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"We're moving from an electronic world to an optical world," Michael
Fitzpatrick says. "We want to help create at Duke and Stanford the world's
finest centers for photonics, which we hope will coalesce universities,
industry, and government to enable the full attainment of the potential of
optics."
Currently, a critical shortage of trained photonics engineers endangers
progress. "The problem is going to become increasingly severe as optics
plays a role of growing importance in the future," says Fitzpatrick. The
couple's gift is meant to address that shortfall by creating centers of
research excellence to "attract great students and great faculty with great
labs, advanced curricula, and industry internships."
This in turn will help turn North Carolina into a "photon forest" where
research and development in photonics can create the kind of technological
advance and economic growth found in California's Silicon Valley. Besides
its education and research programs, the Duke center will emphasize
research and development partnerships with the many photonics-related
corporations in the state, as well as with North Carolina universities
involved in the technology of computing and communicating using photons.
At Duke, the Fitzpatrick Center for
Advanced Photonics and Communications Systems will occupy one of two
120,000-square-foot buildings that will be part of a new $77-million
interdisciplinary engineering and applied sciences plaza to be completed in
2003 near the current Pratt School buildings. One of the new buildings also
will be named for the Fitzpatricks. Duke's academic plan, which is
scheduled for final review and adoption by the university's trustees in
February, anticipates a $100-million investment in the Pratt School's
photonics initiatives.
Industry partners will be invited to participate in the center's technology
advisory board, joint research and degree programs, professional master's
degree program, and internship program. There will also be corporate links
with the center's translational technology program to license new
technology and to create new companies. Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane
says the photonics initiative is a "prime example" of the kinds of
university-industry-government partnerships she expects will be a catalyst
for the future economic health of the region and state.
Michael Fitzpatrick is the former chair, chief executive officer, and
president of E-TEK Dynamics Inc., a leading manufacturer of fiberoptic
components, instruments, and systems for the telecommunications and cable
television industries. He has been CEO of Network Systems Corp. and
president and CEO of Pacific Telesis Enterprises. He joined E-TEK Dynamics
in 1997 as president and CEO, and was named chair in 1999. In June 2000,
E-TEK merged with JDS Uniphase Corp. in the second-largest merger in the
history of the telecommunications industry.
The Fitzpatricks met while they were students at Duke. He is currently a
director of NorthPoint Communications Group, Inc., a national provider of
local data network DSL services; Adva Optical Networking, a worldwide
optical networking solutions provider located in Germany; and FLAG Telecom,
a leading independent provider of undersea fiber optics and services based
in the United Kingdom. She is president of the Fitzpatrick Foundation,
which supports in-school and after-school programs for economically
disadvantaged Northern California youths in grades K-12.
Michael Fitzpatrick says the commitment of both institutions to excellence
in engineering and their locations in California's Silicon Valley and North
Carolina's Research Triangle Park make Stanford and Duke "the perfect homes
for major centers in teaching and research in photonics and for the kind of
industrial partnerships we envision."
Many factors influenced the Fitzpatricks' decision to manifest their vision
at two universities, including Stanford's reputation for technology and
Duke's reputation in bioengineering. "We are also tremendously impressed by
the innovative approaches to research and education that the Pratt School
of Engineering at Duke is developing under its new dean, Kristina Johnson,"
he says, adding that Johnson's industrial experience was another plus.
Johnson, a Stanford alumna who helped start five high-tech companies, is an
internationally known expert in optics, signal processing, and computing.
She directed the Optoelectronics Computing Systems Center at the University
of Colorado before being named dean of Duke's engineering school last year.
David Brady, who recently was recruited to Duke from the University of
Illinois, where he was a leader in the Photonic Systems Group of the
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, will head the Duke
center. His photonics research focuses on
3-D video, holography, and ultra-fast optical systems.
Photonics is technology that generates and harnesses light, whose smallest
discrete quantity is the photon. It is built upon optics, a field
encompassing the generation and propagation of light, and optoelectronics,
the technology through which photons interact with electrons. But its
applications-information processing, sensing and carrying information, and
high-speed communication over long distances-go a step beyond optics.
The market potential for photonics is staggering. Sales of optoelectronic
equipment are expected to reach $34 billion in 2006, according to industry
analyst Electronicast. Internet growth, deregulation of the telephone
industry, video, and teleconferencing all fuel this growth.
