat the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation.So Crowder also let her audit the latter, andshe is glad she did. Back home, she is nowworking with local government officials inthe Derawan Islands as well as the GermanTurtle Foundation to build a turtle researchstation at a major nesting site and helping tospread the word about marine conservation.

In a Storm’s Wake:Assessing Post-Hurricane River HealthThe Susan Hudson, the Nicholas School of the Environment Marine Laboratory’s 57-foot research boat, is motoring

down the lower Neuse River on a warm late-June day.At the vessel’s rear,Larry Crowder and students are once again

swinging into action, assessing the river’s health.

Crowder,the Nicholas School’s Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology,has been making these runs since before

Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd dumped about three feet of rain on eastern North Carolina in September 1999, turning

rivers and bays into open sewers filled with effluent from flooded municipal treatment plants, breaching hog waste

lagoons, and drowning livestock. Since the area’s waterways form the nation’s second largest estuarine system, a

vital nursery supporting the commercial fish and shellfish industries, officials feared an environmental catastrophe.

By sampling the water and fish of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound, Crowder and other researchers have been

watching for post-flood signs of trouble, as well as documenting how quickly the system is recovering.“We were

really concerned about whether we were going to see a major fish kill,” Crowder recalls. But winds from Irene, a

much-drier subsequent hurricane,apparently stirred up the water enough to avoid early evidence of major fish mor-

tality. By mid-October “we thought we were okay,” he added.“Then, on the next series of cruises, we began to see

fish with disease problems.” Flooding can stress marine life by reducing salinity levels below what fish and shellfish

are used to, as well as by depleting the water of much of the oxygen they breathe. Either deficit can also make the

animals more vulnerable to disease.

With funding from the North Carolina Water Resources Institute and the Sea Grant program, Crowder has been

sampling the Neuse, a river prone to periodic fish kills, for four years.Funding was unavailable to sample the Pamlico

prior to the 1999 flooding, but Crowder enlisted the help of students taking Marine Ecology and Biological

Oceanography courses at the marine lab.“We scheduled our cruises for weekends, when seasoned researchers could

accompany students,” Crowder says.“We had a research interest combined with a teaching interest and a captive

audience anxious to get hands-on experience.”

That pre-1999 sampling has proven immensely helpful now, because it allows researchers to compare the before

with the after, Crowder says.“When you show up and all you see is dead fish, it’s like you’re Sherlock Holmes and the

body is already cold on the floor. That’s why we’re trying to get at the questions earlier,to look at environmental con-

ditions and impacts on fish health before we have dead fish.”

The Marine Lab Advisory Board has recently established the Joseph S. Ramus Fund for the Pamlico to enable Marine Lab

scientists to respond rapidly when research opportunities arise.For information,contact Cindy Adams at (252) 504-7504.

Making a Difference Around the WorldSupport from the Julian Price Family Foundation and another anonymous

foundation has enabled students from the following countries to develop

their conservation skills as part of the Marine Lab’s summer program:

Australia

Brazil

Canada

Cameroon

China

Georgia

Greece

India

Indonesia

Israel

Liberia

Lithuania

Malawi

Nicaragua

Norway

Philippines

South Africa

Jill Range Joins StaffJill S. Range has joined the School as Director ofAlumni Affairs and the Annual Fund. Jill comes to theSchool from University Development, where she wasSenior Development Researcher. She holds a Bachelorof Journalism degree from the University of Texas atAustin and has previously worked in political consult-ing, marketing and public relations for such organiza-tions as Rindy Media and the Museum of Fine Arts inHouston.She looks forward to increasing the number ofalumni events throughout the country.

Field Day 2000More than 250 students, faculty and alumni gatheredon Saturday, April 22, for the school’s annual Field Daycelebration.This year, the event returned to Duke Forestand included children’s activities in addition totraditional forestry games. “We wanted to make FieldDay a family event for alumni in addition to a studentevent,” says Associate Dean Peggy Glenn. “Childrenwere enthralled with storyteller Louise Omoto Kessel’sstories and the chance to paint wooden animal cut-outsprepared for them by artist Clyde Jones.” As in the past,competition among students and alumni included thecross-cut, bat race, egg toss and caber toss. Barbequeand the chainsaw artistry of Clyde Jones were enjoyedby all. “We hope that this will become THE eventfor alumni and their families,” says Ms. Glenn.

Ansel Adams Exhibit in TriangleJoin Triangle alumni at the North Carolina Museum ofArt on Thursday, November 16, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.for a reception and special viewing of In Praiseof Nature: Ansel Adams and Photographers of theAmerican West. A curator will lead a discussionof nature’s influence on Adams and the 25 otherphotographers included in the exhibit.

Billiards with the DeanAlumni living in the metro Washington, DC area willhave a chance to join Dean Norm Christensen for a fewrounds of billiards and the latest news from theNicholas School following the Duke/Yale Career Fair onFebruary 9, 2001.

