The Nicholas Institute

Q&A with Institute Leadership

During the Environmental Summit, Tim Profeta, Nicholas Institute director, William Reilly, senior advisor, and Peter Nicholas, whose gift inspired the creation of the institute, talked about how it was formed, why we need the institute and what it will do next. Their comments are below:

Q: I understand the original idea for institute was yours, I was curious about your inspiration.

Peter Nicholas: You really have to draw on a long history here to fully understand it and to appreciate that a lot of people here at Duke thought very hard about this, and when we got to the point that we had some good understanding and agreement, it became very clear that the way to do it was to create the institute. … It was not just waking up one night and saying, ‘Let’s have an institute.’

We all kind of gelled around the idea of creating something outside of the Nicholas School, yet a part of it. Something that drew on the strengths of the Nicholas School, and yet expressed those resources in a way that maybe might have been counterintuitive to the traditional academic process of creating and transmitting knowledge. …

I think we discovered that we were beginning to talk about an organization that was going to bring science into the real world for the purposes of affecting change, for using that knowledge. … It was going to be more about outreach, it was going to be more about advocacy; but not advocacy in terms of going out and railing on something, more in terms of advocating the use of science more thoughtfully and the creation of alternative ways of thinking about solving problems. And it took several iterations over a several year period of time, to figure out exactly how to do that.

Q: Based on your personal experience, why do you think we need the Nicholas Institute?

William K. Reilly: Environmental policy, I think, has been stalemated for a number of years in the United States. … The approach to environmental policy has involved polarized forces that are really talking over each other. To a degree that has not really been true before. For the last five, I suppose eight years, there has been a gridlock on national policies affecting the environment.

I think what the Nicholas Institute offers is the chance to take the marvelous resources in all the disciplines and competences that a great research university, and direct them at specific problems, at policies, that go beyond merely doing research, as important as it is to do research.

Q: What direction will the institute take in the short run?

Tim Profeta: In the short-term, we want to inject the knowledge and capabilities of Duke University into the ongoing environmental policy debates. We are on the cusp of significant debates in areas such as oceans policy, climate policy, and issues of national security and oil. We would like to bring Duke into those debates by working with decisionmakers from government, corporations, and the media to better understand the challenges, the trade-offs, and the possible solutions.

Q: And in the long run?

Tim Profeta: At the same time that we are working on today’s preexisting debates, we want to take a longer view of the problems and analyze how we can fundamentally remake those debates. There are many issues facing the world right now where we are not on a sustainable path, and where we may soon bump up against the limitations of our resources, be they water or energy or habitat. We must find a way to reframe these questions in a way that make our decisionmakers understand the inevitability of our need to address them, and that shows that there are ways forward that can fit within the evolution of our economy and society.

Q: Will you talk about the importance of the advisory board and what role it will play in the institute?

William K. Reilly: The advisory board will help bring the key stakeholders and the constituencies into the conversation . ... We really want to make sure that the most innovative and energetic and resourceful private enterprises see merit in what the institute is doing.

Q: What is your reaction to the Institute’s Environmental Summit?

Peter Nicholas: From the minute I got on campus I had a palpable sense that this was going to be great, but you don’t know. But having been through the morning session, and now the first two keynotes, and seeing the crowd, the audience, who they are, and what their views of this, people nabbing me, giving me their cards. It has been wonderful, it really has been wonderful. … Everyone gets what this is all about. They aren’t coming here scratching their heads, wondering what this is all about.

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