Just announced an hour ago: Duke senior Jared Dunnmon from Cincinnati, Ohio, has won a Rhodes Scholarship.
This is the 43rd real Rhodes Scholarship for a Duke student in our history -- not counting the fake among the faculty.
FC tip: several sources now report we also have a Marshall Scholarship winner, so Duke will be well represented at Oxford for the next few years. Name still confidential, sorry.
Dunnmon is a mechanical engineering and economics major who has researched novel renewable energy sources. He is an A B Duke Scholar (a merit award.) When he received an additional scholarship -- the federally financed Barry Goldwater Science Award -- he said he intends to obtain both a Ph.D. and a law degree, hoping to address how to work with the government to solve energy issues.
The National Academy of Engineering named him a member of its 2009 Grand Challenge Scholars program, which aims to equip students to address societal engineering needs.
As a freshman, Dunnmon signed up for the joint Trinity Arts and Sciences and Pratt Engineering certificate. One of the first students to join the program, he said at the time that he thinks the certificate is impressive in encompassing all the different angles of the sustainable energy problem.
"There are not many programs like this," he said. "It's really representative of what Duke's trying to do with integration of interdisciplinary studies."
Ironically, just this month, he lost out on Duke's Faculty Scholar Award, being named a runner up.
Uncle Dick chimed in this morning from the Allen Building:
"Jared Dunnmon has been a model Duke student in the breadth of his engagements, his pursuit of excellence and his use of academic learning to solve real-world problems,” President Richard Brodhead said in a canned statement.
Following from the PR handout:
Working with Duke engineering professors Earl Dowell and Jonathan Protz, Dunnmon designed and tested clusters of micro-turbine devices in a wind tunnel to determine how much power they could produce from unusual wind flows, such as those between tall urban buildings.
He also worked as an environmental policy intern for the mayor of San Francisco, sang with the Duke Chapel Choir, and served with student organizations related to sustainability and social entrepreneurship at Duke.
At Oxford, Dunnmon plans to research the use of renewable fuels and other fuel-efficient measures in both industrial gas turbines and jet engines. Following his graduate studies at Oxford, he intends to develop a career in energy policy as well as energy research.
"The major challenge for my generation is to develop innovative technological and economic solutions that address the realities of dwindling resources without jeopardizing those that still remain," Dunnmon wrote in his Rhodes application. "I want my life's work to address what I believe to be the most difficult aspect of this challenge -- making environmentally and economically sustainable development possible on a global scale by providing accessible energy from renewable sources."
Dunnmon said he is still in a "state of disbelief" that he was chosen for the Rhodes, adding, "I am extremely grateful to all of the people who have helped me in the last few years to get here."
Dunnmon said he celebrated by going out to dinner with his mother and a friend Saturday night, but that he has a take-home test due Tuesday, "so it's back to the usual."
