Duke Views
A collection of great photographs of Duke learning, research, community engagement, athletics, health care and campus life
UNC at Duke
UNC sophomores in residence are at Duke for their first semester as part of the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program. The group gathered to commemorate the occasion on the Chapel steps during FDOC (the first day of classes).
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
The Semester Abroad
An evening sky settles over New Zealand’s Lake Tekapo, with the mountains behind it looking like a painted backdrop. Duke junior Laurel Hawkins, second from right, attended the University of Canterbury in New Zealand during the fall semester. Hawkins arranged with someone nearby to snap this photo of her with fellow U.S. students participating in Arcadia Abroad New Zealand.
Laurel Hawkins/Junior Earth and Climate Science major
The Treats of the Nutcracker
Devils en Pointe, Duke’s premiere ballet and contemporary dance company, performs The Nutcracker, a timeless classical ballet performance for the holiday season, at von der Heyden Studio Theater in the Rubenstein Arts Center.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
A Championship Moment
Duke football coach Manny Diaz and the team celebrate their 27-20 overtime win over No. 16 Virginia in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. It was the Blue Devils' first outright conference title since 1962. Duke will play Arizona State in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.
Andrew Hancock
The Climb
Senior Georgiy Zemlevskiy, left, and sophomore Suhaib Mansour climb the Duke Outdoor Adventures Climbing Wall inside Wilson Recreation Center. The Wilson Climbing Wall stands 35 feet tall and features 11 ropes with more than 1,400 square feet of climbing surface.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
South Asia Showcase
Bull City Raas, Duke’s premiere Raas-Garba team, performs Indian folk dance styles and music from Gujarat (Western India) during Awaaz at Page Auditorium. Awaaz, a student-run production, spreads the culture and arts of South Asia to the entire Duke community.
Deja Brooks/first-year cultural anthropology and documentary studies student
Joining Forces in Song
United in Praise, Duke’s student-run gospel choir, and Something Borrowed Something Blue, Duke’s co-ed Christian a cappella group, perform together at Duke Chapel during the recent Duke Family Weekend.
Shankul Lohakare/junior, chemistry major
Autumn on Campus
The first week of November brings colorful foliage throughout campus.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
Amping Up the Energy
The North Carolina Central University Sound Machine Drumline amped up the energy at the recent 20th anniversary celebration of the Nasher Museum of Art.
Cornell Watson
Spotlight on Day of the Dead
Mariachi Toro de Duke, a student mariachi group, performs at Memorial Quadrangle as part of a series of events celebrating the Día de los Muertos Ofrenda. Through Nov. 2, visitors to Duke Chapel are invited to contribute to this Mexican tradition by adding an offering that represents a departed loved one to the Day of the Dead altar piece.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
Get That Ball
Duke’s Issy Carey (right), a grad student forward, fights California’s Jessica Lewis, a sophomore midfielder, for the ball during the Blue Devils’ 2-0 win over the Golden Bears in a recent field hockey game.
Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics
Brain Signals
Biomedical engineering is transforming stroke recovery. Dr. Salman Ikramuddin, a stroke fellow, left, and Charalambos Costas Charalambous, a medical instructor in the Department of Neurology, right, demonstrate using a high intensity EEG to measure online brain signals during walking.
Eamon Queeney, School of Medicine
The Hoopla of Founders’ Day
Natalyra Sparks, left, and Colleen Sands with Cirque de Vol of Raleigh perform on Bryan Center Plaza as part of Duke’s Founders’ Day Festival last Friday.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
Olympic Dreams
Players on Duke’s women’s basketball team celebrate with their coach, Kara Lawson, who has been named head coach of the USA Basketball Women's National Team through 2028. The Duke community feted Lawson at Cameron Indoor Stadium Monday.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
Hiking the Himalayas
This past summer, a crew of seven Duke students and a Duke recreation and physical education staff member participated in a Duke Outdoor Adventures Research Expedition to the Gangotri Glacier in the Indian Himalayas, where they got hands-on field research experience. From left, Emme Ayers, a 2025 graduate biology; junior Sophie Pentz, earth and climate science major; and senior Camden Chin, computer science major, take water samples.
