Made for This Moment

Realizing Duke’s highest ambitions

Curing the incurable, meeting the challenge of climate change and building the future people not only deserve, but need?

Duke is on a mission to do all of this — and more.

MADE FOR THIS: The Duke Campaign engages alumni, family and friends of the university across the world to help Duke meet its highest ambitions. Learn how Duke is already having an impact through our top priorities — by advancing innovation through science and technology, creating a more sustainable planet, shaping students as next-generation leaders and advancing health care to help communities thrive.

MADE FOR THIS:

Science & Technology

A Computer That Could Change Everything

The Duke Quantum Computing Center wants to go where no computer has gone before. With quantum computing, 100 million times faster than a traditional computer, Jungsang Kim, Chris Monroe and Ken Brown are helping to solve our biggest problems more rapidly than ever before.

Discoveries Changing Lives

Professor Cameron McIntyre sitting in the dark with a device on his forehead — Professor **Cameron McIntyre** developed a holographic brain visualization tool to advance AI-driven treatments for Parkinson's disease.

Nicki Washington presenting in front of a project image with radial lines — **Nicki Washington**, a professor of the practice of computer science, is working to change tech education policies and perspectives that hinder marginalized students.

Bart Haynes holding medical equipment talking to a group in lab coats — Professor of medicine Dr. Bart Haynes leads the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, which challenges the status quo to drive better outcomes.

Charlie Gersbach with a person standing next to him looking down at a square of lit up test tubes — Biomedical engineering professor **Charlie Gersbach** develops gene editing techniques that correct errors and fight disease.

Heather Whitson compares the contents of two vials. In the background, large images of brain scans showing red highlighted areas. — Professor of medicine **Dr. Heather Whitson**, director of Duke’s Center for Aging and Human Development, is uncovering new insights that could lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Ken Gall in the materials lab explaining his work to students — Engineering professor **Ken Gall** and chemistry professor **Ben Wiley** developed the first gel-based substitute for knee cartilage that is more durable than the real thing.

Elevating Computing and A.I. at Duke

A $30 million award from The Duke Endowment is bolstering research in computing, AI and machine learning via a historic faculty hiring initiative called The Elevating Duke Computing program.

“In an increasingly complex world, tomorrow’s problem solvers will need computational, data and technology skills to succeed. Major academic institutions around the world are preparing for a dynamic frontier in computing. This award will help Duke mobilize our ecosystem of collaboration across disciplines to lead in the next frontier of computing.”
Provost Alec D. Gallimore

MADE FOR THIS:

Climate

Half Shells, Full Future: Growing and Eating Sustainably at the Duke Aquafarm, Beaufort, N.C.

Duke professor Tom Schultz created the oyster beds of the Duke Aquafarm as a hands-on learning experience for Duke students. But when devastating die-offs hit oyster beds across the N.C. coast, the farm took on a more significant purpose: a research lab designed to assist the coastal economy by identifying the factors killing the oysters. Follow along with Schultz and Toddi Steelman, vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability, on the Duke Climate Road Trip across eastern North Carolina.

Video thumbnail of a woman in a Duke t-shirt standing in water holding a bag a of mollusks.

Addressing Climate Challenges the Duke Way

Duke has been committed to building a culture of sustainability for decades, but the effort has taken on new urgency as the effects of climate change become more tangible. In 2024, the university reached carbon neutrality – zero net greenhouse gas emissions. The remodeling of campus infrastructure for greater efficiency will continue into the coming decades.

One of Duke’s Green Devils interns, Riley Reeves ’26, serves as a sustainability ambassador to classmates. Reeves mentors first-year students to shape them into environmental leaders and to spread a culture of sustainability across Duke. The experience has changed her outlook on life.

Convening Leaders to Identify New Approaches to Address Climate Change

Federal officials and business leaders convened at Duke to identify new paths to financing a low-carbon future. Hear from the all-star lineup at the university's recent "From Billions to Trillions" summit on campus.

