Heshy Roskes ’14: Smashing Particles

Fall 2018

The Research

Physics and astronomy major Heshy Roskes used his research award to travel to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, to work on the famed Large Hadron Collider (LHC). His research was focused on using tracks produced by cosmic rays to improve the accuracy of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) silicon tracker. The CMS is a large, general-purpose particle detector built on the LHC. Roskes worked on the part of the detector that reconstructs the paths of the particles produced in collisions. His work helps to ensure the accuracy of all CMS measurements, including data used to study the properties of the Higgs boson. Roskes had the opportunity to present his work in Geneva, at a Tracker Alignment Meeting.

In His Own Words

“It was truly amazing to finally lay my eyes on the CMS detector, the focus of my research and the source of all data analyzed by the CMS collaboration. One of the most exciting features of this project is that it’s really my own, but it is also part of something larger. I was also able to present my work in person rather than over the Internet.”

Adviser: Andrei Gritsan, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Elizabeth McIntosh ’14: No Faerie Tale

Fall 2018

The  Research

Elizabeth McIntosh’s project focuses on the influence of Elizabeth I’s patronage on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, particularly as it colored Spenser’s conception of King Arthur and Gloriana, the fairy queen of the poem’s title. As Spenser’s Arthur appears to be the product of the competing literary traditions of chivalric adventure and courtly love, McIntosh’s research explores and reconciles how Spenser’s mediation of the literary and political tensions of Elizabethan patronage reveals itself in these two Arthurian identities. She shows how Spenser engages with literary convention to address a queen who demands political homage and romantic love.

In Her Own Words

“This summer, I stumbled upon the world’s largest collection of portraits of Elizabeth when I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London. While doing my research, I’d become captivated by the visual nature of Spenser’s poetry, and the dazzling symbolism of these masterpieces reminded me of the intricacies of The Faerie Queene. I want to explore the relationship between literary and painted representations of Elizabeth Tudor—which is a great way to bring together my two majors, English and art history.”

Adviser: Drew Daniel, Assistant Professor, English

Sarah Horton ’14: Immigration and Housing

Fall 2018

Sarah Horton '14The Research

International studies major Sarah Horton is curious about Baltimore’s growing Hispanic population and the impact it might have on the city’s housing market and overall development. That’s why she is using her Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award to start investigating why many Hispanic immigrants choose to come to Baltimore. From there she plans to explore how that population growth is changing the housing market. Using a mixed method approach, Horton is attempting to determine if there is a correlation between the two. She believes that observing the change over time of these factors will shed light on the role of  immigration in shaping urban development policy.

In Her Own Words

“I am excited to begin quantitative research using the statistical and mapping skills that I learned in a class last semester. This project is really rewarding because I’m learning about future possibilities as well as challenges of urban development.”

Adviser: Barbara Morgan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics

Samuel Chirtel ’14: Tales of Istanbul

Fall 2018

The  Research

Sam Chirtel will graduate in June with a degree in biophysics, but he may be well on the road to being a novelist. During his course of study at the Krieger School, Chirtel found a new love: writing. He is using his Woodrow Wilson grant to work on a collection of interrelated short stories. Part historical novel, part science fiction thriller, Chirtel’s stories are set in Istanbul, hundreds of thousands of years in the future. His fictional characters are based on real elements from Istanbul’s diverse history and culture. For example, one civilization is modeled after the Ottoman Empire, while another draws inspiration from Byzantine culture. The story also interweaves elements from Christian, Muslim, and traditional Turkish mythologies. Chirtel traveled to Istanbul last summer to study its residents, historical sites, and architecture. He says he chose Istanbul because he wanted to explore a city with a rich history involving the interaction of many distinct civilizations.

In His Own Words

“This project has changed me tremendously. It has taught me a greater appreciation for my observational and creative talents and has made me re-examine the priorities in my intellectual life. My growing suspicion that my true calling lies in literature has certainly been confirmed by this project.”

Adviser: Anne Eakin Moss, Assistant Professor, Humanities Center

Inside Our New Citadel of Science

Fall 2018

One of the more poignant films of the 1970s, Breaking Away, tells the story of a young cyclist named Dave, living in Bloomington, Indiana, dreaming of the day he might challenge the Lance Armstrong of his day. His girlfriend believes he is a romantic Italian racer and when she discovers the truth—that he is a “local nobody”—she abandons him. Dave craters into an adolescent depression and provokes concern from his father, who spirits Dave out of his bedroom for a heart-to-heart.

