Sloan Scholars

Author: John Zhu Page 1 of 5

Celine Robinson

Celine Robinson Featured for Her Work with Code+ Program

Sloan Scholar Celine Robinson, a Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, enriched her dissertation and mentored undergraduates through Duke’s Code+ summer program. Learn more about her experience in the story by Duke’s Office of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Read the Story

David Pujol

Sloan Scholar David Pujol Earns His Ph.D.

Sloan Scholar David Pujol graduated from Duke in December 2022 with his Ph.D. in computer science. He is the second Duke Sloan Scholar to earn his degree.

Pujol was part of the first cohort of Sloan Scholars recruited by the Duke University Center of Exemplary Mentoring, starting his Ph.D. at Duke in fall 2018. He received a bachelor of computer science and mathematics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research at Duke focused on understanding the interactions between privacy protected data and fair algorithms. His dissertation, completed under the guidance of Associate Professor Ashwin Machanavajjhala, is titled “Fairness in Differentially Private Data Release.”

Pujol is now a scientist at Tumult Labs, a company cofounded by Machanavajjhala that works on a software platform for designing and deploying differentially private solutions.

Register for 2023 Duke UCEM Research Summit (Feb. 23)

The Duke University Center of Exemplary Mentoring will hold its annual research summit on Thursday, February 23, 3:30-5:30 p.m. in Bonk Auditorium at the French Family Science Center. Sloan Scholars—Ph.D. students in the physical sciences and engineering—will deliver short presentations about their research. The event will also feature a keynote address by Andrew D. Jones III, an assistant professor of environmental engineering and affiliate faculty in the Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Department, the Duke Materials Initiative, and the Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program at Duke.

Members of the Duke community are welcome to attend.

Register Now

Event Program (PDF)

Keynote Speaker

Andrew D. Jones IIIAndrew D. Jones III

Akhenaton-Andrew (Andrew) D. Jones III is an assistant professor of environmental engineering and affiliate faculty in the Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Department, the Duke Materials Initiative, and the Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program at Duke University. His research uses engineering and policy analysis to help solve global challenges related to water and health.

Jones is a 2021 recipient of the NIH R35 Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to develop new models and tools for studying biofilms and a 2019 Sloan SEED fund award to develop new tools for point of use water quality monitoring systems. He was recognized as Young Investigator by the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State, the premier center for biofilm research in the US. He received a B.S. in mathematics and a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT, where he was a Lemelson Presidential Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan MPHD Scholar. He completed postdoctoral training as a Future Faculty Fellow at Northeastern University. He has directly supervised 2 high school students, over 20 undergraduates, 5 M.S. students, 5 Ph.D. students, and 2 postdoctoral trainees, including 8 from underrepresented backgrounds and 19 women. Jones and his team have presented at more than 40 conferences and seminars.

Tyler and Alexis Johnson, standing back to back and smiling

Sloan Scholar Siblings: Tyler and Alexis Johnson

The Graduate School recently profiled siblings and Sloan Scholars Tyler and Alexis Johnson. Tyler is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in physics, while Alexis is in her second year in chemistry.

SEE THEIR STORY

Cameron Darwin

Cameron Darwin Becomes 1st Duke Sloan Scholar to Earn Ph.D.

Cameron Darwin earned his Ph.D. in mathematics in September 2022, becoming the first Sloan Scholar at Duke to complete his degree.

Darwin came to Duke in fall 2019 as a member of the second cohort of Sloan Scholars recruited by the Duke University Center of Exemplary Mentoring. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he became interested in differential geometry and physics.

His dissertation, completed under the guidance of Professors Kirsten Wickelgren and Lenhard Ng, was titled “Aspects of Quadratically Enriched Enumerative Geometry of Complete Intersections in Projective Space.”

Richardson and Barreto

Sloan Scholars, Affiliate Present at Early Start Poster Symposium

Sloan Scholars Amanda Barreto and Kiarra Richardson, as well as Sloan Affiliate Aristotle Martin, presented posters on July 28 at the Early Start Poster Symposium organized by the Duke BioCoRE (Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement) Program. Dionna Gamble, a 2020 Ph.D. graduate in genetics and genomics, delivered the keynote address.

More Photos from the Symposium

Jessica Lalonde and Ethan LoCicero

Lalonde, LoCicero Named Burroughs Wellcome Fund Fellows

Jessica Lalonde and Ethan LoCicero

Jessica Lalonde and Ethan LoCicero

Sloan Scholars Jessica Lalonde and Ethan LoCicero were among five Duke Ph.D. students named Burroughs Wellcome Fund Fellows under a pilot program to provide professional development support for students researching biological sciences, climate change, and human health. See the story on the Pratt School of Engineering website for details.

Jacqueline Looney and Sloan Scholar Natalie Rozman

Duke UCEM Director Jacqueline Looney Wraps Up Remarkable Career

Duke UCEM Director Jacqueline Looney retired at the end of June after 30 exemplary years of service at the Duke Graduate School in support of graduate students. See the story on her career.

Yeats' robotics club standing by the Duke D in Cameron Indoor Stadium

Yeats Helps Middle Schoolers Get in Touch with Fun Side of Engineering

By John Zhu

When he was an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, Eric Yeats volunteered with an initiative to teach programming to K-12 students. In those sessions, students learned to write code that moved cartoon characters around a computer screen. While some of them had fun, Yeats felt something was missing from the experience—he wanted something more tangible than pixels on a screen.

Yeats

Eric Yeats

Now entering his fourth year as a Ph.D. candidate at Duke, Yeats has spent the past few months creating the experience he envisioned by partnering with Durham Public Schools to offer a free robotics club for local middle schools that need more STEM-based afterschool opportunities.

