Features

Green Horizons

A dozen reasons to hope for a greener future

[Real Science]

Up-ending the "cookbook" approach to teaching—and learning.

Spanish Civil War

Hopkins professor's disappearance left a hole in the hearts of many.

Teach for America

This spring's Teach for America grads are all over the map.

News

“When I was in the second grade, we had a dinosaur unit and since then, I’ve never looked back! Finding a dinosaur is something every kid dreams of, so it was really exciting to be the first people to see the remains of animals that have been gone for millions of years.” —Marina Suarez (foreground), […]

Hard-Won Food is Tastier

It’s commonly accepted that we appreciate something more if we have to work hard to get it, and a Johns Hopkins study bears that out—at least when it comes to food. The study seems to suggest that hard work can even enhance our appreciation for fare we might not favor, such as the low-fat, low-calorie […]

Stepping up Stipends for Graduate Students

The School of Arts and Sciences will significantly augment the resources devoted to graduate student stipends, thanks to an investment of more than $5 million from the President’s Office over the next five years. The extra funds will be put to good use in a variety of ways. For example, the George E. Owen Fellowships, […]

A New Home for Blue Jays Lacrosse

On February 15, Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels announced plans to build a new facility that “will once again set Johns Hopkins apart from any lacrosse program in the country.” Construction on the Cordish Lacrosse Center, named after principal donor David Cordish, is scheduled to begin in June, and the building will ultimately serve as […]

Interns with Impact

Service-minded undergraduates who want to intern at Baltimore non-profits and government agencies this summer can now get paid to do so—at no cost to those organizations—thanks to the new Johns Hopkins Community Impact Internships program. Launched with a $1.25 million gift from an anonymous donor, the program will enable the students to earn up to […]

Where Arts and Sports Connect… There’s Hope

As the graphic images of the World Trade Center attacks played continuously on TV, a 12-year-old Mohammad Modarres sought to fathom the horror as best he could. He drew. In his picture, the two towers stand pre-9/11, tall and draped in U.S. flags–as flowers, doves, butterflies, and hearts rain down on city streets lined with […]

Milestones

Owen Martin Phillips, a Johns Hopkins University faculty member emeritus and world-renowned oceanographer, died on Oct. 13 at his Chestertown, Md., home. He was 79. Phillips was world famous for devising a methodology for predicting and describing the shape of ocean waves, including giant waves–10-story upheavals of the sea surface–the knowledge of which is essential […]

Out of Egypt

Sixteen members of the Krieger School community were in Egypt when anti-government protesters took to the streets in late January, forcing many to change their plans and flee the country. Ultimately, all of the Krieger School affiliates managed to escape unharmed, though leaving amid the oft-violent demonstrations sometimes proved difficult. Most of those in Egypt […]

A Boost for Collaborative China Studies

Former Hopkins President Steven Muller first envisioned a Johns Hopkins relationship with China back in 1977. He wanted to replicate somewhere in Asia the success of Hopkins’ Bologna Center, the full-time graduate school in Bologna, Italy, that was established in 1955 by the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and Muller viewed China as the […]

Brainstorming for the Future

With its estimated 100 billion nerve cells, 2 million miles of axons, and 1 million billion synapses, the human brain is the most complex structure on Earth. Understanding how the brain sustains the mind is one of the last frontiers of modern science. Predicting the future of brain research is a daunting proposition. Will the […]

Celebrating the Arts

Over five days in early April, Hopkins artists of every variety shared their talents at venues across the university. There was acting and dancing on the Homewood campus, storytelling at the School of Medicine, and a recital featuring students from the Peabody Conservatory—and that was just on Friday night. “What’s really important is that the […]

Research

From Cell Proteins to Smoking Cessation

Some Woodrow Wilson Fellows pursue a single topic over several years. Others, like Karthik Rao, spread their research wealth around. Rao, a public health studies major, started his work at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering during his freshman and sophomore years. In the lab of Valina Dawson, Rao spent roughly a year and […]

Data-Scope: The Best, Bar None

Imagine a tool that is a cross between a powerful electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope, allowing scientists from disciplines ranging from medicine and genetics to astrophysics, environmental science, oceanography, and bioinformatics to examine and analyze enormous amounts of data from both “little picture” and “big picture” perspectives. Using a $2.1 million grant from […]

