Robert C. Means, an adjunct professor in the Energy Policy and Environmental Program for close to 20 years, died on December 13, 2017, of a heart attack. He was 79.

An expert in energy policy and regulation, Means spent more than 30 years as a teacher, consultant, and regulator. At Hopkins, he taught climate change policy courses in the Krieger School’s Advanced Academic Programs. He also developed and taught courses in energy policy and regulation at the University of Texas School of Law and the University of Maryland School of Law. Means taught a course in economic policy for developing countries at Haile Sellassie I University in Ethiopia, where he also served as editor of the Journal of Ethiopian Law, and a course in comparative corporate law at the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia.

In addition to his academic work, Means was a domestic and international consultant, advising clients such as the U.S. Federal Energy Regulation Commission; the State Department’s Iraq bureau; the National Energy Board of Canada; and governments in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Means received a BS in history and mathematics from Iowa State University and an LLB magna cum laude and an SJD from Harvard University. While at Harvard, he served as Supreme Court Note and Developments Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Gary Posner, the Jean and Norman Scowe Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, died on February 26 of Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.

A renowned chemist, Posner spent his career teaching undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins until his retirement in 2016. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering research in organocopper chemistry, including his involvement in the development of the Corey-House-Posner-Whitesides reaction. His more recent research was focused on applying organic synthesis to the preparation of novel medicinal agents including isothiocyanates with anticancer properties, new Vitamin D analogs for the treatment of psoriasis, and new antimalarial peroxides. He is the author of the textbook An Introduction to Synthesis Using Organocopper Reagents.

A native of New York, Posner completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Brandeis University. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry from Harvard University, and completed his postdoc studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors during his career, including being named Chemist of the Year in Maryland in 1987 by the American Chemical Society, the Brown University Award for Excellence in Vitamin D Research in 2004, the American Chemical Society Cope Senior Scholar Award in 2004, and the Novartis Chemistry Lectureship in 2005.