Last year’s event, held at Georgetown Billiards,brought together nearly 120 alumni and students foran evening filled with good cheer and a friendly com-petitive spirit. Don’t miss this year’s reception, as it willbe the last opportunity to say Dean Christensen beatyou at billiards!

Field Day 2001Mark your calendar for Field Day 2001 to be heldon April 21. Once again the celebration will be heldat the Couch Farm site, the newest addition to theDuke Forest.

Festivities will include barbecue, picnic and vegetar-ian fare, live music, children’s programs and traditionalgames. Activities are set to begin at noon and continuethrough 4 p.m.

The Troy Couch Farm site is located on CornwallisRoad, two miles west of the intersection of OldErwin and Cornwallis Roads. Limited camping willbe available.

National Geographic Evening with Sylvia EarleOn Thursday, May 17, National Geographic will host theNicholas School of the Environment in Washington, D.C.for an evening with Duke alumna and NationalGeographic Explorer-in-Residence, Sylvia Earle.Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Dr. Earle address thesustainability of the seas.

Council Solicits Alumni InvolvementThe NSOE Alumni Council meets twice a year and existsto facilitate an active partnership between the Schooland its alumni.Headed by Jim Spangler MEM ‘89, CEO ofSpangler Environmental Consultants in Raleigh, N.C.,the Council is currently focusing on four areas: activitiesand continuing education opportunities for alumni;fund raising, student recruitment and mentoring.If you are interested in serving on the Alumni Councilor in helping with events, fund raising, studentrecruitment or mentoring, please contact Jill Range,Director of Alumni Affairs and the Annual Fund atjill.range@duke.edu or (919) 613-8035.

Memorial Gifts Honor AlumnaA Duke alumna’s dedication to conservation will behonored through the establishment of a scholarshipfund for students conducting research at a remotebiological station in Peru. Marina Bolños Riley, whoseDuke connection spanned a decade as both a researchassociate and student, died Christmas Day of breastcancer. The 34-year-old native of Peru had beenworking on a doctorate in forest resources at N.C. StateUniversity before her death.

Friends and colleagues at the Nicholas School of theEnvironment said they wanted to set up the fund as away to honor her enthusiasm and drive. The MarinaRiley Scholarship Program will provide funds for othernative Peruvians who, like Riley, want to conduct eco-logical research in Peru’s Manu National Park.

A L U M N I N E W S

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sightings

Aurelie Shapiro participates in Field Day 2000

Ansel Adams, “Sand Dunes”, 1963courtesy of Center for Creative Photography,

University of Arizona

(opposite page)Ansel Adams, “White House Ruin,” 1942

courtesy of Center for Creative Photography,University of Arizona

Jill S. Range

Alumni NotesCheryl Braunstein, MEM ‘97In March of this year, Cheryl Braunstein accepted theposition of Exhibit Developer for the Hall of Biodiversityat the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Ms.Braunstein earned her Master’s of EnvironmentalManagement from the Duke University School ofthe Environment in 1997. Her primary interestswere Environmental Advocacy and EnvironmentalConservation and Education.

Dr. Leah Bunce, Ph.D. ‘97Dr. Leah Bunce is currently employed as InternationalMarine Affairs Specialist with the National Oceanic& Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The primaryfocus of her work is international conservation andcoastal planning.

Farley Burge, MEM ‘94After earning a Master’s of EnvironmentalManagement from the Duke University School of theEnvironment in 1994, Farley Burge worked with airquality regulations and government contracts for theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He went on toreceive a law degree from UNC Chapel Hill and nowpractices environmental and corporate law for Squire,Sanders & Dempsey in Houston, Texas.

Vaishali A. Deshpande, MEM ‘98Vaishali A. Deshpande has been working for ParsonsEngineering Science, Inc. in Fairfax, Virginia sinceSeptember 1999. While her main focus is with thePollution Prevention group, she also works with NaturalResources/Environmental Assessments, StormwaterDrainage GPS field work/GIS and Chemical Warfarecontamination clean up. Ms. Deshpande receivedher Master’s of Environmental Management fromDuke University in 1998. Her main focus was water andair resources.

Dr. Jim Holliman, T ‘75 (Marine Lab, spring and summer 1974)Dr. Jim Holliman was recently promoted to Professor ofSurgery and Emergency Medicine at Pennsylvania StateUniversity in Hershey, Penn. He also is the Director ofthe Penn State University Center for InternationalEmergency Medicine and the International EmergencyMedicine Fellowship Program. His main current aca-demic work involves assisting in developing emergencymedicine in other countries throughout the world.

Adrian S. Juttner, MF ‘70Adrian S. Juttner is the owner and president of Adrian’sTree Service, Inc. in New Orleans, Louisiana. For thepast two and a half years, he has been working withEntomophthoralean fungus, a possible solution totermite infestation in trees.

