‘We’re Going to Be Great Dads’ p.36 Among Giants p.18 Idea: No Pain, No Shame p.12 Researchers from across the university work AN IMPROVED MIND together to understand how our brains learn. p.28 Team Workouts p.44 VOLUME 65 NO. 3 FALL 2013 In the Line of Fire p.22 What ‘Breaking Bad’ Tells Us About Teaching p.24 JOHNS HOPKINS MAGAZINE

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 1 Johns Hopkins - Slightly West Discover why so many Hopkins alumni choose to live at Roland Park Place. A Not-for-Profit Life Care Community Call 410-243-5700 to arrange a tour.

830 West 40th Street 410-243-5700 Baltimore, MD 21211 TDD: 1-800-735-2258 www.rolandparkplace.org

2 | johns hopkins magazine Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 3 CONTENTS 17 Empathy Shortage 36 Empty Nest

FRONT DEPARTMENTS

07 Contributors 12 Idea Long Distance Training 09 eNot 14 Artifact Building Bridges 10 Dialogue 16 Forefront Documenting the Soviet Fall 26 Evidence Eyes and Ears 58 Text Art of the Everyday ALUMNI 60 Who Is . . . Deborah Bräutigam 62 Campus Fast Tracking Invention 67 Golomb’s Gambits Japanglish 68 Giving Smart Kids Rule 70 Colleagues Hi-Res Health Care 72 Friends for Life Welcome to the Crib 73 Notebook Their Kind of Town 74 Alumni Association Nominations Welcome 75 Class Notes 79 In Memoriam 80 Afterwords Trauma’s Toll

4 | johns hopkins magazine 50 Publish or Perish

FEATURES

28 A Lot to Learn 44 Sweat Equity Dale Keiger Dale Keiger Researchers from across the university have banded Champions are not born. They are made on the together to understand how our brains learn. First practice field. question: What, exactly, does that mean? 50 Publish or Perish 36 Empty Nest Bret Mccabe rachel Stewart Johnson Academic publishing confronts its digital future. Michael George, SAIS ’03, and Chad Lord have (Spoiler: It’s all about content.) spent five years trying to adopt a child. They’re not giving up.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 5 6 | johns hopkins magazine VOLUME 65 NO. 3 FALL 2013

JOHNS HOPKINS MAGAZINE Contributors

Editor Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson Linda Zacks (“Publish or Catherine Pierre (“Guns Kill Cops,” p. 22) has Perish,” illustration, p. 50) Associate Editor written articles, essays, and is an award-winning artist Dale Keiger, A&S ’11 (MLA) fiction for The New York Times, and designer living in Brooklyn. Senior Writer Slate, Metropolis, Architect, She was previously design Bret McCabe, A&S ’94 and Little Patuxent Review, director for VH1.com and has Assistant Editor among others. She is a 2013 worked independently with Jeanette Der Bedrosian recipient of the Individual Artist Sony Style, Adobe, and INQ Art Director Award in Fiction from the Mobile, among others. Pamela Li Maryland State Arts Council. Alumni News & Notes Editors David Fullarton (“Their Kind of Lisa Belman Stacy Zarin-Goldberg (“Empty Town,” illustration, p. 73), born Jeanette Der Bedrosian Nest,” photography, p. 36) is a in Scotland and based in San Nora George, A&S ’11 (MA) D.C.-based photographer Francisco, combines images Business Manager whose work appears regularly with words to create humorous Ann Kirchner in Baltimore magazine, The illustrations. His clients have Washington Post Magazine, included the Los Angeles Johns Hopkins Magazine (publication number 276-260; ISSN 0021-7255) is Washingtonian, Bethesda Times, The Boston Globe, The published four times a year (Fall, Winter, Magazine, and others. Washington Post, Mother Spring, and Summer) by The Johns Hopkins University, 3910 Keswick Road, Jones, and Yahoo. Suite N-2600, Baltimore, MD 21211. Rachel Stewart Johnson Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, (“Empty Nest,” p. 36) has a Kati Woronka (“Trauma’s Toll,” Maryland, and additional entry offices. Diverse views are presented and do not PhD in developmental psychol- p. 80), A&S ’99, Ed ’00 (MAT), necessarily reflect the opinions of the ogy from Stanford University is the author of Dreams in the editors or official policies of the university. and is a former lecturer in Medina, a novel about Syrian Correspond with Johns Hopkins Magazine human development and women based on her four-year Johns Hopkins Magazine Johns Hopkins University psychology at the University experience living and working 3910 Keswick Road, Suite N-2600 of California, San Diego. She in that country. After spending Baltimore, MD 21211 [email protected] has written for health care time in more than a dozen Telephone: 443-997-0170 companies, Pomona College countries, she has settled in hub.jhu.edu/magazine Magazine, and University of London, where she teaches Subscribe to Johns Hopkins Magazine Denver Magazine. international development. $20 yearly, $25 foreign

Advertise with Johns Hopkins Magazine Leap Day Media Kristen Cooper, 410-458-9291 [email protected]

On the cover ‘We’re Going to Be Great Dads’ p.36 Among Giants p.18 Idea: No Pain, No Shame p.12 Researchers from across the university work POSTMASTER Simon Spilsbury is an award-winning An Improved mInd together to understand how our brains learn. p.28 Team Workouts p.44 Volume 65 No. 3 FAll 2013 In the Line of Fire p.22 What ‘Breaking Bad’ Tells Us About Teaching p.24 Please send address changes to U.K.-based illustrator whose spe- Johns Hopkins Magazine cialty, he says, is “finding absurdity johns hoPKIns magazIne 3910 Keswick Road, Suite N-2600 in the minutiae of life.” For the past Baltimore, MD 21211 16 years, he has tackled every­thing Copyright ©2013, The Johns Hopkins University from newspaper illustra­tions to multimedia ad campaigns for clients like Nike, Virgin, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and others. An art director once said of his work, “Spilsbury’s drawings always jump off the page and bite me on the ass.” We think, however, the illustrator’s cover art gets inside our heads.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 7 McDonogh School is right around the corner, with bus service to Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, and Howard counties included in tuition. Five-day boarding is an option for students in ninth through twelfth grades. Located in Owings Mills, McDonogh offers a challenging curriculum and a welcoming community of innovative teachers, involved parents, and truly remarkable peers. Imagine your child at McDonogh. Please call us at 443-544-7020 or visit us online at www.mcdonogh.org.

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Visiting Day for Kindergarten-First Grade Saturday, November 16 at 9:30 a.m.

8 | johns hopkins magazine

NOTE |

V ol./ Maybe it’s the love of the game. Is that what sends a person out to the fields day after day, month after month? Perhaps it’s a perfectionist streak that drives someone to practice something over and over until it’s exactly right. Or maybe 65 it’s just a good excuse to get out of the office. A year ago, Associate Editor Dale Keiger proposed a project to photo­ graph every Johns Hopkins varsity team at practice. In addition to being a terrific writer, Dale is a talented shutterbug whose pictures have occa- sionally appeared in the magazine. For this undertaking, he attended at least one—but usually two or three—practice sessions for each of the 22 teams playing 14 sports. He estimates that he took 25,000 photographs. “Whenever I write about scientists and artists, I’m always inter- ested in their process, and it’s no different with athletes and coaches,” Dale told me. “In sports, the process is practice. In a way, it was relearning that part of what’s fun to me about practice is that’s when the coaches are working the most closely with the athletes. At a game, players just look fast, athletic, often violent. But at practice, you see the coaches work on details down to moving a left foot six inches when you’re throwing a block. It impresses me how much a good athlete knows and the attention to detail. Editor Catherine Pierre “It was great fun,” he says. “My one regret is that I missed the track team doing yoga.” If you enjoy “Sweat Equity” (page 44), be sure to visit hub.jhu.edu /magazine for our “Grimace Gallery” slideshow.

| 9 DIALOGUE |

Error in ‘In Error’ Medical liability does play a Unlike Carson, who was forced In the article “In Error” [Evidence, sig­nificant role in national medical to drop out of the doctoral program Summer], you implied that malpractice expenditures. because of financial issues, Lippy left costs are not a major factor in health James C. Cobey, Med ’69, SPH ’71 because she found full-time academic Washington, D.C. care costs. You are correct that payouts employment. She joined the faculty at of $1 million or more represent less Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, than 1 percent of United States health as assistant professor of zoology in care costs, but that is not the issue. Grace Lippy and Rachel 1933 and retired with the rank of The cost of malpractice litigation to Carson never met again, asso ­ciate professor in 1967. She died in 1994 at age 97. the health care system is the cost of but Lippy was not at all defense, as measured by the insurance Carson and Lippy came from premiums paid by hospitals, nursing surprised by Carson’s sim ­­i­larly impecunious family circum- homes, and physicians, as well as the later scientific and stances, and both attended women’s colleges as undergraduates. Lippy cost of defensive medicine. literary success. According to the American Academy became a regular Sunday dinner of Orthopaedic Surgeons, one-sixth of guest at the Carsons’ home. The two the approximately 650,000 practicing women roomed together in Woods orthopedic surgeons in the United True Heroines Hole, Massachusetts, during the States report a medical liability claim While I emphatically disagree with summer of 1932 when they were both annually—that is more than 100,000 the demeaning reinterpretation of named “investigators” at the Marine doctors a year. In Washington, D.C., my Rachel Carson’s scientific ability and Biological Laboratory. insurance premium was more than scholarship put forth in “Right Fish, Lippy later recalled Carson as $60,000 annually. The premium costs Wrong Pond” [Summer], this letter “very quiet, not much fun, and with­ are the costs of defense. Since 74 percent specifically addresses the claim that out much sense of humor.” But she of claims are closed without payments, Carson made no significant friends admired Carson, whom she described the payouts make up only a small during her student days. as an “avaricious reader” who was fraction of the costs of medical liability. In 1930, Carson was assigned to “always extremely well-prepared.” According to PIAA (formerly called assist Grace E. Lippy, A&S ’26 (MA), in Grace Lippy and Rachel Carson Physician Insurers Association of teaching basic zoology for the Johns never met again, but Lippy was not at America), the average cost to defend Hopkins University summer school. all surprised by Carson’s later scien- a case that does not go to court is Six years older than Carson, Lippy tific and literary success. She regarded approximately $39,000. The total cost was a doctoral student and the only Carson as “one of the nation’s true of defense of physician cases in the woman appointed as instructor in heroines” and was enormously proud United States was $3.7 billion for the zoology during the Depression. to have been her friend. Carson served as Lippy’s teaching last 10 years. And that figure does not Linda Lear account for unnecessary tests done assistant for the next four summers. Author of Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature for defensive medicine. Lippy taught the course for 11 years. Bethesda, Maryland

A sampling of where some of the Johns Hopkins–educated LinkedIn users work:

National Institutes IBM, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman TEach for Montgomery County or of Health or Google America Baltimore City Public Schools 166 391 339 99 296

10 | johns hopkins magazine Connect with us Johns Hopkins Magazine 3910 Keswick Rd., Suite N-2600 Baltimore, MD 21211 HUB.JHU.EDU/MAGAZINE

Don’t ‘Like’ We know what you did last summer. We asked about the coolest Normally, I enjoy reading cover to cover thing you planned on doing over the summer. Some of your responses: each Johns Hopkins Magazine. It was with great dismay that I saw in your Spring issue that you used an opportunity, in the article “Facebook Follies” [Dialogue], 1 to post a submission mocking those Christians that support creationism theory and those on the right of the Illustrat polit­ical spectrum who support former 2 Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and i on by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

In the same issue, I found it E ri c interesting to read in the boilerplate Conrad section [Masthead] that this magazine supports the presentation of diverse views. Really? If so, how often would one see similar cheap shots taken in 4 this magazine against positions 5 supported by those on the left? 3 A bit of advice: Keep the focus of your magazine fair and balanced. Vance A. Brahosky, Engr ’02 (MS) Springfield, Virginia

Others of us (myself very 1 2 3 4 5 much among them, and

secretly terrified) might office hours or told you to call him terrified) might not yet know what we not yet know what we were Steve. We undergraduates shook were going to do next, and to us, he going to do next, and to his hand exactly twice: once during had this utterly unexpected thing to freshman orientation week and again say (and I’m quoting verbatim): “Hang us, he had this utterly onstage at graduation. He was a loose. You’ll find your way.” Coming unexpected thing to say: distant bureaucrat and fundraiser from someone who seemed to us like “Hang loose. You’ll find known primarily for his preternatural the living embodiment of The Man, it tan and an unverified but persistent was surprisingly reassuring. your way.” rumor that he played one of the von It took me longer than I’d expected Trapp children in The Sound of Music. and a number of extended detours, And yet, as far as I know, he said but I did, eventually, find my way. ‘Hang Loose’ the only thing outside of David Foster Wherever he is, I hope the Man with I was oddly shocked and sad to read Wallace’s now-famous Kenyon College the Tan is hanging loose. about the death of former Johns address that anyone has ever remem- Tim Kreider, A&S ’88 Hopkins President Steven Muller bered any speaker at any graduation New York, New York [“In Memoriam,” Spring]. I say “oddly,” ceremony saying. At my commence- not because there’s no reason to ment address in 1988, he said that he Correction: mourn the man but because he was knew some of us already had post- “Principles and Practice of Friendship” [Alumni News and Notes, Summer] incorrectly identified not exactly one of those hippie liberal graduation plans. Others of us (myself the board on which Barry Strauch serves. He serves arts college presidents who had open very much among them, and secretly on the board of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 11 IDEA |

Context “I was getting really frustrated with every corporate gym that I’ve worked at where it’s like Glengarry Glen Ross selling techniques,” says Weathersby, who has been in the fitness business for 20 years. Being pushed to your physical limits by an overenthusiasti- cally motivated trainer might work for committed gym rats, but it’s less

successful for people who aren’t i llustrat already in shape. According to fitness consultant Thomas Kulp, the industry i neglects to create an environment that on by

A

reaches people who are overweight or nthony Freda out of shape. “Instead, we decided that fitness was something to offer only the fit,” he wrote in the June 2011 issue of Club Industry, an online magazine for fitness professionals.

Data The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association reports a steady annual increase in fitness club and gym memberships, from 24.1 million in 1995 to 50.2 million in 2012. Less clear is the number of those people who joined a gym and stayed. Obesity trends in the United States make In the association’s “2007 Guide to Long personal trainer Deborah Weathersby, Membership Retention,” a former A&S ’94, shake her head. According to IHRSA executive director wrote that the Centers for Disease Control and “membership retention for commer- Distance Prevention, as of 2010, more than one- cial fitness facilities had always been a third of adults and nearly 17 percent of subordinate objective” to profitability. Training youth are obese. The CDC also reports “In any other business,” Weath- more than three-quarters of the country’s ersby says, “if you’re only selling to the health care costs are due to chronic people who are already buying your Bret McCabe diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, product, something’s wrong. Gyms cancer, or arthritis, all of which can be are not picking up that there’s a giant prevented or minimized by eating right market out there, but it means that and exercising regularly. But while the you have to change how you approach U.S. fitness industry generated more it in order to attract those people.” than $21 billion in revenue in 2012, it’s an industry supported by only about Upshot 16 percent of the population. Surely Having worked with sponsored endur­ there’s a way to provide the health and ance athletes before, Weathersby has quality-of-life benefits of exercise to a seen successful distance-training pro- larger portion of the population. grams that enabled, say, a triathlete in

12 | johns hopkins magazine Enjoy the best in apartment living at a MORGAN COMMUNITY! Call today for Move-In Specials!* San Diego to train with a coach in Vermont. But those programs used THE MARYLANDER THE CARLYLE Apartments expensive, proprietary software. Could the same approach work to offer regu- Short-term leases available! Short-term leases available! lar people directed, individualized, Furnished or unfurnished Furnished or unfurnished and less-expensive distance training— studios & 1-2 Bdrm studios, 1 & 2 Bdrm Apts, apartments! most with Washer/Dryer! using video chat programs such as Skype or FaceTime and a project man- ager like Basecamp? Beautifully upgraded apartment homes. Resident One of Weathersby’s first clients Elevator building with fantastic views of downtown. fitness club with cardio center and lounge. Close to for her new model was a woman who Located directly accross from JHU Campus in JHU Campus in Roland Park! Café & Restaurant on wanted to lose weight for her wedding Historic Charles Village and close to the Inner the premises! Balconies with panoramic views of but couldn’t stick to an exercise pro­ Harbor. Laundry & Fitness Center on site. Reserved the city! Roof top pool! Reserved garage parking. Surveillance and key lock entry system. gram. During her initial consult, the garage parking! client explained that she hated feeling so sore that she couldn’t move for days 866-830-4938 866-498-6143 afterward—a fact that Weathersby 3501 St. Paul Street 500 West University Parkway Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Baltimore, Maryland 21210 incorporated into her individualized workout plan: The client needed to be www.morgan-properties.com pushed just enough to feel something but not to the point of exhaustion. *Certain Restrictions Apply - Limited Time Offer-On Select apartment homes! “She just loved it,” Weathersby says, adding that the woman started losing a pound a week with the plan. “She says, ‘This is the best thing that’s ever hap- pened to me. I can do it in my house, it’s not intimidating, nobody has to see me, and I don’t have to add another errand to my day.’”

Conclusion Weathersby’s online personal training business, Victory Fitness, has been up and running since May and has 12 clients. And Weathersby would like to see this model take off. “Of course I want my company to succeed, but what I really want is for the fitness industry to change,” she says. “I go to these conventions and they’re teaching the same [ideas about how to recruit new members] that they’ve done for years. They’re talking to people who already love fitness and want to feel amped up and pushed to their limits. And I think the goal needs to change. The goal needs to be to reach out to people, find out what their goals are, and help them reach them.”