MADE FOR THIS:

Student Experience

Bricks to Stone: A Short Walk Marks a Big Transition

From day one, Duke undergraduates are immersed in living-learning communities that foster teamwork, leadership and real-world experiences. The walk that students make at the end of their first year, from the bricks of East Campus to the stones of West Campus, is part of Duke's QuadEx student engagement model, an effort to integrate the social, residential and intellectual lives of undergraduates for a better living and learning experience.

While Bricks to Stone is a new tradition, it brings together students, alumni and the Duke community.

Rising sophomores march up Chapel Drive to commemorate their move from East to West campus, carrying the banners that represent their quad identities.

A significant part of the day is when the new quad members learn about the deep relationship between Duke and the city of Durham.

Representing all the quads, students celebrate together during the Bricks to Stone parties.

The Quad Arches help establish an identity for students to share and provide a visual boost to the Bricks to Stone tradition.

Making a Difference After Duke

Recent alum Elaijah Lapay ’24 came to Duke wanting to study the immigrant experience and health equity policies, having grown up with parents who immigrated from the Philippines. Through DukeEngage, Lapay worked as a community resource navigator for a federally qualified health center. Today, Lapay is a community health worker for El Centro Hispano, the largest Latino-led/Latino-serving organization in N.C. “I am now inspired a lot by the work and opportunity my family had in coming to America and immigrating,” Lapay says. “The only way they were able to do that was through the help and assistance of other people. If I am able to be that person for somebody else — then that will make it all worthwhile.”

Finding Community at Duke

Jaqueline Villanueva Govea ’26, a first-generation student from Houston, arrived at Duke searching for her place to belong. “You feel kind of scared when you get here: ‘Am I going to fit in?’” she recalls. But then she found Mi Gente, an organization for undergraduate Latinx students, and joined the group. She and another first-year student were paired up with two upper-class students — and the journey to community and belonging began.

Students in hard hats helping to build a house for Habitat for Humanity during experiential orientation

Setting Duke Students on a Path to Success

Duke undergraduates are set up from the start for success via Duke’s Experiential Orientation program, which gives students a first look at the campus, broader Durham and communities beyond — from producing their own food on Duke’s campus farm to camping under the stars in the Pisgah National Forest of North Carolina.

Students sorting items in a warehouse during experiential orientation

MADE FOR THIS:

Health

“Give Me a New Heart and Watch Me Grow”

Though his valves worked perfectly, Asher Hobby needed a whole new heart. Duke surgeons, who pioneered the world’s first partial heart transplant, realized Asher’s case was an opportunity to save two lives: Asher would receive a new heart, and his valves would help another baby in need—a effort called a domino heart transplant. It was the first transplant of its kind and performed at Duke.

Celebrating the First Independent Children’s Hospital in N.C.

What happens when two premiere health systems come together on a united mission? North Carolina Children’s Health, the first independent pediatric health system and freestanding children’s hospital in the state. The hospital, set to open in the early 2030s, will be built on a 100+-acre campus in the Triangle and will feature 500 beds, an ambulatory surgical center, a behavioral health hospital and a mixed-use infrastructure that will allow for hotels and dining options for patients.

Shaping the Next Generation of Health Leaders

A partnership between Duke Health, Durham Technical Community College and Durham Public Schools is bringing an early career college to Durham in 2025. The college, made possible by a $29.5 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, will prepare high school students for careers in nursing, allied health, surgical tech, and clinical research, and create a stepping stone to jobs and research roles at Duke Health.

“This partnership is about much more than an innovative educational approach. It’s about creating a high-quality pathway to some of the most important jobs in our community. It’s about making sure our health care workforce looks like the patients it serves. It’s about improving the quality of patient care and the health outcomes for all.”
J.B. Buxton, president of Durham Tech

A surgeon teaches a student on a learning simluation

Students sit at a lab bench and look through a microscope

Students practice CPR on a dummy while an instructor helps

Next-Level Cancer Care for North Carolina

Cancer patients will have access to transformative therapy, thanks to the new Duke Proton Center, which will open by 2029. Proton therapy delivers radiation precisely to a tumor, sparing healthy tissue. The largest philanthropic gift ever received by Duke University Health System — $50 million from an anonymous donor — is making the center possible.

Visit madeforthis.duke.edu to learn more and get involved.