NewsBriefs

Keohane honored with joint-visiting professorship

Outgoing President Nan Keohane's sterling reputation has earned her praise across the University, the country and indeed the world. Now, even our archrivals from down the road are getting into the act. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser announced Monday that his university will name a new visiting professorship for Keohane. The $3 million Nannerl O. Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professorship at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, as it is formally known, will allow a scholar to spend six months at Duke and six months at Carolina.

The gift came as a surprise to Keohane, who heard the announcement while she was attending a dinner celebrating her leadership and the close ties between the two universities. "It is a powerful personal privilege to be honored in this way," she said. "I am truly touched, and deeply grateful."

Half of the money needed to create the professorship was pledged by Julian and Josie Robertson--the namesakes of the Robertson Scholars program. The rest was given by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, which has supported the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke and numerous Carolina ventures.

In the nine years that Keohane has been president, relations between Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill have grown increasingly tight. Among new cross-institutional initiatives are the Robertson Scholars program, which allows a group of students to spend time at both universities; the Rotary Center for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution; and the Institute for Renaissance Computing, which will be based at Carolina with support from Duke and North Carolina State University and will explore the interactions of computing technology with sciences, arts and humanities.

A positive relationship between Keohane and Moeser has helped the institutional relationship as well. Said Moeser of his counterpart: "She has been a wonderful colleague in every regard--a tower of strength and wisdom, with bedrock integrity, principled and decisive."

Sasha Burakow memorial set

A memorial program for Sasha Burakow will be held Sunday, Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium on East Campus. Following the program, the University community is invited to a reception in the Pegram Dormitory commons room. Also Sunday, the regularly scheduled 11 a.m. Roman Catholic mass in the Richard White Lecture Hall will be dedicated to Burakow. Burakow, a Duke freshman, died Dec. 17 after suffering a brain aneurysm on her way back to her home in Fairfax Station, Va. A standout in many areas, including science and athletics, she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in 2003. She was 19. Questions about the memorial program or Catholic mass can be directed to Colleen Scott at 684-5320.