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 13 ARTIFACT |

14 | johns hopkins magazine BUILDING BRIDGES “Everything we know about innovation chairs, the new Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories on tells us the opportunity to talk shop in a setting that promotes the Homewood campus certainly inspires conversation. easy interchange is critical to discovery,” says Katherine The facility will bring together undergraduate labs and Newman, dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. faculty from five scientific disciplines.Jeanette Der Bedrosian, With 20 teaching labs and a commons area featuring rocking photograph by Karl Connolly

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 15 FOREFRONT

about working conditions, Afghan war veterans pressured to keep silent about their harrowing experiences, At a Glance 1 Ukrainian women recounting the mass starvation and even cannibalism that 1 FILM occurred in their village after Soviet FILM officials took all their grain to Russia. Documenting the Soviet Fall Documenting the Soviet Fall The vivid vignettes reveal the anger 2 at communist rule that became a Brennen Jensen PATIENT CARE groundswell by the late 1980s after Empathy Shortage In 1974, Alexander Shatravka and his Mikhail Gorbachev tried to save the brother Mikhail, both in their 20s, Soviet system by curbing some of its 3 were caught trying to defect from excesses. Making such a film in the BASEBALL HISTORY the Soviet Union. Punishment was Soviet era would have been impossible, The Rub-down Man an involuntary stay at a psychiatric Satter notes. “You couldn’t go around hospital where they were heavily with a camera in those days,” he says. 4 dosed with debilitating drugs. More “Pointing a video camera at someone RESEARCH than 30 years later, author-turned- would have been a little bit like point­ Rewarding Altruism filmmaker David Satter had a camera ing a machine gun at them—they rolling when Alexander was reunited would have been too afraid to talk.” 5 with one of the nurses who adminis- Filming began in 2006. Tracking COMPUTER SCIENCE tered the torturous chemicals. In the down the surviving interviewees from The DNA Data Flood footage, the now-aged woman calls more than 20 years earlier to get their the drugs “completely harmless.” stories on video was difficult, but 6 Shatravka counters that his brother’s local journalists helped. Satter says a PUBLIC HEALTH health was destroyed at the hospital greater challenge came in early 2011, Guns Kill Cops and his death linked to the pharma- when he had 150 hours of raw footage ceutical abuses. The silence that in hand and suddenly parted ways 7 follows is awkward and heartbreaking. with his Russian director over what EDUCATION In the end, he gives her stooped he describes as “artistic and other Personalizing School shoulders a brief hug of forgiveness. disagreements.” Satter put together This scene between two scarred the film himself after a weeklong crash 8 souls is one of the many poignant course in using editing software. “I POP CULTURE moments that make up Satter’s docu­ had no experience, but I also had no (Breaking) Bad Teacher mentary Age of Delirium: The Decline choice,” Satter says. The film won a and Fall of the Soviet Union, which Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Amster- won a Grand Jury Prize at this year’s dam Film Festival and has been well Amsterdam Film Festival and is based received in its scores of showings, largely on his 1996 book of the same including in Russia, Satter says. title, with some new reporting. Satter, He had a purpose in reopening a Foreign Policy Institute fellow at the wounds of a vanished nation. the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced He believes Russia’s present condi- International Studies, lived in the tion, including Vladimir Putin’s Soviet Union between 1976 and 1982 increasingly authoritarian rule and as a reporter for the London Financial the corrup­tion and gangsterism Times. His focus in the film is rank- intertwined with much of the econ- and-file citizens who became disillu- omy, has roots in the sins of the Soviet sioned with the Soviet system: a miner Union. Such connections are the hounded by the KGB for complaining subject of his two other books,

16 | johns hopkins magazine Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State (Yale University Press, 2003) and It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past (Yale University Press, 2011). “The Soviet system destroyed people’s moral sense and the notion of individual conscience,” Satter says. “Only by facing the crimes of the past and understanding them can Russia move forward.” His film, he hopes, will

Illustrat be studied in classrooms as a frank and honest snapshot of life in the USSR. i

on by “The film depicts the real experiences of real people under the Soviets, and for Jason Greenber Jason that reason, I hope it has a long life.” g 2 PATIENT CARE Empathy Shortage Kelly Brooks Kimberly Gudzune spends most of her waking hours obsessing about weight: what to eat, how much to exercise, and how to build a healthy life. As a physician and expert on weight loss and obesity medicine, she’s lent a sympathetic ear to hundreds of over­ weight patients who tell her what it’s got her wondering: Does that affect ress” to reassure, show concern, or like to be treated as lazy, gluttonous, what happens in the doctor’s office? reflect emotions back to the patient. incompetent, and apathetic. Every day, She obtained permission to record “Forming that bond is really crit­ such patients tell her stories of facing 208 patients’ appointments, and ical when thinking about whether the stigma from family, friends, and co- discovered that the 39 doctors they patient will listen to the advice you workers—and from their doctors. had visited provided the same basic give them,” Gudzune says. “When Gudzune, an assistant professor in information on disease, medication, physicians have empathic conversa- the School of Medicine, wanted to learn and healthy living to all patients, tions, their patients have better con- how bad these doctor-patient relation- including those who were overweight. trol of their blood pressure and cho- ships might be, so she started reading However, the doctors were far less lesterol, they’re more satisfied with on the topic. She says she found that empathetic with the overweight group, their care, and they’re more likely to “a lot of health care providers hold less likely to use language such as “I follow through on care.” negative attitudes and in general have can see how you feel” or “I know it’s Her research partner from the less respect for obese patients,” which frustrating, but you’re making prog- Bloomberg School of Public Health,

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 17 FOREFRONT |

Sara Bleich, has further found that The next step is to develop a bit of overweight patients trust overweight empathy for overweight patients. The doctors more than normal-weight students get some Q-and-A time with doctors to give counseling on weight. two formerly obese patients, one who 3 Why? “The shared characteristics help lost weight with lifestyle changes and BASEBALL HISTORY their relationship,” Bleich says. But the other through bariatric surgery. she also discovered that few over- Next, the students embrace a lifestyle weight doctors feel competent to change that doctors often recommend The Rub-down Man counsel patients on nutrition (37 to overweight patients. For one week, Bret McCabe percent) and exercise (38 percent). they choose to follow the South Beach Third baseman John Joseph McGraw That means patients may be better diet (low-carb) or the Ornish diet was 5 feet and maybe 7 inches of off getting weight-related advice from (low-fat), or to walk at least 10,000 never-back-down. He was 17 when he healthy-weight doctors—but only steps each day as measured by a became a Baltimore Oriole in 1892, if those doctors can build enough pedometer. Says Gudzune, “Almost joining a team of pugnacious gents rapport for overweight patients to universally, none of them have been that dominated the 1890s. When he listen to their advice and stick around able to stick with it. They say, ‘Oh my became player-manager of the New for more than an appointment or two. God, I had no idea how hard this is.’” York Giants in 1902, he had a reputa- Overweight and obese patients may hop around from doctor to doctor, looking for one that they like and trust. They are far more likely than healthy-weight patients to “doctor shop,” that is, to visit five or more primary care providers within a two-year period, which means they never develop a relationship and history with a single doctor. Photogra Johns Hopkins has begun trying to train its next generation of doctors p h

to better work with patients of all B weights. First-year med students are ettmann/corbis required to take Topics in Interdisci- plinary Medicine (TIME): Obesity, Nutrition, and Behavior Change, a four-day training on the science of weight management and the impor- tance of the right doctor-patient rela­ tionship. Students begin by facing the uncomfortable question: Do I have a prejudice against overweight people? Many think they don’t until they take Harvard University’s online implicit association test to uncover biases test-takers aren’t even aware they have. The self-reflection is worth- while, says Gudzune, because “once you know you do have a bias, you can make an extra effort to form connec- Early 1900s African-American baseball trainers Ed Mackall (left) and William Buckner tions with patients.”

18 | johns hopkins magazine | FOREFRONT

tion for winning at all costs and, soon, later brought him to the Giants, where League pennants in 1904, 1905, 1911, a nickname: Little Napoleon. Giants Mackall spent the rest of his career 1912, 1913, 1917, and 1921 and the World player-coach Arlie Latham once said before his untimely passing at 46 or 47 Series in 1921. McGraw “eats gunpowder every in 1922. Prior to major league baseball, Washington went on to say that morning and washes it down with Mackall was a trainer at Johns Hopkins Mackall was one of a cadre of esteemed warm blood.” Touchy-feely just wasn’t University from 1890 to 1899. At least, black trainers in the league: Kirby in McGraw’s playbook. And yet, in that appears to be the situation. Samuels of the St. Louis Cardinals, June 1922, when McGraw stood at a University employment records don’t George Asten and Ed LaForce with podium inside a funeral parlor on go back that far. But a few newspaper the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the leg­ Manhattan’s East 72nd Street to articles from the time refer to his endary William “Bill” Buckner of eulogize the Giants’ African-American duties as a trainer at Hopkins. the Chicago White Sox. What’s left trainer Ed Mackall, the national Searching newspaper archives turns unstated is that African-Americans edition of the Chicago Defender up about two dozen stories mention- were accepted in the clubhouse but reported that the Little Napoleon ing Mackall; some are reprints of appre­ not on the fields. One newspaper “brought tears to the eyes of his ciation obituaries, most mere mentions story notes that in the summer of 1919, players” and finally “broke down that simply identify him as the Giants Mackall hid under a passenger train’s from emotion and cried like a child trainer. These fill in his biographical seats when the Giants passed through at the end of his talk.” plot points: At the time of his death, Springfield, Illinois, the site of a race Baseball’s collective memory is he lived with his wife, Nellie, at 64 riot earlier in the year; another reports long, but Mackall’s story remains Kosciuszko Street in Brooklyn. He had that McGraw felt it prudent to send unfamiliar. Most of what’s known a son, name unknown. He was a mem- Mackall back to New York rather than about him fits into a 166-word anec- ber of the Hiram Lodge No. 4 F. & A.M. have him accompany the team to dote about a trophy bearing his name masonic lodge. His favorite hymn was Chicago, where race riots had broken that appears in Inside the Baseball Hall “Abide With Me,” which was sung at out as well. And a short piece in the of Fame, a book published in April by his funeral. His body was returned October 2, 1908, Salt Lake Telegram the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “I to Baltimore and buried next to his points out that one member of the don’t think prior to this book coming mother. Attending his services were Giants isn’t entitled to a share of out that many people knew either that several past and present members of postseason money should the club we had that trophy or who Ed Mackall the Giants organization and the entire make the series: “The unfortunate was,” says Tim Wiles, the director of Bacharach Giants team, the Negro person is Ed Mackall, colored trainer research at the Hall of Fame who National League club based in Atlantic of the club.” researched Mackall and wrote the City. He was once a boxing trainer. He Which is simply to acknowledge short piece in the book. Wiles says was known as “Eddie” and “was one that while Mackall seemed respected he hadn’t known about Mackall prior of the most popular attachés of the and liked by the Giants organization, to looking into him for the book. club and was well liked by every one,” he was still subject to the racism “What I found was a pretty compelling according to a story in the New York Age. that came with being a black man story about an African-American person Mackall was so associated with the in America. The New York Sun sports being involved with major league big-league Giants that in the April 2, writer Frank Graham wrote that the base­ball at a time when we don’t think 1938, edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, Giants considered Mackall not only of African-American people being Chester L. Washington dedicated his a trainer “but guide, philosopher and involved and when social equality in column to sports trainers, the “men friend” in the same paragraph that he the United States was still a pretty behind the stars,” and noted that calls Mackall a “wizard at handling distant dream, both within baseball Mackall “made the New York Giants the club’s baggage” and praises him and society in general.” one of the best physically conditioned via Rudyard Kipling: “Like Gunga Din, Born in Baltimore in 1876, Mackall clubs in the diamond world.” Indeed: he was ‘white, clean white, inside.’” became the trainer—at the time, With the Giants, he maintained the Mackall is never quoted in the “rub-down man” or “rubber”—for arms of famed pitchers Christy articles in which he’s featured, forever McGraw in 1899, when McGraw was Mathewson and “Iron Man” Joe in the margins of his own life’s story. player-manager of the Orioles. McGraw McGinnity, and the club won National One person, at least, saw what he

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 19 FOREFRONT |

brought to the team. When the Giants and those who engage in unsafe sex- is not enough blood for surgeries, won the pennant in 1911, every mem- ual practices. Blood banks also worry transfusions, and for cancer patients ber of the team got a trophy—save that if they offer compensation once, or those with blood diseases.” Mackall. So McGraw took his and had people will hold off donating again The problem is getting worse, it engraved with Mackall’s name and until there is a new offer. he says. The current system of blood presented it to his trainer. At least, A recent study published in collection in many poorer countries so suspect researchers at the Hall of Science, however, argues that some- relies on family or friends responding Fame, where the trophy resides. “We thing more than a pat on the back, to an individual emergency and know that the trophy was awarded to such as a gift card, can indeed moti- donating whatever the patient requires. every player and to the manager on the vate donors in certain instances and “This sort of system can work in close- team,” Wiles says, who notes Mackall’s locations. Mario Macis, an assistant knit communities,” Macis says. But as trophy was donated to the museum in professor at the Carey Business developing countries grow and average 1965. “Our theory is that McGraw took School, says his team of researchers incomes increase, citizens gain access his own trophy and had it reinscribed examined existing studies and con­ to better health care, such as elective and presented it to Ed Mackall. We ducted their own field research in surgery that requires blood. Collecting don’t have any evidence of that, but Europe, Argentina, and the United blood from friends or rela­tives in it’s an educated guess on our part.” States (the latter in partnership with advance of a procedure is inefficient the American Red Cross) on the and sometimes ineffective. It’s better impact of a range of rewards, from to have a supply of blood on hand to T-shirts to one day of paid leave from ensure there will be enough of all work. They found that out of 19 incen- blood types to meet demand. tives tested in the field, 18 increased Currently, WHO is pushing develop- 4 donations. T-shirts and supermarket ing countries to switch from emergency- RESEARCH coupons led to 16 percent more dona- based systems to banking undirected tions at American Red Cross drives, donations. To make this possible, Macis and a one-day paid leave was associ- says standard guidelines against eco­ Rewarding Altruism ated with 40 percent more annual nomic rewards for blood donors should Greg Rienzi donations­ in Italy. In Switzerland, the be reconsidered. “We are asking people Conventional thinking on compensat- offer of a $5 lottery ticket increased to do something outside the norm, to ing blood donors comes down to this: donations by 5 percent, and a $10 gift donate blood anonymously in an unre- Giving should be its own reward. Sure, card in the United States increased stricted way,” he says. “The switch is not offer donors a sticker, a lollipop, or donations by 50 percent. Only one going to happen overnight but has to some marketing swag for their trouble. reward, a free cholesterol test, had no start somewhere.” But the desire to help your fellow man, appreciable impact. Where data were not money, should be the motivation available, no negative effect on blood for overcoming inconvenience or safety was detected. squeamishness about needles. For Macis says that while his study four decades, the World Health Organ­ does not indicate whether or not offer- 5 ization and blood banks around the ing incentives all the time would have world have frowned upon offering eco- the desired long-term effect, results COMPUTER SCIENCE nomic incentives for blood donation, do suggest that incentives would be a out of ethical concerns and the belief good thing for attracting donations that it’s detrimental not just to the during a crisis, such as the aftermath The DNA Data Flood quantity but the quality of the blood of a natural disaster. Economic incen­ Dale Keiger supply. Evidence from various surveys tives could have a greater impact in If a DNA datum lands in a hard drive and research studies has suggested developing countries, Macis says, and no one is there to analyze it, does that substantial perks can actually which currently face serious blood it make a sound? drive away the altruistic and attract shortages. “People are dying due to In April 2003, the NIH-funded unsafe donors such as drug addicts lack of blood supplies. There simply Human Genome Project announced

20 | johns hopkins magazine it was “essentially finished” with the whelmed existing computational DVDs; the resulting stack would create first sequencing of a complete human capability in what computer scientist a tower two miles high. And every year, genome. The project’s website lists the Ben Langmead has termed “a DNA sequencers produce another two-mile cost as $2.7 billion in 1991 dollars (the data deluge.” In an article of that title tower. Langmead, an assistant profes- equivalent of $4.6 billion now, accord- published online by IEEE Spectrum, he sor of computer science in the Whiting ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). estimates that hospitals and laborato- School of Engineering, notes that Ten years later, a genome can be ries from New York to Nairobi now according to Moore’s Law, the speed sequenced for a few thousand dollars operate about 2,000 sequencers that of computer processors approximately using a sequencer small enough to read 15 quadrillion nucleotides and doubles every two years. But from sit on a laboratory bench. Sequenc­ produce 15 petabytes of compressed 2008 to 2013, sequencer throughput ing technology that used to cost genetic data per year. If that increased three to five times per single $300 million now can be had for number means nothing year. “The sequencers are getting $5,000. So research institutions all to you, a) you are faster—faster than the computers over the world are sequencing DNA normal and b) are getting faster,” Langmead says. from humans, animals, plants, maybe this will The problem arises in large part and microbes, rapidly building help: Imagine because the best gene sequencers now the global genomic sciences data- that data stored available cannot simply unzip a double base one nucleotide at a time. on conventional But those nucleotides are coming in a torrent of sequenc- ing information that has over- Illustrat i on

B rucie R osch

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 21 FOREFRONT |

helix of DNA, read the long string does not align with the reference of adenine, cytosine, guanine, and genome because it is evidence of a thymine from beginning to end, then mutation; other times, the explana­ print out a complete and accurate tion is that the sequencer read it 6 genome ready for study. They must wrong. How do you tell which is PUBLIC HEALTH read multiple copies of the same the case, and where does a genuine DNA broken into millions of frag- anomaly fit? “It’s hard to get it right, ments. Then, computers take over, and it’s hard to estimate how right Guns Kill Cops sifting all those fragments, identifying you are,” Langmead says. Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson and ignoring the sequencer’s errors, Working with Michael Schatz, a In 2010, David Swedler set out to better determining the correct order, and quantitative biologist at Cold Spring understand police officer homicides. assembling a single accurate sequence Harbor Laboratory in New York and How and why were cops dying on that’s usable by a researcher. For that co-author of “The DNA Data Deluge,” the job? A doctoral candidate in the last crucial task, Langmead says, there Langmead has created a computa- Bloomberg School of Public Health, is not enough computing power, there tional tool that helps with these Swedler wanted to go beyond the fig­ are not enough good algorithms for problems and can be used on data ures recorded in the U.S. Bureau of accurately assembling the sequencer’s uploaded to cloud servers like those Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occu- fragmentary reads, and there is not operated by Amazon. The latter is pational Injuries. He wanted the sto- enough expertise working on the important because it means a research ries behind the numbers. In pur­suit problem. So valuable data that was lab does not need its own expensive of those stories, Swedler and his expensive to assemble sits unused, computer clusters. research team discovered a valuable waiting for smart people like Lang- “Making algorithms faster is the and previously untapped resource: a mead to figure something out. ultimate,” Langmead says. “But we U.S. Department of Justice data­base His principal job is to write better can’t bank on it. We can’t say, ‘I’m called Law Enforcement Officers algorithms, and think of better ways going to invent three new algorithms to apply them and scale them up to by October.’ They’re sort of magical handle huge datasets. It is a juicy insights.” He believes better sequenc- problem if you are an algorithm ing technology may arrive first. A new guy. DNA is chock full of nucleotide technique called nanopore sequenc- patterns that repeat thousands ing, which reads a DNA strand by of times in a single genome. (The pulling it through a microscopic sequence GATTACA, which supplied pore, might eliminate the need to the title of a 1997 science fiction read multiple strands, which would movie, recurs roughly 697,000 times substantially reduce how much data throughout the human genome.) an algorithm has to handle. Or a Where in the string do they fit? breakthrough might come from Langmead likens it to a square puzzle applying something developed piece of pure blue sky; how do you for another field. This has already figure out where it fits, and how do happened once. An algorithm you accurately sort a thousand of called the Burrows-Wheeler transform them? Assembly algorithms compare was developed to compress text; it snippets of a sequenced genome to turns out it works well at aligning the reference genome put together by fragmentary nucleotide reads, as the Human Genome Project to figure well. “Sometimes,” says Langmead, out where the snippets go in the chain. “the missing piece is just an insight But with so many repetitions, that is about how another tool, invented a mammoth problem made more by someone more brilliant than difficult by the fact that sequencers you, can be translated and used in make mistakes. Sometimes a fragment a new context.”