They walk through the grounds of Indiana University at night, where the father explains that he used to be a “cutter”—a quarry worker who sliced the limestone that was used to build the library in the heart of the campus. The father explains that, while he never had the opportunity to go to college, he has always taken pride in the library, built with his own hands.  Together, they gaze up at the limestone library and recognize it as a monument to a life’s work. The father implores the son to take advantage of the opportunities he never had, to live larger than a cutter.

This scene captures the meaning of a building for me. It is about permanence. It is about displaying for the world what an institution values. It is about signifying the importance of what goes on inside through the beauty and majesty of the outside.

Every morning on my way to work, I walk past the sweeping wall of glass at the back of the new Undergraduate Teaching Labs and look at the way the trees are reflected in its panes. No matter what time of day you pass that spot, the windows break up the reflection of the natural world and the sculpture garden into hundreds of repeating images. It is a stunning piece of artistry befitting the importance of what goes on inside.

So what are we going to do in this new citadel of science?

The Quantitative Revolution in Life Science

As our colleagues in biophysics remind us, the cutting edge in the life sciences is increasingly dependent on quantitative and computational analysis. This is as true in biology as it is in chemistry, and while this “revolution” is advanced among researchers, it is time to infuse the undergraduate curriculum with the paradigms and tools that senior faculty are using in their labs every day. We are raising the computational sophistication of students in the life sciences, teaching them to use simulation and equipping them with the skills to write code, which is the science equivalent of a language requirement. They will need to learn commercial mathematical and statistical packages (e.g., Matlab, Mathematica), so that they can engage in meaningful quantitative and statistical studies.

The UTL sports new classrooms with 35 computer terminals and the capacity to beam an instructor’s simulation experiments all over the walls. This state-of-the-art teaching lab will enable our students to vault to the forefront of research that depends on this kind of modeling. In the future, two new majors will make heavy use of it: computational biology and high-performance computation.

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory

Unlike the old “silo labs,” with each discipline operating in isolation, the interdisciplinary ethos of science education has been built into the DNA of the UTL. For the first time, students who are taking chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, developmental biology, biochemistry, genetics, neuroscience, biophysics, and biotechnology labs will be co-located, as will the faculty who teach these laboratory courses. Why does this matter so much? Proximity will make it possible to offer genuinely synthetic educational experiences. For example, genes investigated in cell biology labs would encode proteins whose structure will be solved in the biophysics lab, and its impact on behavior and cognition will be tested in an animal model system in the neuroscience lab.

Active Learning, the Hopkins Way

Back in the day, science lectures threw a huge amount of information at a largely passive audience. Today, we are making use of active learning techniques in the classroom, breaking classes into small working groups that pore over data and collaborate as teams to solve scientific problems, much as advanced researchers do. Many universities are experimenting with active learning. At Hopkins, we want to see the approach born in the classroom and catalyze student interest and participation in original research. It is not enough to encourage problem-solving, teamwork, or even discovery if it is limited to the classroom. Accordingly, the “Hopkins Way” will see students, shaped by an active learning model, move from the classroom into the lab, where that ethos is put through its paces in experiments.

Undergraduates in the Real World of Science

Many of our science students are bound for the world of medicine and we celebrate their path. We also want to prepare our undergraduates for exciting possibilities in scientific research or in the applications of life science to real-world problems in the realm of industry and entrepreneurship. The intellectual platforms we are building, based on quantitative methods, computer modeling, integrative interdisciplinary science, and active exploration will serve our students well as they look for opportunities in biotechnology and informatics, fields rich in opportunity for students when they leave us.

The rebirth of science education is taking place inside a stunning structure of glass and wood, light and air, with soaring ceilings and the natural environment visible from every angle. The rocking chairs in the atrium and the couches nearby are full to capacity no matter what the hour. Members of our science community are finally living and working in a space that does justice to the important work they do.

When I’m 95 years old and hobbling past this building with my great-grandchildren, I will point it out to them in the same way the stone cutter did in Breaking Away. I will tell them that I had the privilege of working with remarkable scientists and architects to make it happen. And nothing will make me feel greater pride than the lasting nature of this monument to everything that Johns Hopkins stands for.

