Chance and Necessity: The fate of graduate students

There have been a few posts relating to a story in Science about the fate of 30 students who began graduate school at Yale in 1991.

Chance and Necessity: The fate of graduate students

Sandwalk: What Happened....?

The upshot is that most of those students in the story are not currently in tenure track academic jobs. This has inspired me to complete a little exercise that I've been meaning to do for a while - to list some of my graduate colleagues from Duke and where we are now. It is truly amazing how such a large number of us have landed really good academic jobs. I'm not sure if the late 1990's was a special time at Duke, or whether the early 2000's were a ripe time for academic jobs in general (or both). Perhaps Duke grads always do well in the academic job market. This is not a scientific study. I am only conveying the awe I have for my own graduate experience, and the gratitude I have for being able to be surrounded by a tremendous group of students. I think we all raised the bar for each other, and of course this was all possible because of the collaborative and empowering environment fostered by Duke Biology faculty. Here are some of the folks who started or ended graduate school about the same time I did at Duke. I was there 1996-2001. This list is straight off the top of my head, in no particular order (except my lab and office mates are first), and I am certain that I am forgetting people. I apologize to them. Yet the point still stands, we did okay.

Todd Oakley (me) Professor Univ. CA Santa Barbara
John Wares, Professor University of Georgia
Mike Hickerson, Professor Queens College NY
Mike Gilchrist, Professor University of Tennessee
Laura Miller, Professor University of North Carolina
Rebecca Zufall, Professor University of Houston
John Stinchcomb, Professor University of Toronto
Sheila Patek, Professor U-Mass-Amhurst
Kirk Zigler, Professor Sewanee University
Armin Moczek, Professor Indiana University
Matt Hahn, Professor Indiana University
Leonie Moyle, Professor Indiana University
Matt Rockman, Professor NYU
Ehab Abouheif, Professor, McGill University
Peter Tiffin, Professor, University of Minnesota
Tami Mendelson, Professor, U Maryland-BC
Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Professor, University of Washington
Anne Pringle, Professor Harvard University


Even now, this is a great academic network (some call it the Duke Mafia, especially after they witness the secret handshake).