22 | johns hopkins magazine Killed and Assaulted. The database Exiting his vehicle, the officer walked other personal but accessible details. includes not only basic statistics about to a small one-story house, approached Then they analyze all of that data with police homicides but narrative descrip­ the porch, and was immediately hit by one goal in mind: figuring out how to tions of each violent encounter. The a single round to the chest.” sell you more stuff. researchers had their stories. Swedler says, “We came to this as Now this approach is being piloted Swedler began by reading every a pure occupational health and safety in a field altogether different from narrative covering a two-year span issue. By better understanding what retail sales: education. Educators call and identifying all the details that scenarios these officers are dying in, this personalized learning, and it directly or indirectly contributed to we could help in the discussion about draws on similar kinds of technology each homicide. The team then applied future injury prevention.” For exam- and analytics to customize education a data collection method known as ple, the incidence of police shot with for individual students. The goal here narrative text analysis. “We went their own firearms suggests adoption is to get students to learn more stuff. methodically through every single of “personalized” firearms that can Proponents of personalized learning, case and captured the same data, be fired only by an officer or his or including School of Education Dean and from that we were able to see her partner. Many of the fatal wounds David Andrews, believe it has the the themes and make a consistent were to the head and the neck, where potential to revolutionize education. numerical database,” says Swedler. police lack body armor. “Should “The grocery store does a better job “Using this method is a good way for officers wear Kevlar helmets?” Swedler of managing their data because they’re researchers to get raw epidemiological asks. The number of police killed tracking everything and they’re using data from a population. No one to my when they responded alone to domes- sophisticated analytics to try to figure knowledge has ever used this database tic disturbance calls indicates a need out how to get you to Aisle 4,” Andrews in this way before.” for backup in those situations. “More says. “We’re not using the same The results were published this research like this could contribute to sophisticated analytics in school to spring in the journal Injury Prevention. better training,” Swedler says. “These understand how to lead students The study revealed information that officers are put into very difficult to the best learning strategies.” surprised Swedler. First, an over- situations, and we want to prepare The philosophy underlying whelming number of the officers— them as best we can.” person­alized learning is not new. 93 percent—died from gunshots. Educators have long eschewed a one- “We expected guns to be commonly size-fits-all approach to instruction. used,” Swedler says, “but we thought What’s new here is data. In student- that homicides would be perpetrated centric personalized learn­ing envi- by other means as well. We were really ronments, students work to master surprised by that 93 percent.” In 7 core skills and concepts in their 10 percent of cases, officers were shot preferred ways, some in small peer EDUCATION with their own guns. In 43 percent groups, some via computerized of the homicides, the victims were instruction, some through one-on- working alone, often responding to Personalizing one guidance from a teacher. Teach- domestic disturbance calls. “They School ers digitally record their observations would arrive on the scene and they and student performance data as the would be ambushed and they weren’t Marianne Amoss computers capture student progress prepared,” Swedler says. When you buy paper towels, mascara, click by click. The data are analyzed Reading all the accounts of officers or diapers at Target, you unwittingly and displayed on a dashboard that walking into their deaths was “incred- reveal a lot about yourself and your teachers can access on a daily or ibly depressing,” Swedler says. One consumption habits. Target and other weekly basis to adjust each student’s narrative began, “On April 15 at approx­ savvy retailers track what you buy, course, ensuring he receives learning imately 17:15, a 29-year-old patrol officer monitor your credit card purchases material tailored to his needs, inter- was fatally wounded when he responded and website visits, and link that data ests, and learning preferences. At the to a domestic disturbance call. The offi- to demographic information—your beginning of each new school year, cer . . . was the first officer on the scene. marital status, your ethnicity, and teachers review the profiles of their

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 23 FOREFRONT |

incoming students to be better pre­ step will be adding enhanced data explores Rancière’s radical reconcep- pared to teach well. collection and technological capa­city tualization of the education process. To pull off personalized learning, to the school’s Success for All liter - In Breaking Bad’s fourth-season schools need to switch from a focus on acy program, an evidence-based story arc—which follows how Walter summative data (grades on midterm system created by Johns Hopkins White, the high school chemistry exams, papers, or tests; scores gath- education researchers. teacher turned methamphetamine ered at the end of a project or semes- Personalized learning isn’t just manufacturer, and his partner, Jesse, ter, etc.) to more-frequently gathered an opportunity—it’s also a mandate a former student, get embroiled with formative data (more-timely measures for educators, Andrews believes. “In drug dealer Gus Fring—Chambers of skill level, mastery of concepts, the next generation, because of the saw relationships develop that etc.)—and then put that data to more information age, learners are going illustrate Rancière’s thoughts on strategic use. “Teachers are observing to expect that [everything they do is] two different models of teaching. students all the time and making personalized,” Andrews says. “It’s The result is “Walter White Is a Bad qualitative judgments about what’s becoming an expectation of learners Teacher: Pedagogy, Partage, and happening,” Andrews says. “They’re that we’re going to have to meet.” Politics in Season 4 of Breaking Bad,” just not tracking it.” a paper forthcoming in the journal Instituting this new methodology Theory & Event. will be no small feat. The required Chambers opens “Bad Teacher” technology is costly, and teachers will with a compact introduction to his have to be trained on the new system reading of Rancière’s thoughts on and then find the time to gather, enter, 8 pedagogy. To Rancière, teaching and fully utilize student data. There is a traditionally relies exclusively on POP CULTURE risk of widening the gap between the explanation: An instructor assigns a haves and the have-nots: In school text to students, who read it and systems that can’t afford to implement (Breaking) Bad return to class, where the instructor personalized learning, struggling Teacher lectures from the position of being students may end up even further the expert on the subject. To explain behind their peers who attend better- Bret McCabe a text to someone who has read it is funded schools. Political theorist Samuel Chambers “to treat that person like a brute who If the access issue can be solved, was finishing up his book about is incapable of understanding,” “I think it can be an equalizer,” says contemporary French philosopher Chambers writes in the paper, and Andrews, who is writing a book on per- Jacques Rancière when the fourth this relationship not only assumes sonalized learning to be published in season of Breaking Bad began airing in students lack the ability to understand 2014. Johns Hopkins plans to imple- the fall of 2011. The associate professor what they read without the teacher’s ment the idea at Elmer A. Henderson in the Krieger School’s Department of explanation, it makes sure they won’t School in East Baltimore. Known as Political Science is no stranger to learn. Chambers calls this sort of Henderson-Hopkins, the K–8 school is watching popular culture through a teacher the stultifier, since explana- a contract school of the Baltimore City political prism. His 2009 book The tion, for Rancière, leads to stultifica- public school system and Hopkins’ Queer Politics of Television treats tion in the student. The goal of School of Education, in partnership television shows such as The L Word, education should not be to stultify with Morgan State University’s School Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Six Feet students but to emancipate them— of Education and Urban Studies. The Under as political texts, discussing or as Chambers quotes Rancière, “to new 90,000-square-foot facility is how they articulate political meanings oblige . . . the student to use his own scheduled to open in January 2014, and ideas. But in Breaking Bad, he intelligence.” Chambers teases this and like other personalized learning encountered a storyline that drama- idea out further, arguing that an schools features flexible common tized some of the ideas he wrestled emancipatory teacher ideally provides areas that can be used for collabora- with in his academic work. the experience for the student to tive student work and hands-on For The Lessons of Rancière (Oxford realize the “equality of intelligence” activities. Andrews says the first University Press, 2012), Chambers between student and teacher.

24 | johns hopkins magazine Frank O cken f els/amc

Chambers’ critical reading of ested in the relation between the world interpret Season 4 as a contest Breaking Bad understands White as the constructed by a TV series and the between Walt and Gus waged not stultifier and Fring as the emancipator world that we live in. This is one of the just in terms of power and force, in their relationships with Jesse. It’s a many reasons why I think the peda- but in terms of a competition over refreshingly novel way to think about gogical relationships in Breaking Bad Jesse as student. I think that most the show. Walter White is normally are potentially important, because traditional pedagogies would be treated as just another of television’s pedagogical relations are ubiquitous, unable to see Gus as a teacher, since morally flawed male anti-heroes. and in Rancière’s argument, we see he doesn’t really do any traditional Chambers’ reading places White and that the question of emancipation (of teaching. But Rancière’s pedagogy, Breaking Bad in an American context human freedom) is bound up with the in which the teacher can ‘teach what where the story has more going on question of students and teachers, of he does not know,’ makes possible than the cat-and-mouse game between learning and teaching.” an entirely different way of viewing White and his brother-in-law (and Chambers adds, “The main claim Gus. And more to the point, reading DEA agent) Hank. “There’s more at in my article can in some ways be Season 4 as a pair of competing stake in the cultural politics of TV boiled down to this: We see the stakes pedagogical relationships (Gus/Jesse than drawing the viewer to flawed of the cultural politics of Breaking vs. Walt/Jesse) gives us a whole new men,” Chambers writes. “I’m inter- Bad much more starkly when we view of Walt.”

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 25 EVIDENCE |

A simple change on Facebook prompted a surge in organ donor registration.

Micrograph of a prostate adenocarcinoma. 60000 Facebook status updates 40000 New online registrations

20000 Baseline registrations left: right: 10000 NEPHRON The Americ 6000 4000 a 2000 n Journ

1000 a l of Tr

600 a

400 nspl Updates/registrations (log scale) a n 7. 6x 4. 2x 2. 5x 2. 7x 2. 3x 2. 2x 1. 9x 1. 5x 1. 6x 1. 2x 1. 1x tat

200 21.1x 20.1x ion Facebook effect 100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 20

Date (May 2012)

EYES AND EARS CHEER UP Patients under treatment for “wet” Bad news for grumps: Men and women age-related macular degeneration now with cheerful temperaments are less must receive injections in the eye as likely to have heart attacks or suffer By Dale Keiger often as once per month. A new drug sudden cardiac death. Researchers found For more information with a time-release coating, which proved that positive outlooks were associated on these Johns Hopkins effective in laboratory mice, could reduce with a one-third reduction in coronary research findings, click the need for injections to only two or events. They noted that the mechanism on the stories. three times per year. behind the positive effects of cheerful- ness is not clear, which is perhaps Hearing loss can have a profound effect something to be grumpy about. on the health of older adults. Survey data from 1,140 hearing-impaired men Nursing research determined that a and women aged 70 and older found home-based program called “Beat the they were 32 percent more likely to be Blues” helped more than two-thirds admitted to a hospital than a control of financially strained older African- group of older adults with normal Americans reduce symptoms of depres- hearing. They also were 36 percent more sion. When members of the control group likely to experience prolonged illness were added to participants after four or injury and 57 percent more likely to months, they too benefited. experience deep stress or depression. In May 2012, after Facebook facilitated users sharing their organ donor status online and registering as donors with state departments of motor vehicles,

26 | johns hopkins magazine Damage to a retina from “wet” macular degeneration.

left: R Gas spiraling around a black hole emits high-energy X-rays. ight: NaS Nat A ion a l E ye I ns t i t u t e, NIH

new donor registrations increased more hurtles through the solar system. Later DON’T WAIT AND SEE than 20-fold in the first day, according to this year, it may become so bright as to African-American men diagnosed with a new study. Twelve days later, registra- be visible from Earth in daylight. very low–risk prostate cancer are much tions were still running at twice the more likely than white men to actually normal rate. IGNORING WHAT WORKS have an unrecognized aggressive form of the cancer. A study of 1,800 men ages Holding liquor retailers liable for harm SPACE GAS 52 to 62 found that delaying treatment in caused by patrons who were drunk or favor of monitoring the cancer through Astrophysicists have demonstrated that underage when served has been found an “active surveillance” plan may be the not only can black holes produce the to reduce that harm in states that have wrong course of action for black men. high-energy X-rays previously noted in “commercial host liability” laws. Never- observations, it is inevitable that they theless, a new study found that several will do so. The scientists used super­ states have enacted laws to protect computer-generated simulations and retailers from such liability. calculations done by hand on notepads— When pediatricians use trained medical yes, you read that correctly—to create interpreters in dealing with families that a model of how a super-heated corona speak limited English, medical outcomes of gas spiraling around a black hole improve and there are fewer errors. But produces the X-rays. two national studies found that 57 percent The Spitzer Space Telescope observed of surveyed pediatricians rely not on inter­ Comet ISON emitting 120 million pounds preters but on family members, despite of dust and 2.2 million pounds of what is the greater likelihood of miscommunica- probably carbon dioxide every day. Space tion or mistakes. scientists are studying the comet as it

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 27 28 | johns hopkins magazine A LOT TO LEARN

Researchers from across the university have banded together to understand how our brains learn. First question: What, exactly, does that mean?

Dale Keiger Illustrations Simon Spilsbury

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 29 arry Gordon is a voluble man on research and scholarly disciplines scattered the subject of the human brain. across Johns Hopkins’ divisions, institutes, and There is a volubility even in the centers to create initiatives that would capture inventory of his professional disci- the imagination of donors. plines: neurology, cognitive neuro- The brain science conversation initially Bscience, neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, focused on neuroscience. At some point—the experimental psychology. (Formally, he is a pro- participants are fuzzy on precisely when—the dis- fessor of neurology at the School of Medicine cussion shifted. Barbara Landau, a professor in and professor of cognitive science at the Krieger the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences’ Depart- School of Arts and Sciences.) Ask him about the ment of Cognitive Science and vice provost for brain, which he has been studying at Johns Hop- faculty affairs, recalls, “Somewhere along the line kins since the 1970s, and he can riff for 20 min - somebody came up with the idea that what could utes about what is known and how much is not be a focus of all these different efforts was learn- known, and the oddities of memory and the con- ing, with an emphasis on the science of learning.” servation of brain biochemistry across eons of That paradigm shift created the opportunity to evolution and questions that no one can answer pull in other parts of the university, including despite centuries of pondering. How do we learn education, engineering, and humanities, for cre- to pronounce words? Good question. Why are ation of a major new research collaboration. most of us, once past age 5, unable to learn to When an anonymous donor came through with a pronounce a foreign language like a native major gift, the Johns Hopkins Science of Learn- speaker? Another good question. The typical ing Institute was born with Landau as its director. human brain has associative skills that no com- The institute’s creation could be regarded as puter can match. You can look at a bucket and a formal recognition of a paradox. Many life forms shot glass and despite their differences your learn. Some of them learn well. But they do not brain immediately associates them as vessels approach the ability of humans to learn. For all that hold liquid. How does it do that? Why did it that ability, though, after millennia of study and take Gordon’s own autistic son years to learn he research and thought, we still do not have a com- had to close his mouth when swimming so as not plete understanding of how we learn. One could to choke, yet he can remember and place a go deeper and say that we are in the process of license plate number he glimpsed only once learning how to learn about learning. Were you to three years ago? “My science should be able to imagine a pile of everything known about cogni- explain this,” Gordon says. “But it doesn’t.” tion, memory, reasoning, brain chemistry, and all Late in 2011, Gordon was brought into a small the other ways the brain works, it would be a large network of people who for a few years had been pile. We do know a lot. But do we understand how discussing the ways and means of supporting one day a child learns that the string of letters on and expanding mind/brain science at Johns Hop- a page of her favorite book means “Hop on Pop”? kins. The ways part of the conversation centered Do we know what happens in the brain when on acknowledging that while Hopkins was strong someone learns that depressing the right set of across several disciplines—cognitive science, keys on a piano produces an E major chord, or a neuroscience, neurology, psychology, and law student memorizes enough law to pass the more—those disciplines did not interact as well bar exam, or a stroke victim learns to speak as they might. The means part concerned the again? Do we know how best to teach whatever “Rising to the Challenge” fundraising campaign, needs to be learned by schoolchildren and college which had begun its quiet phase in January 2010 students and adult workers in need of retraining and was to be publicly launched in 2013. The for a new economy? No. Most of our answers to institution’s development strategists were these and similar questions are partial, at best. assembling a set of signature campaign initia- One of Gordon’s riffs concerns how the basic tives meant to attract major gifts for work on biochemical building blocks of the human brain some of humanity’s biggest problems. Funda- have been around for hundreds of millions of mental to that effort would be bringing together years, which to him makes the brain an assem-

30 | johns hopkins magazine blage of very old technology: “So what is it about trying to recreate an experiment he read about in the human brain and our culture that takes this Scientific American that involved training goldfish. ancient hardware and just 18 years or less of edu- “Didn’t quite work out, but it was fun,” Huganir cation and produces, somehow, a generalized recalls. “Goldfish actually learn pretty well.” learning machine that seems so much bigger Forty-two years later as director of the School than the sum of its parts?” of Medicine’s Neuroscience Department, Good question. Huganir is still studying memory, though mice have replaced the goldfish. He now concentrates earning is not an elective. “We are on the physiology of the brain’s synapses, the forced to learn,” Gordon says. “We’re structures that enable transmission of nerve born helpless. We stay helpless for a impulses between neurons. One theory of learn- long time. We don’t consider our chil- ing maintains that when you learn something, dren ready to go into the world until your brain has either created a new synaptic cir- Lthey’re 18. It takes a lifetime of learning to learn cuit or strengthened an existing one. The ability how to live.” to recall what you have learned is actually the That lifetime of learning is a lifetime of accu- reactivation of that chemical-electrical circuit. mulating memories. Richard Huganir became fas- To figure out how that happens, the researchers cinated by memory before he was one of those in Huganir’s lab work at the cellular and molecu- 18-year-olds deemed ready to go into the world. lar level. “It’s an interesting biological problem,” “When I got to high school, it occurred to me that he says. “A memory has to be physically encoded what made me unique was memory and my experi- in your brain and has to be stable for decades. ences,” he says. “That’s what makes us who we But the brain is not a computer circuit. It’s not are.” He still has a notebook he compiled for a high hard-wired. It’s made of proteins and lipids, and school science project in 1971. On its pages are all these things turn over in the brain and get notes about memory and protein synthesis. He was degraded. If a memory is really the synaptic

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 31 circuit, how do you maintain that circuit within McCloskey has been working closely with a this very mushy, dynamic brain?” girl who has an abnormal tangle of blood vessels Another aspect of memory that fascinates in her brain known as an arteriovenous malfor- Huganir is the role of emotion. We learn, some- mation, which he calls “a big tangled mess that’s times for life, from emotional events because not supposed to be there.” The blood vessels of something about emotion makes for vivid mem- an AVM are prone to leaking, and when this girl ories. Huganir notes that such events release was 11, her malformation hemorrhaged. Now 13, neuromodulators in the brain, chemicals like she has come back to nearly normal motor func- norepinephrine and dopamine that seem to tap tions and speech and cognitive abilities, but for into memory circuits and strengthen them. But one baffling thing—when she looks at letters or memories, powerful as they may be, are not as digits, all she sees are blurred, unrecognizable locked into our brains as once thought, at least shapes. Display a drawing of a peanut and she not immediately. One of Huganir’s most star- sees it perfectly. Put the peanut inside a 4, or tling findings is that traumatic memories can be even merely close to a 4, and it becomes an indis- erased, or at least the fear associated with them tinct blob. Show her one circle placed close can be erased. “What this means, basically, is above another, and she sees them and recognizes that you can edit your memory,” he says. “So if that they suggest the numeral 8. Bring the circles you have a memory event, the memory is not together and as soon as they touch they become that stable. You can recall it and modify it at later indistinguishable blurs. “It’s stunningly spe- dates.” But there appears to be a deadline for this cific,” McCloskey says. Another of McCloskey’s sort of revision. If a memory that generates fear subjects is a 60-year-old engineering geologist is not “edited” within about a week, Huganir with a neurodegenerative disease who can read says, it becomes locked into our brains as trau- just fine. But display a digit and he cannot see it. matic. He has been working on extending the He has lost none of the ability with mathematics deadline and thinks his research team may have essential to his work, and he can read Roman found a pathway into traumatic memory that numerals and number words like “thirty” or could permit erasing it as much as a year after its “nine,” but he cannot distinguish one Arabic formation. He is working with Barbara Slusher at digit from another. the Brain Science Institute to develop a com- McCloskey says, “These are clearly learning- pound that will help tap into this pathway. In the related problems. If we give any of them a ran - Science of Learning Institute, he is working on dom shape of some kind, they can see it perfectly the science of unlearning. well. Stored knowledge or processes that have been acquired are getting activated when they science of relearning is practiced look at these things, but then something goes by Michael McCloskey, a profes- terribly wrong.” sor of cognitive science in the For the engineering geologist, McCloskey and Krieger School. McCloskey stud- his team devised a new system of marks that rep- ies people with unusual impair- resent the values 0 through 9. These the geologist Aments that have left them unable to do some- can not only see but use mathematically to con- thing they learned to do as children. He has been tinue his engineering work. This raises interest- working with a small group of people who have ing questions about learning, McCloskey says. suffered brain impairments that have left them For example, when the man was a child too unable to recognize letters or digits. Nothing is young to have learned the concepts represented wrong with their memories—they did not forget by numbers, he still could see them. After his letters and numbers. But when they look at an A stroke, he could not see them because they were or a Q or a 9, they simply cannot recognize it. numbers, which means the problem stemmed They can still speak, they can still write, and from the fact that earlier he had learned what their vision is otherwise normal. But something numbers are. If he had never learned numbers, has happened that has left them unable to look they would not now be distorted beyond recogni- at an X or an 8 and see them. tion. How do you explain that? And how can you