Henry Kuemmel, junior, mechanical engineering major
Good Tunes, Good Vibes at ATC
The Duke Arts at American Tobacco series has begun, with free music every Wednesday in September on the ATC campus. This year, Duke Arts has partnered with the Hayti Heritage Center, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. This week, come on out to hear Nashville-based artist Kenny Sharp. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
Fired Up
Junior Wesley Williams fires up his teammates before their season opener against Elon at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Blue Devils won 45-17.
Josh Cho/Duke Athletics
A Sweet Moment
First-years enjoying conversation and Locopos following Opening Convocation on Sunday, August 24.
Jared Lazarus, University Communications and Marketing
First-Year Fanfare
During an emotion-filled Move-In Day for the Class of 2029, after saying goodbye to families, students are cheered on as they entered Cameron Indoor Stadium for evening festivities.
Bill Snead, University Communications and Marketing
From the Mountaintop
As part of the Rubenstein Student-Athlete Civic Engagement Program in South Africa this summer, 13 Duke student-athletes from nine varsity athletics teams supported educational and sports workshops for Cape Town youth. Participants also learned about the history and geography of Cape Town, including a visit to Table Mountain, above.
Amalia Dos Ramos
Volcanic Activity
Luke Murphy’s Attic Projects brought four-time Irish Times Theatre Award winner Volcano to Rubenstein Arts Center’s von der Heyden Studio Theater during the American Dance Festival (ADF) in July. Over four episodes, 45 minutes each, two characters recreate the greatest hits of old lives, including a favorite game show and an 80s music video.
Amir Hamja
Sunset in the Sahara
Students take in the sweeping dunes of Merzouga, Morocco, during a camel trek as part of the Duke in the Arab World program, one of 20 Duke-administered summer study abroad programs offered through the university’s Global Education Office (GEO). This summer, more than 270 Blue Devils are studying around the world, expanding their horizons one unforgettable experience at a time.
Raahim Hashmi ‘28/Summer GEO field ambassador
Baby Lemurs!
Sophia, a 19-year-old endangered ring-tailed lemur, climbs a tree with her female twins in tow recently at the Duke Lemur Center. Born on March 27, the yet-to-be-named twins are the sixth and seventh offspring of Sophia and 19-year-old Randy. They join older sisters Nemesis and Nyx in this family of six. They love exploring their forest enclosure with their family, always making sure to stick close to mom and dad.
Sara Nicholson/Duke Lemur Center
Dance Studio Improv
Dance students improvise as part of the American Dance Festival’s (ADF) Summer Dance Intensives ”Break the Frame” class, held at the Rubenstein Arts Center and taught by Jenna Riegel and Jessie Young — both New York City-based dancers and teachers. Duke has been hosting ADF performances and residencies since 1978.
Ben McKeown/American Dance Festival
Portraits and Narratives
Lauren Valle, 2025 Duke graduate in biology, was the winner of this year’s Julia Harper Day Award for Documentary Studies (CDS), one of the university’s leading student awards in the arts. Valle’s capstone project, “Unseen Histories: Latinidad in Focus,” consists of large-format black-and-white portraits and personal narratives of 10 student activists. Through portraits and oral histories, this exhibit aims to honor these students and preserve their contributions as part of a living archive. It is currently on display in the Juanita Kreps Gallery at CDS. Shown here is Mariana Meza Mantilla, a rising senior, whose studies focus on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lauren Valle T’25
Crunching It
The wins in the fall start with the hard work in the summer. Duke football athletes cheer on senior defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr. as he cleared nearly 300 pounds during a power lift. Duke football student-athletes train daily with team lifts or runs during the summer months.
