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杜克新食堂West Union美食攻略组战报(上篇)

在这个阳(re)光(cheng)明(gou)媚(le),不时有乌云+下几滴雨的日子里,Duke新的一个学期开始啦~~有没有哪件事情特别的振奋人心?让你感觉幸福指数蹭蹭上升?谁?说美元升值的给我站出来!小呆教你人民币K线的一百种画法!

修了一个多学期的West Union终于开门了~~~

以下是地图定位:

Chapel旁边,Bryan Center对面,C1,C2校车直达,方便快捷!

那么里面有什么好吃的呢??

让小呆和我们职业吃货部,职业发展部用身体力行(主要是嘴)告诉你们吧~

1. IF Forno(意大利餐)

对于华裔学生来讲,饭店里的意面一般来讲是比较安全的选择。和歪果朋友们聚餐+不知道点什么的时候(更多时候是不知道菜单说什么的时候),意面往往是万金油的选择。因为就算不是特别美味,它们也总比血糊糊的牛排或者重度油炸的鸡/鱼好接受。

作为West Union的门面店(不知道它们租金会不会比其他的店高),IF Forno继承意面的优良传统:1、能吃下去,2、能吃饱。我们目前已经test了其中的meatball和pesto两个菜,整体感觉味道中规中矩,不过对于口味略重(不要引发歧义!)的童鞋(such as 小呆),整个面还是要加一些盐的。

相较意面,小呆周边的童鞋们更加推荐该店的Pizza,很多人认为水准大致于Enzo持平或略高。而且对于赶时间的亲们,Pizza也是一种很管饱的速食。

不过如果你要减肥的话,IF Forno可能对你就不那么友好了。首先意大利餐一般用得Cheese会相对较多,另外整个面/饼里几乎没有蔬菜。所以如果你要减肥的话,推荐你转个身,向West Union对面的Wilson Center跑去~

Hint:买完意面后不要忘了管他们要breadstick哦

综合评分:

美味指数:意面:★★★

Pizza:★★★★

菜量指数:★★★★

减肥指数:★

2. Tandoor(印度餐)

上个学期吃Penn Pavilion的亲们可能会对这家印度餐比较熟悉(虽然之前的叫Sitar,现在的叫Tandoor),味道基本上没变但菜的种类有较大幅度的上升。喜欢吃咖喱的亲们可以试试这家。菜的特点比较印度,肉略咸菜略淡,搭配得还不错,不过馕饼比较软,不像新疆的那种酥脆的,而且蔬菜都是煮过的,营养流失略大。

主菜外,Tandoor的小甜点(上图右边的那个)比较有特色(但是小呆吃不太惯),白色的部分是米,暗红色的是玉米面球(貌似~)。另外芒果奶昔很赞。

综合评分:

美味指数:★★★★

菜量指数:★★★✪

减肥指数:★★✪

3. Café(法式餐)

Café 比较著名的就是他的creep/crepe,其实就是法式大煎饼(上图)。煎饼有甜的(水果)和咸的(Ham or Chicken)。总得来说很有特色,是个不错的小吃。不过作为正餐来讲菜量略显不够。具体口味上大部分人prefer pesto Chicken(上图)>Ham,甜的采用的水果甜度有些不够(比如说草莓),和饼略微不配。

除了creep外,Café还提供三明治(上上图),整体来说味道大概率好于自制版,不过比起SmashBurger还有差距,不过也是应急食物的上选。

综合评分:

美味指数:creep:★★★★✪

三明治:★✪

菜量指数:★✪

减肥指数:★★★

4. The Skillet(美式餐)

The Skillet很像Penn Pavilion之前的美国烤肉+土豆泥/通心粉+青菜的组合,本团这次test了牛肉(上图),猪肉(上上图),和炸鸡(上上上图),整体感觉牛肉> 猪肉>炸鸡。牛肉的味道浸得不错,肉质也较松软,猪肉味道略淡,炸鸡则很硬,比较难以下咽。整体来说,Skillet一如既往地传承了美帝食品傻大粗的优良传统,分分钟顶饱,不过味道么,呵呵~

什么?!减肥?!

美式餐和减肥是互斥事件吧?来来来,看着那一大坨土豆泥和Cheese通心粉,有动力去Wilson Center了吧?

综合评分:

美味指数:★★

菜量指数:★★★★✪

减肥指数:★✪

由于篇幅所限,本次小呆就先分享到这里,欲知后事如何,请看下回分解。我们习惯性把好东西留在后面……比如……美(keng)味(die)的拉面。

  (现在插播文体部广告)

亲,中秋佳节,花好月圆,你,想家么?

亲,West Union,美食遍地,你,想月饼么?

亲,Drop Deadline,步步紧逼,你,想尽情宣泄么?

关注DCSSA,来我们9月10日的中秋晚会(兼杜克好声音)吧~有帅哥,有美女……好吧,有月饼……还有——我们的杜克歌王!

地址是LSRC Love Auditorium哦~~

(广告结束,希望在职业发展部推文中插入广告的请联系杨小呆,$_$价钱什么的好商量$_$~~)

哎,那边那个想吃月饼的,还不关注我们?!^_^记得置顶哦亲~

————————————

Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association, DCSSA(杜克大学中国学生学者联谊会)的宗旨是服务杜克华人社区,我们致力于丰富杜克华人群体的业余生活和为华人学生学者的学业、科研和就业提供信息和帮助。

如果有需要帮助的地方,请与执委会联系,我们的官方网站、邮箱、邮件列表以及其功能如下:

DCSSA官网 http://dukechina.org/

主席邮箱 dcssapresident@gmail.com

微信订阅号 DukeCSSA

人人主页 http://page.renren.com/601372350

祝大家在杜克学习、工作、生活愉快

(想了解更多有关杜克生活,招聘,娱乐活动信息还有八卦,多多关注我们哟!)

2014版新生手册发布

今年夏天,在往年版本的基础上我们修订了《杜克大学中国新生手册》,涵盖了在杜克的衣食住行等各个方面,希望对来到杜克的新同学有所帮助!

DCSSA对参与过手册撰写、修订、提供意见建议的所有朋友表达诚挚的感谢!

