November 2007
Dear Friends of the Krieger School,
For me, fall is always an exhilarating time. As the air becomes
crisp and autumn leaves dot the brick paths of the campus, the
start of the academic year brings the opportunity to welcome
our newest cohort of exceptional students and reconnect with
the Homewood community. It is also the moment to renew our focus
on the most important tasks before us: ensuring the continued
excellence of the academic enterprise, and attending to the experience
and development of our students and scholars.
I find this fall to be particularly exciting for a couple of
reasons. First, the 1,212 freshmen who comprise the Class of
2011 are an incredibly select group, chosen from a record-setting
applicant pool of 14,581. With each year, the Krieger and Whiting
schools are growing ever more popular and selective, their student
bodies increasingly diverse, talented, and accomplished.
The other reason? The campus the freshmen encountered when
they moved into their dorms in late August came with a new “front
door.” The Alonzo
G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle was completed this summer, transforming the south end of the
campus into a new formal—yet entirely welcoming—entrance
to the university. Mason
Hall, the new visitor center and home
of the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions anchoring the quad,
is a stunning structure that echoes the architecture of other
Homewood buildings while providing a warm, inviting space for
introducing visitors to everything Johns Hopkins. The building
is an enormous step forward for us in strengthening the all-important
first impressions of campus and the school that prospective
students and other visitors form.
Nearby, the Computational
Science and Engineering Building sits on the new quad’s eastern border, housing not just
engineering laboratories but also research facilities designed
specifically for the collaborations occurring across many disciplines
in engineering and arts and sciences, including those exploring
language modeling and natural language processing.
Our progress has not escaped the notice of the national media.
In August, Newsweek named Hopkins one if its “25
Hottest Schools,” citing its longtime strength as a pre-med
training ground, in conjunction with its other academic strengths
and urban oasis of a campus, as explanation for the 66 percent
jump in regular decision applications (and 94 percent increase
in Early Decision applications) we have seen since 2002. An educational
consultant offered the magazine this assessment of Hopkins: “Social
life has picked up in recent years, and there are wonderful humanities,
music, and public policy/international studies.”
The Newsweek article provided affirmation of what
most Hopkins insiders have always known: While we’re justifiably
renowned for our top-notch pre-medical sciences, our enduring
strengths in the humanities date back to the university’s
founding as the nation’s first research university. Today,
the humanities at Hopkins are experiencing a renaissance, as
we embark upon the long-awaited renovation of Gilman
Hall. The
work, now under way, will maintain the building’s rich
history while transforming it into an incubator for the humanities
of the 21st century and creating the first “green” building
on campus.
As we attend to the physical spaces in which to study the
humanities, we are equally focused on enhancing programming
and nurturing a community of students and scholars in these
fields. This fall, we launched the Humanities Colloquium, a
series of structured conversations between faculty and undergraduates—especially
freshmen—who are interested in the humanities. In the first
such meeting, Christopher Celenza, professor in the Department
of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, opened with
a talk titled “What Does It Mean to be Human? The Classical
Tradition and the Problem of Humanity.”
Select freshmen with an expressed enthusiasm for the humanities
received a special bonus upon coming to campus: a $1,000 gift
card to the university’s Barnes and Noble bookstore. Named
the Arthur O. Lovejoy Book Award, the gift—made possible
by a generous Krieger alumna—was given to 27 incoming freshmen
as a means of nurturing student passion for the humanities. The
award honors the legendary Hopkins scholar and history professor
who founded the interdisciplinary field of study known as the
history of ideas. It’s a fitting name for a gift intended
to encourage lively engagement and humanistic inquiry among
the next generation of scholars, and we are grateful for the
alumni support that led to the creation of the Lovejoy awards.
I am continually impressed by the extraordinary engagement
of our alumni and their stellar commitment to supporting all
of the Krieger School’s top priorities. This tremendous
support has translated into an incredibly successful fundraising
campaign over the past several years. As the Knowledge
for the World Campaign heads into its final year, I am delighted
to tell you the Krieger School has reached its overall goal
of $260 million. We still have work to do in some specific
priority areas, however, including support for the Gilman renovation,
undergraduate scholarships, and graduate fellowships. Graduate
support is of vital importance now, as we face mounting competition
for the best students in all fields. Increasing support for
graduate students is critical not only to attracting and retaining
students, but faculty, too, because just as the quality of
the faculty affects our ability to draw the most talented students,
undoubtedly the inverse is true as well.
Of course, the quality of the School’s faculty is hardly
in question. The accomplishments and stature of our faculty are
extraordinary, their scholarship, as ever, at the very forefront
of their fields. This past year proved no exception, as many
faculty members were honored for their bodies of work and teaching
accomplishments. A few particularly high honors stand out: Chemistry's Paul Dagdigian was recently named Maryland Chemist of the Year by the American Chemical Society's Maryland Section. Physics
professor Bruce Barnett received the Maryland Association of
Higher Education’s 2007 Outstanding Faculty Award in recognition
of his innovative approach to teaching introductory physics and
his efforts to introduce physics and astronomy to the general
public. Earth and Planetary Sciences’ Peter
Olson was
among 72 U.S. scientists elected to membership in the National
Academy of Sciences this year, and Krieger-Eisenhower Professor
Michael Williams, chair of the Philosophy Department, was elected
to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This month we celebrate the naming of mathematics professor
Bill Minicozzi as a Krieger-Eisenhower professor, honoring
his contributions to the Krieger School and his achievements
in the field of geometric analysis.
It is my distinct pleasure to announce that we have named
a director for the Center for Financial
Economics (CFE). Professor
of Economics Jon Faust will lead the Center that, when fully
funded, will include four professors and provide coursework
toward a minor, major, and PhD in financial economics. Fundraising
for CFE is ongoing, and a search is under way to appoint the
Carl Christ Professor of Economics. This is an incredibly exciting,
innovative initiative that will build upon core strengths in
economics to propel research and provide education and training
to students interested in careers in financial firms and academia.
I look forward to sharing more with you in subsequent letters
about CFE’s progress.
Before I close, I have even more good news to share: In the
past few months, I have attracted extraordinary leaders to
my team in the dean’s office. As you may be aware, historian
David Bell, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities,
assumed the role of dean of faculty in July, bringing with
him remarkable scholarly accomplishment and a deep commitment
to the Krieger School. David is a historian of early modern
France who has received numerous awards and honors, including
fellowships from the Guggenheim foundation and the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the Leo Gershoy Prize from
the American Historical Association for the best book of the
year on 17th- or 18th-century European History (for The Cult of the Nation in France).
Also in July, Sylvia Eggleston Wehr joined the administration
as associate dean for external affairs, launching a new, strategic
configuration for our school’s fundraising operation
that incorporates marketing and communications operations.
Her new role follows a successful tenure as associate dean
for external affairs at the Bloomberg School of Public Health,
where she led a record-setting fundraising effort and built
a widely respected communications organization.
In August, Fred Puddester, previously the university’s
executive director of budget and financial planning, came aboard
as the Krieger School’s senior associate dean for finance
and administration. Fred brings nearly 30 years of experience,
including 21 in Maryland state government (four of those as secretary
of the Department of Budget and Management). David, Sylvia, and
Fred contribute much-valued expertise and vision to the Krieger
School’s leadership team, and they share with me an uncompromising
commitment to excellence that guides all we do.
All the best to you for a healthy and happy fall season. I hope
you are able to visit sometime soon to enjoy the recent changes
on campus and reconnect with the Homewood community.
Sincerely,
Adam Falk
James B. Knapp Dean
myjohnshopkins.edu