Susan Soltau Kilham, Ph.D.,‘71Susan Soltau Kilham is the Interim Director of theSchool of Environmental Science,Engineering and Policyat Drexel University in Philadelphia. She continues anactive research program on food quality in food webs,diatom ecophysiology and climate change, urbanwatershed studies and tropical stream food webs.Dr. Kilham did her doctoral work under Orrin Pilkey atthe Marine Lab.

Christopher McGrory Klyza, MS ‘83Christopher McGrory Klyza is currently a Professor ofPolitical Science and Environmental Studies andDirector of the Program in Environmental Studies atMiddlebury College in Vermont. In addition, Dr. Klyza isthe co-founder and member of the Board of Directors ofthe Watershed Center, a nonprofit group which worksfor sustainable natural and human communities, andis treasurer and on the Board of Advisors of VermontFamily Forests.

Daniel Machemer, T’98 (Marine Lab, fall 1997)Daniel Machemer is working on a Ph.D. in biomedicalsciences at the University of California, San Diego. He isstudying the signal transduction and regulation ofcytochrome P450 1A1 gene expression. His class withPat McClellan-Green at the Marine Lab, Molecular andCellular Processes in Marine Organisms, solidified thisarea of interest.

Heather Potter, MEM ‘92Heather Potter works as the Director of The NatureConservancy’s Great Lakes Program in Chicago,Illinois. She received her Master’s of EnvironmentalManagement from the Duke University School ofthe Environment in 1992. Among her interests areenvironmental communication and planning resourceeconomics and policy.

Jim Reilly, MEM ‘98Jim Reilly, a Coastal Environmental Managementgraduate, spent a year as a Knauss Fellow with theSenate Commerce Committee. He now serves asFinance Director for the Carper for Senate Campaign.

Steven Saltman, MEM ‘93In January 2000, Steven Saltman and partner MarkDillenbeck established TheEquator.com, the largestinternet-based listing of agricultural and timberlandproperties in the world.

Michael D. Scoville, MEM ‘88Michael D. Scoville was promoted to Senior Scientistwith Blasland, Bouck & Lee in January of this year.Mr. Scoville received his Master of EnvironmentalManagement from the Duke University School ofForestry and Environmental Studies in 1988. Hismore than 10 years of experience include interpretinghydrogeologic, water quality and sediment data,and modeling the transport of chemical constituents.Mr. Scoville is also a member of the American WaterResources Association.

Shannon Szymczak, MEM/MPP ‘99Shannon Szymczak is currently working as BudgetAnalyst III for the City of Austin, Texas. Her positioninvolves analyzing the budget of the Department ofPublic Works and Transportation. Mrs. Szymczakreceived a Master of Environmental Management witha Master of Public Policy from the Nicholas School ofthe Environment in 1999.

Did you know that it is possible to update yourbiographical information on-line? Go to the School’swebsite at www.env.duke.edu, click on “Alumni” anduse the Class Notes Form to bring us up-to-date.You may also contact Grace Badiali at (919) 613-8001to update your records.

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A new interdisciplinary project, directedfrom the Nicholas School of the Environ-ment in Durham, is studying how chemicalsregulated under the U.S. Superfund program affect the biology of reproduction and development in animals and how these toxins interact with soils and water at Superfund sites in North Carolina.

Approved for more than $6 million in funding over five years through theNational Institute of Environmental HealthSciences, the Duke University SuperfundBasic Research Center will address “an area of enormously growing concern forsuch chemicals in the environment,” saysprincipal investigator and center directorRichard DiGiulio, a Nicholas School professor of environmental toxicology.

“More and more, we’re recognizingthat the early stages in the lives of humans and other organisms are particularly sensitive,” he adds.

“Everyone thinks that Superfundresearch is about the identificationand cleanup of chemicals atSuperfund locations,” notesTheodore Slotkin, a Duke MedicalCenter professor of pharmacology,cancer biology and psychiatry who

is the center’s co-principal investigator.“This is a really different approach: theissue of biological effects and underlyingmechanisms.” According to Slotkin, many chemicals listed under Congress’sSuperfund Act, which provides money to contain and remove hazardous chemicals

from abandoned industrial sites anddumpsites of special concern, are also“compounds that are in everyday use, such as common insecticides.” Oneexample that the center will focus on ischlorpyrifos, a widely-used organophos-phate insecticide. While chlorpyrifoshad been considered less of a threat thanolder pesticides such as DDT, it may havebeen inadequately investigated to knowits true impact, Slotkin says. He cites a recent study commissioned by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency thatfound traces of organophosphates in theurine of school children, presumably the result of environmental exposure.