2014年6月版编写人员名单:

王君、丁一、郭方健、黄尚儒、田兆榕、王菁菁、徐驰、张珺怡、韩愈章

 

下载链接

Google Drive

Duke China

 

新生orientation 时间表(DCSSA orientation included)

link to 新生orientation时间表

应对入室抢劫通告稿

亲爱的杜克华人学者与同学们:

寒暑两假是美国入室抢劫的高发期,其原因大概与假期中国际学生回家探亲、房屋长期闲置不用有关。近日,在中校园与西校园附近的住宅区相继发生入室抢劫的案例,有时甚至受害人就在家中,造成了不小的财物与精神损失。在此,DCSSA为您送上几则应对入室抢劫的建议,请您注意保管好个人贵重物品,注意应对入室抢劫通告稿人身安全。

1、晚上的门窗务必关好,天再热也不能放松警惕。出门前检查门窗的上锁情况。

2、在家中找到一个“安全房间”(safe room)。当遇到紧急情况时,可迅速躲入该房间内,并用房间内的物品抵挡可能的搏斗。例如,一部可以报警的电话是这个房间中必不可少的。若租住的房屋较小或者来不及跑到特定房间,可以迅速关上并反锁卧室门,而不是急于求证歹徒是否被吓走,或者与歹徒正面冲突。遇到入室盗贼尽量不要与其搏斗,除非受过专业搏斗训练。

3、迅速拨打911报警。但考虑到警察的救援速度与语言障碍,建议及时打给很熟悉自己近况的人。可以事先与人约定好一个暗语来表示“我被抢劫了”,以防激怒不法分子。

4、在任何情况下,都不要离开“安全房间”,直到警察到来,即使你非常明确地知道歹徒已经离开了你的居所,因为你无法确定歹徒是否假装离开。请等待警察告诉你是否可以出来了,不要自行决定。

5、如果你有枪,则站在“安全房间”的门对面的那个角落里,这样会给你足够长的时间来决定是否开枪射击,因为你所站的位置不会被歹徒第一眼看到。但要注意,不要伤到警察。

6、歹徒作案逃离后,要注意保护现场,歹徒用手摸过的物品不要马上归置,应等待警察提取现场证据后再作处理。

7、贵重的电子产品随身携带,或者锁到院系专用的储物柜里。不要在家里留大额现金。睡觉时要锁好卧室门。有可能的话,购买房屋财产保险。

8、事后及时联络社区管理员、学校警察,提醒其他同学注意安全。

 

 

杜克大学华人学生学者联谊会(by 王穆)

2012年6月26日

杜克访谈之Economics

Guests Information:

Guests: Professor Charles Becker

Professor Edward Tower

Professor Charles Becker

Associate Chair, Director of MA Program, and Research Professor of Economics

Specialties: Development Economics

Full Profile: http://econ.duke.edu/people?Gurl=/aas/Economics&Uil=cbecker&subpage=profile

Professor Edward Tower

Member of MA Program Committee, Professor of Economics

Specialties: International Trade, Development Economics

Full Profile: http://econ.duke.edu/people?Gurl=/aas/Economics&Uil=edward.tower&subpage=profile

编者:傅宁 (Ning Fu), M.A. Candidate in Economics, Department of Economics

 

Ning:Professor Becker and Professor Tower, thank you for accepting our invitation for this interview. I know both of you are members of our master’s program committee, so my first question is: what kind of qualities are you looking for in the applicants? What kind of characteristics will make an applicant stand out from the rest?

 

Prof. Tower: my short answer is: I do whatever Charlie tells me. My longer answer is that there’s an ability to substitute, and so I do look at verbal score, I do look at TOEFL, I do look at the writing test, I look at the statement, and I look at the quality of writing of the essay that the student submits. Often students submit a sample of their writing. And I don’t look just for the words, I look for the organization, for good headings. When students send their writing samples, just as in our course, I very seldom, or never, read the whole thing. I look at the abstract, the introduction and the conclusion, and ask whether the ideas are well put together. If there’re some words that aren’t quite right, that’s not an issue. It’s whether the ideas are put together, and whether the whole essay says something interesting and speaks to my intuition. For me, for the most part, the personal statement doesn’t make that much a difference, but when a student has a really imaginative personal statement, often I forward it to Charlie with a note saying  ”Man, this is absolutely great! ”

 

Prof. Becker: So in fact, it does matter a lot.

 

Prof. Tower: There’s one instance where I said : “Charlie, these two students I think wrote fantastic personal statements, but I didn’t admit either one of them because their score on other accounts was a little below those of other applicants. Charlie admitted them.

 

Prof. Becker: I place a lot of weight on people’s personal statement, mostly because everyone has high scores, and I don’t place emphasis on TOEFL or verbal GRE beyond the minimum of the university, because I think there are too many competing hypotheses that fit: one is that somebody is good at languages, a second is that someone has put in a lot of effort to acquire English, and a third is someone comes from a higher socioeconomic class and has more opportunities. I can’t distinguish among those possibilities and therefore ignore it. So Professor Tower and I differ. When it comes to personal statements, I tend to go through them really quickly. But when they’re really good, it’s a signal of better organization and more coherent vision of what the applicant wants to do. Then it becomes important. To be considered for admission, to be considered for, say, the final 30%, it doesn’t matter. We admit about 15% of our applicants. So going from 100% to 30% of the application pool there is no impact. But in the last cut from 30% to 15%, it becomes more important. We have this huge dataset that we have collected. We keep track of every person’s math courses and grades in every math and economics course. We keep track of the names of the persons who wrote recommendation letters, and the quality of those letters. And then, because we have large number of Chinese applicants, we have another file that keeps track of all students from a given university, and how they perform here, and we relate that to their university and their faculty. It’s very different if you went to Peking University in foreign languages, versus Peking University in mathematics. Your grades would be lower in mathematics, and there’s much higher competition. So we take the university and the department into account. Then we look and see where we’re getting really good students from, and we go back to those departments.

 

Ning: So our performance here will affect the applicants back in China.

 

Prof. Becker: Absolutely.

 

Prof. Tower: When I say I don’t pay much attention to personal statements, what I really mean is a lot of personal statements are similar, and it’s hard to distinguish very much between them. Those that stand out in my mind are the personal statements that are really well organized, but these are very few. There was one student who just had absolutely incredible headings. They were just what Diedre McCloskey advocates in her book, Economical Writing. The headings were informative.They said what I was going to find in the next paragraph, they weren’t just topic headings. This applicant was somebody who really knew how to write and organize an essay. But those are fairly rare. Students might want to read McCloskey’s book or one of her articles on writing for how to write a really good personal essay.

