Laura Barnard graduated from St. Olaf College with degrees in Religion and Psychology in 2007. She joined the Masters in Divinity program at the Duke Divinity School in fall 2007 and created a joint degree with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Laura is particularly interested in researching vulnerability and resilience to psychopathology among ministers and people of faith. Her research has focused on the roles of shame, identity, desire to please others, and self-compassion in contributing to or protecting against burnout in clergy.  Her masters thesis reviews work on self-compassion (a Buddhist principal) and begins to develop a Christian theological understanding of self-compassion.  Laura envisions herself in the future as a clinician offering therapy to religious leaders or as a professor at a liberal arts college.  Laura also enjoys playing cards, cooking, and volunteering.

Kristina Cammen (Ecology) graduated from the University of Maryland in 2007 with dual degrees in Biology and Psychology. She spent the following year pursuing an M.Phil degree at Cambridge studying the genetic markers of disease susceptibility in harbor and grey seals. Kristina plans to combine her studies in marine mammal biology and population genetics to research on marine mammal population health and to create improved risk assessment models to use in conservation policy development. She is currently based out of the Duke Marine Lab.

Amanda Quiring Gonzales entered the Ph.D. program in Business Administration in fall 2008. She completed her undergraduate education at Hastings College in Nebraska in 2002 with degrees in Accounting and Mathematics and earned her Master's degree in Professional Accountancy at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln in 2003. Since graduation, she has worked as a Project Manager for the International Accounting Standards Board in London and for the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board. At Duke, she is interested in continuing her involvement with innovations and refinements in financial reporting by conducting research with the potential to inform standard setters.

David Honig (Marine Science and Conservation) graduated from Grinnell College in 2006 with a degree in biology.  David is interested in energy flow and elemental cycling in chemosynthetically-based marine ecosystems occurring at extremes of depth, geographical isolation, and deprivation from photosynthetic primary production.  His thesis will examine biogeochemistry of the world's deepest seafloor spreading center in the Caribbean and the effects of ice shelf collapse on cold seep communities found beneath the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica.

Aaron Houck is a Ph.D. student in the Political Science Department, beginning in fall 2009. A long-time resident of North Carolina, Aaron is a graduate of Davidson College (2002) and Harvard Law School (2005). Prior to coming to Duke, Aaron worked as an attorney at the Charlotte-based law firm of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson and as the Associate Director for the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at UNC Charlotte. Aaron and his family live in Durham. He enjoys reading and college basketball.

James Edward Johndrow earned a B.S. from Amherst College and began his doctoral work in statistics the fall of 2010.

Louisa Lombard of Seattle, WA, earned her bachelor's degree in Development Studies from Brown University in 2003. She received a Royce Fellowship to research violence and human rights in Uganda, Rwanda, and Somalia, exploring the dynamics of genocide and local and international attempts to come to terms with violence. Her work in Somalia and Rwanda examined xeer and gacaca justice, the respective local administrative justice systems. She demonstrated the importance of recognizing and employing indigenous forms of justice and collectivity to address the historically complex processes of transnational forces, international war, and displacement to develop a politics of healing and recovery. She has been working since 2004 as a consultant to the Small Arms Survey. Louisa joined the doctoral program in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke in 2006 to continue her work in social justice and human rights.

Erik Lykken from Duncanville, Texas, Erik completed his undergraduate studies at Pomona College with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. His senior thesis investigated whether the lifespan extension properties of resveratrol derive from an interaction with the retrograde response, and explored how deletions in the retrograde response and resveratrol treatment impact the reactive oxygen species profile of a cell. He also worked as a Writing Fellow, helping other undergraduates to improve their writing and initiated Pomona 's Writing in the Sciences program. Erik began his studies in the Ph.D. program in Immunology at Duke in Fall 2009.

Brian Madison - Mr. Madison, from Englewood, New Jersey, received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Drew University in May 1993. He continued his studies in history at Rutgers University. He then studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, before joining Duke's Department of Religion to pursue his doctorate in Christian Theology in the Fall 2002. Brian was a University Scholars Program Graduate Mentor in 2004 - 2005 and again in 2006-2007. Brian is completing his dissertation, “Freedom for God: Toward a Theology of Human Freedom in Response to Physical Reductionism” before heading north to Michigan for a tenure-track professor position at Calvin College.

Carlos Mariscal graduated in 2006 from New Mexico State University and then spent some time as a graphic designer and feature news reporter before pursuing a PhD in philosophy and an MS in biology at Duke.  He is interested in philosophy of biology and philosophy of science in general, but more specifically he is currently investigating the issue of major transitions in evolution as well as early origins of life. This has forced him to learn more about biochemistry, biological and physical complexity, and astrobiology.  In his hypothetical spare time, Carlos works on the philosophy of humor, writes microfiction, and draws self-referential comics.

Drew Marticorena (Cognitive Neuroscience) graduated from Yale University in 2008 with dual degrees in Cognitive Science and Economics. He is interested in research at intersection of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, in both human and animal research. In particular, Drew hope to explore how the physical functioning of material brains gives rise to willful decision making, how this occurs, and how these processes are affected by risk and ambiguity.

