Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Jon Faust, the Louis J. Maccini Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Financial Economics, is returning to the Krieger School after two years as special adviser to the Federal Reserve Board. Faust was tapped in 2011 by then Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to contribute to the monetary policy process and to staff the Federal Open Market Committee's subcommittee on communications. He will continue his work with the Fed under Chairman Janet Yellen but is teaching a course at Johns Hopkins this spring and will return full time in the fall semester.
Michael Hauser, emeritus astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an adjunct faculty member in the Krieger School's Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded the American Astronomical Society's George Van Biesbroeck Prize for 2014. The prize honors a living individual for "long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy, often beyond the requirements of his or her paid position."
Malinda McPherson, a senior majoring in cognitive science and minoring in music, has won a Churchill Scholarship to study at University of Cambridge, where she expects to complete a Master of Philosophy degree at the Centre for Music and Science. She plans to study rhythmic entrainment—a person's ability to match his actions to an external beat, such as clapping to a song—and says she hopes to become a neuroscience research professor studying music's effect on the brain.
Stephen G. Nichols, the James M. Beall Professor Emeritus of French and a research professor in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, has been appointed by the Council on Library and Information Resources as a CLIR Distinguished Presidential Fellow.
Nadia L. Zakamska, an assistant professor in Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded the American Astronomical Society's 2014 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research. The prize is given annually to astronomers for excellence over the past five years in observational astronomical research based on measurements of radiation from astronomical objects. Award recipients must be younger than 36 years old. Most of Zakamska's research interests are in extragalactic astronomy.
Multidisciplinary
A faculty member, an administrator, and two students were among the eight people in the Johns Hopkins community who were recognized with Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards at this year's commemoration of the civil rights leader.
Arthur L. Burnett II, a professor of urology in the School of Medicine, mentors medical students and works with Mentoring Male Teens in the Hood, an organization that empowers young African-American men using positive messages on how to take control of their lives.
Kristen Sheffield-Hunt, an administrative coordinator in International Health at the Bloomberg School, raises awareness for kidney disease and organ donation, and supports those struggling with the disease, especially children; among the places she volunteers is Camp All-Stars, which is organized by the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Nusaiba Baker, a graduate student in Molecular and Cell Biology in the Krieger School, supports and encourages minority and disadvantaged students. Every week, she talks about the brain with Baltimore City kindergarten and middle school students as part of Making Neuroscience Fun, an initiative run by Nu Rho Psi, the Johns Hopkins undergraduate neuroscience society.
Brian Boyle, a graduate student in communications in the Krieger School's Advanced Academic Programs, is a national volunteer spokesman for the American Red Cross, traveling the country to share his personal story about the urgent need for blood donors.
Peabody Institute
Tonar Music has released its first sheet music publication in the Manuel Barrueco Collection: Suite Nr. 1, BWV 1007 by J.S. Bach, originally for cello transcribed for solo guitar by faculty artist Manuel Barrueco. The suite is in six movements and comes with Barrueco's fingerings.
Jennifer Nicole Campbell, a piano student of Brian Ganz's, will compete in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition from March 10 to 17. Pianists will proceed through four rounds of solo competition, culminating in a finale in which three performers will play concertos with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra.
In January, New York jazz trio Thumbscrew released its debut album with Cuneiform Records. Members of the group are Peabody faculty artist Michael Formanek, bass; Mary Halvorson, guitar; and Tomas Fujiwara, drums. The album and a sound clip of its opening track, "Cheap Knock Off," are featured in the Chicago Reader.
Senior Alexandra Razskazoff, soprano, was a winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions in Philadelphia and competed in February in the Middle Atlantic Region Finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Razskazoff, who is in the studio of Stanley Cornett, received an encouragement award of $2,500.