32 | johns hopkins magazine explain that by learning a new system of marks, more specific “acquisition of knowledge” work he could see “numbers” again? Good question. as a definition of learning? Well, what about In experiments with the 13-year-old who can- acquisition of a motor skill? We say our toddler not see letters, he found that when he modified has “learned” how to walk. But it is far from clear the forms of letters in certain ways, she began to that this amounts to “acquired knowledge of recognize them. He recalls, “Someone said, walking,” unless balance and coordination and ‘Well, why don’t you just put lines through the muscle memory count as knowledge. “So does text?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that won’t work.’” He And however we define learning, when have any kind of laughs about that now, because when they took we crossed from “learning” to “learned”? Some acquisition a few sentences of text on a computer screen and types of learning are not a matter of degree. count as changed the font so as to cross every letter with Either you know that three is an odd number and learning? What a double line—the double strikethrough often Sacramento is the capital of California, or you do do I mean by used in legal documents—suddenly the girl not. But returning to his example of ordering a ‘acquisition’? could read, no problem. A single line does not bottle of wine in a French café, Gross points out That there was work. It has to be double. The lines also have to that knowing enough of the language to over- a time when I be in the right place through the letters. Too spend on a bottle of wine does not mean you didn’t have it, high or too low and they do not work. “Do we could teach a graduate seminar at the Sorbonne. know why?” McCloskey says. “No, not really.” So at what point have you learned to speak and a time French? When you know 10,000 French words? when I do have ONE WAY TO understand the dimension of the When you can discuss Camus in a classroom in it, so now I’ve challenge faced by the science of learning is to Paris? When you dream in French? learned it?” consider the difficulty of simply being clear on Steven Gross what counts as learning. A science needs a clear ariale Hardiman has watched conception of itself and its subject. Imagine all of this activity intently. doing biophysics without clarity on what was Hardiman is a co-founder and meant by “biophysics.” Steven Gross knows a lot the director of the School of of science, but he is not a scientist. He is an asso- Education’s Neuro-Education ciate professor of philosophy in the Krieger Initiative,M which was first funded by the Brain School who pays close attention to the work of Science Institute and created to further the cognitive scientists in his study of the philoso- application of brain science to education. “We phy of mind. His role in the Science of Learning started it with the goal that teachers should Institute is to think about what it really means to know what the science is and have translations have learned something. so they can use it in their classrooms. Teachers He points out that learning is far more com- need to understand research to avoid ‘neuro- plex than a simple matter of yesterday you didn’t myths’ like the ‘Mozart effect’”—the spurious know how to order wine in French, and today you idea that exposing children to classical music do. Because you have acquired sufficient vocabu- could increase their intelligence—“and to be lary, grammar, and syntax to procure a bottle of able to parse research to understand it. We need Côte de Beaune, does that mean you have learned to teach that in teacher preparation programs.” at least some French? Seems like a reasonable Susan Magsamen, director of interdisciplin- proposition. Then Gross asks, “So does any kind ary partnerships at Hopkins’ Brain Science Insti- of acquisition count as learning? What do I mean tute and another co-founder of the Neuro-Educa- by ‘acquisition’? That there was a time when I tion Initiative, says, “We know a lot about how didn’t have it, and a time when I do have it, so people learn at optimal levels. But education and now I’ve learned it?” Yes, that seems right. OK, the science of learning are so disconnected. We Gross responds, then what about this: One day know so much from looking at optimal hours of an adolescent boy’s voice cracks and he sprouts the day for different kinds of learning, thinking whiskers on his chin. He has acquired secondary about nutrition, thinking about exercise and sexual characteristics. Does that mean he has learning, thinking about stress and learning. learned them? No, that seems silly. So would the But it has not been rigorously applied.” School

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 33 systems adopt new ideas because they seem same lesson content but without the art. The good and because other educators are excited results were interesting. Tested shortly after the about them, not because anybody knows whether lessons, the arts group showed no better reten- or not they work. “That’s very different from an tion than the control group. But when the evidence-based approach to learning. Many researchers tested the kids again three months schools of education are still operating like later, they found those who had been taught con- they’re in the 1950s.” tent through the arts had retained significantly One example of the evidence-based approach: more than those taught through conventional Hardiman has subjected work of the Neuro-Edu- instruction. Hardiman has a grant from the U.S. cation Initiative to outcomes research. “We say Department of Education to study arts integra- “We have that teachers should have knowledge of neuro tion in 16 more classrooms this autumn. and cognitive science,” she says. “But in reality, “We’re learning a lot about memory at the found that the what difference does that knowledge make in molecular level,” Hardiman says. “We know bio- information teacher practice? Does it make any difference? Or logically something is happening. Now, do teach- we’re giving is it just some thought I and others have that ers need to know those biological mechanisms? about neuro teachers need to know this?” To find out, she and No. But do they need to know that something is and cognitive a research team gave four cohorts of teachers happening in a child’s brain when she remem- science has about 30 hours of professional development bers information, and that they can change that significantly instruction in brain science, and surveyed them biology if they use certain techniques? That is improved before and after the training. The researchers what they need to know.” teachers’ beliefs found that the instruction significantly improved in their own teachers’ knowledge of brain science and their he Science of Learning Institute’s attitudes toward applying it to the classroom. Of efficacy and the website currently links to 64 more importance, Hardiman says, was their find- researchers. A glance at their proj- general efficacy ing that after learning about the science, more ects suggests the scope of the insti- of teaching.” teachers believed they really could improve the tute’s disciplinary diversity. Randal Mariale Hardiman lives of children. “An example of a teacher who Burns,T an associate professor of computer sci- does not have a belief in efficacy of teaching is ence in the Whiting School of Engineering, is one who is teaching children in poverty and says, working on systems to help reverse engineer the ‘You know what? There’s only so much we can neurophysiology of mammalian brains. Donald do.’ We have found that the information we’re Geman, a professor of applied mathematics, giving about neuro and cognitive science has sig- works on statistical learning. Biomedical engi- nificantly improved teachers’ beliefs in their own neer Reza Shadmehr works on human move- efficacy and the general efficacy of teaching.” The ment control. Jacob Vogelstein at the Applied group most affected, she says, was novice teach- Physics Laboratory works on neuromorphic ers, which is important because research shows engineering—development of hardware systems most teachers leave the profession in the first five that emulate the brain. Lisa Feigenson and Jus- years. “If we can use science to help teachers tin Halberda in Psychological and Brain Sciences believe more in the power of teaching, that’s a study how infants learn. David Andrews, dean of huge contribution to the field of education.” the School of Education, researches individual- In her research, Hardiman has tested use of ized learning. Soojin Park, another cognitive sci- the arts in classroom lessons to improve reten- entist in the Krieger School, works on how the tion of information: for example, having stu- brain learns to recognize scenes. “I know when I dents in history class draw pictures, or put his- walk into a room that it is an office, not a kitchen, torical details into songs, or create imaginary and I know it is a familiar place that I’ve been,” personal letters from the people in the lesson. she says. “These are things that we do automati- She and some of her postdoctoral fellows stud- cally. I’m trying to find out how we do it. It’s actu- ied 100 children in a Baltimore city school; the ally an amazing ability.” She notes that seconds experimental group received instruction with after she wakes up in the morning, her brain has arts integration while the control group got the perfectly oriented her. How?

34 | johns hopkins magazine The institute does not yet have plans for a dedicated building, though several of those involved in its creation point out the virtues of putting people from various disciplines in one place. Brenda Rapp, a professor of cognitive sci- ence in the Krieger School, says, “The physical distances between people at this university are an obstacle to collaboration. Just having to go across the breezeway is an obstacle. It reduces those sorts of encounters you have when you’re just getting coffee, which can be valuable as a basis to develop things. Brainstorming is a pow- erful mechanism. Sometimes you just need to work things out alone, but I see it all the time: I feel like I’ve really thought about something and I have some ideas, and then I go into my lab and start talking to a couple of people and we’ll make so much more progress. Because we’re not phys- ically together, I think it’s less likely for that spontaneous thing to happen.” The institute has begun making research grants. So far it has funded seven projects whose investigators work in an array of disciplines that a whole bunch of individuals hacking at the exemplify the scope of its inquiry: neuroscience, problem separately, the institute gives us a neurology, psychology, computer science, cogni- chance to look at the bigger picture. It’s an tive science, biomedical engineering, mechani- attempt to apply the reductionist framework cal engineering, applied mathematics, educa- with error correction, because your colleagues tion, radiology, surgery, and biostatistics. The will tell you when you’re doing it wrong and say, grants cover two years and have titles like “The ‘Let’s try another way.’” Role of Astrocytes in Reward-based Learning,” When talking about learning, Gordon brings “Cognitive, Neural, and Translational Implica- up the work of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel. Kan- tions of a New Reading Disorder,” and “Defining del won the Nobel for his research on the neural the Genetic Basis for Individual Differences in system of Aplysia, a type of sea slug. To the extent Learning.” Next January, the institute will host a that Aplysia can be said to think and learn, it two-day symposium to discuss issues such as does so with neurons and biochemistry similar critical periods for learning and math anxiety in to what is found in the human brain. “Sea slugs the classroom. and us separated a long, long time ago in evolu- If the institute does a better job of figuring tion, and no one suspected that the basic bio - out how the brain learns, perhaps it will be in chemistry had been conserved across so many part because it has mimicked the brain as an species and gaps in biologic time,” Gordon says. assemblage of distinct but interconnected con- “That implies to me that the magic of how we’re stituent parts, each part performing a different different, which includes how we learn, has to be function but contributing to a collective store- in how everything is put together, not in the house of knowledge, with new connections parts themselves being so much better. Sure, forming day by day. “Science proceeds by reduc- there has been some improvement in the hard- tionism because that has been proven to be a ware, but is that enough to explain why Aplysia useful approach,” Barry Gordon says. “But reduc- is not conscious and learning? Why aren’t there tionism has an end point at which it may not schools full of Aplysia kids?” work, in which case you need to look at a differ- Good question. ent frame, or a broader context. Rather than have Dale Keiger, A&S ’11 (MLA), is the magazine’s associate editor.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 35 Empty Nest Michael George and Chad Lord have spent five years trying to adopt a child. They’re not giving up.

Rachel Stewart Johnson | Photography Stacy Zarin-Goldberg

36 | johns hopkins magazine Empty Nest

Michael George (right) and Chad Lord

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 37 his fall, Michael George and Chad ples. A handful of other states have effectively Lord mark a milestone: the fifth blocked such adoption using less direct language, anniversary of their quest to adopt a such as Utah’s prohibition of adoption by anyone newborn. After varied efforts and cohabiting outside a legally valid marriage. Emily thousands of dollars, the married Hecht-McGowan of the Family Equality Council Tcouple from Washington, D.C., remains childless. says her organization receives frequent requests for Two spaces in their home sit unused: One is a help from same-sex couples seeking to adopt. The nursery, fully furnished. The other is “Grandma’s lack of legal protections are often to blame. She apartment,” a basement unit the couple built for explains, “Even in places where they don’t encoun- George’s mother, who intends to move in when a ter bias or stigma outright, if there’s a same-sex baby arrives. Preparing these rooms has been one couple that wants to create a family in a state where way for George, SAIS ’03, and Lord to busy them- it’s not statutorily mandated—if it’s not written selves as they wait for an infant. into the law that unmarried couples can petition to Another way has been to work on the one task jointly adopt children—only one of those people that might hasten the day they become fathers: can adopt the child. So in those cases, the child trying to attract the notice of a birthmother who only has a legal relationship with one parent.” will choose them to parent her child. At least twice The Family Equality Council is among several a week since they started the Facebook page advocacy organizations backing a federal fix: the “Chad and Mike’s Open Adoption,” the couple Every Child Deserves a Family Act. Reintroduced in posts a new photograph to illustrate their lives. Congress this year after it was first sponsored by Some have captions that repeat a phrase: We can’t lawmakers in 2009, the law would prohibit the use wait to bring our child to watch the Nats play in per- of sexual orientation or marital status as a criterion son! We can’t wait to bring a little one here to sled! We for placing a child with foster or adoptive parents. can’t wait to enjoy family days at our local museums! Although the measure would ease bias against A portrait is painted of a quaint childhood: watch- same-sex families, advocates don’t expect it to pass ing the backyard bunnies eat up the spring’s soon. “But it’s been a great opportunity to do edu- black-eyed Susans or swinging on a tree that the cation on this issue,” Hecht-McGowan offers. neighborhood kids call “Napoleon.” “When the time is right, we’ll be able to move it.” As the sixth year of their journey begins, the Legal problems for gay and lesbian parents men are still waiting. Says George, “There are extend beyond U.S. borders. Although interna- those moments where you slow down and you tional adoptions are now in decline for Americans start thinking, ‘When is this going to happen? overall, this route was long a viable path to parent- What’s wrong with us?’” hood for many. The narrowing opportunity has already been effectively cut off for the gay com- A WASHINGTON POST/ABC poll conducted in munity. Dawn Davenport, executive director of March found that 70 percent of adults under age 40 Creating a Family, a nonprofit education and support gay marriage. Thirteen states have legal- advocacy organization, advises against a gay or ized it, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that lesbian couple trying an out-of-country arrange- gay married couples cannot be denied federal ben- ment. “Quite frankly, it’s not usually a good choice efits. But gay couples trying to adopt children learn because most foreign countries do not knowingly that both legal and cultural impediments still exist. place a child with homosexual parents,” she says. Most states lack legal protections to guard Then there is the lingering problem of a cul- against favoring heterosexual parents over gays and ture long imbued with the belief that children lesbians in adoption and foster care placements, need the complementary roles that mothers and and the landscape has historically been unfriendly fathers provide. “Virtually every birthmother who toward same-sex couples as parents. A 1977 law in comes to us with an adoption plan, the reason Florida that stood for more than 30 years expressly she’s making a plan is because she wants her child forbade any homosexual person from adopting a to have a mother and a father,” says Charles Ander- child. Mississippi enacted a law in 2000, still stand- son, director of professional services for the New ing, that forbids joint adoption by same-sex cou- Mexico Christian Children’s Home. Anderson did

38 | johns hopkins magazine not say he would turn away a gay couple seeking to position before their file was complete. A second adopt. He simply would offer little optimism that individual then caused a delay when a report they could make it out of the pool of candidates. went missing. “We were unlucky,” says Lord. The Catholic Church has been an opponent of More than a year later, having completed the same-sex adoption. Catholic Charities USA shut home study, the couple found themselves largely down its state-supported foster care and adoption on their own to tackle the biggest obstacle: making programs in Illinois in 2011 rather than comply themselves known to prospective birthmothers. with a newly passed state law prohibiting bias For most adoptive parents these days, that means against the gay community in the placement of more than simply waiting for a phone call. Birth- children. In March of this year, Bishop David J. mother searches now crisscross social media, with Malloy of the Diocese of Rockford issued a letter those who are well-resourced achieving results that in which he called the state’s progress toward take on the look of a marketing campaign: YouTube legalizing same-sex marriage a “deplorable mis- videos, toll-free phone numbers, jazzy personal step.” He went on to cite the impact on children, websites with domain names like adoptyourbaby Birthmother “who have a right to a mother and a father.” Penny .org or gayadoptivedads.com. “It’s like opening a searches now Wiegert, editor of the Catholic newspaper The small business,” George says. Third-party profes- crisscross social Observer and director of communications for the sionals now pitch their services to adoption hope- media, with Rockford Diocese, wrote in an email correspon- fuls, offering help setting up a website, for example, those who are dence that the diocese “really had no other ethical or creating an eye-catching profile. well-resourced choice” but to discontinue state-funded adop- “I came into this with a preconceived notion of achieving results an agency that was going to help walk us through tions. It was morality over practicality. “The deci- that take on sion was a sacrifice,” she added. this,” Lord says. “But the truth is, it’s independent. the look of a So it didn’t quite click at first what that meant. It’s eorge and Lord received a mixed been kind of shocking to me how much marketing marketing response early in their adoption we need to do, and that’s not our strong suit.” campaign. journey. “There are a lot of adop- George agrees that there is a mismatch tion agencies out there that are between the self-promotion that now character- religiously based,” says George. izes birthmother searches and the introverted “WeG had talked to a few—some of them had said, natures that he and Lord share. “That’s another ‘We’ll work with you, but you’re roommates to thing that we didn’t realize getting into this—how us.’ Several other adoption agencies never even much more vulnerable you are when you have to returned our phone calls.” They eventually chose expose this very private issue of starting a family the Independent Adoption Center, an adoption with as large an audience as possible,” he says. facilitator that touts its inclusivity. “At that point, And then there are the heartbreaks. In 2011, a we’d been together eight years, and we were in pregnant woman contacted George and Lord and our late 30s, and we thought, we’re too old to pre- led them to believe she’d chosen them to adopt tend,” George says. “We said we have to find an her unborn child. They traveled out of the D.C. adoption agency that will not only tolerate us area to meet her. They stepped up their prepara- being in their pool but will celebrate it.” tions, furnishing the nursery and purchasing an Once they signed on with an adoption agency, infant car seat. Not long before the woman’s due they next needed to complete a home study pro- date, she stopped returning their calls and emails. cess to show they could provide a fit home for a Then the couple fell victim to a hoax in July of child. Home study—which any potential adoptive this year, when another woman contacted them, parents must complete—includes a battery of claiming to be scheduled for a Casesarian section assessments, such as in-person interviews, finan- the following week. Scams targeting prospective cial reports, and home inspections. It is also adoptive parents are not uncommon, and agen- meant to prepare and educate prospective par- cies do have some safeguards in place to detect ents. This process lagged for George and Lord, in them. The men had been told to be wary of what the couple considers random misfortune. women claiming to be pregnant with twins. This The social worker assigned to their case left her call? A triplet pregnancy, they were told. Despite

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 39 the warnings, they believed her. “Triplets seemed surprised him by waiting with a flower outside a so extraordinary that we wondered why anyone classroom building. “This was one of my favorite would make that up,” says George. Most convinc- moments with Chad,” George says. “I had just ingly, in George and Lord’s view, she emailed finished a long day at work, and then studying in them an ultrasound image. classes, and I was tired. And to go outside—it It was the adoption counselors at the Indepen- was a complete surprise to me that Chad was dent Adoption Center who uncovered the hoax, waiting there with that flower. It was so sweet.” after two days of what George called a “flurry of Over the evening that followed, Lord mentioned excitement.” The same ultrasound image could that he wanted to have children some day. For ear- be found via an Internet search. The experience lier generations of gay men, marriage and parent- led George and Lord to look back on their ing weren’t typically in the plan. As a boy, George extended contact with the expectant mother two assumed he’d be a father one day, but that early years prior. Could that have been a scam as well? notion changed when he came out during college. “In the ’90s, the gay story was very much about per- ichael George grew up as the sonal acceptance,” he says. “The thought was, you only child of a single mother in weren’t going to ever get married, you weren’t going Rolla, Missouri. “I was a latch- to ever have kids, but you might finally be accepted key kid, like a lot of kids were at by your family and friends, you might have happi- that time,” he says. He and his ness in your personal relationship.” friendsM rode their bikes everywhere, built collec- The couple became legal domestic partners in tions of Star Wars action figures, and swam in the 2004. When the District of Columbia legalized city pool. He had a beagle named Buster. “I was a same-sex marriage in 2010, they knew they would band geek,” says George. “And not even a very marry. Still, together at that point for a decade and good one. I’d get out my trombone, probably to sporting rings since their partnership was legally the collective groan of my entire neighborhood. recognized years earlier, they viewed the marriage In the winters we’d keep Buster inside the house, license as a formality. Persuaded to plan an event and he would howl next to me when I played.” in which others could share, they wed in 2011 in George was interested in a wider world. He the living room of their newly purchased Dutch eventually chose a move west to attend Pomona Colonial home in D.C.’s Friendship Heights. College in California. When the opportunity arose to spend a summer in Russia, the kid from the EVERY YEAR, THERE are parts of the couple’s Ozarks took it. George also spent a semester in adoption file that expire and must be redone. As Prague and a summer in London before earning their investment of time and resources grows, his bachelor’s degree in international relations. and as they inch further into their 40s, there have Next came a tour with the Peace Corps in Armenia. been times when the men have considered end- He moved to Washington, D.C., to work toward his ing the search. One such moment arrived last master’s degree, also in international relations, at year. “We were really considering over the fall the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International and winter whether we were going to renew our Studies, taking classes in the evening while work- home study or not—whether we were going to ing for the U. S. Department of State. In 2000, a continue with adoption,” says George. “We’ve friend introduced him to Chad Lord. had some big discussions and decided, no, this Lord, now a lobbyist with the National Parks is something that’s really important to us.” Conservation Association, was another small- The couple suspects they’ve been too cau- town product, who also had a childhood dog tious. They’ve considered altering the criteria named Buster. He moved from his home state of they’ve established for a birthmother, inviting Minnesota to D.C. as a young man and began his the possibility of a child with alcohol or drug career working in HIV/AIDS advocacy. His first full- exposure, a family history of mental illness, or time job was with the Human Rights Campaign. other developmental concerns. Johns Hopkins George tries to capture what made an early sociologist Andrew Cherlin puts it bluntly: date for the two memorable, recalling how Lord “Sometimes gay men are left to adopt the chil-