 

Prof. Becker: Let me show you this (the detailed application database). There are entries for “Are they admittable, yes or no”. In another column, I gave a rating of an applicant’s mathematics on a one to five scale, elsewhere I gave an overall rating. I note an applicant’s intended track (specialization) and which professors they hope to work with.We have the names of most of their references, and a list of math courses and everything else. Then we write a summary statement. (an example) “Very strong letters from such and such, easy admit but may not be a star”, something like that, (another example) “very Duke-focused statement”.

 

Prof. Tower: In those statements about why you want to come to Duke, some students show they have carefully looked into the research of the faculty members and are very familiar with the faculty members. Those people are signaling that they are super well organized. Just “I want to work with Charlie”, that isn’t gonna do the trick. But a really cogent explanation of why I want to work with Charlie is powerful. Sometimes I find an applicant knows my colleague better than I do.

 

Prof. Becker: The opposite of that is this person here who forgot to replace every mention of “Cornell” in her essay. This person probably would have been admitted, except when you make a mistake like that, you are out. So even though she ranked third in her class of 600 in a top university in her country, that won’t work. But you’ll be surprised how many people mass produce their applications. I think that’s a bad idea. Instead of applying to 20 programs, it is better to double the time you spend on each one and apply to ten – I believe your probability of having admission and possibly some financial aid will increase. One of my students applied for 25 or 26 places. I was so angry because you have to fill all those forms. I decided from now on for people who want more than 15 applications, I would want to make them pay for the department 50 dollars at the margin because there has to be a cost. It’s a terrible strategy because if you apply for 20 or 30 schools, you can’t know them all very well, so you’re writing the empty essays that the schools ignore. If you have me write 10 or 8 recommendations, I really want to help you and if I know someone there, I’ll write a personalized letter. If you let me write to 20 places or 25, they you get a mass-produced letter from me, too.

 

Prof. Tower: Charlie is more responsible than I am. I write one letter and send copies off.

 

Prof. Becker: My rule of thumb is if it’s 10 places or fewer, I write personalized letters, if more, they get a single letter.

 

Ning: My next question is, from your experience of viewing these applications, what are the differences between Chinese and American students? Do you have any specific suggestions for the Chinese students?

 

Prof. Becker: The difference today is not that great.

 

Prof. Tower: That’s exactly what I was going to say.

 

Prof. Becker: First, our goal for this program is not to have all Chinese, not all Americans, not all Chinese and Americans. We want to have more diversity. But I have the same rating system. We cut off at the same number. If there are a lot of students with the same number, the fact is we slightly favor non-Chinese and non-American students. But we come very close to meeting our first-order conditions so that the marginal admission from each country or region is comparable. We’re looking for the best, the brightest and the most creative students. In terms of academics, I don’t see a huge difference. People are bright, creative, interested. When people get here, there are two differences between Chinese and other students. One difference is that if a Chinese student gets into academic trouble, he or she will be ashamed to admit it, and therefore will retreat inside, and that often makes the problem worse. If you ask Chinese students, or anyone else about Chinese students, they’re always doing great. That’s because they will never admit their fellow students have a problem and will hide it. So we worry about that. When it happens to non-Chinese students, sometimes they go into hiding, sometimes they don’t. But when things go wrong, a Chinese student will lose face by going to other Chinese students. There’s a source of shame or something that keeps Chinese students from asking for help relative to others. Most Chinese students do very well, but those who don’t, do not use the safety net.

 

Everyone here has academic talent, but on occasion people get sick or something. The reason people get into academic trouble is rarely related to ability- breaking up with girlfriend or boyfriend, taking too many courses – so it can happen to anyone. The disadvantage of Chinese students is that they’re reluctant to ask for help when they are in trouble.

 

The other thing that tells people apart is: many Chinese students come here with a girlfriend or boyfriend, and those who don’t, tend to find a partner while at Duke. Relative to other international students, Chinese students make a stronger community. For those who have to work on their English, that hurts them. You’re adults, and there’s a large community, and this is a great opportunity to meet a potential spouse. We provide this service for free. But the cost to it is that the community is more focused on itself, especially when they’re in large numbers. We believe people are adults, and there’s no quota for Chinese students, but this is something I hope the community would make an effort to modify, in order to strengthen language skills of those with weaker English.

 

Prof. Tower: About the issue of getting into trouble and confused, the student who best dealt with this is Summer. When she took my course two falls ago in international economics, she would come into my office later on that day with all her questions from the lecture. So the lecture is still fresh in my mind and still fresh in her mind. It was a very effective way to teach and fill in the blanks, and clarify things I did not make clear. I think it makes a lot of sense for students to do this and there’s no reason why students can’t utilize it in groups. I notice sometimes two students from the same country would take my course and end up being very close and studying together. I think that works quite well. I always found it easier to go talk to a professor if I went with someone else so I didn’t seem stupid, and the two of us could work together.

 

Prof. Becker: You know in my 206 class, I break up nationalities. I put one American, one Chinese, one neither and one another person.

 

Prof. Tower: That’s interesting. I haven’t done that, but I’m always delighted when students from different countries choose to work in a team together to work out a computer project.

 

Ning: So my next question is, once students successfully get into our program, what kind of improvement do you expect from their two years’ studying here? And how does our program help them achieve this goal?

 

Prof. Becker: Different people have different objectives. Some people are trying to get more math skills. Summer is a good example. She is an engineer but she wants to learn more economics. Others major in Economics and need to learn more math and stats. For international students, it is important to become much more fluent in presentations and language, and ideally experience as much research as possible, often as a TA or RA . We want people to be professional in the field they want to enter – policy making, or business, or government, or think tanks, or going onto a PhD.

 

Prof. Tower: That incidently is one important element of personal statements. Charlie spends lots of time on placement. A personal statement can signal your personality. It’s going to tell whether it’s going to be easy for that person to get a job afterwards.

 

Prof. Becker: This is also true for American students. A couple of years ago a potential student came to visit. He wanted to go to into the financial sector. Great background, but incredibly quiet, almost reclusively so. Adrian and I talked about it and we thought ”that guy’s going to be hard to place”. Even if you have everything else, if you are really shy and you want to go into business, it’s hard no matter what your grades are.