Investigators will study the effects ofsuch compounds by enlisting the aid of two aquatic animal species: zebrafish andFundulus. Fast-growing zebrafish go throughembryonic development in just three days,and researchers have developed a numberof genetically engineered varieties that can produce fluorescent proteins inresponse to changes that might be inducedby Superfund chemicals. Because somezebrafish breeds are quite transparent,researchers can also view such effects in living animals. “If you wanted to doresearch with humans and other mammals,it would be nice if you had some magicmicroscope that would allow you to watchall the events occurring as the embryo wasdeveloping,” says Elwood Linney, a profes-sor of microbiology at Duke’s School ofMedicine and the Nicholas School, whowill provide transgenic zebrafish as head of the center’s research core. But sincezebrafish come from India and thus maynot be environmentally relevant to U.S.

R E S E A R C H

by Monte Basgall

testing the toxinsNew Research Center Examines Impact on Biological Development

Richard DiGiulio

Confocal slice through the eye of a transgenic

zebrafish embryo which is expressing a green

fluorescent protein in all of its cells.

waters, DiGiulio’s lab also will evaluate howSuperfund chemicals affect growth anddevelopment in Fundulus, “a very commonestuarine species that is a major part of the food chain in East Coast estuaries,” the center’s director says.

Fluorescent zebrafish and Fundulusare not usually what comes to mind whenone thinks of a typical laboratory animal.“In many cases, these models are able togive answers to research questions muchmore quickly and with greater specificityand less expense than rodent models,” says Celia Bonaventura, professor of cellbiology at the Nicholas School’s MarineLaboratory who directs Duke’s MarineBiomedical Center. “You can raise a whole tank full of aquarium fish and carry out comparable studies in much less time and much more easily.”

Jonathan Freedman, a NicholasSchool assistant professor of moleculartoxicology, will use both zebrafish andcultured mammalian cells to evaluate how some Superfund chemicals may altergenetic mechanisms that control earlygrowth. Information from the fish and cell culture studies will in turn helpSlotkin’s team investigate the effects ofSuperfund chemicals on the brain develop-ment of laboratory rodents, which willserve as the mammalian research surrogatesfor humans. “One of the big problems you have with compounds whose long-termeffects on development are unknown isknowing what to look for,” Linney says.Using fast-breeding fish to learn whendamage occurs and what biological process-es are affected “allows us to

select immediately the right end points in a mammalian system,” he explains.“There are events and developments that are common to all vertebrate systems,whether they’re fish or humans.”

In other Superfund Center work,Dharni Vasudevan, a Nicholas School assistant professor of environmental chem-istry, is teaming up with Zbigniew Kabala,an associate professor of civil and environ-mental engineering at Duke’s Pratt Schoolof Engineering, to study how chemicals likechlorpyrifos change and migrate over time at Superfund sites at Plymouth andWashington, N.C. As part of that work, the researchers have already begun evaluat-ing whether a commercially available tracerdye called Rhodamine WT – which unlikehazardous chemicals, is EPA-approved for injection into the ground – can trulymimic the behavior of actual Superfundtoxins within the North Carolina sites’ soils and subsurface.

Also, the center’s “outreach core,”headed by Marie Lynn Miranda, a NicholasSchool associate professor for the practiceof environmental policy, will work to dis-seminate the results of the research, as well as assess exposure risks more generallyin North Carolina and nationally. And aseparate “training core” headed by EdwardLevin, a Duke associate professor in psychi-atry and behavioral science, will sponsorscientific seminar series and symposia. It will coordinate related course work fortraining graduate students and postdoctoralfellows as well, and will enhance trainingthrough Duke’s Integrated ToxicologyProgram, which includes a number of theSuperfund center investigators.

Dharni Vasudevan

Confocal slice through a whole zebrafish transgenic embryo expressing a green fluorescent protein in all of its cells.

(background image) Early zebrafish embryos expressinga green fluorescent proteinreporter protein. The expressionis in the early embryonic cells aggregated above the ball of yolk.

20dukenvironment

Gabel Addition BringsProfessorship to $1,000,000In 1998, Dan T’60 and Bunny WC ‘60 Gabel pledged$750,000 to establish The Dan and Bunny GabelAssistant Professorship in the Nicholas School of theEnvironment. Two years later, they have increased it to$1, 000, 000, transforming their Assistant Professorshipto an Associate Professorship.

“The Gabel Assistant Professorship was a definingmoment for the School for several reasons, “ says DeanNorm Christensen. “One, it reflected Dan and Bunny’sunwavering commitment to ethical behavior and wasdesignated for a scholar of true eminence and excellencein the field of environmental ethics and sustainableenvironmental management. Two, it emphasizedlinkages between Nicholas School of the Environment,the Divinity School and the humanities and social sci-ences departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.Three, it was designed as a ‘folding chair,’ one that couldbe moved among different areas of the School andopened and closed to accommodate different faculty.”