40 | johns hopkins magazine Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 41 dren that no one else really wants.” Again com- as a predictor of how that child will do. Instead, mitted to sticking it out, the two are devising a children of gay parents are subject to the same plan to purchase ad space on Facebook, some- influences as children of heterosexual couples. thing they have done in the past. They are “The factors that affect all children’s development encouraged by the fact that the number of fans affect the development of children with lesbian of their page surged recently, exceeding 450. and gay parents—economic factors are impor- David Wing-Kovarik, executive director and tant, for example,” Patterson says. Interest in the CEO of Families Like Ours, another nonprofit field has long since moved beyond addressing that supports the adoption community, urges whether same-sex couples can make good parents caution. All that Internet marketing, he says, is to the finer-grained questions of how they typi- not without risks. “I have not seen statistics that cally parent. There is nothing about being homo- “We want a say one way or the other if it actually helps,” he sexual that makes one ill-suited for parenthood, baby. We want explains. “For a lot of families, it can set them up Patterson says. “I don’t really see that as a debat- for some heartache. They have to be really care- able conclusion today,” Patterson says. a family. We ful.” Not only can couples reveal too much about Cherlin believes that the saga that Lord and want kids. themselves, Wing-Kovarik warns, they can also George are experiencing could prove to be an asset We’re going to create unrealistic expectations about their abil- for their child. He has noted a particular dogged- be good dads.” ity to find a birthmother. Lord and George may ness that characterizes gay men who achieve par- Chad Lord have felt that undertow. The woman who enthood. “Only the ones who really want to adopt scammed them this year, they acknowledge, was children end up doing it because it’s such a diffi- among that recent surge of fans. cult process,” he says. “So those gay men are com- mitted parents, and often do an excellent job.” arlier this year, when the U.S. As George and Lord wait to be given that Supreme Court heard arguments for chance, their friends watch and wait with them. landmark cases regarding same-sex Ann Brickley, who sees the couple frequently, says marriage, Justice Antonin Scalia pro- the men don’t often bring up the topic. “They’re vided this comment early in the pro- not ones to go on complaining about their lives,” ceedings:E “If you redefine marriage to include she says. They supported her as she and her hus- same-sex couples, you must permit adoption by band welcomed their first child last year, betraying same-sex couples, and there’s considerable dis- no resentment of her pregnancy. “They’ve been agreement among sociologists as to what the con- gentlemen,” she says. She speculates on the emo- sequences of raising a child in a single-sex fam- tions involved in their wait. “I think there’s proba- ily—whether that is harmful to the child or not.” bly a process of grieving that they go through.” The American Sociological Association dis- “They just keep putting themselves out agrees. In the amicus brief it submitted to Scalia there,” says Katherine Atherton-Wood, a long- and his fellow justices, the ASA stated, “The clear time friend and herself an adoptive parent. A fol- and consistent consensus in the social science lower of the couple’s Facebook page made a mis- profession is that across a wide range of indica- take not long ago in response to a photo of the tors, children fare just as well when they are men with a baby: “Finally! Good for you and con- raised by same-sex parents when compared to grats. What a lucky baby.” But the baby was children raised by opposite-sex parents.” Brickley’s child. “Thanks,” George responded. That sort of willful blindness doesn’t surprise “She is actually our friend’s daughter. Which in Charlotte Patterson, a psychology professor at the our book makes her one lucky baby. But we’re University of Virginia. She is an expert in the psy- still hoping to find the right birthmother.” chology of sexual orientation, with her first pub- It’s always a friend’s daughter, always a niece lished work on the children of gay and lesbian or a nephew. George and Lord—a couple with an parents appearing more than 20 years ago. She unfinished love story—press on. “We want a and others have examined numerous child out- baby. We want a family. We want kids,” Lord says. comes and have never reported that knowing the “We’re going to be good dads.” sexual orientation of a child’s parents can be used Rachel Stewart Johnson is a freelance writer based in San Diego County.

42 | johns hopkins magazine Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 43 44 | johns hopkins magazine sweat equity

Champions are not born. They are made on the practice field.

Story and photography Dale Keiger

n a Saturday night in April 2004, I stood taking notes in the Johns Hopkins lacrosse locker room. The Blue Jays had just defeated the Univer- sity of Maryland in the 100th renewal of the biggest rivalry in men’s intercollegiate lacrosse. Addressing his happy team, head coach Dave Pietramala said, “This game wasn’t won tonight. This game was won last Tuesday in that first ground-ball drill.” That is, the game was won in practice. We routinely speak ofO athletes playing a game. He plays football. She plays field hockey. But a varsity runner or point guard or swimmer or shortstop does not play anywhere near as much as he or she practices. A starter on the Johns Hopkins football team plays one game per week during the regular season. He might be on the field for 25 to 30 minutes of actual game time between kickoff and the final whistle. But in the week leading up to

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 45 Athletes spend 20, 40, 60 minutes preparing for every minute of competition, and that’s if they get to play.

46 | johns hopkins magazine Click here to view our “Grimace Gallery” slideshow.

fencing, volleyball, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, wrestling, football

| 47 swimming, football, tennis, basketball, field hockey, wrestling

48 | johns hopkins magazine that game, he may have spent 10 to 15 hours tolerance for monotony and frustration and a hol- on the practice field and in the weight room. lering coach, and endless drilling to master a Swimmers often train twice a day, around two thousand details that spectators rarely appreciate. hours per session; if you’re a sprinter, your event What lingers in my mind as I review these in a swim meet may last less than two minutes— pictures are things like the routine endurance of less than 30 seconds if you are a 50-yard freesty- runners. The ferocity of football players in the ler. Athletes spend 20, 40, 60 minutes preparing weight room, or of women lacrosse players run- for every minute of competition, and that’s if ning drills against each other. The sheer capacity they get to play. Every team sport has reserves for work of swimmers. The pound-for-pound who are rarely called off the bench to enter the power of wrestlers. The hardness of the field game. But they practice as much as the starters. hockey ball that skipped off wet turf and Practice is what athletes do. smacked into my shin one night. The ever-pres- I spent nine months documenting the prac- ent sweat and pain. After only a few weeks of tice of every Johns Hopkins varsity sport, 22 teams each sport’s season, players began showing up and 14 sports in all. A Hopkins athlete has virtu- for workouts with bandages and braces and ice ally no chance of a pro contract or lucrative packs, sometimes with slings and crutches. They endorsement deal or spot on the Olympic team often looked dazed with fatigue at the end of after graduation. Outside of lacrosse, no Hopkins practice. The next day, they did it all again. athlete plays a sport in exchange for a scholarship. Tennis champion Serena Williams recently They play because they love the game and love told a writer from Rolling Stone, “When I stop being part of a team, and because of a vital quirk playing, it’s not going to be because I’m sick of in human nature: Once we realize we can do it. It’s going to be because I’m sick of practicing.” something really well, we want to do it again and That sound you hear is a couple hundred again, and we want to see just how good we can Johns Hopkins athletes nodding their heads. get. Even if it requires exhausting work, a high Dale Keiger, A&S ’11 (MLA), is the magazine’s associate editor.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 49 50 | johns hopkins magazine Academic publishing confronts its digital future.

Publish or Perish

“It is clear that we meet today at a critical and, I think, hopeful moment,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Engr ’64, said during a January address at the Sheldon Hall Auditorium, part of the School of Public Health that bears his name. “Just one month ago, at roughly this time on December 14, a deranged young man pulled into the parking lot of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and then shot his way into the building with a high-capac- ity semiautomatic rifle. The slaughter of six adults and 20 children really broke the country’s heart, because for many Americans, this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back.” Bloomberg’s remarks inaugurated a meeting of 20 gun policy experts from around the world who had assembled for the two-day Summit on Reducing Gun Violence in America. It was a fast-tracked meeting organized by the university and

Bret McCabe | Illustrations Linda Zacks

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 51 led by Daniel Webster and Jon Vernick, directors “Our mission is connecting users with con- of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and tent, whether it’s publisher services, expanding Research, that produced a list of evidence-based content, new business models to get it out, or reforms—concerning background checks, dealer tools for our libraries to help them focus on the licensing, research funding, and more. The sum- content,” Queen says. “But in the end, all of those mit stirred an already heated debate and was things feed right back into the mission. And it’s touted by its organizers as the most extensive fun now because it used to be one road and now meeting of its kind. there’s a complex highway system.” Something more quietly impressive came out Fun isn’t a word usually associated with aca- of it. Two weeks after the summit, Johns Hop - demic publishing. Crisis is. Specifically, the crisis kins University Press released Reducing Gun Vio- arising from the fact that library budgets can’t lence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence keep pace with the ever-rising costs of journal and Analysis, edited by Webster and Vernick. The subscriptions. It has been a topic of scholarly first “instant book” in the Press’ history, it was discussion for a couple of decades now; in the issued as an initial run of 5,000 printed copies past two years, though, the discussion has It’s not simply and as an e-book. To Dean Smith and Wendy moved more into the mainstream. a matter of Queen—respectively director and associate In January 2012, University of Cambridge figuring out how director of Project MUSE, the Press’ platform for mathematician Timothy Gowers wrote a blog post to alleviate the providing digital humanities and social science that was discussed in The New York Times, The financial stress books and journals to university libraries—the Independent (London), The Sunday Times, New Sci- of publishing. accelerated production of Gun Violence offers a entist, and The Guardian. He called for fellow The problem practical example of how academic presses mathematicians to boycott Elsevier, the Amster- involves an entire might reinvigorate themselves as they trundle dam-based publishing arm of Reed Elsevier that reconsideration toward the future. In this case, the Press was par- produces more than 2,000 science, medical, and engineering journals. His reason: Not only do of how academia ticipating in an extended journalistic enterprise, says Queen. “It’s the long, long form of journal- Elsevier’s rising costs put a mammoth strain on talks to itself. ism in a short, short time.” libraries’ budgets, but the company makes an She and Smith are in a unique position to absurd profit on them—a profit that in part relies comment on the current state of academic pub- on the unpaid labor of scholars and researchers lishing. Project MUSE was created in 1995 as a in nonprofit universities. Reed Elsevier’s 2012 collaboration between academic presses and annual report shows Elsevier making more than research libraries, and it is one of the earliest $1.3 billion in revenue with a profit of more than online distribution platforms for academic con- $482 million. University and research libraries are tent. Today, subscribing libraries have access to publishers’ primary revenue streams, accounting more than 580 titles from more than 200 world- for about 80 percent of sales. In 2012, Elsevier wide academic publishers. In January 2012, reported a profit margin of 37.8 percent. MUSE partnered with the University Press e-book Now, there’s nothing wrong with being Consortium to launch the University Press Con- profitable—it’s just that research universities tent Consortium, which provides a similar distri- and university presses are overwhelmingly bution model for e-books. By the end of 2013, 91 non profit­ s whose resources can’t keep up with presses will be participating with the service. the rising costs. Elsevier is also one of three Historically, academic presses publish books large publishers, alongside Germany’s Springer and monographs, which lose money, and jour- and the United States’ John Wiley & Sons, that, nals, which make enough money to support the according to an April 2012 Guardian article, book/monograph enterprise. But those objects “account for about 42 percent of all journal are artifacts of a different era. Smith and Queen articles published.” Gowers’ boycott call cata- helped shape MUSE to be format-neutral: The lyzed the launch of The Cost of Knowledge (http:// platform doesn’t care whether content comes thecostofknowledge.com/), a blog petition to from a book or journal; it just directs users to the Elsevier that had amassed more than 13,800 sig- topics they’re researching. natures by late August.

52 | johns hopkins magazine The most sobering reminder of this crisis ence them. Help me do that. #aaup13 ” came in April 2012 when the faculty advisory 21 May 2013, 10:19 a.m. Tweet. council of the Harvard Library issued a memo That a major professional organization for addressing the “untenable situation” of buying language and literature scholars standardized serials. The memo argues that “large journal a style for dealing with tweeted information publishers” have made the costs of providing is one of the many ways scholarly communica- researchers with the publications they need “fis- tion (the umbrella term for how academia cally unsustainable and academically restric- talks to itself) is adjusting to the digital age. It’s tive.” The memo notes that the library’s annual a change in the very understanding of what journal costs are nearly $3.75 million. makes up the academic work that scholars want Project MUSE’s Smith and Queen work with to communicate. Can a blog, Tumblr, or YouTube both publishers and libraries, and so they under- channel be a rigorous form of serious scholar- stand the various parties’ points of view. Publish- ship? Can a tweet be used as argumentative evi- ers need revenue from journals to support their dence in a scholarly work? Does a Web page book and monograph publishing. The rising cost qualify as a dissertation? of serials eats into libraries’ new book acquisi- “The scholarly communication conferences I tions, and their operating budgets are year to attend often bring together publishers, librari- year flat or constricting. In the middle are the ans, scholars, scholarly societies, and other play- researchers and scholars themselves, whose ten- ers in the process of thinking together about the ure pursuits are tied to their published output. changes we’re all collectively experiencing,” They create and consume the products publish- writes Kathleen Fitzpatrick, director of scholarly ers distribute and libraries archive. communication for the MLA, in an email inter- Academic publishers, research university view. In 2009, Fitzpatrick posted her scholarly libraries, professional scholarly associations, manuscript for open peer review online; it was and academics themselves around the country eventually published as the book Planned Obso- and globe are trying to figure out ways to lescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of deal with this crisis. But that’s not simply a the Academy, which NYU Press issued in 2011. matter of figuring out how to alleviate the (Her book is also available online.) financial stress of publishing. The problem She is one of the more persuasive advocates for involves an entire reconsideration of how understanding digital scholarship, and she academia talks to itself. acknowledges that while tenure and academic Earlier this year, The Economist dubbed this career building are still tethered to being pub- movement the “Academic Spring,” and scholars lished, institutions are starting to rethink and have voiced their concerns online. During the redefine what form that scholarly work can take. annual conference of the Association of Ameri- “I’ve had discussions with several different cam- can University Presses in June, tweets bearing puses that are in the process of grappling with the hashtag #aaup13 discussed ideas, cheered means of ensuring that digital work is evaluated presenters, debated publishing models, and fairly, of recognizing that publishing is taking place sometimes just asked for common sense. During on many different platforms, but also acknowledg- a “Three Big Ideas in Publishing” plenary, one ing that digital publications are not, in many cases, scholar made the simple plea: “As an author, I just print publications that happen to be online, of want to write good, important books that people addressing questions about collaboration and read and that influence them. Help me do that.” credit, and so forth,” she writes. “And yes, many campuses are absolutely thinking about the ways ctually, as of 2012, the official that the dissertation is changing in response to Modern Language Association new technologies and new research methodolo- style for citing a tweet is: gies. These changes aren’t taking place overnight, Bogost, Ian (ibogost). “11. As but they are happening; it’s a pretty exciting time.” an author, I want to write good, Ian Bogost, the above tweeter, is one of Aimportant books that people read and that influ- the researchers taking part in that process. He

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 53 particularly wants to help academic presses, reporter who heroically covers the intersection of which have been very good to him over his scholarly communication and technology, called career. Chair of Media Studies and professor of Bogost’s “microrant” the “most provocative set of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of ideas to emerge from the session.” Technology, Bogost worked with the University Each was a tweet-sized morsel of plain Press of Minnesota for Alien Phenomenology, or language: What It’s Like to Be a Thing, published in 2012, “1. Publishers publish. Publicly. If I can do public intellectualism more easily at @TheAtlan- tic [The Atlantic magazine] or @newinquiry [online literary magazine The New Inquiry], something is wrong. #aaup13” “3. Invent something new. There’s a huge open space between trite trade non-fiction and scholarly esoterica. Fill it. #aaup13” “9. If there is a ‘dying’ form it’s not [the] book but the journal. What could we do to make tech- nical, inter-field discourse not suck? #aaup13.” What’s most disarming about Bogost’s tweets is how reasonable they sound: Making anything involving communication “not suck” sounds like a no-brainer. Why can’t scholarly communica- tion—how the most highly educated people on the planet talk to each other, the improvement of which is possibly the lone subject on which they all agree—figure this out? One reason it’s so difficult to change the focus of the discussion around scholarly communication from economics to content is the sheer size and scope. Scholarly communication is academia’s constantly purring engine. It might not be the first thing that springs to mind when prospective stu- dents visit colleges, or when emerging scholars are considering graduate schools and adjunct teaching opportunities, but without a vast communications network, the whole enterprise lurches and grinds its gears. Academia, according to the Oxford English and with the MIT Press for Persuasive Games: The Dictionary, is “the environment or community con- Expressive Power of Video Games, published in cerned with the pursuit of research, education, and 2007. And during the “Three Big Ideas” plenary scholarship.” Those pursuits require scholars being session, he offered some sobering words for able to communicate efficiently. what academic presses put out: “Scholarly books How they’ve done that has evolved alongside need to be better written. The writing is terrible.” technology. In 1158, Roman Emperor Frederick He wasn’t attending the conference, merely fol- Barbarossa issued the Authentica habita, lowing the #aaup13 hashtag conversation, and he which in part protected freedom of movement added his ideas to the discussion in a series of for scholars to communicate orally. In 1665, tweets. His commentary became one of the confer- the Royal Society of London introduced Philo- ence’s more talked-about discussions. His tweets sophical Transactions of the Royal Society, received a pretty typical popular social media half- commonly hailed as the first science journal life, being retweeted, Storified, and blogged about. and one of the first publications designed to Jennifer Howard, the Chronicle of Higher Education catalyze scholarly communication.