 

The amazing thing about Duke, what makes this program work so well is that you can take classes everywhere here, you can work with different people. Our students are RAs and TAs in the business school, in the policy school, in health institutes, in political science and all over the place. And they take classes everywhere. We work with computer science, with the stats department. So when you come to Duke to get a master’s in Economics, it’s not just the Econ department. You’re part of the university. That’s not typical. Everyone can make the program that’s ideal for them. Most other universities just don’t do this. It also makes it much easier to design a course of study that meets individual needs, and to get to know professors individually – and they will write recommendations.

 

Ning: My next question is: for students back in China and here at Duke who’re planning to apply for PhD in economics, what’s your suggestion for them? How could they get into their ideal PhD programs? Should they take more math class, more PhD class, or more research experience? What’s the most important thing to do?

 

Prof. Becker: There’re a lot of necessary conditions. Good math is necessary. Good programming, computational and econometric skills are necessary, and good grades in these classes. It’s so hard to get into schools right now. Getting into any top 15 school is effectively a random event. Look at the placement today, we have students who are admitted to one school, but not the other. Because there are so many great applicants, the admission committees are making choices that are in fact very close to random. What we can do is not worry so much about that: at Duke we’re going to make you an effective economist, an effective researcher. My goal for our program is to raise people who are good researchers five years from now. I can’t promise anyone will get into Harvard, and I can’t promise anyone will even get into Duke or into some place further down. That’s not possible. But what we can do is try to build the skills. We offer a range of courses here, so it’s important to take the quantitative courses, it’s also important to take those courses that force you to present, to analyze, to read a lot of English and be able to read fast. So Professor Tower’s class on current issues in international trade and economic development is really important in this regard. I was just in Boston University this week and talked with one of our former students who was upset about her presentations. Now she’s no longer a first-year student, and has to make presentations. These things are really important because being able to get through the first year, you have to have a math and stats background. Then you become a RA and develop good programming skills. But eventually, you have to have good presentation skills and good writing skills. You have to have read widely and not be afraid to write. Instead of writing the minimum amount you could write on a research paper, you have to be comfortable enough with English to write a complete paper. And you have to read a wide range of economics literature, so you know what the interesting problems are, and you read other research to know how to build models. So reading, solving problems, and getting field experience are critical. One thing I pay attention to, that gets back to your earlier questions, if I notice an applicant from Shanghai or Beijing or Tianjin, who has gone off to Gansu, or Guizhou, or Yunnan province, to work in some remote places in one of the government programs, that says a lot of the applicant’s character. I pay a lot of attention to that.

 

Prof. Tower: As you were polishing your book review, which you wrote in the class, for publication in The journal of the Asia and Pacific Economy, you commented to me that my course is an English class as well as an economics class. You also said that you learned a lot about how to write from reading well-written economics books that were used in the course. I’m very pleased that you said that, because I want the class to feel that way. I have a question for you, Charlie, the writing samples, the research papers that the applicants submit, do you find them very good on average?

 

Prof. Becker: A lot of them simply try to demonstrate they can write in English.

 

Prof. Tower: Or that they know econometrics skill.

 

Prof. Becker: Yeah. Overall, they’re not as good as recent Duke undergraduate honors theses.

 

Prof. Tower: When I finish reading many of the writing samples, I can’t find anything I learned or that I want to pass on to other people. And that’s a disappointment. If you can write a research paper that has a memorable conclusion that is worth passing on, I think you’ve done something important. You want to signal this skill in your writing sample.

 

Ning: The last question: I realized one of the research interests for both of you is development economics. Could you tell me something about the future of this branch of economics?

 

Prof. Tower: We just gave a job offer to a young woman at Harvard. When she was a graduate student at Princeton, her thesis advisor wrote an article on New York Times, saying how clever and important and well executed her thesis was. At the time, she was on the job market. Her advisor is a columnist for the New York Times. She spent a lot of time in Peru. There were three different squatter settlements. In these, people just took the land and built primitive housing. Those squatter settlements got title to the land at different times in the history of Peru. She looked at how people’s standard of living developed in these three areas, and discovered once they got legal title, they no longer have to stay at home and hold a machete to keep people away from their property. So they were able to go out and get work and make good things happen. Here she was looking very closely at this real estate development and making sense out of it, and she ended up in Harvard. She did some very interesting things on bride prices in Bangladesh. So she’s looking very closely at particularly interesting problems in developing countries. In the debate we had in the economics department as to whether offer her a tenured full professorship, several professors argued very strongly that this is the way development economics is going – looking imaginatively at interesting problems, and tieing sociology and economics together. One professor said, “If we want to be on the frontier in new development economics we must hire her. Yes, what she’s doing is somewhat controversial. The old guys don’t think her work is that important, but there’s a good chance that this is the path of the future.” So these professors argued “If Duke is gonna be on the frontier of development economics, she is the person we should get.”

 

Prof. Becker: I think what Professor Tower said is right. If you look today versus twenty or more years ago, or even ten years ago, there’s this explosion of information that we just couldn’t imagine, both on the micro and macro level. For many of these datasets, you not only know the household characters, but you can actually place them – you know where the household is located in the survey. The techniques we use today in micro issues in development are technically more sophisticated in practical terms. They’re more sophisticated because we follow a household over time, or we could go back to their past and there’s just so much more data. At the macro level, we have again an explosion that gives us amazing information that wasn’t there on, say, asset-market, prices for long periods and high frequency. So you can ask things about stock market efficiency that you couldn’t do before. You can ask about higher moments of distribution. You can do much more sophisticated work on bubbles and such. You could have done it theoretically, but the data didn’t allow you to provide empirical support. So I see development economics entering a golden era-economics as a whole is- it’s in a golden age right now. In the case of China, you have these wonderful surveys, so many now. They’re available on various asset markets. One example is not from China, but I’m sure there is a Chinese counterpart. I have a grad student who is looking at housing prices at Saint Petersburg in Russia, and he’s been collecting at least a thousand observations a week. And every Monday morning, he uses Google Earth to find the particular location of the observations and can make the prediction of how long it’ll take to travel to various points, so you know the expected transportation cost at each site.