“What really inspired me to do this project is I just really enjoy the process of engineering and problem-solving, and especially programming, and I just wanted to share how much I enjoy it with the kids at school,” said Yeats, a Sloan Scholar who is pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in Professor Hai “Helen” Li’s lab.

Yeats pitched the idea to Durham Public Schools officials and received an enthusiastic response. For three months this spring, he spent three afternoons a week going to Lucas, Githens, and Lowe’s Grove Middle Schools for one- to two-hour afterschool sessions, teaching anywhere from five to 15 students how to program robots to avoid obstacles, understand voice commands, interact with each other, and even play soccer.

He also organized a Duke visit in May for the students, who toured the Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility and the Co-Lab Studio before ending their day at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Students getting into clean-room suits

Middle school students from Eric Yeats’ robotics club try on clean-room suits during a tour of Duke research facilities.

“I wanted to start a program that was focused on programming and teaching engineering fundamentals, but was also fun,” Yeats said. “The goal wasn’t necessarily to have the students learn as much as possible about engineering, but to just see how fun it can really be.”

Funding for the robots came from a GradEngage Fellowship, which is part of the Purpose Project at Duke. The fellowship helps graduate students partner with local community organizations to develop solutions for pressing social issues. Yeats also got help from a couple of his labmates, as fellow Ph.D. students Brady Taylor and Edward Hanson helped facilitate some of the afterschool sessions and the students’ Duke tour.

While the GradEngage project period has ended, Yeats said Durham Public School officials are now talking to him about expanding the afterschool club into a yearlong program, securing other sources of funding, and getting more Duke students involved.

“The feedback has been good,” he said. “The students wrote me a card and they are going to mail it to me, so I’m really excited about that. And the site leaders apparently liked it a lot. The people from the administration at Durham Public Schools said, in their words, that the program got ‘rave reviews.’ ”

Video: Robots programmed by students in Yeats’ robotics club

Jacqueline Looney

Duke UCEM Director Featured in SloanConnect Newsletter

This story is republished from the May 27, 2022, issue of the SloanConnect newsletter.

Sloan Leader Spotlight: Jackie Looney

After 30 years at Duke University, Senior Associate Dean Jackie Looney will retire next month. Dr. Looney was not only a critical part of the Sloan Scholar program at Duke, but she also led the creation of other programs that enhanced graduate student life on campus.

When she first arrived at Duke, she was a recent PhD graduate from Vanderbilt University. Initially an assistant dean for graduate recruitment, she took up the charge of creating services and finding resources to support graduate students. At first, she admits she didn’t entirely know the way, but she trusted her intuition (having just finished graduate school herself), and she knew how to do her research! She investigated other programs, looked at graduate schools across the country, and talked with students and faculty members about what they needed. With this approach, she used multiple voices and her own instincts to forge a path ahead.

Incorporating multiple voices was equally as important when launching the University Center of Exemplary Mentoring and Sloan Scholars program. At her suggestion, every academic department that signed on to the program had to commit two faculty champions. Additionally, she built in administrative support: every unit in the graduate school had to contribute, including academic affairs, finance, and admissions. This approach not only gave the Sloan Scholar program buy-in from the start, it also made it sustainable—multiple people in the graduate school contributed the program’s success.

Jackie Looney with two Sloan Scholars

Jacqueline Looney with Sloan Scholars Celine Robinson (left) and Natalie Rozman

To further its sustainability, Dr. Looney also aligned Sloan Scholars with the graduate school’s strategic plan, including recruitment, professional development, student well-being, and mentoring. She explains how this was a win-win: “While we wanted to have a program that was giving opportunity to underrepresented students, we also wanted to create a program that was going to benefit the larger graduate population at Duke.”

And Dr. Looney didn’t stop at Sloan Scholars. She also introduced a mentoring award, parental leave policy, and numerous other programs that benefit Duke students in real and meaningful ways.

“I am so proud to know that Duke is one of the graduate schools in the country that sets a standard—the standard of care for your students,” Dr. Looney says.

Those who work with her agree. “Having worked in higher education for over twenty years, there are people who stand out in my mind as true servants to the field. Jackie is one such person,” says Lorelle Espinosa, program director for higher education at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “Jackie is on my short list of individuals to reach out to when in need of guidance. She is deeply passionate and skilled at advancing our mutual goals advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM higher education—I am indeed lucky to have her in my corner, and so is Sloan!”

Dr. Looney encourages students to approach their graduate work with similar tenets to her own career:

  • Collaborate. Create a board of directors for your graduate career: a faculty advisor for academic requirements, a staff person for the ins and outs of the department, a senior grad student for a tutor and friend. “You can’t get everything that you need as a graduate student from one individual. Number one, you’re going to wear that person down. Number two, someone who’s comfortable helping you navigate the academic requirements may not be comfortable helping you navigate the personal matters,” she says.
  • Reach out. Become engaged with the university, with the graduate school, with student groups, and with the community. Dr. Looney encourages student groups to reach across disciplines, across schools, and to bring other students in the mix. Broadening your view to include other people, other interests, and other members of your community will energize your work in the lab.
  • Most importantly, have mentors. “The one thing that I know to be true about good mentoring is that when students have it, they are more productive, they become more involved in their departments, and they become more involved in the life of the university,” she observed. “They are more satisfied with their programs, where they are, what they’re doing.”

The Sloan Scholars program at Duke and other University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring have benefited from Dr. Looney’s vision, persistence, and wisdom. Thanks to her, graduate students—Sloan Scholars and otherwise—have greater opportunities and more fulsome support systems.

Page 1 of 5

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén