Bloomberg School of Public Health
Susan Baker, a professor in Health Policy and Management, has received the first Pioneer Award from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. The award was created to honor an individual in the field of injury prevention who "blazes trails where there have been none, one who does not remain silent when needs are not met." Baker was the first director of Johns Hopkins' Center for Injury Research and Policy, and has joint appointments in Environmental Health Sciences in the Bloomberg School and Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine.
Robert W. Blum, the William H. Gates Sr. Professor and chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, received the Martha May Eliot Award at the American Public Health Association's 142nd Annual Meeting and Exposition. The award honors "extraordinary health service to mothers and children."
Renan Castillo has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
Daniela Drummond–Barbosa, an associate professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
D.A. Henderson, dean emeritus, received the Prince Mahidol Award from the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation. The award is given in two categories—Medicine and Public Health—and the winner in each receives a medal, a certificate, and $100,000. The international award was established by royal permission in honor of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songkla, Thailand.
Joanne Katz, a professor and associate chair of International Health, was awarded one of two Data for Life Prizes from CappSci. Katz will use her $50,000 prize money to study the use of portable ultrasound for expectant mothers in rural Nepal.
Yenny Webb-Vargas, a graduate student in Biostatistics, received a 2015 Student Paper Competition award from the American Statistical Association's Survey Research Methods, Government Statistics, and Social Statistics sections. Webb-Vargas will present her paper at the ASA's Joint Statistical Meetings, to be held in Seattle in August.
Johns Hopkins Medicine International
Pamela Paulk has been named president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, effective March 1. She most recently served as senior vice president of human resources for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System. During the early period of JHI's formation, Paulk, then vice president of HR for the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, served as vice president of global services for JHI, leading the team to identify new collaborations. Over the past 17 years, the organization has entered into more than 50 collaborations in nearly every region of the world. These collaborations are designed to leverage Johns Hopkins' expertise in medicine, nursing, public health, medical education, research, and health care administration while tailoring the knowledge to local needs and culture in a way that advances health care in the region. Before joining Johns Hopkins in 1998, Paulk held various leadership and consulting positions in the areas of health care administration and business development. She holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins and a master's degree in social work and a bachelor's degree in science from Florida State University.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
David E. Kaplan, a professor of physics and astronomy, a theoretical particle physicist, and a documentary producer, received a 2015 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award in Journalism for his contributions to the production of Particle Fever, a feature-length documentary about the identification of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva in 2012.
Stephen G. Nichols, the James M. Beall Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Recipients are invited to spend up to one year cooperating on a long-term research project with specialist colleagues at a research institution in Germany. Nichols is studying medieval manuscript holdings at the Free University of Berlin and throughout Germany.
Ayya's Accounts: A Ledger of Hope in Modern India by Anand Pandian, an associate professor of anthropology, received second place in the annual juried competition for the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. The award was presented in December at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C. Co-authored with his grandfather M.P. Mariappan, whom he calls Ayya, the book depicts a century of change in modern India.
Multidisciplinary
Johns Hopkins has been recognized by the Corporation for National and Community Service for its role in addressing community challenges through service. The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes hundreds of institutions of higher education that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes. Johns Hopkins was recognized for the first time this year in the General Community Service category. In its application for recognition, the university highlighted its Community Impact Internships Program, which pairs undergraduates with community-focused nonprofits and social service agencies; the Tutorial Project, in which student volunteers provide tutoring in reading and math to Baltimore City elementary school students; and the Student Outreach Resource Center's Service Scholars Program, which gives students an opportunity to make a long-term commitment to a Baltimore community organization. The Community Impact Internships Program and Tutorial Project operate under the auspices of Homewood's Center for Social Concern. SOURCE runs volunteer programs on the East Baltimore campus.
Peabody Institute
Washington's City Paper named Washington Renaissance Orchestra, led by jazz faculty artist Nasar Abadey, as the Best Large Ensemble.
Faculty artist Leon Fleisher's CD All The Things You Are was named one of NPR's 50 Favorite Albums of 2014.
Two CDs featuring faculty artist Michael Formanek, Thumbscrew and Palo Colorado Dream, were listed on allmusic.com's Best of 2014 list of Favorite Jazz Albums. The Thumbscrew trio's self-titled CD was also No. 21 on the 2014 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll and The Wire's Top 50 Albums of 2014, noteworthy because few jazz recordings are on this list of all genres.
Faculty artist Joel Puckett was commissioned to write an opera for the Minnesota Opera as part of its New Works Initiative. The Black Sox Scandal will premiere as part of the opera company's 2018–19 season.
