Vesla Weaver, a scholar of racial politics and criminal justice issues in America, joined Johns Hopkins in the fall as a Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor. Her appointment bridges the Political Science and Sociology departments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Weaver was on the faculty at the University of Virginia and at Yale, where she did the first large-scale empirical study of how seismic shifts in incarceration and policing shaped the political and civic realities in the communities most affected.
Two Whiting School of Engineering faculty members have been elected fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. Howard Katz, in Materials Science and Engineering, works on areas ranging from organic semiconductors and organic electronics for chemical sensing to thermoelectric polymer blends. Russell Taylor, a professor of computer science and director of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, is widely considered the father of medical robotics. He works on the expanded use in medicine of robotic devices and computer-integrated tools.
Marc Kamionkowski and Mark Robbins, both professors in the Krieger School's Department of Physics and Astronomy, were formally recognized as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the organization's annual meeting in February in Austin, Texas. Kamionkowski was selected for his contributions to theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, specifically his work on the theory of the cosmic microwave background. Robbins, who specializes in the physics of condensed matter, was recognized for "using simulations to reveal the microscopic origins of macroscopic behavior" of matter.
KT Ramesh, a professor in the Whiting School's Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, known as HEMI, was named by the American Academy of Mechanics as its 2017 fellow. The honor society, which selects a single new fellow each year, is home to all disciplines engaged in studying the response of inanimate and animate matter to forces and environmental effects. Ramesh was recognized for his research on the impact and failure of materials under extreme conditions.
Mathu Santosham, director emeritus of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award 2017 in public health; the award is also given in medicine. The four researchers who received the public health award this year are all working on the control of Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, and pneumococcal disease around the world. Santosham, who is also a special adviser in the school's International Vaccine Access Center, investigated the epidemiology of the disease and ran vaccine research trials in the late 1980s.
Sean Jones, an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator, has been appointed the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at the Peabody Conservatory. He officially assumes his duties as chair at the beginning of the 2018–19 academic year, but he will visit the Conservatory this spring to give master classes, hear auditions, and work with student jazz ensembles. Jones joins Peabody from the Berklee College of Music, where he has been chair of the Brass Department since 2014.
Johns Hopkins University's online programs in nursing and information technology are listed among the top five nationally in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of degree-granting online programs, released in January.
Jessica Fanzo, the Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Global Food and Agricultural Policy and Ethics at SAIS, the Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Bloomberg School, has been appointed senior nutrition and food systems officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In this two-year post, she will be leading the work that FAO does on food systems for improved food security and nutrition. She also will be coordinating and overseeing the activities of the Nutrition Policy Group in the Nutrition and Food Systems Division of FAO.
Christy Wyskiel, senior adviser to university President Ronald J. Daniels for enterprise development, has been named to the Baltimore Business Journal's Power 10, "a group of leaders, both veteran and emerging, who are making a significant impact on their companies and communities." As head of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, she is responsible for the commercialization of faculty discoveries and inventions, and for cultivating the university's growing relationships with entrepreneurs and the business community.
Keri M. Guilbault, an assistant professor in the School of Education, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Mensa Education and Research Foundation. A specialist in the needs of highly gifted learners, she also serves on the National Association for Gifted Children board of directors.
Sarah Szanton, a professor in the School of Nursing's Department of Community-Public Health, has been named an American Academy of Nursing Edge Runner for her intervention called Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders, known as CAPABLE. Szanton also serves as director of the school's Center for Innovative Care in Aging.
Sherita Hill Golden, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism and executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine, has been named a 2018 member of the board of the American Diabetes Association.
For the first time in its history, Johns Hopkins Athletics landed at the top of the Learfield Directors' Cup standings at the end of a season. This happened last fall, when the women's cross-country team won the NCAA Division III National Championship for the fifth time in six seasons, and five other Hopkins teams—women's soccer, men's soccer, volleyball, men's cross country, and football—added points by progressing in NCAA competitions. Directors' Cup standings are calculated in each division for fall, winter, and spring by totaling the points acquired by the division's teams in NCAA competitions for up to 18 sports (nine men's, nine women's).
Stacey Lee, an associate professor at Carey Business School, has been chosen for the roster of the Fulbright Specialist Program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and World Learning. An authority in business law, health law, and negotiation, she is eligible to be assigned to a project that matches her expertise at a host institution in any of more than 150 countries. Her tenure on the roster began Dec. 1, 2017, and continues until Dec. 1, 2020.