In 1999, Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda was promoted to theposition of Associate Professor.Long recognized for workin the areas of childhood health and environmentaljustice, Dr.Miranda was a natural to hold the Gabel Chair,but it was designated for an Assistant Professor, notan Associate one. “I discussed our dilemma with Dan,and once again he and Bunny came to the rescuewith a gift that provided the flexibility the Schoolneeded to respond to new opportunities,“ recallsDean Christensen.

In addition to helping the School evolve and grow, theincrease in the Gabel gift enabled Dan and Bunny to par-ticipate in the University’s annual sabbatical weekendfor donors at the $1, 000, 000+ level. The first event,dubbed the “Seattle Sabbatical,” featured aweekend in Seattle culminating with dinner atthe Redmond, Washington home of Bill andMelinda Gates. This year the event moved toLondon, where the Honorable Philip Lader,United States Ambassador to the Court ofSt. James and Duke alumnus ‘66, hosted thegroup at Winfield House, the ambassador’s pri-vate residence. In 2001, the event will be heldat “Rough Point,” Doris Duke’s Newport estate.

The Gabels have also established the Danand Bunny Gabel Mentoring Award and theDavid Brower Internship Fund. Their commit-ment to environmental protection grew out of theirwork with Friends of the Earth and its founder, DavidBrower. They have also financed a joint effort betweenFriends of the Earth and the Nicholas School to assist inthe greening of the Duke University campus andpromoting sensible urban planning in the Triangle .

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Approves $625,000The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, located inNew York City, has renewed its support of the Doris DukeConservation Fellowship Program at the Nicholas Schoolof the Environment with a grant of $625, 000 for thenext five years.The Program has three parts: fellowships,internships, and a loan repayment program for Fellowswho enter nonprofit or government conservationafter graduation.

Since the Program began at Duke in 1998, 19 studentshave received Doris Duke Environmental and NaturalResource Fellowships for study at the Nicholas School ofthe Environment. These students have also participatedin internships at the Conservation Fund, ConservationInternational, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, INFORM, theNational Marine Fisheries Service, The NatureConservancy, the Programme for Belize, the TambopataReserve Society, the Triangle Land Conservancy and theWestern North Carolina Alliance.

Doris Duke Conservation Fellowships are awarded tograduate students who show outstanding promiseas future leaders in nonprofit or governmentalconservation in the United States. The Fellowships aresupported by grants from the Doris Duke CharitableFoundation to selected universities. Universities are cho-sen for the grants based on their superior interdiscipli-nary environmental programs and a commitment toeducating conservation practitioners. Other Universityparticipants include Cornell, the Universities ofMichigan, Montana and Wisconsin, and Yale.

C A M P A I G N N E W S

As of September 8th when this magazine went topress, The Campaign for Duke stood at $1.27billion toward the $1.5 billion goal.

At this same time, the Nicholas School of theEnvironment had raised $43.3 million toward its$55 million goal. The School thanks the thousandsof individuals, foundations and corporations whohave made this success possible.

nature& nurture

NSOE Goal:

$55 million

$43.3million raised

Dan & Bunny Gabel with daughter Elizabeth, T’02

Timothy J. and Anne G. CreemScholarship EstablishedTimothy J. Creem, MF’66, amember of the School’s Board ofVisitors, has established theTimothy J. and Anne G. CreemScholarship Endowment with agift of $100, 000.The new fellow-ship will benefit students in theMaster of Forestry program. Mr. Creem says, “Duke hasalways produced a unique forester with unique training,and I wanted to perpetuate that.I am pleased that so manyof the fellowships given in this campaign have beenearmarked for the forestry program.

As an alumnus, I wanted to support the Campaign, butthe fact that I was able to do it with appreciated stock wasimportant. I got a great tax deduction at a very low out-of-pocket cost and The Duke Endowment matched my giftdollar-for-dollar.The School worked hard to make sure thatthis was a gift that worked for me.”

Mr. Creem is now retired from the New York StockExchange and living in Bridgton, Maine, where he is activeon the Bridgton Public Library Board and the Town ofBridgtown Investment Committee. He will be helping theNicholas School organize events for alumni and friends inthe Maine area later this year.

William Cleveland Establishes FellowshipWilliam Cleveland MEM & MBA ‘93, was intrigued tolearn of a program that matches scholarship andfellowship endowment gifts dollar-for-dollar. “I hadthought about a campaign gift to Duke for sometime,but when I learned that the Nicholas School of theEnvironment had matching monies from The DukeEndowment that would double my investment, Ijumped at the opportunity, “ said Mr. Cleveland.“I amalso very pleased that International Paper Companyhas a very generous educational matching grant pro-gram.” The William Cleveland Fellowship EndowmentFund will provide fellowship support to graduatestudents. Matching monies are still available for giftsin the $25, 000 to $50, 000 range.