54 | johns hopkins magazine Publications created a system: Researchers costs of a physical journal. And it could post these and scholars investigate and experiment and articles online for anybody to read free of charge. then publish their findings in academic journals, Of course, for a small record label, making a monographs, or books. Publishers, which may be CD independently is only half the battle. There’s university or private presses, then distribute that also distribution—the need to let fans know information to the interested parties, which are about it and to make it available for purchase. predominantly the libraries of research institu- Meanwhile, a major record company already has tions. Libraries preserve and archive that infor- contacts with clubs and arenas to put tours mation so that the scholars of today and tomor- together, knows station managers at radio sta- row can access it and teach, discuss, build upon, tions to get airplay, has relationships with major re-evaluate, and dispute it. It’s a system rooted in retailers, and so on. information existing as an object (book, journal, That’s admittedly an imperfect analogy, but monograph) that communicates information lin- it’s indicative of sizes and philosophies of the early and requires physical archival storage. systems involved. One is very large and relies on a That academia isn’t so analog-bound is obvi- pre-existing infrastructure; the other is emergent ous; less so are the layers of complexity involved and idealistic and doing it only for the music, in the emerging digital system. EBSCO Informa- man. By eliminating some of the costs of tradi- tion Services is one company that provides tional journals and involving communities searchable research databases to college and uni- already invested in their subject matter, open versity libraries, hospitals and medical institu- access publishing appears to provide a possible tions, and government institutions. It offers way out of the financial burden of the traditional more than 375 databases that search more than model. That’s why a good deal of open access advo- 355,000 journals. Elsevier publishes more than cacy has come from campuses, including from 2,000 journals, from Brachytherapy to Wound Med- faculty, students, researchers, and librarians. “I’m icine. Project MUSE supplies its research libraries really surprised this whole conversation [about “Publishers access to more than 550 journals, from Advertis- academic publishing and open access] didn’t start publish. Publicly. ing & Society Review to Visual Arts Research. And immediately after the Internet became viable and If I can do public the people involved—from journal editors, to ref- most of the universities had it,” says Robin Sinn, intellectualism erence librarians, abstracters, and indexers, to the librarian for biology, biophysics, cognitive sci- more easily @ the researchers creating and consuming the ence, and psychological and brain sciences, of the TheAtlantic or work—form specialized communities. Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. “Why don’t the @newinquiry, The communities of Brachytherapy and Visual editors, who are generally faculty, and the review- something is Arts Research probably don’t overlap, save at a uni- ers, who are generally faculty, and the authors, who wrong. #aaup13” versity, which brings together scholars and stu- are almost always faculty or government research- dents across disciplines. The explosion of Inter- ers—why don’t they just [publish] on their own and Ian Bogost net access in the 1990s provided academics with a not deal with the publishers?” way of sharing their work outside of the tradi- However, Sinn explains that such an idea tional publishing route, and new kinds of jour- doesn’t account for a publishing infrastructure nals began to emerge. Think of electronic journals that includes server space, technicians, and and the open access publishing models those indexers and abstracters who perform the data journals helped foster as the do-it-yourself record tasks that support findability—the people who labels of academia. Motivated scholars and pull journal literature together, assign keywords researchers could perform the duties typically to articles, and control that vocabulary. That’s no performed by publishers—putting out calls for small undertaking: PubMed, the free database of papers, having those papers peer reviewed by biomedical sciences maintained by the National qualified scholars, performing the attendant Institutes of Health and the United States copyediting and page layouts for Web pages, National Library of Medicine, contains 22 mil- etc.—and publish the work without having to go lion citations; 591,054 were added in 2012. through the typical production schedule of a pub- If everything is posted somewhere online and lishing house or incurring the print and overhead freely available, will it be readily found by the

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 55 researchers looking for it? Maybe. In 2004 Google journals looking for authors who wanted to be pub- introduced Google Scholar, designed to be a lished—for a fee. He kept track of the spam sub- search engine specific to scholarly material. mission calls, and in 2009, began writing about “Google Scholar is good, but the problem is they these seemingly dodgy journals. One review even- won’t tell you what they cover, so you don’t know tually turned into a blog, where Beall developed what they don’t cover,” Sinn says. She brings up criteria for determining whether a journal is repu- PyschINFO, a database created and maintained table. Those criteria include codes of conduct out- by the American Psychological Association that lined by the Open Access Scholarly Publishers indexes articles and book chapters in psychology Association, the Committee on Publication Ethics, and psychiatry. “If you go to its website and click the International Association of Scientific, Techni- on a link, it will download an Excel spreadsheet cal and Medical Publishers, and an analysis of pub- that tells you every journal they index and what lishers’ content, practices, and websites. Beall’s years they index and whether they do every arti- criteria and types of questionable practices—from cle in the journal or only those articles that deal an utter lack of copyediting to requesting the copy- with psychology, so at least you know what you’re right transfer of the work upon submission of the searching. With Google Scholar, you can’t.” manuscript—now form an epic list at Scholarly “You’re going to win or lose [depending on] Open Access (scholarlyoa.com/publishers), where whether you’re discoverable on Google or not,” he reviews and reports on these journals. Since says Project MUSE Director Dean Smith, who 2010, he has assembled a list of questionable, pred- says that 70–80 percent of MUSE’s traffic is atory publishers; last updated July 20, 2013, it driven by the search engine. “That’s critical to includes nearly 400 publishers. your survival, even for a university press. You “Predatory publishers are poisoning the need to be more concerned about your metadata whole entire [open access] model,” he says. “The than anything else right now. It’s like that [televi- model itself is being conducted very well by a few sion] commercial, ‘It’s 11 o’clock, where are your publishers. But I’ve been able to document that children?’ It’s the same thing—it’s 2013, where’s one open access publisher, Hindawi, which is your metadata? That’s really, to me, going to be based in Cairo, actually has a profit margin the game changer.” higher than Elsevier does.” Worse, Beall recognizes that shady business indability is merely one hurdle open practices in academic publishing enable bad access publishing models have to scholarship. “Peer review is the quality control address. Currently, archiving is pri- for science, and these publishers aren’t conduct- marily approached in two different ing peer reviews,” he says. “So pseudoscience ways. In one, called the green model, and non-science are being published bearing the Fa researcher publishes a paper through a tradi- imprimatur of science. That’s the biggest threat, tional publisher and then also posts the work to the threat to science itself.” a publicly available repository of some kind, a That may be the biggest collateral damage in self-archiving process. In the other, called the scholarly communication’s inertia to reinvent gold model, a researcher pays—either personally itself: It has produced a common business or using funds from the department, the univer- opportunity for companies that have no stake in sity, the library, or a research grant—an open the knowledge system. “The cost of doing really access journal to publish the article free of good scholarly publishing is never going to be charge; the fee ostensibly covers the archival pro- cheap and it’s never going to be free,” Beall says. cess that ensures the work can be found in the “And the open access people, I think, are mis- appropriate databases. This pay-to-publish leading people when they say that open access model, however, has created opportunities makes everything cheaper. It’s doesn’t, it’s just where researchers can be misled. going to be shifting the costs around.” In 2008, Jeffrey Beall, the scholarly initiatives To Bogost, the open access discussion should librarian at Auraria Library in Denver, started notic- be about the content, not the costs. In his tweeted ing the spam emails he received from open access microrant, he argued: “The issue isn’t ‘openness,’

56 | johns hopkins magazine but getting the right work into the right eyeballs.” It’s another way of acknowledging what Queen says about MUSE’s mission to connect users with content. “As my career has progressed, I’ve become more and more interested in the problem of publishing as one of making things public,” Bogost writes in an email. “So whatever I can do to make more things more productively public in the best manner, that’s what I want to pursue. That includes writing for more general readership publications, but also starting up new publishing venues that cross over.” In the email, he points to his recent project, Object Lessons (http://objectsobjectsobjects .com), an essay and book series about “the hidden lives of ordinary things.” From the homepage, visitors can click through to read the essays, which are cross-posted on The Atlantic’s technology channel, or the books (to be published by Bloomsbury)—or pitch an essay. “I think more academic publishers are going to start experimenting in the ways I’ve been suggesting,” Bogost writes. “I know Minnesota, one of my publishers, has been working on some novel ideas, and I know others are too. But there are other houses that are steadfast in their lack of interest in changing anything.” Project MUSE has spent the past two decades building its online community, and it under- stands that in order for its publishing venture to be here, if you look at the things that can be done continue to evolve, it needs a distribution plat- and some of the things the younger researchers form and it needs to know how libraries and are doing and are capable of doing.” researchers are using its content. One potential One of Smith’s positions prior to coming to idea Smith mentions is for MUSE to publish Project MUSE in 2012 was with the American individual works of scholarship—not simply Chemical Society, where he managed global works attached to a journal or book. “I do think access to its publications. He recalls when rich Project MUSE is uniquely situated to begin to site summary (RSS) Web feeds first started to take monographic content of a certain length appear, chemical researchers immediately from emerging scholars and put that online, pro- started using them to share information—before vided we could get over that tenure issue,” he RSS readers/aggregators were readily available. says. “Why wouldn’t we try to provide a pathway “Our R&D guy called me up to his office and said, for scholarship to come here?” ‘Look, they’re already doing it; they already fig- That’s a prescient understanding that the ured out how to get the content there without us publishers need to follow the content—how it’s helping them,’” Smith says. “The content was being used and created by the scholars and that important. And that gives you an idea of how researchers of tomorrow. “I think the younger you have to have quality content. That’s really the generations are curating content any way they first thing, because you’re going to be able to want,” Smith continues. “These containers that make a lot of different decisions down the road we’ve created”—meaning book, journal, mono- if the content is what your community wants.” graph—“I don’t know how long they’re going to Bret McCabe, A&S ’94, is the magazine’s senior writer.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 57 TEXT |

The Biscuit Joint Activities David Kirby John Dermot Woods

Done successfully, it creates a seamless fit, and the idea informs Kirby’s verbal moves inside the 19 poems here. He skips from Karl Marx to Paradise Lost to tuna melts without derailing a discussion of the aesthetic experience (“What’s the Plan, Artists?”) and swings from tacky T-shirts to Thomas Hardy while mapping the creative imagination (“I ❤ Hot Moms). Kirby has long threaded brows high and low into the same sentence, recognizing that it’s pointless to sustain the artificial gulf between them. Besides, hot moms go to the symphony, too. For Kirby, what separates the banal from the beatific is the language we use to describe POETRY them. And with The Biscuit Joint, he COMICS pens a persuasive argument that life is Art of the Everyday essentially trivial and monumentally Drawn From Life “I’m the poet of circuses/ but also art important simultaneously: Major John Dermot Woods’ collection of galleries and snacks,” claims David events and prosaic routines run comics, Activities (Publishing Genius, Kirby in his new collection, The Biscuit together like unpunctuated sentences; 2013), showcases a storyteller as Joint (Louisiana University Press, 2013) they’re turned into our experiences in compactly disorienting as Amy and, really now, why be the poet of memory’s editing room. In “Breath- Hempel and a comic artist as visually anything else? Florida State University less,” Kirby uses an ode to Jean-Paul astute as Dylan Horrocks. In this English Professor Kirby, A&S ’69 (PhD), Belmondo, that icon of French New slender volume, Woods, A&S ’02 (MS), has spent four decades peeling the Wave cool, to kneecap the self-depre- explores relationship anomie through banana of everyday life to bite into its cation that young men use as macho a backyard rocket ship (“Try to Sleep”) flesh in language that once might’ve armor, spotlighting the narcissism and the inherent chasm separating been called the vernacular. In Kirby’s required to take pride in claiming “to children’s and adults’ realities through fine-honed lines, though, the collo- be the biggest jackass in your town.” a tale of a father and daughter search- quial becomes expressive, pliable, By the poem’s end, though, this witty ing for animal bones (“The Remains”). and potent. Kirby’s ear appreciates homage to a man who was “awesome” It’s a quietly impressive collection, the casual elegance in the abbreviated, before “that word was used mainly/ to not only for Woods’ thematic range impromptu way we talk, and he describe pizza” becomes a lament of but his ambition. In addition to using polishes the seemingly mundane time’s passing—the recognition that multiple drawing styles, four stories until his lines land with equal parts our own creative prime passes too collage texts from different sources—a barroom brio and libretto majesty. quickly and it’s always too soon to ask: Dada manifesto, a Rod McKuen poem, The carpenter’s skill invoked by How do you know when to stop? a personal text message, etc.—into the book’s title uses a wafer of wood to Hopefully, Kirby won’t anytime soon. speculative fictions of disarming create a tight fit between two boards. Bret McCabe poignancy. BM

58 | johns hopkins magazine Une Belle Maison S. Frederick Starr

HISTORIC PRESERVATION This Old House S. Frederick Starr is chairman of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies’ Central Asia- Caucasus Insti­tute and a prolific author on the region. He also has a deep tie to New Orleans: He’s a clari- netist who founded the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble and an engaging cultural historian of the Crescent City’s vibrant past. His new Une Belle Maison: The Lombard Planta- tion House in New Orleans’s Bywater (University Press of Mississippi, 2013) tells the story of the Ninth Ward’s Bywater neighborhood through a sin- gle home: Starr’s Lombard Plantation House. Built in 1826, the home has wit- nessed the agricultural 19th century, 20th-century urbanization, the calam- ity of Hurricane Katrina, and the civic renewal­ that followed. A richly told look at one of America’s most vital cities. BM

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 59 WHO IS |

...Deborah Bräutigam

Blog: www.chinaafricarealstory.com overestimated. Everyone views China Favorite music: Loon calls on a through his or her own lens. Many dark lake people assume China’s presence is Worst close call: Catching a lift from simply a gold rush or being driven by Istanbul to Tehran with two guys a land grab mentality, but, like ours, PHOTOGRAPH by Hollis Interviews who turned out to be car smugglers it’s far more complex. Currently reading: Wolf Hall, by During the early era of the Non­ Deborah Bräutigam Hilary Mantel aligned Movement in the 1960s, China

Professor of international Favorite comedy: My Cousin Vinny sent aid to a number of Africa’s newly Kaveh Sardari development and independent nations. Then, China’s comparative politics I’ve read that Bill Gates was so taken approach to aid was primarily coopera­ with your book The Dragon’s Gift: tive rather than economic: providing The Real Story of China in Africa assistance as part of the “socialist (Oxford University Press, 2010) that brotherhood” rather than building illus he wanted to meet you and discuss it.

trade relations. But it was also politi­ trat

cal. Recall that the People’s Republic i

Yes! He was traveling in China and o wanted to talk with me about my of China was not admitted to the n by

ger A research and about the work of his United Nations until 1971; many of the nje J foundation. He clearly had read my key votes came from African nations a

book and asked a lot of very good who had received aid from China. questions. The dinner, which was supposed to be fairly short, lasted Your new book project is called “Feed­ nearly three hours. As I said on my ing Frenzy”—I take it that the title only blog, if it had been a seminar, I would partly refers to China in Africa? have given him an A. Yes; I’m just back from doing field­ work in Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Much of your work on your excellent focus of this book is on the role of the blog is devoted to addressing mis­ Chinese in African agriculture and understandings and misperceptions food security, the belief—for which about China’s role in Africa. there is very little evidence—that they There’s a big gap between what people are leading the “land grab” in Africa. think they know about China in Africa That’s the “feeding” part, but of and the reality. A lot of people think course it has a double meaning. There that China arrived in Africa recently, is a kind of media “feeding frenzy,” a Hollis Robbins, A&S ’83, is chair of the although they’ve been there since the fascination with what is seen as the Humanities Department at the Peabody 1960s. There’s the assumption that “dark side” of the Chinese in Africa. Institute; she teaches courses in Chinese firms won’t hire African literature, drama, film, and aesthetics. workers (not true) or that China’s You are the director of the Interna­ She has a joint appointment in the presence is a kind of “new colonial­ tional Development Program. What Center for Africana Studies at Home- ism” (not true). Headlines get the does that involve? wood, where she teaches African- American poetry and civil rights. number of China’s embassies in Africa IDEV has more than a hundred master’s wrong (50, not 41), and the amount of degree students in Washington and Bolo­ aid and investment are regularly way gna. I’m responsible for our curriculum

60 | johns hopkins magazine parents were in graduate school. Both of my grandfathers were profes­ sors. And I always knew I wanted to travel. My grandmother’s sister, Bethel Fleming, was a medical doctor and missionary who established a hospital in Nepal. Her husband, the ornitholo­ gist Robert Fleming, wrote Birds of Nepal. I was a British studies major in college and traveled around the world for nearly four years afterward, working in Jordan for several months, trying to learn Arabic and then travel­ ing across Iran and Afghanistan to visit my relatives in Nepal. I lived in Thailand for a year and taught Eng­ lish. I spent a summer in Hong Kong to learn Chinese and I absolutely fell in love with the language. I moved to Taiwan for another year of intensive language study.

What do you do when you aren’t writing, teaching, and traveling? I used to spend serious time as a white-water kayaker, but lately I’ve been doing more hiking—and I actually manage to hike quite a bit in Africa. Last year, my husband and I hiked in the Drakensberg Mountains in the eastern part of South Africa. There are some abso­ lutely beautiful trails.

Is there good white-water kayaking in Africa? Yes, there are Class V rapids on the Zambezi River, but so far I haven’t tackled them. The crocodiles and and requirements, and I decide, with my governance and development strategies. hippos complicate things! colleagues, how to prepare students for Next year, I’ll be adding a seminar on professional careers that allow them to China and the developing world. work creatively to help solve local and Deborah Bräutigam is a professor of Did you always know you wanted to global problems: poverty, food security, international development and comparative inclusion. Our focus is on vulnerable work in academia? politics and director of the International populations—fragile states. And I’m still I come from a family of academics. Development Program at the Paul H. Nitze teaching. This year, my courses focus on I grew up in Wisconsin, where my School of Advanced International Studies.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 61 CAMPUS

Fast Tracking Invention

FastForward describes itself as a cata­ lyst, a technology accelerator, an edu­ cation center, and an innovation sys­ tem. If that does not quite clear things up for you, try this: FastForward is the latest effort to take technological advances from Johns Hopkins labora­ tories and turn them into commercial ventures. Underwritten by the Whiting School of Engineering, FastForward offers qualified entrepreneurs access to expert assessment, business coaching, workspace, a shared laboratory, and help securing funding. The idea is to foster the convergence of ideas, techni­ cal skills, business savvy, money, and room to work. The goal? Bring intellec­ tual property to market, accelerating the creation of new companies that will grow in Baltimore. FastForward has outfitted the Stieff Building near the Homewood campus to accommodate 16 nascent compa­ nies. To qualify for the program, you need a Johns Hopkins connection, but that has been defined for maximum resources include a network of Fast­ professor of computer science Gregory inclusion. Hopkins faculty, research­ Forward staff, Hopkins faculty, and Hager co-founded Clear Guide Med­ical ers, and students meet the criteria, alumni who offer guidance on the LLC to bring to market portable ultra­ obviously, but so do postdocs, alumni, practical aspects of licensing, patents, sound technology for guiding biopsy and parents of students. There are two business plans, and whatever else needles. (Another of the co-founders, important stipulations—you must be entrepreneurs need to get a company Dorothee Heisenberg, is also FastFor­ incorporated and must have secured off the ground. Outside investors will ward’s venture coordinator.) Another some outside funding, either seed have the opportunity to put money startup, Circulomics Inc., plans to money from federal or state sources into these new businesses through commer ci­ alize assays for molecular or private venture investment. the Johns Hopkins Venture Fund. and biomarker analysis. Its founder Companies selected for FastFor­ John Fini, FastForward’s director and CEO, Kelvin Liu, Med ’11 (PhD), ward get affordable office and lab (and director of the Homewood graduated from Johns Hopkins with a space for up to two years; rent can be Intellectual Property and Technology doctorate in biomedical engineering. deferred as debt that the university Commercialization Office), told the Twistnostics LLC, the third company, can convert into an equity stake in Johns Hopkins Hub, “It’s already is working on genotyping technology the company. Once installed in the growing very, very fast. And that says for medical diagnosis using work Stieff Building, the companies can something about Johns Hopkins’ begun by its founder, Alfredo Celedon, avail themselves of shared laboratory entrepreneurial spirit.” Engr ’09 (PhD), when he was a Hopkins equipment and a machine shop for the Three companies are now incubat­ graduate student studying the mechan­ manufacture of prototypes. Intangible ing in the FastForward nest. Hopkins ical properties of DNA. Dale Keiger

62 | johns hopkins magazine Local Teens in the Lab

When 17-year-old Candice Jennings students from low-income commu­ They experimented with yeast to heads off to college, she will already nities experience in university-level learn more about how proteins be an old hand at the research bench. biomedical lab work. “This is not just are put together in order to develop The Baltimore teen, who wants to be a summer science camp where we new drugs. an anesthesiologist, has spent two have fun and do little experiments,” “I think the highlight of the sum­ summers working alongside faculty says Jungsan Sohn, the program’s mer was when I went on a trip for a and students in Johns Hopkins director and an assistant professor long weekend, and [Jennings] was in

Photogra laboratories as part of the university’s in the School of Medicine. “This is the lab, moving along with the experi­ Biophysics Research for Baltimore something where we try to help ments while I wasn’t here,” Takacs says. Teens. “Now I know what to expect with career development. The “She did an experiment that worked p h by when I get to medical school, since kind of research they do, it’s quite perfectly, and her results were one of Will Kir I’m working in a lab,” she says. “It cutting-edge.” our key findings for the summer.” gives me a general idea of what it’s like The program connects each Funding for the program came k /Home to work with a group of people, how to student with three mentors. Jennings from the Office of the Provost, the

w deal with different personalities, and worked in the lab alongside Julie School of Medicine Dean’s Office, oodp how to analyze data.” Takacs, a visiting faculty member the Office of Multicultural Affairs, h oto.j The BRBT program, in its second in the Department of Biophysics the Thomas C. Jenkins Department

h year, is a paid summer internship and Biophysical Chemistry who of Biophysics and Baltimore City u.edu that each year gives four high school also teaches at a local high school. YouthWorks. Jeanette Der Bedrosian

SAME SPORTS. MORE SWEAT.

