Duke alumna Tara Bansal ’17 has been awarded the Ole R. Holsti Prize for her honors thesis, “Analyzing the Development of Social Capital in the Slums of Bangalore.” The Public Policy major developed her thesis following her participation on the Bass Connections project team Studying the Real ‘Slums’ in Bangalore.

Biology and Public Policy major Kushal Kadakia ’19 won the Ole R. Holsti Prize for his paper, “Rethinking R&D: Partnerships as Drivers for Global Health Innovation.” This work stemmed from his involvement with the Innovation & Technology Policy Lab through Bass Connections. He worked with the Global Health Innovation Alliances group to map the drug development partnerships formed in response to the Ebola and Zika outbreaks, and received a Follow-on Student Research Grant to take his research further.

Every year the Duke University Libraries run a series of essay contests recognizing the original research of Duke students and encouraging the use of library resources. The Ole R. Holsti Prize recognizes excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy. Funding was provided by Ole Holsti, George V. Allen Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Duke University. Other awards include the Lowell Aptman Prize, the Chester P. Middlesworth Award and the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award.

Awards Reception

Join the Duke Libraries at a reception to celebrate the 2017 Library Writing and Research Award Winners. All are welcome.

• Friday, October 20
• 4:00-5:00 p.m.
• Rubenstein Library 249 (Carpenter Conference Room)

Learn More

• See how other students have leveraged their Bass Connections research for theses and dissertations.
• View examples of publications resulting from project teams.
• Check out the new Bass Connections annual report.

Left: Bansal conducts research with community leaders in Bangalore; Right: Kadakia presents policy research related to his second Bass Connections project, NC Medicaid Reform Advisory Team.