A book by musicology faculty member Joshua Walden, Sounding Authentic: The Rural Miniature and Musical Modernism, has been published by Oxford University Press, in the AMS Studies in Music Series. The book is supported by the Claire and Barry Brook Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
SAIS
Cornelius C. Kubler has been named American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, effective Aug. 1. Kubler most recently was a professor of Asian studies at Williams College, where he has chaired the Asian Studies and Chinese departments for 14 years. He previously served as chair of Asian and African Languages for the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, co-director of the Harvard Beijing Academy at the Beijing Language and Culture University, and a visiting Fulbright Professor of Chinese at the Graduate Institute of Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University.
Michael George Plummer has been named director of SAIS Europe, in Bologna, Italy, effective Aug. 1. Plummer has been the Eni Professor of International Economics at SAIS since 2008, a position he will continue to hold. Between 2010 and 2012 he served as the head of the Development Division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Before joining SAIS, he was an associate professor and director of the MA programs in Brandeis University's Graduate School of International Economics and Finance, now known as the International Business School. He has been a research associate professor at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration at Kobe University in Japan. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Asian Economics, president of the American Committee for Asian Economic Studies, and a nonresident senior fellow at the East-West Center.
School of Medicine
Gerald Brandacher, an associate professor and scientific director of the Reconstructive Transplant Program, and W.P. Andrew Lee, a professor and director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, have been named to a committee formed by United Network for Organ Sharing to determine policy guidelines for vascularized composite allotransplantation.
Estelle Gauda, a professor of pediatrics, has been named senior associate dean for faculty development. Head of the Associate Professor Promotion Committee since 2006, Gauda has substantially increased the transparency of the promotions process and created a Web-based nomination manager to streamline it.
Sewon Kang, a professor and director of the Department of Dermatology, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the ninth edition of Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine, the authoritative volume in the field.
Martin Makary, associate director and surgical director of the Pancreas Multidisciplinary Cancer Center, has been named by HealthLeaders magazine as one of 20 top people in the nation who are making a difference in health care. Makary was cited for his outspoken advocacy of methods for restoring public trust in surgical quality through results reporting and transparency.
Robert Stephen Milner, an assistant professor and oncology medical information officer in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, was invited to present the Sushruta-Guha lecture at the annual meeting of the British Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons in November. A pioneer in health-related information technology, Milner received the British organization's invitation in recognition of exceptional and innovative work in burn treatments and surgery.
Hanjing Peng, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, has received a three-year, $156,000 fellowship award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Along with her sponsor, Jun O. Liu, a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences, Peng hopes to discover new anti-cancer drugs with lower toxicity or side effects than current medications.
Paul Rothman, the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty, vice president for medicine, and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, has been named one of the 50 most powerful people in health care nationwide by Becker's Hospital Review. The publication cited Rothman's role in shaping national policy, operations, and management in health care.
Andrew Satin, a professor and director of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, has been elected vice president of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Martha Zeiger, a professor of surgery, oncology, and cellular and molecular medicine; chief of Endocrine Surgery; and co-director of basic and translational research in the Department of Surgery, has been named associate dean for postdoctoral affairs. School of Nursing
Keri Frisch, manager of the Community-Public Health Nursing Program, has begun implementing the Coordinated School Health Program, which will integrate the provision of health services and health education for K-8 students at the newly opened Henderson-Hopkins School. A partnership is being developed to offer nursing services in collaboration with the Baltimore City Health Department.
Whiting School of Engineering
Zachary Gagnon, an assistant professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been selected by the National Science Foundation to receive its prestigious CAREER Award, which recognizes the high level of promise and excellence in early stage scholars. The five-year grant of nearly $500,000 will support Gagnon's work to develop inexpensive and portable biosensors for rapid, sensitive, and label-free multiplexed biomolecular detection. His work has important applications in preventing disease in developing countries, as well as potential applications in environmental monitoring, biowarfare/anti-terrorism work, point-of-care diagnostic testing, and basic biological research.
Marc Ostermeier, a professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering's 2014 College of Fellows. Ostermeier was recognized for his work on directed evolution approaches to protein engineering, which has important potential applications in fields that include medicine, biotechnology, industry, and agriculture.