 

In China, also you have this great data on middle aged and elderly people. It’s possible to use that information to examine the impact of major events that took place during, say, the Mao Zedong era. There are many pieces that were written on the long-run impact of the Culture Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and so on. Some of the research our students are doing now. Zhu has this great paper on long-run health and education of those who were sent to the countryside during the revolution, using not data from back then, but data on people who are elderly people today. Yang has a similar paper looking at another impact of the Culture Revolution. These are using contemporary data. There’s so much literature in China today in part because China generates a lot of interesting data. You can go back and learn about today, but you can also like an archaeologist and use information today to learn about the past. It’s an amazing time.

 

Ning: I think that wraps up my interview today. I’d like to thank you on behalf of all the Chinese students. This will be extremely useful information for them. Thank you!

 

 

杜克2011秋季入学新生接机须知

致各位2011秋季入学的杜克新生:

大家好!我们是杜克大学学生学者联谊会(Duke Chinese Students & Scholars Association, DCSSA),首先代表杜克大学全体华人祝贺大家以优异的成绩和出色的个人能力申请杜克大学大学成功!我们DCSSA是目前杜克最大的华人学生团体,每年积极地为杜克的将要来校的新生和在校学生提供高质量的服务。请大家登录我们的主页察看详情:

http://www.dukechina.org/testweb/

并加入我们的 Mailing List,我们会不定期的发布我们活动的内容和各种信息:

http://dukechina.org/blog/archives/5000

2011年秋季入学的新生的正式QQ群:

141641653

另外,今年新加入的同学,以以下方式到或者询问有关事宜

原则上,希望新入学的同学主动联系在北卡的师兄师姐解决接机问题。如果联系不到的话,我们会安排接机志愿者去机场接机。由于联系志愿者需要时间,   希望需要接机的同学至少在来美国前一周之前和我取得,以便保证我们能根据您的行程安排接机。(如果是来美国前一周以内的,我们会尽量安排但不能保证)如果您需要接机的话,请尽快将自己的姓名,院系,毕业院校,预计到达北卡的日期,时间,乘坐的航班号以及联系方式于以下形式发到

dcssanewcomers at gmail.com

例)

姓名:杜克

院系:Biology, PhD

毕业院校: 中国大学

预计到达日期以及时间以及航班号:   08-10-2011 下午17:00

航班号: XYZ001

联系方式:ke.du@gmail.com

**接机新生知事**

1。由于我们是学生非盈利组织,志愿者是不要薪酬的,新生不需要主动给志愿者接机;我们会在适当的时候给志愿者燃油费补贴。

2。在来美国之前必须要准备好的事情:第一是房子;大家最好在来之前就把房子的事情说好,不要来之后再找房子,这样会给您和志愿者都带来很多不便。由于我们的志愿者的住宿条件因人而异,很少能给新生安排临时的住处,如果你现在还没有找到理想的住处的话,不妨联系一下International House的Paige Vinson,她会非常乐意帮助您:paige.vinson@duke.edu第二是mattress:介于有些公寓有蟑螂等蝇虫,晚上睡在地板上对身体也不是很好,我们非常建议来之前订购mattress。由于mattress可以选择日期送货,所以如果提前在网上订购的话基本上来美国的第一天或者第二天就可以收到。

3。由于志愿者都是用自己的车来接新生,时间和空间有限,建议大家选择到达北卡RDU的时间尽量在午夜12:00之前;箱子不要过多(按照航班的一般规定两个大箱子和一个小箱子) ,尽快通知我们您来时候的行李数目以及大小;不要临时加需要接机的人数

4。为了确保您的接机服务能及时到位,如果您在来杜克前10天左右没有得到我们的任何信息的话,请马上和我们联系

希望大家在中国度过一个愉快的暑假,我们在杜克大学等待大家的入学.

 

DCSSA 2011-2012

 

[信息更新]致各位2011秋季入学的杜克新生:

致各位2011秋季入学的杜克新生:

大家好!我们是杜克大学学生学者联谊会(Duke Chinese Students & Scholars Association, DCSSA),首先代表杜克大学全体华人祝贺大家以优异的成绩和出色的个人能力申请杜克大学大学成功!我们DCSSA是目前杜克最大的华人学生团体,每年积极地为杜克的将要来校的新生和在校学生提供高质量的服务。请大家登录我们的主页察看详情:

http://www.dukechina.org/testweb/

并加入我们的 Mailing List,我们会不定期的发布我们活动的内容和各种信息:

http://dukechina.org/blog/archives/5000

2011年秋季入学的新生的正式QQ群:

141641653

另外,今年新加入的同学,以以下方式到或者询问有关事宜

原则上,希望新入学的同学主动联系在北卡的师兄师姐解决接机问题。如果联系不到的话,我们会安排接机志愿者去机场接机。由于联系志愿者需要时间,   希望需要接机的同学至少在来美国前一周之前和我取得,以便保证我们能根据您的行程安排接机。(如果是来美国前一周以内的,我们会尽量安排但不能保证)如果您需要接机的话,请尽快将自己的姓名,院系,毕业院校,预计到达北卡的日期,时间,乘坐的航班号以及联系方式于以下形式发到

dcssanewcomers at gmail.com

例)

姓名:杜克

院系:Biology, PhD

毕业院校: 中国大学

预计到达日期以及时间以及航班号:   08-10-2011 下午17:00

航班号: XYZ001

联系方式:ke.du@gmail.com

 

**接机新生知事**

1。由于我们是学生非盈利组织,志愿者是不要薪酬的,新生不需要主动给志愿者接机;我们会在适当的时候给志愿者燃油费补贴。

2。在来美国之前必须要准备好的事情:第一是房子;大家最好在来之前就把房子的事情说好,不要来之后再找房子,这样会给您和志愿者都带来很多不便。由于我们的志愿者的住宿条件因人而异,很少能给新生安排临时的住处,如果你现在还没有找到理想的住处的话,不妨联系一下International House的Paige Vinson,她会非常乐意帮助您:paige.vinson@duke.edu第二是mattress:介于有些公寓有蟑螂等蝇虫,晚上睡在地板上对身体也不是很好,我们非常建议来之前订购mattress。由于mattress可以选择日期送货,所以如果提前在网上订购的话基本上来美国的第一天或者第二天就可以收到。

3。由于志愿者都是用自己的车来接新生,时间和空间有限,建议大家选择到达北卡RDU的时间尽量在午夜12:00之前;箱子不要过多(按照航班的一般规定两个大箱子和一个小箱子) ,尽快通知我们您来时候的行李数目以及大小;不要临时加需要接机的人数

4。为了确保您的接机服务能及时到位,如果您在来杜克前10天左右没有得到我们的任何信息的话,请马上和我们联系

希望大家在中国度过一个愉快的暑假,我们在杜克大学等待大家的入学.