According to Pratt School Dean Johnson, "North Carolina enjoys the same
kinds of advantages that historically gave rise to the Silicon Valley in
California. We have world-class research universities, including North
Carolina State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke. And, we have a
burgeoning cadre of industrial leaders in photonics-related fields such as
telecommunications, computers, wireless and optical networks, software,
three-dimensional visualization, bioprocessing, and bioinformatics. And,
all these resources have been nurtured by a dynamic, forward-looking state
government whose policies and investment have encouraged their growth."
Among its educational efforts, the center will create a Fitzpatrick
Photonics Society of Scholars, inviting talented Duke undergraduates to
join in their upperclass years to work toward a master's or doctoral degree
in photonics following their undergraduate degree. The center also will
develop an undergraduate certificate program in photonics for engineering
and science students, and for non-technical Duke undergraduate majors, a
Communications Sciences and Engineering program.
Reflecting Duke's emphasis on interdisciplinary teaching and research, the
center will work with Trinity College of Arts and Sciences to develop
courses for law, medicine, and life-science undergraduates in such areas as
communications networks, digital imaging, visualization, and multimedia
communications.
At the graduate level, the center will develop a professional master's
degree program in photonics and communications systems, as well as
traditional master's and doctoral programs specializing in photonics. The
center will also offer short courses in photonics for industry and
government engineers and administrators.
Such unions between members of the same gender had been prohibited in the
chapel, primarily because the United Methodist Church, with which Duke is
affiliated, does not permit them. However, as Keohane and Willimon noted,
Duke Chapel is not tied to a particular denomination, and is a university
facility. "No one has suggested that we ask any clergy to perform these
unions if that clergy person, by reason of conscience, conviction, or
church tradition, does not wish to do so," they said.
In a prepared statement, Charlene P. Kammerer, resident bishop of the North
Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, said: "While Duke
University has a historic tie and affiliation with the United Methodist
Church, the university has always been independent in governance. The Duke
Chapel has never been a United Methodist Church. Currently, twenty
religious groups comprise the Religious Life staff, which serves the
university community. Some of these have approved the same-sex unions and
are furnishing liturgies to accompany such services in Duke Chapel. It
remains clear that no United Methodist pastor shall officiate in such
services."
Although the new policy conflicts with the United Methodist Church's
position, "it reflects an open spirit of hospitality and pastoral care to
the wider Duke University community," according to Bishop Kammerer's
statement. "The administration of Duke University has the right to make
such policy and has sought to do so in a spirit of thoughtful deliberation,
consultation with constituent groups, and in recognition of the
university's nondiscrimination policy and with sensitivity to the richness
and diversity of religious life at its core."
Not all were happy with the decision. Eric D. Adler, a graduate student and
spokesman for the Duke Conservative Union, told The Chronicle of Higher
Education: "The law in this country allows people of the opposite sex to
marry each other. The fact that homosexuals...cannot exercise that right
does not lead to discrimination."
A committee of twelve, established in October to review chapel policy
barring such unions, was chaired by Anne Hodges-Copple '79, the Episcopal
chaplain at Duke. It met seven times and reported to Keohane and Willimon.
The committee was made up of representatives from the Graduate and
Professional School Student Council; the Wesley Fellowship of the United
Methodist Campus Ministry; the faculty; the academic and university
administrations; the United Methodist Church; the Duke board of trustees;
and the vice president for institutional equity.
According to established policy on marriages-and now same-sex union
celebrations-in Duke Chapel, only alumni, students, faculty, employees, and
their adult children are allowed to reserve the facility for services.
The decision follows similar action in October by the Freeman Center for
Jewish Life. Its board of directors approved a policy that permits same-sex
union ceremonies at the center because the Reform Movement now permits
rabbis to officiate at such unions between two Jewish people. In addition,
same-sex union ceremonies have been sanctioned and performed in the Sarah
P. Duke Gardens.
Baugh, who won a Truman Scholarship last March, is completing a
self-designed curriculum in international development and health. He says
that his career goals involve health advocacy and improving existing
national public-health programs, as well as designing and implementing
initiatives aimed at increasing both prevention activities and health
access for underserved groups of people.
The A.B. Duke Scholar has chaired the University Honor Council, co-chaired
the Academic Integrity Review Committee, and served as co-president of the
Duke unit of the American Red Cross. His extensive public-service
activities have included work with Genesis Home, the St. Francis Inn Urban
Outreach, and the Bigger Buddies Mentorship Program. Last January, he
traveled to rural Haiti to work on rural health initiatives, as part of the
Haiti Family Health Ministries, with a medical team of Duke physicians and
students [Duke Magazine, September-October 2000]. In May 1999, he presented
public-health-related research and policy recommendations at the
International Summit of Young Leaders, held in Taipei, Taiwan.
