The Johns Hopkins Club, which was conceived in the late 1800s as a place for faculty to gather, added some stardust to its digs this month.
Thirty-six of the university's most illustrious and celebrated academics were commemorated with the unveiling of the Nobel Room, which honors each of Johns Hopkins' affiliated Nobel laureates with an etched windowpane inlay.
The plan for the room, eight years in the making, was led by board of governors member Ingrid Bortner, who is of Swedish descent. A bronze bust of Alfred Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish industrialist who created the prizes, was also added to the room's furnishings. Victoria Kaak, exhibition graphics manager at the Baltimore Museum of Art, helped design the personalized panes.
Two of the university's current Nobelists—molecular biologist and geneticist Carol Greider and astrophysicist Adam Riess—were on hand for the reception, as were Bloomberg Distinguished Professors Rong Li and Jessica Fanzo and many other new JHU faculty, who had been invited to the event by the Provost's Office as a way of introducing them to one another.
In her remarks, Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, vice provost for faculty affairs, told the recent arrivals that the Hopkins Club is a venue that provides a place for faculty to socialize, network, and build new relationships that can lead to collaborative projects and mentoring relationships—and that she looked forward to their one day having their own windowpanes in the Nobel Room.
The club's board of governors also honored Greider, Reiss, and the university's two other current Nobel laureates, molecular biologist Peter Agre and astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi, with lifetime memberships to the club, whose members now include a wide range of Johns Hopkins affiliates in addition to faculty.