Norwood Thomas to Head Joe Ramus FundNorwood A. Thomas, Jr. T’55, a principal of Wilbanks,Smith & Thomas Asset Management, Inc. in Norfolk,Virginia, has stepped forward to lead fund-raising forthe Joseph S. Ramus Fund for the Pamilico. The Fundwas established by the Marine Lab Advisory Board atits Fall meeting to honor Dr. Joseph S. Ramus, the for-mer director of the Marine Lab.“The Marine Lab Boardhad long wanted to honor Joe for his outstandingleadership of the Lab and was casting about for theright opportunity, “ recalls Mr. Thomas. “Then cameHurricanes Dennis, Floyd and Irene. Our scientists were

desperate to get out on thewater and start assessing thedamage, but research grantstook too long to acquire. Itoccurred to members of ourBoard that a rapid-responseresearch fund was the perfect

way to honor Joe. We have set an initial goal of$100, 000 and hope to far surpass it.”

The Joseph S. Ramus Fund will be available for fac-ulty and student projects focused on the Albemarleand Pamlico Sounds.“What happens in the Albemarleand Pamlico Sounds is critical to wildlife, to commer-cial and recreational fisherman, to the coastal econo-my, and ultimately to all of us,“ says Mr. Thomas.“TheJoseph S. Ramus Fund will help scientists address theregion’s toughest environmental problems at timeswhen the research opportunities are the greatest.Thatseems a good investment to me.”

Yasoumi Tanaka Memorial EstablishedWhen Yasuomi Tanaka MF’67 & PhD ‘70 passed awayon October 23, 1999, his widow, Frances Tanaka,knew she wantedto establ ish amemorial that-would perpetuatethe work and idealsthat were impor-tant to him. Withthe encourage-ment of Tom TerryMF ‘69, a colleagueof her husband’s atWeyerhaeuser, she began to think about the NicholasSchool of the Environment. She decided to create theYasuomi Tanaka Fellowship, specifying a preference forinternational students in need of financial assistanceto study at the Nicholas School. “Yasu loved DukeUniversity and felt that so many of his opportunitiesflowed from his experiences there, “ said Mrs. Tanaka.“He would not have had his career had he not receiveda scholarship from Duke. I know he would have want-ed me to do this.”

Cummings Reunion Gift Creates FellowshipBruce and Myrna Cummings used the occasion ofMyrna’s 40th Reunion to establish the Cummings FamilyFellowship at The Nicholas School of the Environment.“I loved my years at Duke and was thrilled whenour daughter, Elizabeth,decided to pursue both aBachelor’s degree and aMaster’s of EnvironmentalManagement there,”says Myrna, WC’60.“While Elizabeth was ingraduate school, Bruceand I got to know DeanNorm Christensen andwere impressed with his personal leadership and thevision he outlined for the School. During Elizabeth’sdegree program, we were able to spend more time withthe faculty and students at the School and came awaywith a great sense of the quality and commitment ofthe Nicholas School and its program. When we wereconsidering my 40th Reunion gift to Duke, we wanted toearmark it for the Nicholas School, but weren’t sure ofwhich program.”

Mr.Cummings explains,“At an early age, our family wassensitized to environmental issues by my father who wasvery active in outdoor education and environmentalissues. Professionally, as an investment banker, I focusedon industry and understand the importance of environ-mental issues for both our economy and broader societalneeds. As a member of the Board of Visitors, I’ve hadan opportunity to serve as a mentor to second-yearstudents and know the sacrifices that many make toattend the Nicholas School.Duke and the Nicholas Schoolhave been an important part of our family, and we werepleased to be able to fund a fellowship that will make theNicholas School education more accessible to otherstudents.”The Cummings’ gift of $100, 000 was matchedby a grant from the Duke Endowment.

Holiday Gift IdeaShe was an Associate Dean at the UNC School ofNursing from 1992 until July 2000, but Dr. Carol ClarkeHogue recognizes the importance of the NicholasSchool of the Environment and the Duke UniversityMarine Lab. When Dr. Hogue’s husband, David Hogue,died in 1992, she established an unrestricted endow-ment in his memory. She, their children and friendshave added to it over time. Last Christmas she askedfamily members and friends to forego their usual giftto her and to make a gift to the David Garfield HogueMemorial Endowment. Now Carol and David’sdaughter, Julie, is getting married. Julie and her fianceLee White have requested gifts to her Dad’s fund in lieuof wedding gifts to them.

