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Gordana Dukovic and Elspeth Dusinberre win support to enlarge the frontiers of sustainable chemistry and knowledge of the ancient Phrygians, respectively

Two 精品SM在线影片 professors have won prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships, which support the recipients鈥� research and scholarly work and aim to help them 鈥渆ngage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.鈥�

Gordana Dukovic, professor of chemistry, and Elspeth Dusinberre, professor of distinction of classics, are among 171 scholars and artists in the 2023 class of fellows听听by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Chosen from a rigorous application and peer-review process out of almost 2,500 applicants, 鈥渢hese successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise,鈥� the foundation said.听

鈥淟ike Emerson, I believe that fullness in life comes from following our calling,鈥� said Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation and 1985 fellow in poetry. 鈥淭he new class of fellows has followed their calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding. We鈥檙e lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.鈥�

With support from the Guggenheim fellowship, Dusinberre plans to investigate the social structures, palaces and uses of power among the early Phrygians, who lived in what is now Turkey ca. 950-800 BCE. Meanwhile, Dukovic aims to use the fellowship support to develop new research directions in using nanomaterials for sustainable chemistry.

Seeking insights into the ancient Phrygian kingdom

Dusinberre explains the context of her work this way: Phrygia was the main powerhouse society of what is now Turkey in the years 900-600 BCE, but its social structures, palaces and expressions of power remain relatively poorly understood. She will focus on the enormous buildings and material culture of the elite quarter at Gordion, capital of Phrygia and seat of King Midas of the Golden Touch from Greek myth.

In 800 BCE, she explains, Gordion was consumed in a great conflagration apparently caused by an accident鈥攁n event that marked the end of the Early Phrygian period (ca. 950-800 BCE). Gordion's inhabitants buried the burned buildings under meters of clean clay and rebuilt the city at a higher level but on the same plan as before, sealing off and preserving the buildings and artifacts 鈥渋n an almost Pompeii-like manner.鈥澨�

鈥淭he area was excavated between 1950 and 1973, but the results have hitherto been presented only very partially and in disparate publications,鈥� Dusinberre writes. 鈥淢y scholarship will interrogate how people lived at Gordion in 800 BCE, why they made the decisions they did, how they negotiated power, and how these local behaviors related to the other great societies of the eastern Mediterranean at the time. Complex choices and actions at the nexus of intertwined politics and religion make my project germane to modern humanistic studies as well as ancient.鈥�

Dusinberre notes that Gordion鈥檚 archaeological import is indisputable, adding that all other first-millennium archaeological sites in this part of the world are dated and contextualized in relation to Gordion.听

鈥淢y study will present datable archaeological material of the Early Phrygian period for the first time, helping other archaeologists throughout the eastern Mediterranean to date their own artifacts in relation to Gordion鈥檚 and understand their sites鈥� cultural developments within the context of Gordion鈥檚,鈥� she writes.听

鈥淭his is particularly significant because we have no texts from Phrygia to help scholars understand this period: the archaeological material is our only source of evidence.鈥�

Employing the fellowship and a sabbatical leave, Dusinberre plans to finish a book reporting the results of her work by the end of next year. Meanwhile, she notes, 鈥渋t is tremendously exciting to be poised so as to bring this remarkable material to the public.鈥�

Dusinberre holds a PhD in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and she graduated听summa cum laude听with a degree in classical archaeology from Harvard University. She joined the 精品SM在线影片 faculty in 2000.

Researching ways to harness solar power to replace fossil fuels
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Dukovic studies light-driven processes in nanoscale materials and describes herself as a passionate teacher and mentor of junior scientists. In addition to her faculty position, she serves as an associate director of the听Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, where she is a fellow.听

As Dukovic notes, 鈥淭he overarching goal of my research is to replace fossil fuels by harnessing solar energy to drive useful and interesting chemical reactions with light.鈥�

The potential of solar energy is staggering, she observes: 鈥淚t would take just a little over an hour of solar energy that strikes the Earth to power the planet for a year, but this diffuse and spread-out energy must first be converted into usable forms like electricity and fuels.鈥澨�

Making this conversion efficient and cost-effective is a clear path toward a sustainable and climate-friendly future. One method is using sunlight to make new chemical bonds that store solar energy, so that it can be used on demand, Dukovic notes. 鈥淭o do this, we need materials that absorb light optimally and catalysts that speed up the making of new bonds.鈥�

Dukovic鈥檚 research lab seeks to contribute to a sustainable future by using sunlight to drive important chemical reactions. She studies structural, electronic and excited state properties of semiconductor nanomaterials to elucidate the processes that occur immediately after absorption of light.听

Dukovic also couples nanomaterials with catalysts such as enzymes to drive useful and complex reactions with sunlight. She has received the NSF CAREER Award and was named a Sloan Research Fellow, Cottrell Scholar, Beckman Young Investigator and finalist for the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.

Dukovic holds a PhD in physical chemistry, with distinction, from Columbia University and earned a BA in chemistry, graduating听summa cum laude听and as valedictorian from Douglass College at Rutgers University. She joined the 精品SM在线影片 faculty in 2009.