Sincerely,

Katherine Newman
James B. Knapp Dean

A Hunger to Write

Fall 2018

In mid-July, after a whirlwind 18 hours in Washington, D.C., which included a reading at Politics and Prose bookshop and a nosh at Bistro Bis, Jami Attenberg ’93 tweets: “See you later book tour! I’m gonna write a new book now.”

Attenberg is a witty and prolific Twitterer, her subject matter ranging from Chihuahuas to travel in Lithuania to her obsession with the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. But this tweet, regardless of its matter-of-fact breeziness, marks a shift in focus for the Brooklyn-based writer. For the past year, she’s been on the road promoting her critically acclaimed third novel, The Middlesteins. Now she can return to what she loves most: writing fiction.

Despite her eagerness to resume her writing, Attenberg is grateful for her readership and the way book tours foster conversation between author and reader. “When you’re writing a book you’re engaged in a conversation with the world that’s sort of one-sided in its conception,” she explains. “When you’re published, you begin to have a little more of a conversation through [public] readings. You get to see if people understood what you’re saying or if you’ve said things you didn’t know that you meant.”

The Middlesteins was somewhat of a breakthrough for Attenberg, who was dropped by her former publisher before Grand Central picked up the option on the book. “It felt like it was a step forward in my writing,” she says. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever written.”

Set in a suburban Chicago community similar to the one where Attenberg grew up, the novel plunges the reader into the world of the Middlesteins, a contemporary Jewish family struggling with, among other things, obesity, divorce, and the sweet and salty negotiations of grown-up love. It’s a tartly funny, yet sympathetic rendering, and Attenberg’s intimate descriptions of meals—from the compulsive desire for McDonald’s French fries to the aphrodisiac qualities of Chinese food—arouse all manners of hungers. The novel made the cover of The New York Times Sunday Book Review as well as the paper’s best-seller list. It also received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews, which included the novel in its Top Ten Books for Fall 2012.

Jami Attenberg '93

Writing, Attenberg concedes, has always been “the thing that gave me joy.” She wrote her first story at the age of 4 or 5 and later was editor of her high school paper. “I was always immersed in the world of books,” she explains. “Writing was always something I felt good at and felt good doing. It’s like a second skin to me.”

When Attenberg entered Johns Hopkins in 1989 as a Writing Seminars major, her original focus was poetry. But a class with Tristan Davies encouraged her to take more fiction classes and changed her path. Another class, this time with Stephen Dixon, introduced her to experimental fiction and the benefit of a careful, thoughtful reader. “I’d never met anyone like him [Dixon] before—very lively, very funny, and cerebral,” recalls Attenberg. “I enjoyed reading his work at the time. He had interesting ideas, a really distinct voice.

“In one story I wrote, he suggested a different ending. It made me think that he was really paying attention.”

Attenberg’s new book will be a fictional rendering of the life of Mazie Phillips, a real-life theater ticket booth assistant, known from the early 1920s to the 1940s as the Queen of the Bowery for her outreach to the neighborhood’s down-on-their-luck denizens. During the writing process, Attenberg will take four to five months to draft the book, holding herself to a daily self-imposed regimen of 1,000 words a day. “I write really fast and come up with ideas really quickly,” she explains. “I do a lot of thinking before I even start a book, and after nearly a decade of focus on writing fiction, I have editors in my head—these inner editorial book voices that say, ‘This is working. This is funny. This is going too far.’”

Much to her delight, The Middlesteins’ success has allowed Attenberg to concentrate fully on writing after 10 years of supporting her fiction habit by supplemental work in advertising. Still, she is not one to rest on her laurels. “I think all novelists are really driven to making great art, writing great books,” she says.

“I’m proud that I’ve kept going,” Attenberg continues. “It’s a really rough ride. Being a writer is not a career that I would recommend to somebody who would like to make a lot of money, for example. But it’s the thing that I love most in the world, and I don’t know if I have any choice in the matter.”