DCSSA 2011-2012

DCSSA邀请函–2011杜克中国学生毕业联谊活动

亲爱的各位同学:

祝贺杜克大学新一届毕业生成功完成学业,在校生顺利度过又一个充实的学期!在此,杜克中国学生学者联谊会邀请全体杜克中国学生学者参加2011杜克中国学生毕业联谊活动。

正值毕业典礼前夕,杜克大学中国学生学者联谊会协同杜克大学校友会,杜克大学华裔校友会将开展包括毕业生,在校生,校友会在内的联谊交流活动。我们将邀请杜克校友会的工作人员向各位毕业生介绍杜克大学强大的校友网络和校友服务,近期的联谊活动以及杜克大学在中国的发展情况,同时提供空间为各位毕业生,在校生联谊。我们将提供简单的冷餐和酒水,欢迎大家莅临。

时间:五月十三号,周五,2:30pm-5:00pm
地点:French Family Science Center

着装:休闲正装

主办单位:

杜克大学中国学生学者联谊会 Duke Chinese Student and Scholar Association
杜克大学校友会 Duke Alumni Association

杜克大学中国校友会Duke Chinese Alumni Association

请各位毕业生们继续关注杜克大学,关注杜克大学校友组织,欢迎同学们对我们的工作提出宝贵的意见和建议,我们一起努力共创杜克大学美好的未来!

杜克大学中国学生学者联谊会

请杜克2011秋季入学的同学注意

致各位2011秋季入学的杜克新生:

大家好!我们是杜克大学学生学者联谊会(Duke Chinese Students & Scholars Association, DCSSA),首先代表杜克大学全体华人祝贺大家以优异的成绩和出色的个人能力申请杜克大学大学成功!我们DCSSA是目前杜克最大的华人学生团体,每年积极地为杜克的将要来校的新生和在校学生提供高质量的服务。请大家登录我们的主页察看详情:

http://www.dukechina.org/testweb/

并加入我们的Mailing List,我们会不定期的发布我们活动的内容和各种信息:

http://dukechina.org/blog/archives/5000

2011年秋季入学的新生的正式QQ群:

141641653

另外,请今年新加入的同学,请以以下方式报到或者询问有关事宜:

原则上,希望新入学的同学主动联系在北卡的师兄师姐解决接机问题。如果联系不到的话,我们会安排接机志愿者去机场接机。所以,特别是订完机票又联系不到其他人接机的同学,请将自己的姓名,院系,籍贯,预计到达北卡的时间以及乘坐的航班号于以下形式发到

dcssanewcomers at gmail.com

例)姓名:杜克 院系:Biology,PhD 籍贯:北京 预计到达时间以及航班号:08-10-2011, XYZ001

DCSSA 2011-2012 一同

文责:康东

杜克访谈之Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

教授简介:

Hiroaki Matsunami, PhD,Associate Professor
Program: Molecular Genetics & microbiology
field of research:molecular mechanisms underlying chemosensation (taste and smell) in mammals.
Introductory page: http://mgm.duke.edu/faculty/matsunami/index.htm
Homepage: http://www.duke.edu/web/matsunamilab/index.html

编者:康东,Molecular Genetics and Microbiology,PHD

 

DCSSA: As my first question, you are a Japanese researcher who graduated from Kyoto University, one of the most prestigious researching institutes in Japan. Could you tell me a little about your Ph.D. project and how your Ph.D. life shaped your future career?

 

Hiroaki: the lab in which I was was basically a lab in which everybody studied cell adhesion molecules, because the professor discovered the molecules. And all of us were researching on different aspects of cell adhesion molecules. I, myself, studies cadherins in brain development, but others were researching on cadherins in cancers or how they are regulated. At the time when I started my project, it became apparent that there are more cell adhesion molecules than we expected previously; there were only 3 or 4 cadherins identified previous and we discovered that there are actually many more-many of them of expressed in the brain. So my jobs is to identify which cadherins are expressed in the brain. I should it is not my own project; I collaborated with a lot of other people, because there are many family members of cadherins. Through our project, it became apparent that there was a cadherin called N-cadherin which is expressed in all of the neurons; other cadherins are expressed differentially in brains. One of the cadherins I focused on is retinal cadherins which is also expressed in the brain and is only expressed in a specific region of the brain. I was basically mapping the expression area, and what is found that it correspond well to the anatomical domain called neuromir; basically this region responds to the future of brain areas such as forebrain and hindbrains. So that made me feel that because cadherins are known to have the homo-philic interactions, the same member of cadherins attracts each other but not others. Because they are expressed in different domains, maybe these molecules attribute to the formation of different brain areas.

 

DCSSA: so at the moment your lab was not a neural lab.

 

Hiroaki: it was not a neural lab. It was more like a cell developmental biology.

 

DCSSA: You did your post-doc in Buck’s lab in the field of olfaction. Could you tell me why you make such change?

 

Hiroaki: So you may think it is a big change, but it is not actually a big change. All the techniques you used, how you think about things are the same. So what happened is this: when I approached my last year of Ph.D. and began to think what I wanted to do, it was natural for me to continue research—meaning doing post-docs was good. The question became to what I study, right? The first thing was that I want to something I really interested in; the second thing was that I don’t want to do the same thing. On the other hand, I was not sure I can switch COMPLETELY. So the thought was that I can use the technique or background knowledge or logical thinking in the new place, yet I will be in a different field. So what I did was did: in my career as a graduate student I had a stack of papers that I read and I basically categorized them into “very interesting” and “not so really interesting”. And looking at the papers I classified as “very interesting”, I found that one of them was olfaction and another was axon path-finding. So why was olfaction interesting to me? The initial paper published by Buck who received Nobel Prize later was published in 1991, which was very interesting and new. And one or two years later, more papers were published from the same lab and two things emerged: each neuron seems to express a single receptor gene, although there are hundreds of neural receptor genes you can find (at the time there was no genome information, the reason they say there are many gene was because they can clone many genes); another thing is that although all the olfaction neurons send axons to olfactory balls, the neurons with the same neural receptor gene send axons to the same olfactory spot in the brain. So the hundreds of neural receptor genes will convert to hundreds of receptor spots. That is very cool and I wonder how that kind of thing can be regulated as to how a neuron can choose a gene from hundreds of receptor genes and how a neuron can choose a target spot from hundreds of potential space. I thought it was really interesting and I thought there must be something that I can do.

