Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
The English Department's Eric Sundquist, A&S '78 (PhD), the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, has won the Modern Language Association's 2012 Jay B. Hubbell Award. His work focuses on African-American literature, Jewish-American literature, and literature of the Holocaust.
Whiting School of Engineering
A team of biomedical engineering undergraduates has, to date, won $55,000 in prize money to commercialize QuickStitch, a mechanical suturing device the team invented to improve surgeons' ability to properly close after abdominal surgery. Sridevi V. Sarma, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her work focusing on treating Parkinson's disease using deep brain stimulation.
Carey Business School
Adjunct Professor Yuval Bar-Or published Crazy Little Risk Called Love (The Light Brigade Corp.) in July. In the book, he applies risk-management principles to intimate relationships. The school's Leaders + Legends series kicks off on September 12 with a talk by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who will be discussing the challenges of guiding the state through economic crisis and his vision for growing the state's knowledge-based economy.
School of Education
Professor Robert Balfanz appeared on the July 17 episode of PBS' Frontline as part of its Dropout Nation series. The program reported on Balfanz's research showing that potential high school dropouts can often be identified by their middle school performance—at which point dedicated schools can intervene to prevent that fate. This summer, leaders from more than 30 charter schools nationwide convened at the School of Education to reflect on the 20-year history of charter schools.
School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital
U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals" list was released in July, ranking Johns Hopkins Hospital No. 2 in the nation overall and No. 1 in the nation in five specialties: ear, nose, and throat; geriatrics; neurology and neurosurgery; psychiatry; and rheumatology. In June, students in the schools of Medicine and Nursing launched The Patient Promise, a public commitment to set a model of healthy living, including exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and managing stress.
School of Nursing
Students and alumni traipsed the globe this summer during the school's Where in the World Is the Nursing Pin? initiative, in which participants photographed themselves and their nursing pins everywhere from the Ljubljanica River in Slovenia to the base of Utah's Mount Timpanogos.
Peabody Institute
This fall, acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves joins Peabody's voice faculty. Faculty artist and jazz bassist Michael Formanek releases Small Places, a new CD recorded with his quartet, in September. In July, Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright made appearances in Mount Vernon when parts of the Peabody Institute stood in for a Georgetown hotel during the filming of the Netflix series House of Cards.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Jonathan Weiner, professor of health policy and management, will direct the new Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health Information Technology, which will bring together faculty from around the university to help public health agencies and private health care organizations improve and expand their use of e-health tools.
SAIS
Hans Binnendijk, formerly vice president for research and applied learning at the National Defense University, has joined SAIS as a senior fellow in its Center for Transatlantic Relations. Binnendijk also served as the National Security Council's special assistant to the president and senior director for defense policy and arms control. Deborah Brautigam, a recognized expert in the relationship between China and Africa, is the new director of the International Development Program.
Applied Physics Laboratory
As members of the Mars Science Laboratory team, APL space scientists Nathan Bridges, Jeff Johnson, and Michelle Minitti were on hand at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to witness the touchdown of the rover Curiosity.
