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 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.

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.

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 (Philosophy) Graduated in 2006 from New Mexico State University with degrees in Journalism and Philosophy.  At Duke he is pursuing a PhD in philosophy and an MS in biology.  He is broadly interested in philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, but more specifically he is currently investigating the issue of major transitions in evolution as well as early origins of life.  This question has also piqued his curiosity over the newer fields of philosophy of chemistry and philosophy of the historical sciences.  In his hypothetical spare time, Carlos works on the philosophy of humor, writes microfiction, and draws self-referential comics. Carlos is a USP Graduate Mentor for the 2009-2010 academic year.

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.

Emily Moran is Ph.D. student in the Biology department with a concentration in Ecology. 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 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.

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.

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. He is past executive secretary of the Labor and Working-Class History Association and is a 2009 Josephine de Karman Fellow and Kenan Center for Ethics Colloquium Fellow.

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.

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.

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, and the relationship between old and new media forms.

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.