Baugh says he plans to work at the National Security Council in Washington
this summer. He projects the topic of his master's thesis at Oxford will be
on the politics of humanitarian interventions.
The broad-based initiative provides a total of sixty three-year fellowships
over the next five years for students at the Divinity School, significantly
increasing the number of full scholarships available to students in the
master of divinity program. It also calls for a series of sustained
learning opportunities that will bring together clergy and lay leaders with
faculty and divinity students to cultivate good habits of study,
reflection, and conversation. These interrelated projects will be local,
regional, and national in scope, and will focus on developing the moral and
theological imagination required for strong congregational leadership.
Jones says ordained ministers "must be prepared to provide sustained
intellectual and spiritual engagement with the deep questions and issues
being raised by people in their congregations. It is ironic that while lay
people are expressing greater interest in the spiritual life, too many
congregations are growing weaker because of unimaginative pastoral
leadership."
The Learned Clergy Initiative will also link Duke students, faculty, and
staff with fifteen "teaching congregations" across the country, fund two
new faculty positions, provide six five-year scholarships for doctoral
students, and expand teaching facilities.
"Theological education needs to be bold in its commitment to the importance
of faithful education and rigorous formation of people for ministry," Jones
says. "We urgently need ministers who have a passion for lifelong learning
and leadership."
The Lilly Endowment is a private, Indianapolis-based foundation that
supports community development, education, and religion.
Breeden is the Dalton McMichael Professor of Finance at the Kenan-Flagler
Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose
faculty he joined last January. From 1985 to 1991, he was a tenured member
of the Fuqua School's faculty. He continued to teach at Fuqua from 1991 to
1999 as a research professor while concentrating on leading Smith Breeden
Associates Inc., a consulting and money-management firm.
Breeden will become Fuqua's fifth dean on July 1. He will succeed Rex D.
Adams '62, who is stepping down after a five-year term as dean during which
the school significantly expanded its facilities, more than doubled its
endowment, established the university's first overseas campus in Frankfurt,
Germany, and expanded its innovative use of technology and distance
learning in management education. Adams says he plans to pursue other
projects at Duke and elsewhere and spend more time with his family.
Breeden earned his undergraduate degree in management science at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management and his
master's in economics and Ph.D. in finance from Stanford University's
Graduate School of Business. After completing his doctoral work, he joined
the faculty of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He
subsequently taught at Stanford and M.I.T. He was a visiting professor at
Yale University's School of Organization and Management and the Nomura
School of Advanced Management in Tokyo.
In 1982, he co-founded Smith Breeden Associates Inc., a money-management
firm with more than $10 billion under management for pension accounts,
foundations, mutual funds, and separate accounts. Smith Breeden Associates
also consults with banks and savings and loans on risk management,
specializing in mortgages. In 1999, he stepped down as CEO and returned to
teaching and research at Kenan-Flagler. He continues as chair of Smith
Breeden Associates.
His financial research has been cited more than 800 times in scholarly
publications. In 1991, he founded the Journal of Fixed Income, and he still
serves as its editor. Breeden also has been associate editor of a number of
other leading finance publications, including the Journal of Finance,
Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative
Analysis, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Money, Credit, and
Banking.
The board also approved initial planning for a $12.5-million expansion and
renovation for radiation oncology facilities in the Morris Building, which
is part of the Duke Clinic. Approved by a board committee was the design
for the $35-million Center for Human Genetics Building expected to start
construction next year.
The 75,000-square-foot Keller Center addition, which received preliminary
approval by the trustees in October, will house a student center and
offices. Completion is expected by July 2002.
The football building also had received preliminary endorsement from the
board. It will be a 62,000-square-foot facility overlooking Wallace Wade
Stadium and will house coaches' offices, meeting rooms, locker rooms, a
players' lounge, a weight room, and training rooms. Construction will begin
this winter.
The Biological Sciences Building project will create three new
state-of-the-art research laboratories on the third floor, construct a
rooftop mechanical penthouse, and provide for future renovation. The
project is designed to meet the needs of a growing biology department.
The radiation oncology project will allow the department to meet growing
demand for radiation therapy by replacing outdated equipment and providing
additional space for faculty, staff, and support services. Radiation
therapy is used alone or in combination with other treatments in more than
half of all cancer cases and the Duke department, one of the largest in the
nation, currently provides nearly 40,000 treatments per year to more than
1,100 patients.