 

DCSSA: Before we talk about your post-doc life in Harvard University, I would like to ask more about your education. As a Japanese PI in the United States, you definitely underwent both American and Japanese education. How do you compare them?

 

Hiroaki: At the graduate level, the differences are: first, there is no rotation in Japanese education. So you just have to choose which lab should go to, and before that is that the majority of Japanese undergraduate student will go to the lab in the same school. In the US, people tend to go to another school. So that is a big difference. So because there is no rotation system in Japan, it is really hard for students to go to another school because they don’t whether a lab is good or not. So these two are actually related but this is a big difference. Another difference is the graduate education. Here they offer a lot more graduate courses than Japan. In Japan, students only take one or two courses and that is it; and all the rest is you stay in the lab. So that is a big difference. The third difference is that in the US there is always a boss and then there are students and post-docs. In japan, there is a big boss, a middle boss and a small boss and there are senior graduate students and then you. So it is quite different how you feel like. Basically what you want to do here is to keep a good relationship with your boss, but in Japan, you have to make sure that all your senior colleagues are happy with you. Another difference in Japan is that you have more chances to go out to drink. Here, if you like you can go out for a drink, but I guess the custom of regular lab activity (going for a drink) is weak. So that is different, too.

 

DCSSA: because we are doing this interview for future graduate student, could you tell me your most difficult moment and how you tackled it and what is the moment you felt most successful?

 

Hiroaki: my graduate school career was not that successful I should say, in terms of output research. Especially in my first two years, I was doing something about cell adhesion molecules which has nothing to do what I have just explained. Basically I was trying to do something and then nothing had worked. So I had to find another project almost one and a half year after I started. Basically No Result. And then, I started two projects in which one project turned out to be thesis project. Another project I did was to make a knockout animal of one of cadherin molecules. And what happened was that at that time I was culturing ES cells and making constructs and screened for 500 cells and all the cells are done by southern blotting. And I got no clones. So that was also quite disappointing. So basically I wasted a lot of time of my time—actually half of my graduate school time just wasted.

 

DCSSA: that also depends on your definition of “waste”. Actually you went to the Buck lab, a very famous lab in Harvard, which meant that you must have something that made you chosen from other many applicants.

 

Hiroaki: I don’t know how she decided. At that point she just got her Howard Hughes, so she must have a lot of money to spend. I guess it was more of time issue; I applied for a position when she needed somebody. And there was a lot of issues. You know beside Buck lab, I wrote ten more letters to various labs; it is not like every lab wanted me, so it is really a time thing, and I think I was very lucky.

 

DCSSA: actually you were very successful in Buck lab. Did that have anything to do with the education you received in Kyoto University?

 

Hiroaki: what benefited me? Because I failed, I actually experienced a lot of experiments, like ES cells, cell culture, although I failed, I actually experienced it. Before that was a gene regulation issue, although it was not fruitful, I addressed it. So I have experience from cloning to in situ hybridization to making antibodies and do cell culture work such as dissociation of brain cells. So I learned a lot of techniques, which actually helped me a lot because her lab was really good at molecular biology like DNA but they have basically zero experience dealing with cells and tissues. And my technique fitted very well, because my first work was to pick single neurons and make cDNA libraries from the neurons and compare the expression. And to do that you not only need molecular biology technique, you also need cell biology technique so that you can dissect the tissue and dissociate the neurons alive and you pick good cells. And all these are familiar to me because of my graduate school. And Buck lab had this very good protocol to do PCR and other molecular biology. So in this way I benefited from my education. And another thing is that Linda was only interested in important questions like it would be great if you find this but people know it is difficult. But she was only interested in such kind of thing, which I agreed at the moment because I want to do very “important” research in my graduate school career rather than doing something you can do it. So in that sense, I complete agree with her and two papers were published related to identifying receptors. These receptor people, even though they tried many years, but with our technology we were able to do it. So the first one was to compare two receptor neurons and the second one was to take advantage of human genome project to look for new receptor genes. So both of them were at the moment not technically established. So everything was new to everybody, so the question was to how you take advantage of the new development to benefit your project.

 

DCSSA: apparently your successful career at Buck’s lab helped you a lot when you applied the position here at Duke University. But beside good publication, what were the other reasons that make Duke University believe you were the right reason to hire?

 

Hiroaki: OK, so I think that kind of thing…. After I became a faculty I came to know what other faculties think important. Two things are apparently important. One is that you are doing good science. And the other thing is that you communicate well. These are very important in the terms of the post-doc and also very important from faculties’ point of view. As a colleague, they want they colleague in different ways: one direct colleague is a collaborator, if his new technology will benefit my own research; it is not just that: if that person is doing research even if he is in a different field, that would stimulate me to think. So I think a communication does not necessarily mean that you just talk well; by research, if you stimulate others, it is a very nice quality.

 

DCSSA: after you became a PI, you have kept a very good publication record. Could you tell me why you can give out one powerful paper after another and your research strategy?

 

Hiroaki: although you say I was successful, in fact I had zero papers in first 3 years. I was OK with that. Basically I was thinking to start something new. I don’t want to carry something from my post-doc career; apparent I stayed in the same field: I carried my techniques and knowledge but in terms of projects I started completely new. And I wanted to ask something important. I think I got really lucky in a way, because the NIH funding was really good, unlike now so I had an easy time to get my first R1, which is very important for junior faculty. Although I didn’t publish in my first 3 years, R1 has 5 years so basically I got R1 and I have 5 years to do something. So I can concentrate on my research. If I had a hard time to get a R1, then it could be very difficult.

 

DCSSA: Could you explain more about your research strategy? I talked to your former rotation student, who said that you are actually open to a lot of questions in the same field.

Hiroaki: in the same field yes. So I know about the field and I know what is important in the field and I also think what I can do that other may not be able to do, so I want to use my strength. In terms of what project you choose for your student, the important thing is that the student is highly motivated. And every student has a kind of different preference. So I usually initiate a discussion with my student and for the rotation student it can be different—it can be some leftover from other project, but for the graduate student, we have a discussion of what they want to do and find a problem that is important and we go after it.