22dukenvironment

A N N U A L F U N D N E W Snature& nurture

Megan Hoert (MEM'00) teaches Durham School for the Arts high school students about aquatic sampling in Duke Forest

2001 Annual Fund Goal IncreasesThe Annual Fund goal has been set at $575, 000 for thecurrent fiscal year, which began July 1. “The new goalrepresents a 10 percent increase over last year, but withthe help of alumni, parents and friends, I am confidentwe can achieve it, “ said Associate Dean Peggy Glenn.Gifts to the Nicholas School of the Environment qualifydonors for membership in all the University Gift Clubs.

School Children BenefitThanks to the enthusiastic support of Nicholas Schoolalumni and friends in last year’s Annual Fund cam-paign, two Home Depot stores in Durham are donatingmaterials for the construction of six outdoor laborato-ries at three Durham public schools. In all, 131 new orpast contributors to the Nicholas School Annual Fundmet the Home Depot challenge by increasing their con-tribution to the 2000 Annual Fund by a minimum of$100. The increase in contributions by these contribu-tors totaled $118, 406.00!

Gift Clubs

Membership in the William Preston Few Associationor Washington Duke Club carries many benefits:• Acknowledgement in University publications including

dukenvironment, The Duke Magazine and Leadership Honor Rolls

• Invitations to special campus events, Gift Club celebrations during Reunion and Parents weekends and periodic special events in selected cities

• A VIP parking pass for use when visiting campus• Personal assistance with Duke-related matters through

the Director of the William Preston Few Association and the Washington Duke Club Director

• A special Duke calendar• The opportunity to network with other

campus leaders• Special Reunion Weekend in Beaufort for Marine Lab

alumni who are Gift Club members

William Preston Few Association President’s Executive Council$25, 000 Minimum Gift

President’s Council$10, 000 Minimum Gift

Few Associates$5, 000 Minimum Gift

Washington Duke ClubWashington Duke Club Fellow$2, 500 Minimum Gift

Washington Duke Club Member$1, 000 Minimum Gift

Washington Duke Young Alumni MemberIndividuals who are 5-9 years from graduation may joinfor $300. Individuals who are seniors or within 4 yearsfrom graduation may join for $100

Clarence F. Korstian Club $500 to the Nicholas School of the Environment

A. S. Pearse Club$500 to the Duke University Marine Laboratory

John Hahn Chooses Multi-Year GivingAttorney John Hahn, who received his AB in publicpolicy from Duke University in 1974 and went on toreceive his JD from Yale, recently made a multi-yearpledge in support of the Nicholas School Annual Fund.

Mr. Hahn is a partner with Mayer Brown & Platt inWashington, D.C., where his practice concernsenvironmental issues affecting many sectors of thebusiness community.

When asked why he chose the Nicholas School andmore specifically the Annual Fund, Mr. Hahn saidthe answer is twofold.“The Nicholas School is of specialinterest to me due to the area of law in which Ipractice, but, importantly, I also give to the AnnualFund because I see it as a vote of confidence for theSchool’s leadership. Unrestricted gifts allow theUniversity to address the School’s most pressing needs.Multi-year gifts allow for the most effective planning.”

How do I make a multi-year Annual Fund pledge?If you are interested in making a multi-year AnnualFund pledge, please contact Jill Range in the Office ofAlumni Affairs & the Annual Fund in the NicholasSchool of the Environment at (919) 613-8001 orby email at jill.range@duke.edu. Jill will be happyto mail a pledge card or assist with an onlinecontribution. Multi-year pledges are typically made fora five-year period.

Giving Made EasyAnnual Fund Gifts Now Accepted Online!The Alumni and Development Records Office at DukeUniversity offers a secure web site for gifts by creditcard to the Annual Fund. Please designate either theNicholas School or the Marine Lab as the recipient ofyour Annual Fund gift. The server is located atwww.giftrecords.duke.edu.

Once you have made a gift, you will receive a taxreceipt and the Annual Fund Office will be notifiedof your contribution so that the Nicholas School mayrecognize you appropriately for your gift.

Uncomfortable making your gift online? Simply send your gift (no cash please) or pledge to:Jill Range, Director of Alumni Affairs & the Annual FundNicholas School of the EnvironmentBox 90328Durham, NC 27708-0732

In-Kind Equipment SupportSupport for the Nicholas School comes in manydifferent forms. The school is currently in need of thefollowing equipment:• Mass spectrometer for Wetlands Laboratory• Two 7- to 15- seat passenger vans• Eight Eiki or Proxima projection systems• Trimble Pro XRS global position systems• Trimble GeoExplorer 3 global position systems• Two digital cameras• Automatic level• Increment borers• Compasses• Diameter tapes• Clinometers• Prisms• Cloth meter tapes• Range finder• Tree height poles

The Nicholas School gratefully acknowledges thefollowing in-kind gifts:• Computer equipment donated by

Spangler Environmental • Increment Borer donated by Scott Hall

24dukenvironment

November 10-13, 2000Alumni Travel

Exploring the Outer Banks with Orrin Pilkey

Contact: Rachel Davies (919) 681-6216

November 16, 20006:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Ansel Adams Exhibition & NSOE Reception

North Carolina Museum of Art

Raleigh, North Carolina

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

November 17-19, 2000D/UNCOC Symposium Duke University

Marine Laboratory

Beaufort, NC

Contact: Cindy Adams, cba@duke.edu or

(252) 504-7504

November 17, 2000Alumni Reception

SAF Conference

Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C.