Jacob Ferris/Duke Athletics
The Cosmos
The first images from the Vera Rubin Observatory, more than 25 years in the making, were livestreamed at Wallace Wade Stadium on June 23. Duke researchers, including physics professors Arun Kannawadi and Chris Walter, helped design the technology for this observatory, which features the largest digital camera ever constructed. The Vera Rubin Observatory will track the Southern sky for a decade, allowing for unprecedented insights into asteroids, solar systems, exploding stars, dark matter, dark energy and much more. Pictured above is a view of the Virgo Cluster, offering a vivid glimpse of the variety in the cosmos. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, galaxy groups both near and distant, stars within our own Milky Way, and much more.
NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Durham Graduates Move Into a New World
One of the most festive ways Duke University supports Durham Public Schools is hosting the graduation ceremonies for the six largest high schools. This past Thursday and Friday, thousands of young Durham students went through the range of emotions on a memorable day. Pictured, graduates from Hillside High School stand together ready to receive their diplomas and begin the next step in their lives.
Jonathan A.D. McDougald/Durham Public Schools
A Summer Muse
A gentle summer evening and the backdrop of East Duke Building provided a charming setting for the local community to enjoy music on June 4. T. Gold of Carrboro and Tre. Charles of Durham entertained as part of the “Music Near the Gardens 2025: The Pinhook Edition” summer series on Duke’s East Campus. The five-concert series was moved this summer as Sarah P. Duke Gardens undergoes renovations. The series continues June 18 & 25.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Pass the Crab
Brantley Acree, a marine scientist at the Duke University Marine Lab led Duke sophomores Mikaela Voinov, Katherine Bair and Holly Wilcox out to a mud flat in the Rachel Carson Reserve near Beaufort, N.C., to look for wildlife. The three are Bonaventura Summer Research Fellows participating in a six-week summer program for Duke undergraduates at the Marine Lab. After a week-long primer in marine research methods, the students will conduct an independent, faculty-mentored project, concluding with a public presentation of the results. The program is named after the late Joe Bonaventura, whose teaching, research and leadership helped build the Marine Lab into a national leader. Meet Acree and see his workday in this Duke YouTube video.
Travis Stanley/Working@Duke
Celebrating Baseball
Duke Baseball celebrates a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh in the ACC tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Blue Devils made it to the ACC quarter-finals before losing to Clemson. They continue postseason play beginning Friday as the 2nd seed in the Athens, Ga., regional. Duke starts the double-elimination regional by playing Oklahoma State.
Andrew Hancock
A Season to Remember
This view of the Duke softball stadium, with downtown Durham in the background, was captured during a game in April.
Bill Snead/University Communications and Marketing
Divine Celebration
A Divinity School tradition is that the new graduates process to the baccalaureate service in Duke Chapel through the Westbrook Building hallway to the cheers of school faculty and staff. The school celebrated its 99th baccalaureate service on Saturday, May 10.
Ken Huth/HuthPhoto
Try This Cap On For Size
Fuqua MBA graduate student Sherzod Azamov plays with his 3-year-old son, Muhammad, as his wife, Zebo Azamova holds 6-month-old Yusuf. The family joined many other new graduates in having a photo session with cap and gowns during several beautiful afternoons this week. Azamov says his family has been a large part of his Duke experience. He hopes his oldest son will walk with him to the stage at the Fuqua ceremony.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Prom Night at the Children’s Hospital
On prom night, everything is better “Under the Sea.” And at this year’s Jodie’s Prom at Duke Children’s, Duke adolescent and young adult patients living with chronic conditions were dancing to Thriller and rocking with the Swifties on the dance floor. The joyous celebration is organized by the Duke Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and its Adolescents Transitioning to Leadership and Success (ATLAS) program.
