Issue: Fall 2021, Volume 19, Number 1
Features
Humanity’s Debt to Fruit Fly Research
For more than a century, this tiny winged creature has offered up crucial insights into human biology.
Centerpiece
See details with Aaron Hyman, assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art, who studies a tabella secretarum, from France c. 1700, in the Sheridan Libraries’ Special Collections.
Johns Hopkins Athletes Rebound from COVID Restrictions
Student athletes talk about how the pandemic affected their seasons.
The Enduring Value of an English Degree
Despite a growing focus on STEM fields, a humanities degree is as useful as ever.
News
Fall 2021 Sports News
Women’s volleyball has a division winning streak, men’s soccer is the top regional team, and more Hopkins sports updates.
Inside the Office of Andrew Gordus, Biology
See all the creepy crawlies Assistant Professor Andrew Gordus keeps in his office.
Read This in Fall 2021
Three book recommendations from faculty in chemistry, sociology, and comparative thought and literature.
Fall 2021 Faculty Awards
Fall 2021 Krieger Faculty Awards include Packard Fellows, Andrew Carnegie Fellows and the Gruber Cosmology Prize.
Seen and Heard: Anand Pandian
“We face each other across the chasm of polarization, the growing tendency to disparage those across the political aisle as enemies and villains. The distrust is corrosive, the temptation to turn away all too inviting. But as the latest surge of Covid cases attests, our fates remain hitched together, even when we can’t stand talking […]
Oh the Humanities: Summer Lab Grows Student Experts
Undergraduate students from HBCUs and community colleges across the United States flourish in and through cooperative research in Hopkins’ summer Humanities Collaboratory program.
Seen and Heard: Homayra Ziad
“I have a lot of hope.”
Blind and Sighted People Understand Color Similarly
Krieger School researchers have found that like any sighted person, those born blind understand two bananas are likely to be the same color and why.
Astronomy Meets Pathology to Influence Cancer Immunotherapy
A Krieger School astrophysicist partners with Hopkins Medicine researchers to map tumor and immune cells on a microscopic scale. The results could potentially transform how oncologists will deliver cancer immunotherapy.
Why We Love Pumpkin Spice
Krieger School perception researchers talk about what makes us love the aroma of pumpkin spice.
Seen and Heard: Michael Schatz
“There’s basically an entire human chromosome that had gone missing.”
Seen and Heard: Sabine Stanley
“It’s just more complex than we thought was going to be the case.”
Seen and Heard: Andrew Cherlin
“A generation ago, the percentage of college-educated women having children outside of marriage was negligible. It’s no longer a rare event.”
Research
The Search for Dark Matter
Assistant Professor Danielle Speller discusses her new lab and her front-running research for dark matter candidates and neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Learning to Write in Ancient Cultures
Near Eastern Studies Professor Paul Delnero breaks down his research on how children learned to write in Mesopotamia, and how it impacted the culture of the world’s earliest civilization.
Faculty
Top Fall 2021 Faculty Books
Nine of the most important books released by Krieger faculty in 2021.
Poems as Disrupters
Homewood Professor of the Arts Andrew Motion discusses his 14th volume of poetry, big questions in poetry, and learning and writing poetry.
Student Research
Fighting Cancer One Cell at a Time
Senior biophysics major Chelsey Chen works on breakthrough research with potential to treat cancer and other diseases.
Exploring How Muscles Regenerate
Junior Colt Crain is exploring the mechanisms that help muscles regenerate, which could impact treatments for diseases like muscular dystrophy.
Creating Tools for Reading with Dyslexia
Junior Ava Powell is developing a special e-book reading system the supports people with dyslexia.
Sensing Illusions with More than Vision
Isabel Won ’21 talks about the perception research she completed in the Perception and Mind Laboratory.
Classroom
Public Health Through An Africana Studies Lens
Go inside the classroom of the course “Africana Studies Meets Public Health” at Johns Hopkins.
Why Hopkins Students Love History
Four history majors tell us about their work in the department, what they’ve learned, and why they love their major.
Alumni
Curriculum Vitae: Alumnus Monica Schoch-Spana
Monica Schoch-Spana MA ’92, PhD 98 is a medical anthropologist, and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Fall 2021 Krieger Alumni to Watch
Our alumni have been named counselors that change lives, had films made about their books, and won the Brain Prize 2021.
Sustainable Solutions Through Biodesign
Alumnus Daniel Grushkin ’99 discusses his international Biodesign Challenge, where high school and university students imagine new and fascinating ways to use biotechnology.
Setting a Path for Black Women in Physics
Jami Valentine Miller, PhD ’06, maintains a site that highlights African American Women in Physics, and creating networking opportunities.
Creating Safer Roads through Policy
Natalie Draisin ’10, MPH/MBA ’15 works with the Federation International de L’automobile Foundation to prevent deaths and injuries from road crashes.
On Campus
Five Questions with Misti McKeehen at Center for Social Concern
Misti McKeehan at the Center for Social Concern discusses a typical day in her work, and why community engagement matters for undergraduates at Johns Hopkins.
Welcome the Class of 2025
The incoming Krieger School class of 2025 is global, diverse, and smart.
Post-COVID Campus Move In
During the hot and humid weekend of August 21, scores of new Blue Jays—many with family members in tow—moved into their residence halls. A week of orientation followed, introducing newcomers to academics, student life, and the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore communities. The evening before fall classes began, students received an official welcome at the annual Convocation ceremony, held on Keyser Quad.
Hopkins Film and Media, Then and Now
See what it meant to learn about film at Johns Hopkins in 1971 versus 2019.