The Center for Human Genetics building project first went to the board for
initial approval in October. The December board action approved the design
of the 120,000-square-foot, five-story building. It will house offices,
laboratory space, and clinical space for the center, which is a key part of
the university's new interdisciplinary Institute for Genome Sciences and
Policy.
"We have the chance not just to renovate Perkins, but also to re-envision
it and make it into a facility that, in addition to supporting teaching and
research, more substantially stimulates the intellectual life of the
university," says Ferriero.
Perkins is the flagship of the university library system. Located on West
Campus, it is the largest of Duke's eleven libraries. The newest of
Perkins' three sections was completed in 1969, and since then the building
has undergone only modest modifications.
"Duke has the library collections and services of a major research
university," says Robert L. Byrd '72, chair of the renovation committee.
"But right now we don't have a library building suitable for a major
research university."
That will change with the renovations. The construction and remodeling,
which could begin as early as the fall of 2002, will be done in phases,
over three or four years. A phased renovation is necessary to avoid
interrupting the library's operations, Byrd says.
Appointed by Provost Peter Lange, the twenty-six-member committee began
work last semester. The group is made up of students, faculty, staff, and
administrators. It includes representatives from the library system, the
Office of Information Technology, the provost's office, and the Facilities
Management department, among other units of the university.
In an effort to share ideas and gather suggestions, the committee held five
open forums during the fall semester: two for faculty, one for
undergraduates, one for graduate and professional students, and one for
library staff. In addition, committee representatives held twelve meetings
during the same period with select university bodies such as the Library
Council, the faculty's Arts and Sciences Council, and the Academic Council.
Essentially, the committee's charge is to rethink the library's role on
campus and to develop a common vision suggesting how it can best meet the
needs of the university community over roughly the next quarter century.
Some of the issues being considered by the renovation committee are the
evolving nature of library services in relation to changes in the Duke
curriculum, information technology, scholarly communication, and campus
facilities. The new design, while addressing these matters, is expected to
be highly flexible to make it easier to continue to update the library in
the future.
Comments that have arisen in the meetings and open forums indicate that
some people think the library should be more inviting and comfortable,
noting that spaces such as the Perk coffee bar are conducive to
intellectual exchange. Others assert that spaces for "light study" should
be available elsewhere on campus, and that the library should foster an
environment for contemplation.
"We don't think the library should be a social center per se. It is an
intellectual center," says Byrd. "Research and learning are sometimes
solitary and contemplative, and sometimes social and collaborative. We plan
to accommodate both, but neither at the expense of the other."
The university has set aside $15 million toward the improvements. In
addition, the Campaign for Duke includes a goal of $15 million for the
Perkins renovations. The administration has said the renovations are an
institutional priority and has agreed to back them, says Ferriero.
For more information on the renovation planning process and to offer
comments to the committee, access http://staff.lib.duke.edu/
renovation/.
Greensboro apparel manufacturing executive Edwin A. Morris, who died in
1998, established the E.A Morris Endowment at the university in 1986 to
support Duke Medical Center's cancer research and facilities.
Ralph Snyderman, chancellor for health affairs at the medical center and
president and CEO of Duke University Health System, says the gift will
fulfill a critical need, encouraging collaboration between basic and
clinical scientists that will allow discoveries in the laboratory to be
rapidly translated into new therapies for patients.
"The Morris Center for Urologic Research will have a major impact in
advancing our understanding of prostate and other cancers, leading
ultimately to new treatments for these devastating diseases," he says. "The
center will be a focal point for urologic research, taking advantage of
advances in genetics, drug therapies, and basic research to improve human
health and sharing knowledge with patients and physicians throughout the
world."
Under the direction of Duke surgeon Cary Robertson, the Morris Center for
Urologic Research will bring together scientists, surgeons, medical
oncologists, radiologists, and other medical professionals by providing
seed funds for innovative research projects. These monies will serve as a
catalyst for teams of researchers to uncover new diagnostic and therapeutic
strategies. The center will also focus on developing new clinical trials to
assess the effectiveness of a range of treatments and therapies for
urologic cancers.
Morris, the single largest donor in the history of the Duke Comprehensive
Cancer Center, gave more than $5 million to fight cancer at Duke. He made
his first donation in 1976, when he contributed $1 million toward
construction of what was to become the Edwin A. Morris Clinical Cancer
Research Building. Today, cancer patients make more than 80,000 visits each
year to the Morris Cancer Clinics for treatment or follow-up care.