Read “Sweat Equity”—Dale Keiger’s photo essay about the Blue Jays at practice—in Johns Hopkins Magazine. Flip through the “Grimace Gallery” on our iPad app. The app looks just like the print edition. It offers all our Web extras. And it’s free.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 63 CAMPUS |

New Dean of Nursing Leading the List Patricia M. Davidson No. 1 hospital h B oth: P ome w oodp HOTOGRA h oto.j P HY h by u.edu W ILL K IR K/

New Dean of Nursing Leading the List

Patricia M. Davidson, an award-winning the solution to many complex health The Johns Hopkins Hospital has leader in cardiac health for women care problems, and we are well-placed regained its spot atop U.S. News & and indigenous peoples, has been to continue to lead innovations in pol­ World Report’s annual rankings of named dean of the School of Nursing. icy, practice, education, and research.” American hospitals—the 22nd time Davidson succeeds Martha N. Hill, University President Ron Daniels, in the past 23 years that it has held who had been dean since 2001. who recommended Davidson’s the distinction. The Australia native was most appointment­ , expressed confidence “Given the competitive, rapidly recently professor and director of the in her ability to take on the role. “She changing health care environment Center for Cardiovascular and Chronic is a builder and a doer,” he said in the and the realization that U.S. News Care at the University of Technology announcement. “She is an award- evaluated more than 4,806 hospitals, and a professor of cardiovascular winning scientist and educator with we hope you share our incredible nursing research at St. Vincent’s important ideas for the future of pride in achieving this top-tier Hospital, both in Sydney. She previ­ health care and nursing. She will be ranking among the best hospitals in ously spent 23 years as a front-line an innovative dean and a formidable the United States,” Paul B. Rothman, clinician and nurse manager and university citizen.” dean of the medical faculty and CEO nearly a decade researching ways to Davidson, who holds a doctorate of Johns Hopkins Medicine, and improve cardiac rehabilitation for from the University of Newcastle, is Ronald R. Peterson, president of the women. Davidson was a visiting also a fellow of the American Heart Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health scholar at Johns Hopkins in 2007, Association and the Australian College System and executive vice president 2009, and 2011. of Nursing, as well as counsel general of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in “Johns Hopkins is internationally of the International Council on a joint announcement. regarded as a place where problems Women’s Health Issues. She joined Johns Hopkins also placed first in are solved and innovation fueled,” the university on September 1. JDB five medical specialties, including ear, Davidson said in a university announce­ nose, and throat; geriatrics; neurology ment. “Nursing is an integral part of and neurosurgery; rheumatology; and urology. JDB

64 | johns hopkins magazine Jays Join the Big 10 LGBTQ Center Director Men’s lacrosse Demere Woolway BOTH : P HOTOGRA P H y by h ome w oodp h oto.j h u.edu

Jays Join the Big 10 LGBTQ Ctr Director In 2015, Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse When she settled into her newly would also like to connect the LGBTQ will do something it has never done created position as director of community at Homewood with others before: contend for a conference LGBTQ Life in the Office of Home­ universitywide and to encourage championship. Johns Hopkins Presi­ wood Student Affairs, Demere networking with diverse communities dent Ron Daniels announced in June Woolway brought to Johns Hopkins on campus. that the university will join the storied nearly 10 years of experience in “I’m just thrilled by the response Big Ten athletic conference as an affili­ making diverse universities more from everybody here,” says Woolway. ate member. The decision affects equitable and inclusive. “Everybody Planning is under way for three-hour men’s lacrosse only; all other Hopkins benefits when other folks are more SafeZone training on all campuses sports teams will retain their current comfortable on campus,” she says. so participants can learn about the conference memberships. Before she arrived at Hopkins LGBTQ community. “They will hear At the press conference announcing in mid-July, Woolway worked with stories of folks in the community and the decision, Daniels said, “This deci­ students with diverse sexual orienta­ they’ll be given a sticker that they can sion may represent the single greatest tions and gender identities at Miami put on their office door or backpack change in Johns Hopkins men’s University in Oxford, Ohio; Washing­ to visibly signal that they are support­ lacrosse in more than a century.” ton State University; and University ers,” she says. Since its first game in 1883 (a 4-0 of Virginia. She’s a co-chair of the She is also planning a series of loss to the Druids Lacrosse Club), Consortium of Higher Education campus events to celebrate National men’s lacrosse has played as an LGBT Resource Professionals and a Coming Out Day in October. “We’ll be independent team. In the Big Ten, doctoral candidate at Miami Univer­ encouraging conversation and being the Jays will compete with Maryland, sity, where she hopes to complete supportive so LGBTQ folks can live Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, her dissertation in the spring. openly and express their identity,” and Rutgers. The conference cham­ At Johns Hopkins, her primary she says. JoAnne C. Broadwater pion will automatically qualify for responsibility is to enhance services the NCAA championship tourney. DK to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals, she says. She

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 65 Abbreviated Geological Society of America for her Engineering Innovation, Design, and study of the environments of early Entrepreneurship Award competition. Edited by Catherine Pierre humans in Africa. Also known as the Hosted by the National Collegiate Donath Medal, the award is given to a Inventors and Innovators Alliance– Astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett has researcher for outstanding achieve­ Biomedical Engineering, the awards won the 2013 Jansky Prize for his work ment in contributions to geological recognize designs that have commer­ studying cosmic microwave back­ knowledge through original research cial potential and social impact. ground radiation. A professor in the and comes with a $10,000 cash prize. Krieger School of Arts and Sciences’ Investigators at the School of Medicine Department of Physics and Astron­ Adam Seth Litwin, an assistant and Bloomberg School of Public Health omy, Bennett is the first Johns Hop­ professor at the Carey Business have received a five-year, $5.8 million kins faculty member to win the prize, School, was an inaugural winner grant to continue research into the which is sponsored by the National of the Emerging Scholar Award in causes of frailty in older adults and Radio Astronomy Observatory, an Employee Participation and Owner­ potential interventions. The grant is affiliate of the National Science ship. The award is presented by the awarded by the National Institute on Foundation. CMB is the afterglow Academy of Management and spon­ Aging and renews funding of the Johns from an early stage of the universe’s sored by the Foundation for Enterprise Hopkins Claude D. Pepper Older development, and its presence Development. Litwin is an expert in Americans Independence Center, a supports the Big Bang theory. strategic human resources manage­ federally designated center of excel­ ment and employment relations. lence that is one of only 14 such Physics and Astronomy research university sites nationwide. Professor Holland Ford has received School of Nursing Assistant Professor NASA’s highest form of recognition Tener Veenema is one of 32 recipients A team of School of Medicine neuro­ awarded to nongovernmental officials, of the Florence Nightingale Medal, scientists has received a five-year, the Distinguished Public Service the highest international distinction $9.5 million grant from the National Medal, for his contributions to the a nurse can receive. Veenema is an Institute of Mental Health, part of the Hubble Space Telescope. expert in disaster nursing and public National Institutes of Health, and has health emergency preparedness. been designated as a Silvio A. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research. A team of researchers from the Applied Physics Laboratory won Best In honor of Peabody faculty member Medical Robotics Paper honors at Leon Fleisher’s 85th birthday, Sony the 2013 Institute of Electrical and Classical released Leon Fleisher: The Electronics Engineers’ International Complete Album Collection, a 23-CD Conference on Robotics and Automa­ deluxe boxed set spanning 55 years of tion. Mike Kutzer and Mehran Armand the pianist’s recording career. A central of the Research and Exploratory part of the collection is Fleisher’s Development Department, along with collaboration with George Szell, then postdoctoral fellow Matt Moses and conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, graduate student Hans Ma, won for to record every major work written for their work on a novel approach to piano and orchestra. Fleisher has continuum manipulators with taught at Peabody since 1959. controllable stiffness. Naomi Levin The Peabody Institute has launched Two Whiting School of Engineering the new Pathways to Peabody pro­ Naomi Levin, an assistant professor student-built devices—a blood clot gram. Funded by a renewable in the Krieger School’s Department detection system and a concealable, $250,000 grant from the Jack Kent of Earth and Planetary Sciences, won hands-free breast pump—won top Cooke Foundation, Pathways will the Young Scientist Award from the awards in the annual Biomedical enable talented kids ages 12–17 from

66 | johns hopkins magazine low-income families from Baltimore Johns Hopkins Hospital, has City and the surrounding counties announced that he will retire, to study at Peabody. This fall, the effective December 31. program will provide full-tuition scholarships for 35 singers, pianists, Julie A. Freischlag, director of string players, and other classical Medicine’s Department of Surgery and jazz instrumentalists. and surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been elected the first The School of Education has intro­ female president of the Society for duced its new Online Educational Vascular Surgery. Bruce A. Perler, chief Leadership Institute. Leaders of of the Division of Vascular Surgery, was educational organizations, companies, elected vice president of the society. charters, and preK–12 schools can earn graduate credits in four courses: William Egginton, an Andrew W. Leadership in Educational Organiza­ Mellon Professor in the Humanities tion; Strategic Systems Change and and chair of the Department of Action Planning; Power, Politics, and German and Romance Languages and Policy in Education; and Turnaround Literatures, has been named the Julie A. Freischlag School Leadership. Krieger School’s vice dean of graduate education. Egginton will continue to Health’s Doctor in Public Health Education Assistant Professor Anita teach in the department, though he program. Bennett, an associate Young has published School Counseling will step down as chair. professor in the Department of Leadership: The Essential Practice International Health, researches (American School Counselor Associa­ Sara Bennett, an expert in compara­ health financing, the role of the tion, 2013). Co-authored by Marcy tive health systems, has been named private sector, and the impact of Miller Kneale, the book offers a director of the School of Public health initiatives on health systems. framework for enhancing school counseling leadership capacity. GOLOMB’S GAMBITS™ Japanglish Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. ambas­ Solomon Golomb, A&S ’51 sador to the Republic of Korea, has joined the university as the new chair­ The words hibachi, judo, kamikaze, sushi, Here are three lists of five “English” words man of the Paul H. Nitze School of and tsunami are among those borrowed in their Japanese incarnations. The words Advanced International Studies’ U.S.- from Japanese into English. appear in increasing order of unfamiliarity. Korea Institute. Bosworth was formerly See which ones (if any!) you can identify. A far larger number of English words have dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher been borrowed into Japanese, but the List 1 List 2 List 3 School of Law and Diplomacy. During borrowings are often difficult to recognize, hoteru apāto baiorin his 30 years in the Foreign Service, he for several reasons: Japanese conventions nyusu depāto biru served as U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, require most consonants to be followed by orenji miruku eiakon the Philippines, and the Republic of vowels (usually u, but i after ch, sh, or j, and tākushi pazuru shiatsu Korea as well as director of policy plan­ o after t or d if no following vowel sound terebi sābisu toire ning at the State Department. occurs in English); the Japanese language substitutes other consonants for ones it Note: In the Hepburn romanization sys- does not have (r for l, b for v, s for th, etc.); Cardiac surgeon Levi Watkins Jr., tem used here, which comes closest to and Japanese speakers usually keep only as English sounds, a bar over a vowel (as in associate dean for postdoctoral many syllables as they need to decide which sābisu) indicates that the vowel duration is programs and faculty development English word they are using. (For example, increased. This often pinpoints the accented at the School of Medicine and the first the word for the Japanese cartoon genre syllable in English. African-American chief resident in anime is a shortened form of the English cardiac surgery in the history of word animation.) Solutions on page 78

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 67 ALUMNI | Giving

SMART KIDS RULE

Written by | JENNIFER WALKER

Earlier this year, ninth-grader Wyatt provides a full $4,000 scholarship for Bair was reading a “really fun and tuition, room and board, and applica-

neat” book about multiple dimensions tion fees—plus additional funding PHOTOGRAPH by Marshall Clarke and time travel: The Universe in a for travel, lab fees, and materials— Welcome Nutshell, by theoretical physicist to talented but underserved students Success is about more than Stephen Hawking. Bair often borrows from rural communities. Most Rural awards and paychecks; it’s science and math books from the local Connections scholars say that the about the people you meet community college library to study program is the first time they’ve met along the way. In this issue, his favorite subjects: astrophysics, friends who are on the same intellec- biology, and “awesome math” like tual level. “Three weeks of overnight we take a peek into the pi and the Heisenberg uncertainty camp with my peers, people who I’ll friendships created at principle. Bair was advanced from become friends with, and teachers Johns Hopkins. We meet an early age; at just 4 years old, he who are going to be teaching really Professor Elliot McVeigh told his mom that the Earth’s mag- awesome stuff is really pleasing to and alum Guy Shechter, netic poles are squashed because me,” Bair says. who are not only leaders in of gravitation. But in the past, his This year, nearly half of last year’s the field of medical imaging intelligence interfered with both Rural Connections students received but also snowboarding school, which was often too easy, other scholarships from CTY and buddies (p. 70). We talk and his relationships with peers, private donors to attend the program cribbage with alums Juan who didn’t always understand him. a second time. Tenth-grader Matthew Blazquez and John Redpath By fifth grade, “my vocabulary had Ellison, who lives in Jericho, Vermont (p. 72), who remain close 26 extended to the point where if I went (where, he jokes, there is a “chicken years after they met as SAIS any further, people had no idea what on every corner”), returned this year to students in Bologna. And I was talking about,” he says. “And I “branch out” and take paleobiology at we chat with Hopkins’ next was surrounded by kids who didn’t care the Franklin & Marshall College CTY generation, students at the about anything I was interested in.” site in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But But Bair—who lives in Ronceverte, Ellison is a math guy first—in June, Center for Talented Youth West Virginia, where there are 1,765 he competed in the annual American (at right), who travel from residents, 118 of whom are in his age Regions Mathematics League com­ near and far to make friends group—knew this summer would be petition, and his team placed 17th who understand them. different. He is one of 40 seventh-, out of 55 Division B teams—so last eighth-, and ninth-graders who partici­ year he took a rigorous Number pated in the Johns Hopkins Center for Theory course, where he learned Talented Youth through the Rural about Fermat’s last theorem and Connections scholarship program. unique factorizations. The course had CTY offers an intensive three-week an unexpected effect: When he came academic program at 24 sites across home, Ellison could better communi- the United States and Hong Kong. cate with his grandfather, a mathema- Started last year and funded by the tician. At CTY, he also met like-minded Jack Kent Cooke Foundation through friends. “The kind of person who 2014, the Rural Connections program would go to CTY is someone who is

68 | johns hopkins magazine Wyatt Bair, right, takes a break with some friends after a Center for Talented Youth class.

interested in academics and pretty “But when we got there, we made school, where everyone agrees with bright,” says Ellison, who also plays paper sweaters.” She also enjoyed each other. “A lot of kids at my school tennis and runs cross country. “It’s the nightly “Glums and Glows” hall don’t want to be judged, and they don’t pretty easy to relate to people who you meeting, where students talked about care about the topic as much to really have that much in common with.” the best and worst parts of their days. dive into it,” she says. Inspired by Former Rural Connections student About the low points Rubright says, CTY, Rubright, who was initially Natasha Rubright, a 10th-grader who “I never had one.” nervous about starting high school, lives near the Pinelands National The course Logic: Principles of joined the freshman soccer team Reserve in Medford, New Jersey, has Reasoning had a life-changing impact and added honors Latin to a schedule already had two reunions with the on Rubright. She remembers one that already included honors classes friends she met at Franklin & Marshall discussion about why the philosopher in geometry, algebra, and Spanish. last summer. She built these friend- Socrates, thrown in jail in Athens and “I realized there was so much more ships, in part, through CTY’s “super facing execution for questioning the that I could be doing to help myself weird but awesome weird” nightly gods and teaching youth to do the grow intellectually and socially,” she activities like Pudding Cosby Fun same, chose not to escape when he had says. “So I kind of came back and Hour. “We all thought we’d be going a chance. Rubright and her classmates was like, ‘Sure, I’ll dive into two math to watch Bill Cosby in nice air condi- were fully engaged in the discussion—a classes and two language classes tioning and eat pudding,” she says. welcome departure from her regular and just own it.’”

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 69 ALUMNI | Colleagues

HI-RES HEALTH CARE

Interview by | GREG RIENZI

Advances in imaging over the last five the ultrasound system a bit and years have revolutionized almost every instead of just making images, I use it aspect of medicine. to actually heat tissue?” If I focus these P

Exploratory surgery has largely ultrasound waves, I can actually raise hotograph been mothballed now that physicians the temperature inside the body very can use various imaging modalities to precisely. If you take something like

noninvasively detect a tumor, artery that and combine it with magnetic by will kirk/ho blockage, or organ malfunction. resonance (MR), you can have high- Digital 3-D mammography can detect resolution images as well as make measurements of these temperature tumors previously obscured, and now m there’s talk of physicians carrying changes in real time. You can treat ewoodphoto.jhu.edu around scanners in a briefcase and noninvasively using the ultrasound, even their pockets. while at the same time monitoring and Guy Shechter, Engr ’96, Med ’04 adapting that treatment with the MR. (PhD), says his interest in medical imaging started when he was an under­ Elliot There is virtually no exploratory graduate at Johns Hopkins, where he surgery done anymore. Not only that, majored in biomedical engineering but there are precise surgical pretreat- and computer science. Shechter first ment plans based on images for all crossed paths with Elliot McVeigh in sorts of procedures, like removing his junior year, when he took McVeigh’s tumors. One other advance is in Topics in Medical Imaging and Mag- staging. Because of the metabolic rate netic Resonance in Medicine courses. in tumors, you can see if and where a McVeigh later recruited Shechter to his tumor has metastasized in a PET scan. lab, where Shechter conducted studies You know precisely the stage of that on segmentation (the identification of person’s cancer. You know how to treat

Elliot McVeigh is the Massey Professor and individual structures in digital images) them instead of just making a guess director of the Department of Biomedical and motion tracking. His oft-cited and slamming them with chemother- Engineering at the School of Medicine. He worked papers on the motion of the heart and apy. You ask any clinician, [and] the with Elias Zerhouni to develop a research program in cardiac MRI at the university and in 1991 its coronary vessels are now considered first thing they do is knock on the founded the Medical Imaging Laboratory in the classics. Recently, Shechter and door at radiology and say, “OK, tell me Department of Biomedical Engineering. Tech- McVeigh got together to share thoughts what’s going on here.” And if you hang niques developed out of his MRI research group form the foundation of the modern cardiac MRI. on the medical imaging profession. around with radiologists in their His lab demonstrated numerous novel applica- office—the really good ones—there is tions, including the first MRI-guided injections of Guy therapeutic agents directly into the myocardium. When I think about the applica- someone knocking on their door like tions of medical imaging, I bucket every 20 minutes. them into three areas: screening, diagnosis, and therapy. In terms of G The other thing I’m seeing is the therapy advances, there have been rise of ultrasound. I remember as I interesting applications, like how we was finishing up my PhD, during one can use ultrasound, which historically of our encounters, you said to me: you think of as a screening modality. “Have you seen these ultrasound Through the years, people have started images that they get nowadays? It’s to ask the question: “What if I tweak phenomenal. 3-D ultrasound. 4-D

70 | johns hopkins magazine

ultrasound. Where did that come G I think one thing that is interesting from?” Now what you see is miniatur- is this concept of personalized medi­ ization. You read the literature and cine. There are recommendations for a they say that the ultrasound scanner given diagnosis and staging of cancer,

PHOTOGRAPH by will be the stethoscope of the future, as to how that patient should be where every physician has one in their treated. That can be combinations of pocket and they pull it out. drugs. Could be radiation. Could be On one hand, that’s great; the invasive procedures. Ultimately, the J essi technology is there to support that patient and the physician will make a c a and it will be very valuable to patients. decision. The question is, at what Sc ranton The other side is the concern that if point can you monitor and verify that we put this technology in the hands of the decision is working so that you people who are not yet skilled enough can make a rationalized decision on in reading ultrasound images, there is how to adapt your therapy? I think the potential they will see things that imaging-specific responses to therapy are not really there out of an abun- are going to be an important piece dance of caution. of the puzzle.