Alessandra Villarreal ’14: Piecing Together Fragments

Fall 2018

The  Research

Drawing from her double major in archaeology and Latin American studies, Alessandra Villarreal’s research took her to Cahal Pech, an archaeological site in Belize, to analyze and interpret Pre-classic Maya architecture. Her specific focus is on round platforms, rare structures in the Maya area, which were abandoned before the civilization flourished in the Classic Period. The structures’ original function and why the Mayans may have stopped using them remain a mystery. Through analysis of ancient remains of a round structure found under a Classic Period ball court, Villarreal connects the presence of certain artifacts (like pottery or shell pendants) to theories about ritual use of architecture and the importance of ritual space over time.

In Her Own Words

“I was surprised how much information I was able to obtain from artifacts as seemingly simple as pottery fragments. Pottery is the most common artifact an archaeologist will find and is sometimes undervalued in the information it can reveal. However, domestic and ritual activity, as well as the time period of a building, can be determined through different types of pottery. This was unexpected for me and pushed ceramics to the forefront of my focus for the project.”

Adviser: Lisa DeLeonardis, Professor, History of Art

Learning From My Learning Disorder

Fall 2018

History major Tess Thomas ’14 knows a thing or two about making the best of a tough situation. Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, she didn’t know what the future held for her, but she did know one thing: she was going to keep moving forward.

When I was diagnosed at the age of 5 with auditory processing and visual memory disorder—a form of dyslexia—it would have seemed like a cruel joke to tell me that 16 years later I would be interning at one of the world’s leading publishers. And yet here I am, going into my final week at Penguin Group USA, surrounded every day by the thing I love most in this world: books.

Looking purely at the test results behind my early diagnosis, one might have predicted that my academic future was going to be bleak. I scored in the fifth and eighth percentiles on several basic evaluations, and I started first grade as the only student in my class still not yet reading. Sadly, many students who struggle early like I did are automatically considered slow or unintelligent—a label that often sticks throughout their academic careers.

I struggled to relate what I heard verbally with what I saw in written form. I could hear and pronounce the word “cat,” but no matter how many times I saw the letters “c-a-t” spelled out on a page, my brain did not connect them with the word I knew as “cat.” It didn’t mean I was any less intelligent than my peers, just that I learned differently than most. But “different” is sometimes perceived as synonymous with “worse,” and students with learning disabilities like mine are frequently neglected or made to feel dumb.7_TessAtFive

Fortunately, my mother advocated for me when I was too young to speak for myself. She ensured that my academic future would not be determined by a battery of test scores. She worked tirelessly to ensure I got the resources I needed to learn in my own way.

It wasn’t easy. I remember being overwhelmed at times that what was so natural for my older brother and my classmates was a colossal battle for me. Tears would spill over the pages of books I couldn’t read. My mom never gave up on me, though, and I learned never to give up on myself either. When school ended for my classmates, I continued on for two extra hours every day, practicing reading with special software designed to help students like me with phonological awareness, so I could relate sound structure to spoken words.  Slowly, I became the student I am now, one who knows the value of hard work.

One of the reasons I adore reading so much is because it was denied to me for so long. When the jumble of letters on the page magically transformed into words, my voracious appetite for reading kicked in. I became a regular at our local bookstore and the school library, and reading has become one of my greatest passions. It seems only natural now to turn it into my profession.

Since coming to Johns Hopkins, I’ve had three internships in publishing—Teen Vogue magazine in New York, at an academic publishing house in London, and at Penguin USA in New York.

When I was accepted at Johns Hopkins three years ago, I knew it would help me professionally, but I had no idea it would open this many doors.  When I graduate next spring, I will be well-positioned for my professional future.

The struggle I have had learning to read ultimately transformed me into the hardworking Dean’s List student I am today.

Poetic Justice

Fall 2018

GradyStevens

Poetry, said Plato, is a bad influence.

Plato believed poetry taught false virtue and encouraged people to get away with unethical behavior, says Brendan “Grady” Stevens ’13. Poetry also perpetuated the teaching of false virtues, keeping people from striving to do what is objectively the right thing. Through his diatribe against poetry, Stevens says, Plato shifted the concept of justice in the Greek world.

The recipient of a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award, Stevens is a double major in classics and philosophy with a minor in psychology. He says he has always been drawn to philosophy and the idea of justice. “I always thought and assumed that the point of life was to be the most just person you could be,” Stevens says. “My research is just another way of me trying to figure out what it is to be just.”