At the Frontier of the “Terahertz Gap”

Physics and Astronomy Professor N. Peter Armitage is quick to point out that many basic investigations aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of materials—such as the one he is conducting—have resulted in practical applications that have improved life in some way. Two good examples are the transistor radio and magnetic resonance imaging. “These discoveries enabled […]

Putting the Focus on Quantum Matter

Scientists in a new institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy are working to unlock the mysteries of quantum matter and reveal secrets that may eventually have practical applications in energy and information technology and superconductors. The Institute for Quantum Matter (IQM) is a partnership among physicists at the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts […]

Hathi Trust

hathitrust.org Hathi is the Hindi word for elephant—a creature known for its incredible power and remarkable memory. Such is the inspiration for hathitrust.org, a massive undertaking of more than 50 universities around the country, now including Johns Hopkins. HathiTrust is a partnership of elite research institutions with a shared goal: digitally archiving the volumes of […]

Faculty

Stefanie DeLuca

Stefanie DeLuca, an associate professor of sociology, has spent much of her career studying young people transitioning into adulthood. Currently, she and three colleagues are working on a book that addresses the “college for all” attitude in the United States and its effect on American teens. Here is her quick take on a question that—especially […]

Money Matters

Buy a loaf of sliced bread in your local supermarket and the $1.89 price tag is the same whether you are a millionaire or can barely make ends meet. But that doesn’t mean everyone pays equally. Purchase the bread in Boston and you won’t pay more than the price tag says. But buy it in […]

Student Research

High-Speed Rail: Where…and When?

Four months into his term, President Obama outlined his plans for a high-speed rail system across the United States. His administration identified 10 corridors that showed the “greatest promise” for an advanced transportation system intended to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil, improve the environment, and spur job growth. Lester Kao ’11 set […]

Casting Call

Can you imagine the Indiana Jones movies without Harrison Ford, or Bridget Jones’s Diary without Renee Zellweger? Remy Patrizio ’11 could envision, right down to hair color, the female lead for her Woodrow Wilson-funded play. The problem was, she couldn’t find her … and time was running out. With funding from her fellowship, the Writing […]

Classroom

Exploring Race and Politics through a New Lens

Classes don’t usually make Lauren Berger nervous. As a sophomore, the international relations major has already successfully navigated her way through two years of demanding Hopkins lectures, seminars, final papers, and exams. But a recent springlike afternoon found Berger walking down 33rd Street in Baltimore toward Greenmount Avenue with a Nikon D3000 in her hand—not […]

Community

Making Spare Minutes Matter

A graduate student in the Communications in Contemporary Society program in the Krieger School’s Advanced Academic Programs, Colker is changing the way people get involved in community service as co-founder of the Extraordinaries, an Internet-based program allowing “microvolunteers” to use their skills and expertise online. Colker’s project (www.sparked.com) combines volunteering, the Internet, and mobile phones […]

Alumni

A Champion for Young Americans

“Why should I care?” That’s the question that Paula Boggs ’81 wants to answer, right after delivering the message that young Americans ages 16 to 24 are the most unemployed group in the United States. A member of the newly established White House Council for Community Solutions, Boggs is one of 26 leaders from business, […]

The Writing Nut

Much of Marshall Honorof‘s novel, Space and Sensibility, came to light during his commute into Manhattan. “Most people have more time in their day than they realize,” says Honorof ’09. The Long Island Rail Road provided many of the hours needed to churn out 1,700 words per day; Professor Jean McGarry, in the Writing Seminars, […]

Hard Work in the Big Easy

Phil Bildner ’90 quit his New York City teaching job five years ago—but now more than ever, he’s involved in the work of educating students. Co-founder of The NOLA Tree, a nonprofit organization that brings volunteer high school students to New Orleans for service projects, he revels in guiding students in what he calls “real […]

Suited to a "T"

When Emily Li Mandri ’09 found herself contemplating life after Hopkins during January of her senior year, she considered going to graduate school for art history or possibly getting an entry-level job in the arts. Neither option seemed right at the time. Then the idea struck her: “Maybe I can make something.” So the art […]

Insights