Chris Cherry
Swinging with Latin Dance at LDOC
Duke students celebrated the Last Day of Classes (LDOC) Wednesday with a variety of crafts, games and performances. Above, Sabrosura, Duke’s premier Latin dance troupe, performs on the Bryan Center Plaza. The events concluded with an evening concert headlined by British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Signing OK
Brian Exum of Cary, left, who is deaf, signs with first-year Sophie Shapiro during a community American Sign Language (ASL) meet-up event hosted by Duke at Monuts in Durham. Exum is signing the letter C and Shapiro is commenting that something is OKAY. Shapiro is taking American Sign Language ASL 102 with instructor Kraig Klingenberg, who started teaching the new classes at Duke this past Fall. Tuesday was American Sign Language Day. Read the story on Duke Today.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Bricks to Stone
With music and cheering, first-year students make the procession in the “Bricks to Stone” event on March 28, an annual celebration that marks their transition from the bricks of East Campus to the stones of West Campus. Upon their arrival on West Campus, the students were greeted by Duke President Vincent Price and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Candis Watts Smith. Afterwards the students were ”pinned” with their new home quad and met with upperclass students who will be their new neighbors in August. Learn more about QuadEx residential living.
Surendran Shanmugam/first-year master’s of engineering management student
The Road to San Antonio
Men's basketball head coach Jon Scheyer greets Duke fans Wednesday morning as the team boarded buses to begin the journey to the Final Four. More than 150 people gathered outside Cameron Indoor Stadium to cheer the team as they left for RDU. A special Duke Today story will be updated throughout the weekend with photos, video and stories capturing the Final Four experience of the Duke team and fans in San Antonio.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
In Bloom
Duke students relax under blooming cherry trees by the Bartter Family Terrace House in Duke Gardens. This week saw peak bloom of the cherry trees in the gardens and around campus, presenting a joyful vision of exploding color at these locations. While ‘Akebono’ cherry trees in the Cherry Allée will likely finish their bloom by Friday, varieties in other areas of the Gardens are blooming now. To learn more about how best to view the cherry trees, visit the Gardens website.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Serene Moment
David Akinsooto, clinical research specialist with the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, carries a child through a gallery at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art during a sensory-friendly arts event. Kids and families had the opportunity to make fun crafts and experience the galleries in small groups led by Nasher Museum tour guides, all in a structured environment. The event was a collaboration between the museum and the autism center.
Evan Watson/Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development
Championship Hug
Duke women’s basketball players gather around and hug head coach Kara Lawson after the team’s 76-62 victory over N.C. State to win the ACC championship. It’s Lawson’s first ACC tournament title in four tries. The Blue Devils came into the tournament as a third seed, but went through Louisville, Notre Dame and N.C. State to take the championship. The team now advances to the NCAA tournament; the bracket will be announced during the NCAA selection show at 8 p.m. Sunday.
Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics
First Blooms
First year students Sophia Fratta and Tsvetelina Mickova work on their applications to be orientation leaders together outside von der Heyden Pavilion, better known as Vondy, under a Japanese Apricot tree. The apricot blooms are one of the earliest signs of spring on Duke’s West Campus, during an early March afternoon. Over the next two weeks, the cherry trees will start blooming around campus, including Duke Gardens. The gardens are open, but access to the Cherry Allée will be restricted because of construction there. For guidance on seeing the cherries, visit the Duke Gardens website.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Wellness & Learning
Psychiatrist Holly Rogers leads a meditative session during the “Creating a Contemplative Community” Bass Connections seminar on Duke’s West Campus during a warm early February evening. The Bass Connections project started in 2023-2024, seeking to develop and evaluate mindfulness-based programming at Duke and to discover the effect of such programs on cognitive functioning and mental health. It’s part of a larger university effort to promote student wellness and connect that work with academic life.
Rogers is co-founder of the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults in Durham, a program developed at Duke to teach mindfulness and meditation as a way to manage stress and reduce anxiety.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Snow Volleyball
In what is certain to be the next big event in the 2026 Winter Olympics, Duke students engage in a game of volleyball in the snow Wednesday during one of the largest campus snowfalls in years. The photo was taken by drone by Duke senior Jacob Whatley. For more snow images, see Duke Today.
