When the Northwest Guilford High School seniors gather in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center on Saturday, June 9 at 10:30 a.m., they will have much to celebrate. Many will be looking forward to continuing their education in the fall, while others will begin careers in the workforce or serve in the military.

According to Guidance Counselor Ashlea Ball, the three students with the highest grade point averages – Katie Beam, Anna Diemer and Elizabeth Julian – are so close that at press time valedictorian and salutatorian could not be determined.

This class of 538 students has been offered scholarships worth in excess of $8.4 million, which includes multiple offers made to several students. For example, Beam, who will attend UNC-Chapel Hill, also received offers to Virginia Tech and Lenoir-Rhyne. Diemer, who will attend Furman University, had offers from Arizona State, Texas A&M, the University of Florida, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of South Carolina. Julian received three scholarships from UNC-Greensboro, where she will be attending.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — R. Edward Coleman, director of the nuclear medicine division at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., was awarded the 2007 Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award for his contributions to the nuclear medicine profession. The award was presented June 3 during the 54th Annual Meeting of SNM, the worlds largest society for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine professionals, June 2–6 in Washington, D.C.

With this award, SNM recognizes that Dr. Colemans work has had a meaningful and significant impact on molecular imaging and nuclear medicine practice, said SNM President Martin P. Sandler. The list of previous recipients of this award is impressive and includes numerous Nobel laureates—such as Ernest Lawrence, who built the worlds first cyclotron for the production of radionuclides, and Glenn Seaborg, who discovered more than half a dozen new elements, he noted. Dr. Coleman joins a select group of scientists whose research is deemed to have had a significant impact on medicine, he added.

Coleman, who is also a professor of radiology and vice chair of the Department of Radiology at Duke University Medical Center, was recognized for his efforts in advancing molecular imaging and clinical applications of positron emission tomography (PET), PET/computed tomography (CT) and radionuclide therapy. Before joining Duke University Medical Center, he held academic appointments at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

More : .eurekalert.org

How Duke Helps Students Connect

Sheryle Dirks of the Fuqua School’s Career Management Center talks about her efforts to customize the recruiting process

In 2005, about 85% of graduates at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University had job offers by May, and 92% had job offers by August. This year, the school rolled out a new Intranet system to help students manage their on-campus recruiting process. That was a priority of Sheryle Dirks, the director of the school’s Career Management Center (CMC), who says she wants to focus on customizing services for students. With the new Intranet, MBA candidates can apply for jobs, sign up for counseling, bid on interview slots, post job leads, and network with other students.

Before coming to Fuqua in 1998, Dirks worked as the director of admissions at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Illinois. During a brief hiatus from Fuqua in 2003, she was a consultant for North Carolina State University. Dirks recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online project assistant Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation

More: businessweek.com