Abhijit Mehta hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed his undergraduate education in 2006 at Duke, where he was an A.B. Duke Scholar and earned B.S. in Physics and Math with a minor in Classical Studies.  Abhijit is pursuing a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics as well as an Interdisciplinary Certificate in Nanoscience.  He uses Quantum Monte Carlo and other computational methods to study the behavior of electrons confined to one- and two-dimensional systems and the resulting properties of nanostructures such as quantum wires and carbon nanotubes.  He is also interested in quantum information and quantum computing and will earn an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering while researching this topic.  Outside of work, Abhijit enjoys salsa dancing, eating and cooking a variety of foods, hiking, camping, and Duke Basketball.  Abhijit was a USP Graduate Mentor from 2007-2009.

Christopher Paul received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Duke in 2005 as a member of the inaugural class of the Robertson Scholars Program. Chris also received a minor in Chinese language and a Certificate in Documentary Studies. His senior thesis and research work focused on the relationship of communities and the environment, including field work in North Carolina, South Africa, and Uganda. After graduation, Chris worked for the Children's Environmental Health Initiative at the Nicholas School of the Environment. From 2007-2009, Chris served in the United States Peace Corps with his wife Anna Bauer in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Chris returned to the Nicholas School to continue developing his research interests in the environment, with a growing focus on environmental health as a nexus of humans' relationship with their environment. As a Ph.D. student in the University Program in Environmental Policy, Chris looks forward to engaging disciplines across the university.

Courtnea Rainey graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Spelman College in 2005. Since graduation, Courtnea has had extensive post-baccalaureate research experience in basic neuronal functioning and using fMRI to study human cognition. Most recently, she completed a research assistantship at the National Insitute of Mental Health in imaging genomics from 2005-2007 before working as a program coordinator at the United Negro College Fund until spring 2009. Courtnea joined the program in Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke in Fall 2009. She plans to explore questions regarding human decision making with fMRI and neuroimaging. She is especially interested in studying suboptimal decision making, how we make decisions against our goals or best interest.

Martin Repinecz graduated from Washington University at St. Louis in 2005. He received a Humanities Scholarship, the Nemerov Writing Fellowship, and the Mellon Minority Fellowship as an undergraduate, double majoring in Spanish and Italian. As a Mellon Minority Fellow, Martin conducted research on post-dictatorial Latin American fiction which a focus on how Latin American immigrants are regarded in Spain. He joined the doctoral program in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke in 2006. At Duke, Martin plans to pursue an interdisciplinary research agenda in Spanish and Italian film, cultural studies, and literature, and is particularly interested in exploring post-Franco aesthetic culture from a transatlantic and postcolonial perspective.

Kenady Colleen Reuland I graduated from Willamette University in 2004 with a BA in Biology and then spent two years doing seasonal field work as a biologist and teaching skiing. I went back to school in 2006 to get my MS in Biology at Western Washington University where I studied the movements and diving behavior of harbor seals in Washington State. I spent the last two years working as a contractor for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. While at NOAA I worked with both the Steller Sea Lion program in Alaska and the Monk Seal program in Hawaii. I am beginning my PhD in Marine Science and Conservation at the Nicholas School of the Environment this fall and will be studying the movements, habitat use, and energetics of the Hawaiian monk seal.

Allen Riddell earned his bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature at Stanford University. After he graduated, Allen worked teaching English in a Parisian suburb to a largely immigrant population. Allen begins his Ph.D. with Duke's Program in Literature in Fall 2007. He hopes to combine his interests in new media and literature, to explore the continuities between digital art, immersive games, theater, and performance art, drawing on continental philosophy and its applications to contemporary cultural studies, sociology and anthropology, especially race, class, and gender studies.

Carl Rothfels of Hamilton, Canada graduated from McMaster University in 2001 with a degree in Biology. Since graduating, he traveled internationally for one year, studying natural history on five continents. He then served as the field botanist and herbarium curator at the Royal Botanical Gardens and has published three scientific papers and over thirty popular science publications. Carl joined the Ph.D. program in Biology in 2006 with an interest in studying evolutionary biology at the intersection of systematic botany, conservation, and ecology.

Jeffrey Schroeder is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon where he studied religion and Chinese studies.  He wrote his senior thesis on American poet Gary Snyder's experiences as a yamabushi mountain ascetic in Japan.  After college, he lived in Japan for a year before entering Duke's Master's program in East Asian Studies.  His MA thesis looked at Japanese Buddhist views of “material progress” in the late 19th century.  Beginning the Ph.D. Program in Religion in 2009, Jeff plans to continue researching the relation between Buddhism and the rise of capitalism in modern Japan.  Jeff loves to sleep outdoors, and this summer he hiked 120 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from Crater Lake to Bend, OR .

Stephen Spiller completed his undergraduate education as an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia, double majoring in Psychology and Economics. Stephen comes to Duke in 2006 to begin a doctoral program in Business. Stephen is interested in pursuing his Ph.D. in consumer behavior, an interdisciplinary field that brings together his interests in and knowledge of psychology and economics in relation to decision making.

Won Steinbach graduated from the University of Washington in 2008, where he double majored in Political Science and Economics. After graduation, he helped run before and after school programs at an elementary school in North Seattle. As of Fall 2010, he is a Ph.D candidate in the Political Science department, studying security, peace, and conflict. Outside of class, he enjoys running, cycling, and following NCAA football.

Whitney Trettien graduated from Hood College in 2007 with a BA in English and Philosophy. She then completed an MS in Comparative Media Studies at MIT, where she produced an online thesis on early modern text-generating volvelles that itself acts as a combinatory mechanism (http://www.whitneyannetrettien.com/thesis/). As a doctoral candidate in the English department at Duke, she is particularly interested in book history, media archaeology, early modern literature, digital humanities, creative criticism, plants and anarchy . She plays ukulele, piano and flute.