Jacob Whatley/senior visual and media arts major
Teach House
Jessica On is a 5th grade teacher at Lyon Farms Elementary in Durham and first-generation college student who recently graduated from Duke and won the NC Student Teacher of the Year award. On is a Duke TeachHouse fellow.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
A Different Side of West
Here’s an untraditional view of West Campus, taken by drone by Bill Snead from the hospital to Wallace Wade Stadium. The white dot on the horizon is the Chapel Hill water tower atop Mt. Nunn, the highest point in the town.
Bill Snead/University Communications and Marketing
Hope Dances
In two decades with the Alvin Ailey dance company, Hope Boykin showed that Durham artists can reach the top of their field. Last week during a series of master classes on campus and throughout the city, Boykin taught Duke and Durham Public School dance students and choreographed select dancers in a new work called “States Of Hope.”
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Victory Blaze
Ashes and embers hang in the air as Duke students cheer a men’s basketball victory over rival University of North Carolina by the score of 87-70 Saturday night. Following the dominant victory, which moved No. 2 Duke’s conference record to 11-0, hundreds of students ran to the Clocktower Quad to continue the celebration with a traditional victory bonfire built of campus benches.
Jacob Whatley/senior visual and media arts major
Snow Day
Surprising forecasters, an inch of snow fell Tuesday night on campus -- real snow, gentle flakes falling silently. It didn't make for good snowballs or snowpeople, but it was great to behold and to play in. When the morning came, the campus was covered with a glorious soft coating broken by prints made by humans and other campus critters. Student Jacob Whatley, an intern working with the Office of Communications and Marketing, captured this scene early Tuesday night.
Jacob Whatley/senior visual and media arts major
A Season to Remember
There were many highlights during an exceptional season for Duke women’s soccer, the last one at Duke for Robbie Church, who retired at the end of the season after 24 years as head coach. One of the great moments was its 1-0 victory over Virginia Tech in the NCAA quarterfinals. A game-winning score by Fifth year senior Katie Groff sent the Blue Devils to its fifth College Cup, the fourth under Church. After a NCAA semifinal loss to eventual champion UNC-Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils finished with a record of 18-3-1, spending much of the season as the nation’s top ranked team.
Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics
FDOC: A Homage to Biology
Before their Gateway to Biology: Genetics and Evolution class, students gather in the Biological Sciences building around a series of paintings by Jonathan Kingdon titled “Evolution on the Wall: A Homage to Biology at Duke.”
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Gothic Study
With its high ceiling, arched windows, bookshelves, chandeliers and portraits of prominent Duke figures, the Gothic Reading Room in the Rubenstein Library remains a majestic place to study and certainly one of the most popular. Last week, students filled the room as they prepare for final exams. At left is sophomore Annie Ming Kowalik.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing
Winterfest Exam Break
Students take a break from finals and enjoy lawn games, crafts, soup, cookie decorating, and friendship during Winterfest at Duke Campus Farm. The Duke Campus Farm is a one-acre working farm owned and operated by Duke University that provides sustainably-grown produce and food systems education for Duke and its surrounding communities.
Starting this season, after 13 years of a Community Supported Agriculture program, the Campus Farm has transitioned to a 100% donation-based model. The produce that the student crew grows feeds food-insecure community members. The Campus Farm's mission is to to catalyze positive change in the food system.
Chris Vilorio/senior physics major
Passing the Exam
Chelsea Kithcart, ophthalmic assistant, right, performs an applanation tonometry exam on Brian Rivera, ophthalmic assistant, left, in an exam room at the Duke Eye Center. The procedure assesses eye pressure, a key measure of vision health. A one-year allied health certificate track, Duke’s Ophthalmic Technician Program gets students ready to begin a career working alongside ophthalmologists in support of clinics and patients. The full-time program includes classroom teaching on site at the Duke Eye Center and clinical rotations at the eight Duke Eye Center clinics.
Eamon Queeney/Duke University School of Medicine.
November Sunset
Duke’s campus in all its fall glory against a backdrop of unseasonably warm November weather, bright colors, and a stunning sunset on Nov. 18.
Jared Lazarus/University Communications and Marketing