 

DCSSA: your lab has a joint meeting with other labs. Could you tell me some advantage about that joint meeting, and how do you like it?

 

Hiroaki: Ok, of course, it has advantages. This joint lab meeting started actually… there was a former PI Hubert Amrein, his lab was next to us. So the joint meeting started with 2 labs and then as time goes on, many people added in like Tracy, Nina Sherwood and it grew, and now we have 7 labs. It is very stimulating to see what other labs are doing. It is basically progress report from different labs and mainly graduate students and post-docs present. So it is really have a feeling to have a big lab. Listening lab report from other labs is good. The finished research result is good to hear, but it is also good to hear some premature and preliminary data and then discuss it. And I like that. I like to see the process, how a very strange piece of data becomes an interesting finding and when I look at the progress at other labs I feel very excited about that.

 

DCSSA: and my next question is related to Chinese students. You apparently have the experience to work with a lot of people from China. How do you value them, do you find any specific merits or demerits on them?

 

Hiroaki: first of all, that depends on the personality. There are good Chinese students and bad Chinese students. I don’t judge by nationality but I think East Asian people in general have a higher standard in terms of their amount of time they spent in the lab. In the evenings most people you see are from East Asian countries. I think it is good scene, but it is not true for everybody. I can tell because Japanese people are also like that. I guess spending a lot of time in the lab is generally good but it is not equal to higher output. Some students spend a lot of time producing not much. I think the amount of time is not the best measurement; there are some people only spending 8 hours a day—they are very concentrated and do a lot of good work. I think for the all the international students the language is the biggest challenge. The only way to improve it is just discuss it with your PI or others—that would make you a better scientist and better your language skills. There is no downside about it talking about science in English.

DCSSA: Could you tell me what was your biggest challenge for you when you first came to the United States? The language?

 

Hiroaki: the language was definitely one. Although I can speak, I cannot understand half of they say unless they speak really slowly. I can only say 50% of what I wanted to say. So that is also very frustrating. So that is also something personality. I guess I am not too sensitive to that kind of stress. I know many of other international students got stressed due to their inability to communicate. I think because there are many kinds of students, you first must understand yourself well and address that issue, and there is no single solution for that.

 

DCSSA: as my next question, can I ask your opinions towards papers written by Chinese? Because I know there are some Chinese people doing plagiarism and falsifying their data. So I am wondering what is your attitude toward Chinese Papers?

 

Hiroaki: OK, that feeling? There are definitely some incidents that occurred. But I don’t think it is specific to Chinese people. You know falsifying data is a big problem, but I don’t think it is biased towards Chinese people; maybe it is because there are more Chinese researchers than those from other countries, there are more examples. (laugh) But I don’t think proportionally it is biased against Chinese people. It is really important of course. There are these course that when you know you are a scientist, you know what is allowed and not, for example the gel data. If you want to falsify data, it will only do bad things to you. I see no reason you should do it. Because maybe 20 years after you can be found, you can be fired! Actually the only falsifying I know was done by a Chinese, who was my colleague at Linda Buck’s lab. He published 3 papers as top authors, and Linda had to drop all these 3 papers. This had a great damage to her psychologically and scientifically. And I can tell it is very hard to prevent it. If a post-doc or a graduate student comes with a piece of data, there is no reason to doubt him. So it is hard to prevent it. I also realized that being a professor meant being responsible for everything. I just hope that those things would not happen to me. I am involved in the actual experiment, so I am safer. But for those students who want to be independent, it is fine. If they come with nice data, I am happy.

 

DCSSA: Nowadays, there are more career choices after graduation from graduate school. Whatever your students choose, post-docs or industry, during 5 years under your mentor, how do you plan to educate them? Another way to address this question is that what kind of qualities do you expect them to have after 5 years in your lab?

 

Hiroaki: there is no single answer to that question because all I want for them is to have a happy life. And the definition of “happiness” totally depends on the person, right? It is easier for me to measure in academia, how that person is successful or not. But “being successful” may not be equal to “being happy”. So it is really hard to say what I expect them. The only things I hope are that after graduation, they had a great time in my lab and benefit their life in anyways. It can be scientific contributions but can also be something different. Because that person can go to the industry and something totally unrelated research. I think it is really a personal issue. And all I can do is publishing good theses. And after graduation, if that person needs my opinion or help, I will be happy to help. It is nice to hear things from former students?

 

DCSSA: Are you keeping in close relationship with your former students?

 

Hiroaki: I think so. Although I don’t have too many students, I keep a close contact with them.

 

DCSSA: How do you arrange everyday with both professional life and real life?

 

Hiroaki: Science is sort of like unique in a way that you have to like what you do. OK, let’s say you love video games, and there are professional video gamers, and I don’t know if there is any difference between professional gamers and me. Because what I do is what I like to do. And professional video gamers, I can also imagine that they have difficult time making money doing video games. So my point is that there are something that I don’t want to do when I feel stressed, but all of them are for the science which I like to do. And in terms of professional life and real life, if the people surrounding me don’t understand the science, it is quite difficult. These people don’t have to understanding the content of the project, but rather the life and how science is done.

 

DCSSA: and how do you like science?

 

Hiroaki: I like science, but it doesn’t mean I like science more than anything else. It all comes down to how I feel happy. Doing science makes me happy but other things makes me happy too. Maybe doing other things may ultimately help me do science. But I have the feeling that science is very important to me, and I won’t give this up.

 

DCSSA: As my last question, regarding to future applicants, how do you determine which students you want to enroll into the Duke University?

 

Hiroaki: I never was one of the recruiting committee members so it is not a question for me, but if I were to choose a bunch of students, I imagine it would be very difficult to judge based on anything. If you have a better score, you are better; if you talk about your recommendation letters, some are stronger than others. It is really difficult how good a person is. Even when he is doing a rotation with you.

 

DCSSA: how about the time you pick potential rotation students?

 

Hiroaki: two things. One thing is that he like doing science. The other things whether or not I interact with that person good or not. It doesn’t mean that I need to talk to that person all the time. I cannot describe the personality that I feel preferable to others. It is more like chemistry or a fit, not simply good or bad. And being a rotation student certainly helps.

 

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