The Minnesota Opera in March will stage the premiere of The Manchurian Candidate by faculty artist Kevin Puts, supported by a $75,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant.
SAIS
Daniel S. Markey has been appointed academic director of the new Master of Arts in Global Policy Program, which blends theory and practice in a 16-month program that allows rising professionals to immediately apply knowledge from the classroom to their workplace. Markey was formerly the senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.
School of Medicine
Julie Brahmer, an associate professor of oncology and an expert in the use of immunotherapies to treat lung cancer, has been named director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at the Kimmel Cancer Center, where she will lead a multidisciplinary team developing new treatments for lung and esophageal cancer and mesothelioma. She also will oversee a $35 million investment in the program and the opening of the new Thoracic Center of Excellence at Bayview Medical Center, as well as laboratory research and clinical trials. Brahmer has been a faculty member at Johns Hopkins since 2001 and is the author of more than 90 scholarly articles and book chapters. She is an active leader in national efforts to drive and support better research and treatment for lung cancer.
Steven Cohen, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine and director of medical education for the Pain Management Division, has received the 2014 Donlin M. Long Award for advancing the standards of pain care. The award, administered by the school's Blaustein Pain Research Fund, is named for the director of the Department of Neurosurgery, from 1973 to 2000, who is internationally acclaimed for his research in, and innovative treatments for, chronic pain.
Catherine D. DeAngelis, a Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and former JAMA editor, will receive the American Pediatric Society's 2015 Howland Medal, one of the highest awards in pediatric medicine, given annually for distinguished service in the field as a whole. Also a professor emerita of pediatrics, as well as of health policy and management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, DeAngelis has received seven honorary degrees and numerous awards for humanitarianism and medical excellence, including a lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Medical Colleges.
Ziya Gokaslan, a professor of neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and oncology; vice director of the Department of Neurosurgery; and head of the Neurosurgical Spine Center, has received the North American Spine Society's 2014 Leon Wiltse Award, which recognizes excellence in leadership and/or clinical research in spine care. Gokaslan is recognized worldwide as an innovative expert in the surgical treatment of spinal column, spinal cord, and sacral tumors, and as a prolific researcher whose hundreds of published papers and lectures have helped define spinal oncology as a distinct subspecialty.
Felicia Hill-Briggs, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, will serve as an at-large board member for the American Diabetes Association for 2015. Hill-Briggs is a core faculty member of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research.
Elizabeth Jaffee, a pioneer in the field of vaccine therapy for pancreatic cancer and an internationally recognized leader in immunology research, has been appointed deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Jaffee, the Dana and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli Professor of Oncology, has been a faculty member since 1992. She succeeds Stephen Baylin, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research, who is stepping down as deputy director after a decade in the post, and who will return to his full-time research role and his position as director of the Division of Cancer Biology. Jaffee also co-directs the Skip Viragh Center for Pancreatic Cancer and is associate director for translational research and co-director of the Immunology Program in the Kimmel Cancer Center, and deputy director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute for the School of Medicine. She is a member of the National Cancer Institute's national cancer advisory board and of the American Association for Cancer Research's board of directors.
Nagi Khouri, an internationally recognized leader in breast imaging who introduced image-guided breast biopsies in Maryland, has been named the inaugural Carol Ann Flanagan Professor in Breast Imaging in the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.
Thomas Koenig, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate dean for student affairs, has been elected vice chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges' Group on Student Affairs. Election by his peers to this post begins a five-year succession of leadership roles that will include the chairmanship of the group, which is the largest professional development body for medical student affairs officers in the country.
Marikki Laiho, a professor of radiation oncology, molecular radiation sciences, and oncology, and chief of the Division of Molecular Radiation Sciences, is one of 11 physician/scientists in the nation to receive a 2014 Harrington Scholar–Innovator Grant worth at least $100,000 annually over a two-year period. The grant from the Harrington Discovery Institute at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland will enable Laiho to pursue her groundbreaking research on the relevance and implications of cellular DNA damage due to cancer and help her apply her findings to clinical care.
Elizabeth Nance, a postdoctoral student in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, was named by Forbes to its 30 Under 30 list of the top scientists and health care entrepreneurs who are "bringing physics to medicine, discovering new planets, and deciphering the genomes of humans and other organisms." Nance is developing nanoparticles that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, with the goal of treating brain diseases in humans as young as newborn babies.
