Laura Barnard (Psychology) 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 plans to complete a joint degree with a Ph.D. in Psychology. Laura is particularly interested in research-focused clinical psychology and the study of vulnerability and resilience to psychopathology among ministers and people of faith.

Kristina Cammen (Ecology) graduated from the University of Maryland in 2007 with dual degrees in Biology and Psychology. She has spent the past 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.

Erin Gentry Lamb is a PhD student in English who joined the program in Fall 2001. She calls Lincoln, NE home and completed her BA in English and Aging Studies at The University of Iowa and a Postgraduate Diploma in International Cultural Studies at Nottingham Trent University in England. Her intellectual interests include aging and critical gerontology, medicine, science, science-fiction, technology and the body (oh yeah, and 19th and early 20th century American literature). In particular, she is fascinated (and horrified) by our anti-aging culture and the way that aging is commonly perceived of as a disease. Motivated by her uneasiness with the anti-aging sentiments of our contemporary culture, her dissertation traces the creation and circulation of some of our familiar cultural narratives about aging -- such as talking about aging as a disease that science needs to "cure," categorizing the aged as a national "burden," and placing a moral responsibility on people to "take care of themselves" as they age -- back to the turn-of-the-twentieth century. Erin is fortunate to be teaching a course on "Global Health and Human Rights" in Fall 2007, as well as co-coordinating the Human Rights Working Group at Duke this year. Erin was a USP Graduate Mentor in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004.

David Honig (Environment) graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa in 2006 with a degree in Biology. David is interested in the natural science of deep sea ecosystems and in policy and management issues related to the exploitation of deep sea ecosystems. He eager to engage in interdisciplinary research combining studies on the conservation, biogeography, and ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep on invertebrate communities in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica and the Manus Basin in Papua New Guinea.

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 joins the doctoral program in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke in 2006 to continue her work in social justice and human rights.

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 (Philosophy) completed his undergraduate studies in 2006 at the University of New Mexico with dual degrees in Philosophy and Journalism. He is interested in the intersection of moral philosophy and philosophy of biology, particularly the influence of biology and psychology on moral judgments and implications for moral theory, especially in environmental ethics.

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 University, where he was an A.B. Duke Scholar. Abhijit pursued a double major, earning a B.S. in Physics and Math. During his undergraduate career, he was a member of the Duke Math Union and a competitor in the annual Putnam mathematics challenge. He did an REU at Cornell University in particle physics, and conducted research funded through the National Science Foundation on "Simulation of CESR - c Luminosity from Beam Function." Abhijit wrote his senior thesis in Physics on "Order of the Chiral Phase Transition in Absence of the Anomaly." He has chosen to stay at Duke for his doctoral work and plans to pursue research in the field of applied physics. Abhijit was a USP Graduate Mentor in 2007-2008 and again in 2008-2009.

Emily Moran Emily Moran is a second year Ph.D. student in the biology department. She was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated from the University of Michigan. At Duke, she is studying patterns of dispersal and seedling establishment in forest trees using a combination of demographic data, genetic markers, and statistical models.

Baris Piyade (Electrical and Computer Engineering) hails from Turkey and graduated from Tufts University in 2008 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He is interested in the work being done at the VLSI Research and Design Center at Duke; including high-speed sigma-delta A/D converters and techniques that can improve resolution, dynamic range, and keep the monotonicity of converters. He is also interested in research on CMOS technology RF circuits as well as nanotech applications that provide alternatives to chip technologies undermined by limits of Moore 's Law.

Kylie Prymus is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz.  He is a PhD student in Philosophy, and is particularly interested in feminist theory, and problems of moral and virtue philosophy. Kylie was a Graduate Mentor in the program for 2001-2002.

Amanda Quiring (Business Administration) graduated from Hastings College in Nebraska in 2002 with degrees in Accounting and Mathematics. Upon completing her undergraduate studies, Amanda earned her Master of Professional Accountancy at the University of Nebraska in 2003. Since graduation, she has worked as Project Manager for the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board in London , England . At Duke, she is interested in conducting research on innovations and refinements in financial accounting to inform standard setters and to explore the economic effects of financial reporting.

Jacob Remes (B.A. Yale 2002, M.A. Duke 2006) is a doctoral candidate in history. He studies the working-class and labor history of North America, with a focus on urban disasters, working-class organizations, and migration. His dissertation, tentatively titled "When the State Blows Away," is on the immediate aftermaths of the Salem, Massachusetts, Fire of 1914 and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Explosion of 1917.

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 joins 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.

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 joins the Ph.D. program in Biology in 2006 with an interest in studying evolutionary biology at the intersection of systematic botany, conservation, and ecology.

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.

Simon Zaleski (Music) graduated from the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, earning a BA in Piano in 2006 at age 19, a BA in Composition in 2007, and an MA in musicology and harpsichord performance in 2008. While at Peabody , Simon conducted research on double-reeds in 17 th and 18 th century French court music, including the oboe-like instrument “cromornes.” He also created musical compositions for student-made musical instruments in the Johns Hopkins School of Engineering and Arts & Sciences. At Duke, he is interested in opportunities to study early music performance and historical performance practice in the field of Musicology.