6:30-8:30 p.m.

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

November 30, 2000An NSOE evening in Houston with

Dr. Lincoln Pratson, hosted by

Mr. & Mrs. Christian Holmes IV

Houston,Texas

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

December 7-8, 2000“The EPA at 30”

Sixth Annual Duke Colloquium

on Environmental Law & Institutions

Contact: Dawn Blalock, blalock@law.duke.edu

December 15, 20006:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Alumni Reception

AGU Conference

San Francisco, California

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

January 8-10, 2001Landscape Legacies Conference

Fuqua School of Business

Contact: Susan Fox, sfox@unity.ncsu.edu or

www.env.duke.edu/landlegacies

February 9, 2001Duke-Yale Career Fair

Gallaudet Conference Center

Washington, D.C.

Contact: Karen Kirchof, kgki@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8016

February 9, 2001Billiards with the Dean

Georgetown Billiards

Washington, D.C.

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

April 5-6, 2001Masters Presentations Symposium

Contact: Revonda Huppert, (919) 613-8070

April 7, 2001Dinner Honoring Dean Norman Christensen

Contact: Gretchen Parker at gparker@duke.edu

or (919)613-8003

April 9, 2001Corporate Environmental Leadership Forum

Dave Thomas Conference Center

Duke University

Contact: Sara Ashenburg, sea3@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8063

April 20-22, 2001Alumni Reunion Weekend

JOIN US FOR FIELD DAY 2001!

Contact: Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

May 12, 20019:00 a.m.

NSOE Recognition Ceremony and Reception

Levine Science Research Center Courtyard

May 12, 20011:30 - 3:00 p.m.

Marine Lab Commencement Reception

Levine Science Research Center

Contact: Cindy Adams, cba@duke.edu or

(252) 504-7504

May 17, 2001 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

An NSOE Evening with Dr. Sylvia Earle Ph.D’66

Duke Alumna and

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence

National Geographic Building

Washington, D.C.

Contact:Jill Range, jill.range@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8001

June 17-20, 2001Seventh Symposium on Biogeochemistry of Wetlands

R. David Thomas Executive Conference Center

Duke University

Contact: Lisa Blumenthal, lblu@duke.edu or

(919) 613-8008 or www.env.duke.edu/wetland

July 20-22, 2001Special Reunion Weekend in Beaufort for

Marine Lab alumni who are Gift Club members

Beaufort, NC

Contact: Cindy Adams, cba@duke.edu or

(252) 504-7504

monitorU P C O M I N G E V E N T S

Mark your calendars for the following dates and monitor our website at www.env.duke.edu for additional events:

How to contact us:Nicholas School of the EnvironmentOffice of External AffairsDuke UniversityBox 90328Durham, NC 27708-0328

(919) 613-8003 phone(919) 613-8077 fax

www.env.duke.edu

dukenvironment is printed with vegetable-based inks on recycled paper.Please recycle this magazine.

Join Us For a Virtual Trek!I N N O V E M B E R , S C I E N C E W R I T E R M O N T E B A S G A L L W I L L F O L L O W

J E F F K A R S O N , N I C H O L A S S C H O O L P R O F E S S O R O F G E O L O G Y ,

A N D A N I N T E R N A T I O N A L T E A M O F S C I E N T I S T S F R O M E I G H T

D I F F E R E N T I N S T I T U T I O N S T O E X P L O R E A D O M E D A N D C O R R U G A T E D

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V A L L E Y S D E E P I N T H E M I D D L E O F T H E A T L A N T I C O C E A N .

T H E Y W I L L U S E H I G H - T E C H T O O L S T O H E L P A N S W E R S O M E

O F T H E M A N Y R E M A I N I N G M Y S T E R I E S S U R R O U N D I N G H O W E A R T H

M A K E S N E W S K I N . Y O U C A N J O I N M O N T E A N D T H E S C I E N T I S T S

O N T H E M O N T H - L O N G S C R I P P S I N S T I T U T I O N O F O C E A N O G R A P H Y -

L E D E X P E D I T I O N T O T H E M I D - A T L A N T I C R I D G E B Y V I S I T I N G

T H E N I C H O L A S S C H O O L W E B S I T E A T W W W . E N V . D U K E . E D U .

B E G I N N I N G N O V E M B E R 1 1 , M O N T E W I L L B E P O S T I N G E X P E D I T I O N

U P D A T E S T W I C E A W E E K .

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