Nominations open for President's Frontier Award

Johns Hopkins University is looking for the next exceptionally promising scholar to receive the $250,000 President's Frontier Award. Faculty members may nominate themselves or a colleague from any JHU department through Oct. 26.

This will be the third round of the award program, which was created to recognize full-time faculty members who demonstrate significant scholarly achievement and are expected to produce important future work. The inaugural award was presented in 2015 to Sharon Gerecht, a stem cell researcher in the Whiting School of Engineering. Scott Bailey, a molecular biologist in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, received the 2016 award.

The President's Frontier Award began with a gift of $1.25 million from two alumni—trustee Louis J. Forster, who received degrees from Arts and Sciences in 1982 and SAIS in 1983, and Kathleen M. Pike, who received a diploma from SAIS Bologna in 1981 and holds undergraduate and master's degrees from Arts and Sciences, received in 1982 and 1983—as a way to support scholars among the Johns Hopkins faculty who are on the cusp of transforming their fields. It is not intended to serve as a lifetime achievement award but as an investment in an individual's academic creativity and promise for leadership in his or her field of study. The recipient may use the award for a research sabbatical, lab support, hiring of assistants, travel, publication of findings, or other purposes that advance academic pursuits.

Details about the nomination process are on the Office of the Provost website. A selection committee of Johns Hopkins faculty will review the submissions, identify a group to advance to the second tier, and then ask deans and department chairs for letters of recommendation. University President Ronald J. Daniels and Provost Sunil Kumar will select the recipient from among the finalists.