Stevens embarked on an extensive study of influential ancient Greek thinkers Homer, Hesiod, and Plato. He wanted to explore how Plato’s concept of justice differed from that of two of his predecessors, and to uncover a new way of understanding justice in Plato’s Republic. As part of his study, Stevens traveled to Oxford, England, and to Athens last summer to search for hard-to-find publications and to see where Greek tragedies were performed—many of which involve themes of justice.

“Plato steps forward into the ethical,” Stevens says. “It’s the first substantial discussion of justice in the Greek philosophical tradition,” he says. Plato makes a compelling case for “why [behaving justly is] better than being sly and cheating and getting away with whatever you are able.”

Stevens’ research suggests that it is Plato’s attack on poetry, specifically, that allows justice to be defined in a new way—a way where justice, in and of itself, is something more worthwhile than anything else, and that a life lived justly is, by definition, better.

Attracted to the classics for their “massive influence” on life today, Stevens also gravitates toward a very modern application of justice: the contemporary courtroom. He plans to earn a doctorate, perhaps extending his findings into a dissertation on the effects of Plato’s reconception of justice on everyday life; voting habits, for example. He also plans to attend law school and become a litigator. “I like the idea of standing in front of a jury and trying to persuade people with different opinions to my own view,” he says.

New Route to Medical School

Fall 2018

Students aspiring to medical school now have another post-baccalaureate option available to them with the new Health Science Intensive (HSI) concentration in the MS in Biotechnology Program. The program is part of the Krieger School’s Advanced Academic Programs.

Unlike the Homewood-based Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program, which includes core science courses required by medical schools, HSI is designed for students who have fulfilled all their pre-med requirements but are not quite ready to apply to medical school. HSI combines advanced scientific course work with mentoring and classes in real-world skills. The goal: to help students prepare their most competitive applications to medical school. An MCAT preparation course is included in the yearlong program, and students also earn an MS in biotechnology.

“As a nation, we don’t really deliberately teach things like teamwork, empathy, cultural competencies, or communication,” says program director Alexandra Tan. HSI classes such as Communication for Health Care Professionals, says Tan, will give students “the opportunity to build skills that… help them be good physicians and members of the community.”

Adopt an Object

Fall 2018

Every object in the Archaeological Museum’s collection—each delicate pair of emerald earrings or Attic red-figure vase—has its own back story, its own particular secrets to be unearthed. That research on these objects is time-consuming and meticulous is a given. That funding is steadily available is not.

To combat this disparity, the museum offers the Adopt-an-Object program. Prospective sponsors select objects in the museum’s collection for which they have a particular passion. Their donation, which varies depending on the object, funds the necessary research, examination, and conservation in preparation for the object’s exhibition.  In return, sponsors receive updates about the research. Recent sponsors include an art history class from Notre Dame Preparatory School that raised money through campaigns such as polishing their peers’ shoes to support research of their object—an Egyptian “magic wand” (ca. 1750 B.C.E.) used by nurses to draw protective circles around mothers during childbirth.

“Most objects require additional work before they can be put on view,” says Sanchita Balachandran, the museum’s curator/conservator, and Adopt an Object is a way to get patrons intimately involved in the museum’s work. “We’re interested in people having a passionate and personal connection with the ancient past.”

For more information, visit the Archaeological Museum’s website.

wand

The Egyptian “magic wand” (ca. 1750 B.C.E.) adopted by the art history class of Christine Plumer at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Baltimore. [Image courtesy of Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum]

Mourning Steven Muller

Fall 2018

Johns Hopkins University President Emeritus Steven Muller, who led the university from 1972 to 1990 and also served for about a decade as president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, died January 19, 2013. He was 85. Among his many accomplishments, Muller created the affiliation with the Peabody Institute, prompted the restoration and reopening of what are now Homewood Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library, and was instrumental in bringing the Space Telescope Science Institute to Baltimore and the Homewood campus. He also established the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Under Muller’s watch, Johns Hopkins started the Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and also re-established the School of Nursing and the Whiting School of Engineering as stand-alone divisions of the university. Current President Ronald J. Daniels praised Muller as  “a remarkable leader whose vision and determination enhanced dramatically the institution’s national and global prominence and who was in many ways, responsible for the Johns Hopkins we know today.”