David Roth, a professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology and director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, has been named the principal investigator at the new Johns Hopkins Roybal Center. Part of the congressionally authorized Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology, the Johns Hopkins center was created with a five-year $1.8 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.
James Segars has joined Johns Hopkins as the inaugural professor and director of Reproductive Science and Women's Health Research, a newly established division of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Previously, he was head of the Unit on Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Segars is an internationally recognized leader in reproductive endocrinology and infertility whose research focuses on identifying proteins that modify, mediate, and augment estrogen action in reproductive tissues and on clarifying clinical disorders contributing to infertility in women.
Lillian Shockney, Distinguished Service Assistant Professor of Breast Cancer and administrative director of both the Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Cancer Survivorship programs, has received the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship's 2014 Catherine Logan Award for Service to Survivorship. Named for the NCCS' founder, the award recognizes individuals who work for cancer survivors at the grassroots level.
School of Nursing
Laura Gitlin, a professor in Community-Public Health, is the recipient of the M. Powell Lawton Award from the Gerontological Society of America, the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging. An applied research sociologist, Gitlin is internationally recognized for nonpharmacological approaches in dementia care, family caregiving, functional disability, and aging in place. She is founding director of the school's Center for Innovative Care in Aging and has joint appointments in the School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology.
Sheridan Libraries
Jennifer Hill, a distance education librarian and electronic resources manager, presented "A Tree in the Forest: Using Tried-and-True Assessment Methods From Other Industries" at the Association of College & Research Libraries 2015 meeting in Portland, Oregon.
Lei Pei, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Heritage Science for Conservation Program, presented on his work using chemical vapor deposition to strengthen brittle cultural heritage papers at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver.
Tamsyn Rose-Steel, CLIR/Mellon Fellow in medieval data curation and a member of the Digital Research and Curation Center, has been awarded a Mellon Foundation microgrant to develop a pedagogical hub for medieval studies. Called Apricot (A Peer-Reviewed Interdisciplinary Collection of Objects for Teaching), it will be a forum where instructors can exchange teaching materials and provide feedback to one another. The site is being designed to give instructors access to metrics on the use of their material that may be relevant for job applications and tenure committees. A proof-of-concept site is scheduled to be launched in June.
Whiting School of Engineering
Amitabh Basu, an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and Jaafar El-Awady, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, have been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Career awards, which recognize the highest level of excellence in early-stage researchers. The five-year award will support Basu's efforts to break new ground in the fundamentals of discrete optimization, which provides solution methods for solving large-scale decision-making problems where a combination of discrete and non-discrete choices have to be made to optimize an objective, like minimizing costs or maximizing profits. El-Awady's five-year grant will support his research into the underlying deformation mechanism in materials. As founder of the school's Computational and Experimental Materials Engineering Laboratory, he strives to enhance the field of "materials of design" by moving from empirical, trial-and-error development techniques to a combination of state-of-the-art multiscale computational methods and experimental techniques that streamline the process of developing reliable materials with superior performance.
Sharon Gerecht, an associate professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has received an American Heart Association Established Investigator Award. The five-year grant supports midcareer investigators with "unusual promise" and "an established track record of accomplishments" who have demonstrated commitment to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular science. Gerecht has also been named Johns Hopkins' first Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar. The award provides select faculty with flexible financial support over three years to promote their innovative research, teaching activities, and entrepreneurial thinking. A pioneer in her field, Gerecht is the first investigator to regulate tissue morphogenesis in a completely synthetic biomaterial, and her development of a new class of oxygen-controlling hydrogels has potential applications ranging from energy to biomedical uses.
Evan Ma, a professor of materials science and engineering, has been selected by the Materials Research Society as an MRS Fellow, a title given to select society members to recognize their distinguished research accomplishments and outstanding contributions to the field of materials science. Ma was selected for his contributions to the advancement of metastable alloys, in particular, the foundational understanding of atomic-level structure and structure-property relations in metallic glasses, and the deformation behavior of nanostructured metals and alloys.
Vicky Nguyen, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected by the ASME's Applied Mechanics Division as the recipient of the 2015 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award. The award, which includes a medal, a plaque, and an honorarium, recognizes researchers under the age of 40 who have made special achievements in applied mechanics.
Sri Sarma, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Institute of Computational Medicine, has been awarded the 2014 Krishna Kumar Young Investigator Award by the North American Neuromodulation Society. Sarma accepted the award in December at the society's 18th annual meeting in Las Vegas, where she delivered the Krishna Kumar Memorial Lecture titled "On the Therapeutic Mechanisms of Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease: Why High Frequency?"
