For the 32nd year, Johns Hopkins University topped the National Science Foundation's list for academic R&D spending, performing $2 billion worth of medical, science, and engineering research in fiscal year 2010. Of that, $1.73 billion came from federal sources, including NSF, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense. NIH has awarded the university $15 million over five years to establish the Center for AIDS Research. CFAR will support more than 180 HIV investigators from Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and other schools, a major priority being to address Baltimore's HIV epidemic. In spring, as part of its Implementation Plan for Advancing Sustainability and Climate Stewardship, the university installed more than 2,900 solar panels on seven buildings on the Homewood and East Baltimore campuses. The panels should reduce the university's output of greenhouse gases by 1.2 million pounds each year.
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Film and Media Studies lecturer Matthew Porterfield's current project hit No. 27 on ioncinema.com's "Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2012." I Used to Be Darker—the title of which was being tattooed on the auteur's arm during the film's Kickstarter pitch—follows Porterfield's critically acclaimed sophomore effort, Putty Hill. Jon Faust, an economics professor and the director of the Center for Financial Economics at Johns Hopkins, was named special adviser to the Federal Reserve Board.
Whiting School of Engineering
Mounya Elhilali and Mark Foster, both assistant professors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, were among 26 scholars nationwide selected by the Office of Naval Research's Young Investigator Program to share $13.7 million in research funding. Elhilali's research looks into how our brains recognize sounds. Foster's work focuses on developing photonic techniques for manipulating signals on the fastest of time scales. The Hopkins Baja Team placed ninth at 2012 Baja SAE Auburn, an intercollegiate design competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers that has student teams design, build, and race cars. This year's event was hosted by Auburn University in Alabama and included 102 teams.
Carey Business School
The school announced in May that it is reorganizing its degree programs to focus on the study of business issues related to health care and the life sciences. Terry Dunkin, a member of Carey's Real Estate Advisory Board, was elected president of the International Real Estate Federation World Council of Experts.
School of Education
Assistant dean Mariale Hardiman has published The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st-Century Schools (Corwin Press, 2012), which offers teachers practical ways to apply research to the teaching and learning process.
School of Medicine
Facebook users can now share their organ donor status with friends and family, thanks in part to transplant surgeon and associate professor Andrew M. Cameron. He and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg came up with the idea at their Harvard class reunion as a way to use social media to spark dialogue and, they hope, encourage others to become donors. Carol Greider, Nobel laureate and director of molecular biology and genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, was appointed to the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science.
School of Nursing
The school is ranked No. 4 among nursing schools for total funding received from the National Institutes of Health. Professor Pamela R. Jeffries, associate dean for academic affairs, was named a member of the Institute of Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.
Peabody Institute
David Smooke, chair of the Music Theory Department, has been composing works for toy pianos, including Nutshell Miniatures of Unexplained Death, which he premiered in May at the Atlas Theater in Washington, D.C. Voice major and master of music candidate Sonya Knussen recently opened Mount Vernon Music Space, a storefront performance and teaching space for emerging and established professional musicians.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
In May, the school presented Emmy Award-winning actor Sam Waterston its Goodermote Humanitarian Award for his longtime support of refugees around the world. The school was one of five partner organizations to receive part of $220 million from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Engr '64, in support of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. The new funds will support tobacco-control efforts in low- and middle-income countries.
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
In April, SAIS celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Founded in 1986 in Nanjing, China, the center is a postgraduate joint venture between Johns Hopkins and Nanjing universities, bringing American, Chinese, and international students together to live and study. In May, SAIS received one of the largest gifts in its history, a residential property worth $5.9 million, from an anonymous donor. Proceeds from the sale of the property will establish the Betty Lou Hummel Endowed Fund, which will give a permanent base of support to the school's Foreign Policy Institute.
Applied Physics Laboratory
The Applied Physics Laboratory celebrated its 70th anniversary in March. APL scientists secretly came together in 1942 during the Second World War to develop the proximity fuze for the Allies. Seven decades later, a highly visible APL is working on more than 600 projects in the fields of air defense, undersea warfare, space systems, homeland protection, cyber operations, and others. The May issue of Popular Mechanics featured the APL-developed Modular Prosthetic Limb on its cover. The MPL is a neurally controlled artificial limb that has almost the same number of degrees of freedom as the human arm.