Like the previously endowed Crown Lecture in Ethics, the professorship is
named for Lester Crown, the son of Chicago industrialist Henry Crown, and
father of a generation of philanthropists and business and civic leaders.
Several members of the Crown family have been and are still active leaders
at Duke. Steve and Nancy Crown served as co-chairs of the Duke Parents'
Committee Class of 2000 from 1996 to 1998 and as national co-chairs of the
Duke Parents' Committee from 1998 to 2000. Their son, Keating Crown '00,
graduated last spring. Lester Crown's son-in-law is Gunnar Peterson '85,
and a daughter-in-law is Paula Hannaway Crown '80; both are active Duke
volunteers. Paula Crown serves on the steering committee for the Campaign
for Duke and on the board of visitors of Duke's Trinity College of Arts and
Sciences.
"Ethics has become a core concept in all academic disciplines," says Steve
Crown on behalf of the family. "We hope that the Lester Crown Chair in
Ethics will bring new insights and perspectives to this complex issue."
Lester Crown is the patriarch of a family business that grew from the small
sand-and- gravel company started by his father and uncles to become the
Material Service Corp., which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. He is a
member of the boards of many businesses and civic organizations, including
the Maytag Corp., General Dynamics, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Children's
Memorial Hospital, and Northwestern University. Crown and his wife, Renée,
are the parents of seven children and grandparents of twenty-two.
Charles Goodman has been a financial adviser to the Crown business
interests for some fifty years. Married to Lester Crown's cousin, Suzanne,
the M.I.T. engineering graduate has been instrumental in managing and
expanding Crown corporate assets.
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igh-tech entrepreneur Michael J. Fitzpatrick '70 and his wife, Patty
Wyngaarden Fitzpatrick '69, will donate $25 million to Duke and $25 million
to Stanford University to establish new centers for advanced photonics.
Engineers say photonics, a technology that melds light with electronics, is
at a stage of development similar to where electronics was in the 1950s. It
promises high-speed, broadband fiber optic Internet communications for use
in next-generation applications in education, medicine, entertainment, and
commerce.
oncurring with the recommendation of a committee of faculty, staff,
students, alumni, and trustees, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane and Dean
of
the Chapel William Willimon announced in December that the celebration of
same-sex unions for members of the university community will be permitted
in Duke Chapel.
"Our major rationale for this change is our convictionŠthat Duke has a
wonderful tradition of rich religious diversity," Keohane and Willimon
wrote in a letter thanking the committee for its deliberations on the
issue. "We now feel, as a result of the discussion on campus during the
past three months, and the work of your committee, that we ought to allow
these unions to be celebrated by those clergy who are allowed, by their
religious communities, to officiate at such ceremonies."
avid Matthew Baugh, a senior from Raleigh, has become the university's
thirtieth winner of the Rhodes Scholarship. His selection for the Rhodes
gives the school eight Rhodes Scholars in the past eight years.
Baugh was one of only thirty-two students from 950 applicants at 327
colleges and universities selected to win the scholarship, which provides
two or three years of study at Oxford University in England. Winners were
selected on the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity,
leadership potential, and physical vigor, among other attributes.
n an innovative effort to help develop a new generation of strong pastors,
the Divinity School has received a $10-million grant from Lilly Endowment
Inc. that will significantly transform the school's approach to theological
education. Divinity dean L. Gregory Jones M.Div. '85, Ph.D. '88 says the
Learned Clergy Initiative is designed to inspire a new generation of clergy
"that will view ministry as a fulfilling vocation where they can make a
real difference in their communities."
renovation committee is gathering suggestions and considering ideas for
a new internal design and possible expansion of the William R. Perkins
Library. The planning, which is being conducted with the Boston
architectural firm Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, is a
preliminary step that will lead to some of the most significant
improvements in the library's history, says University Librarian David
Ferriero.
he Edwin A. Morris Charitable Foundation of Durham and Greensboro has made
its largest single gift ever, a million-dollar commitment to the Duke
Comprehensive Cancer Center. The gift will combine with an additional $1
million from the Morris Endowment to establish the Morris Center for
Urologic Research.
The Nicholas School of the Environment is adding "Earth Sciences"
to its name to reflect more accurately the scope of the school's programs.
The formal name change was approved in December by Duke's trustees after an
endorsement from the Academic Council, the governing body of the university
faculty. The name change follows incorporation of the former department of
geology into the Nicholas School in 1997. The trustees also authorized
organization of the Nicholas School into three divisions: Earth and Ocean
Sciences (EOS), Environmental Science and Policy, and Coastal Systems
Science and Policy.