E One problem with imaging is that it E I will go a little bit further and say uncovers things that, before you saw that imaging technology will be them, you wouldn’t treat. And maybe complemented by big data analysis the best thing was to leave it alone. But techniques. Companies like Kaiser now that you see it, you are compelled Permanente will be able to go into to treat it. Early on, when MR first their history of 10 million patients produced these gorgeous images of the that they have treated and ask the spine, we discovered that 35 percent question: Who is this person in front

of people over 40 have a bulge in one of me most like? What 20 or 50 or 100 Guy Shechter is senior director of medical of their disks. Do you do surgery on patients out there were just like this, affairs at Philips Healthcare, in the suburbs of all those people? For a while, they did. and what did we do with them, and Boston. After completing degrees in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, he joined the But you really don’t have to. The same how did it go? research arm of Philips and was responsible for thing happened for X-ray coronary defining the clinical and technology strategy in angiography for the heart. G I think the key is this “information medical navigation before taking on a leadership role to help institutionalize the Imaging devices are also infiltrat- convergence.” One of the transforma- company’s chief medical office. ing the clinic on the specialty level. So tions that is starting to happen is to be an orthopedic surgery clinic will have able to intelligently combine all this imaging devices to guide their surgery. data—the information on the person’s Neurosurgery isn’t just an operating genetic profile together with a blood room anymore, it’s an OR with all the test and other pieces of information. imaging there. If you look at radiation Data points that on their own may not oncology, it’s traditionally where you be remarkable, but when you have this beam radiation at tumors based on convergence of information, answers images of tumors taken off-site. But come into view. now all the imaging is integrated into that process.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 71 ALUMNI | Friends for Life

WELCOME TO THE CRIB

Written by | KELLY BROOKS

In the fall of 1986, when most U.S. “I just want to set the record doubles, triples, or in fours, and the college students were “Living in straight,” cuts in Juan Blazquez, roommates and friends who dropped America,” John Redpath, SAIS Bol ’87 SAIS Bol ’87 (Dipl), SAIS ’88, a Basque by diligently recorded the stats on (Dipl), was living his own version of Country native who had arrived in a public board for all to see. Only Three Amigos at the Paul H. Nitze School Bologna a couple of weeks late so cribbage losers ever ran errands or of Advanced International Studies’ he could wrap up his summer job washed the dishes. Bologna Center. He’d come by way of translating at an international film Though the year may have felt frosty Minnesota to earn a diploma in festival. “First of all, I only brought like one long cribbage match, “we international studies, crammed himself one racket and one bag—” did actually turn up for classes, and into a small student apartment, and “It was your mom’s bag, though,” we took our finals,” says Redpath. begun to enjoy his stay: Oktoberfest in says Redpath. Blazquez did well enough to earn Munich, festivals in Verona, and regular The trash talk hasn’t stopped in an extended scholarship; by the next dart games at the nearby pub La Frasca. 26 years. fall, the two were in Washington, D.C., “One day I came home, and there When Blazquez moved in, he attending classes at SAIS and living was crap all over the apartment. This entered “a land of friendliness based with a group of eight guys they knew euro-paraphernalia was strewn about, on alcohol and card games,” he says. from Bologna. tennis rackets, bags everywhere. I was “But it wasn’t until Christmas break Redpath met his future wife, Katya, sure a middle-aged Spanish woman that we brought out the cribbage while at SAIS, and they married as he had moved in,” he says. “It turned board.” The rest of the school year, the began a career in the commodities out to be Juan.” students played cribbage games in market. After 25 years on Wall Street, he and three former colleagues launched a commodity trading company, Trail Stone LPE, this year. Blazquez started his career as a

marketing manager for an artificial P hotograph intelligence startup company, and today he and his wife, Chirine, and

their children are still settled in D.C., C o u where he works in the South Asia rt esy region at the World Bank. o f

J

“We talk about all the fun stuff, ohn

but over the years, we both had some R pretty big personal tragedies and edpath challenges. Those were the times where, I mean, honestly . . .” Redpath trails off. “Juan is one of the closest friends I never see.” “John has always been there when things weren’t so easy. If I’m having a hard time, I often think to myself, ‘What would John do?’” says Blazquez. “After all, he’s a pretty well-balanced guy . . . who can’t play cribbage.” Twenty-six years later, the friendly ribbing continues for former roommates Juan Blazquez (left) and John Redpath.

72 | johns hopkins magazine | Notebook

THEIR KIND OF TOWN

Written by | MARIANNE AMOSS illus trat i o n by

vid Fullarton D a

Priya Sunkara, A&S ’08, moved to crust; there are 30-plus locations in well as eats and drinks. “It’s amazing,” Chicago five years ago. The New York the Chicagoland area, including one says Sunkara. “Tourist or not, I’d say it’s native says settling there was easier on the Gold Coast, a few blocks from definitely worth going there for a drink” than she thought it would be. “It’s still 2. Navy Pier. The 3,300-foot-long pier is —and in the summertime you might a Midwestern town even though it’s a a favorite of tourists, who are drawn by catch the twice-weekly fireworks display city,” she says. “I call it user-friendly such attractions as the 15-story Ferris over Lake Michigan. Comedy fans will New York.” The third-largest metropoli- wheel, the tall ship Windy, and the want to catch a performance at The tan area in the United States, Chicago- Smith Museum of Stained Glass Win- Second City theater near Lincoln Park, land—as the city and its surrounding dows, which features 150 religious and where stars like Tina Fey, Bill Murray, suburbs are called—is also home to secular windows, some attributed to and Mike Meyers trained. Afterward, more than 1,900 Johns Hopkins such famed craftsmen as Louis head north about a mile to 4. The alumni. Sunkara has gotten to know Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge. Wiener’s Circle for a “char dog,” or a some of them as co-chair of the Young Abbott calls the Smith Museum a charbroiled hot dog, as well as a dose Alumni Committee, which organizes “hidden gem.” To get the story on the of sassy banter from the employees. social gatherings at local hotspots. She, city’s famous skyline, travel along the Cap the night off with a visit to blues along with Chicago alumni chapter Chicago River on a Chicago Architec- club 5. Buddy Guy’s Legends. Founded president Athena Abbott, A&S ’90, ture Foundation River Cruise. Or get in 1989 by electric blues master Buddy helped put together this insider’s tour. a bird’s-eye view from the nearby Guy, the place has live music every The tour starts with the obvious: 3. Signature Room on the 95th floor of night and has seen performances by deep-dish pizza. One mainstay is the John Hancock Center, which offers such greats as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray 1. Lou Malnati’s, known for its butter a stunning panorama of the city, as Vaughn, and Dr. John.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 73 ALUMNI | Alumni Association

NOMINATIONS WELCOME

Written by | LISA BELMAN

This year, 38 alumni, faculty, and ballpark with their career, whether it friends of the university received Johns be medicine, law, or some field in Hopkins University Alumni Associa- which they have achieved outstanding tion awards. Among them: Irvin professional success.” Writer Russell PHOTOGRAPH by Nathan, A&S ’64, attorney general Baker, A&S ’47; business magnate and of the District of Columbia; Audrey New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, McCallum, Peab ’60, ’67, a pianist, Engr ’64; and journalist Wolf Blitzer, W

music educator, and the first African- SAIS ’72, are just a few of the past ill K

American to be admitted to Peabody; recipients. “The most challenging irk/

Karen Horn, A&S ’72 (PhD), the first part of the process,” Adler says, “is H o m

female president of a Federal Reserve picking the very best from this group ewoodphoto.jhu.edu Bank and a nationally recognized of elite contributors.” leader in economics; Solomon H. The other four Alumni Association Snyder, HS ’68, a pioneer in the field awards are the Heritage Award, given to of molecular neuroscience and founder alumni and others who have con­ of the School of Medicine’s Depart- tributed outstanding service over an ment of Neuroscience; and Neilesh extended period of time to the progress S. Patel, Engr ’03, a social entrepre­ of the university or to the activities of neur, leader in global public health, the Alumni Association; the Woodrow and advocator for the welfare of Wilson Award, for alumni who are children. They may work in vastly distinguished by their current or recent different areas, but what the award public service as elected or appointed recipients have in common is a drive officials; the Knowledge for the World to advance their fields and, in many Award, for alumni who have demon- cases, the world. strated professional achievement or The Distinguished Alumnus Award, humanitarian service in the interna- which was the first award category tional arena; and the Outstanding created by the Alumni Association Recent Graduate Award, which goes to nearly 50 years ago, is given to alumni alumni who graduated within the last who have exemplified the Johns 10 years and have demonstrated Hopkins tradition of excellence and outstanding achievement or service in whose personal accomplishments, their professional or volunteer lives. professional achievement, or humani- If you know of someone who is tarian service have brought credit to deserving of a Johns Hopkins Univer- the university. The award, says Howard sity Alumni Association award for Adler, A&S ’72, chair of the Alumni 2014, submit your nomination by Council Awards and Nominations December 1. Nomination forms Committee and a partner at Gibson, along with biographies of the 2013 Dunn & Crutcher LLP, is for people award recipients can be found at who have really “hit it out of the alumni.jhu.edu/awards.

74 | johns hopkins magazine | Class Notes

1938 Charles C. Counselman Jr., Engr Advisers and a senior fellow at the particularly on an orphanage in performances by the London ’38, who served in the U.S. Army Brookings Institution’s Economic Baja, Mexico. They live in Philharmonic Orchestra, released Corps of Engineers, worked at the Studies program. Fullerton, California. by MSR Classics in January. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. before retiring from the insurance industry in 1985. After a move to 1953 1957 1963 Naples, Florida, he returned to William Maginnis, Engr ’53, is Vivian Adelberg Rudow, Peab Tom Ahern, A&S ’63, writes: Baltimore, where he enjoys time retired from his position as ’57 (Cert), ’60, ’79 (MM), had “I learned more from fencing with his four children, 12 director at Beatrice Companies her latest CD, Sound Portraits: coach Dick Oles than any other grandchildren, and 10 great- Inc. He and his wife, Mimi, are Orchestra, Chamber and teacher in my life. He taught grandchildren. active in charity work, focusing Electro-Acoustic Music, featuring discipline and values, the importance of perseverance, the rewards of hard work, the 1943 Science With Style significance of principles and ethics. The lessons learned on the Alan Groh, Engr ’43, worked for Shawna Stepp-Jones, Engr ’10 (MS), wants to change the way girls think fencing strip were invaluable to Amoco Corp. for 37 years about science. Her nonprofit, Divaneering—“diva” plus “engineering”— developing catalytic processes encourages girls to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields me as an entrepreneur in the com- and closed-loop computer control (science, technology, engineering, and math) through fashion- and puter and book fields.” of oil refineries. He received his beauty-themed activities. As Miss Maryland Plus America 2013 and a Arnold Spitz, A&S ’63, is a retired MBA from the University of patent examiner for the United States Patent and Trademark Office, attorney living in Sag Harbor, New Chicago in 1964 and led activities Stepp-Jones is perfect for the job. “When girls traditionally think of York. He specialized in the area of in marketing and public affairs. women in science, they think of ‘geeky’ and ‘quirky,’” she says. “So I intellectual property law, with He and his wife, Doris Ruth, live wanted to put a spin on that image and say, ‘No. We are fabulous. We are Merck & Co., the Seagram Co. in San Diego. divas. We are Divaneers.’” Since winning the crown, Stepp-Jones has Ltd., and Pennie & Edmonds. John G. Strauch, Engr ’43, started writing a series of books about the Divaneers, girls who use STEM served with the U.S. Navy during skills to solve real-world problems, and has conducted workshops with World War II and later joined area students on such topics as making lipstick out of melted crayons and 1968 General Electric as a service creating earrings with LED lights. After her workshops, some students Richard Kaplan, A&S ’68, joined change their minds about their future careers: One young girl switched engineer. He became a manager the U.S. Foreign Service after her goal from professional ice skater to Divaneer. MARIANNE AMOSS at the company and was graduation and was assigned to responsible for design and embassies and consulates in procurement of electrical reactor Europe, South Asia, South control equipment for atomic America, the Middle East, and U.S. naval surface vessels and Canada. He is now retired in submarines. Strauch remains Boston and enjoys writing, active in retirement by investing, reading, working out, and playing trumpet, softball traveling with his wife, Elisabeth. (shortstop!), and dancing. Jim Werner, A&S ’68, served in the Army before receiving his MBA

PHOTOGRAPH by 1948 from Harvard and working with several pharmaceutical and Rashi Fein, A&S ’48, ’56 (PhD), is diagnostic companies. He and a professor of the economics of his wife live in Mt Airy, Maryland, medicine, emeritus, at Harvard

Zi where he works part time at z we Medical School. He was previously TNT Services Group and plays

A a member of the Economics lette golf full time. faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fein served on the staff of President 1973 Truman’s Commission on the Jeffrey Aresty, A&S ’73, is Health Needs of the Nation and president of Aresty International was a member of President Law Offices in Houston. Kennedy’s Council of Economic John Duker, Engr ’73, works as the director of Federal Programs

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 75 ALUMNI | Class Notes

1979 at Digital Reasoning Systems in degree at the University of Jack Sidorov, A&S ’73, who Stuart W. Davidson, A&S ’79,

Arlington, Virginia. John’s favorite Maryland School of Medicine. He earned a juris doctorate from has been appointed chair of the PHOTOGRAPH by memories from Johns Hopkins is now a general surgeon and lives Harvard Law School in 1976, is an Pennsylvania Board of Law include putting a Mickey Mouse in Jackson, Wyoming, with his attorney for the Antitrust Division Examiners. He was appointed watch face on the Gilman clock wife, Sally. of the U.S. Department of Justice. to the board in 2008 and has tower and electrifying the Adams served as vice chair for the last J

Michael Livanos, A&S ’73, SAIS Stephen Strelec, A&S ’73, is an e dorm bathroom. three years. ff ’74, is president of SCIO Shipping anesthesiologist practicing in rey

Richard Kuehn, A&S ’73, works Inc. Pittsburgh. His daughter, Lauren A llen at Mavins Group–Allstate, an Osgood “Steve” Lovekin Jr., A&S Strelec, A&S ’07, is also a Johns 1983 insur­ance and financial firm in ’73, is an attorney in Seattle Hopkins graduate. Haswell Franklin Jr., A&S ’83, Marietta, Georgia. He fondly specializing in family law. His son, Henry C. Ward, A&S ’73, earned co-owns, along with his three remembers participating in the Michael Bowman, A&S ’89, is a Master of Science degree in air brothers, a national financial world’s largest food fight at also a Johns Hopkins graduate. resources/industrial hygiene at services firm that assists the Naval Academy dining hall the University of Pittsburgh after Donald Masters, A&S ’73, is CEO businesses and individuals while visiting with the freshman graduating from Johns Hopkins. lacrosse team. of Artificial Cell Technologies Inc. with solving complex employee He completed his doctorate in Art Weiss, A&S ’73, is a professor benefits, insurance, and financial Robert LaRossa, A&S ’73, lives biochemistry and immunology in of rheumatology, medicine, issues. in Pennsylvania with his wife. 1979 at Cornell University and was microbiology, and immunology at His daughter Karen LaRossa, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard the University of California, San Ed ’09 (MS), is also a Johns Medical School from 1979 to 1982. Francisco, and an investigator at Hopkins graduate. 1984 Martin Reber, A&S ’73, reports Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Margaret-Ann F. Howie, A&S ’84, Kerry Levin, A&S ’73, Med ’77, is that he received an MBA in Donald Wenzel, A&S ’73, Bus ’76 general counsel for Baltimore chairman of the Department of entrepreneurial management in (MAS), is the president of Wenzel County Public Schools, was Neurology within the Cleveland 1976 from the University of & Company, an advertising, named Maryland Pro Bono Clinic’s Neurological Institute. Pennsylvania and is currently mar k­ eting, and public relations Attorney of the Year (2013) by the David Levine, A&S ’73, ’75 (MA), managing director at Higher firm. Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit is a writer specializing in health Education Technology and Jack Whitney, A&S ’73, is an organization that offers legal and medicine. He is co-chair of Services. He now lives in emergency physician and medical services, advocacy, and public Science Writers in New York, a Pennsylvania with his wife, director at the North Shore education programs to protect group of editors and writers who Sandra. Medical Group in Highland Park, immigrant women and girls who cover science and medicine in the Warren Rosman, A&S ’73, is a Illinois. are fleeing violence. print and electronic news media. partner at Weston Hurd LLP, Arthur Young, A&S ’73, is an Levine was previously director of where he focuses on defending media relations for the American economist at the U.S. Department 1988 cities and school boards in of Labor. Cancer Society and worked for employment law cases. An active Steven Angerthal, A&S ’88, Pfizer for 10 years. He fondly participant in the local bar Judi Zyroff, A&S ’73, is director attended the University of remembers his freshman year in association, Rosman volunteers to of market research pricing and Wisconsin–Madison, where he Baker House in 1969, where he teach constitutional law at an feasibility at MyPoints.com, where earned his doctorate in political made many friends he is still inner-city high school. He and his members earn points every time science after graduating from close to today. wife, Debra, live across the street they shop from the company’s Johns Hopkins. Angerthal reports Griff Lewis, Engr ’73, lives in from Lake Erie. network of retailers. Zyroff is that he is married with three married with two sons. Chicago with his wife, Barbara. He Alan Schiz, A&S ’73, is a senior children, lives in Washington, writes: “After 30 years with Baxter technical architect for AT&T. After and works for the U.S. Army as Healthcare, I retired February 1, graduating from Johns Hopkins, 1978 an adviser for the Department 2013. Barb and I plan on leaving he earned a doctorate in physics of Studies. Sue Hwang, A&S ’78, has worked the cold winters of Chicago and from Yale University in 1979. He Joshua Ardise, A&S ’88, in the area of clinical trials, moving to Carlsbad, California, has two children and lives in New attended SUNY Stony Brook, starting with Dow BioScience in 2015.” Jersey with his wife, Pam. where he received his medical (now GSK) and lately at Amgen. George “Bing” Linhardt, A&S degree in 2002 and master’s James M. Shannon, A&S ’73, Now retired, Hwang is still active ’73, reports that after graduating degree in public health in 2010. is president and CEO of the in community theater and has from Johns Hopkins, he went on He is currently the medical National Fire Protection Associa- fond memories of working on the to earn his Doctor of Medicine tion. He is married to Dr. Silva director for the Jewish Guild for Theatre Hopkins productions of the Blind. Castro Shannon. Guys and Dolls and Charlie Brown.

76 | johns hopkins magazine earned degrees in naturopathy David Lubetkin, A&S ’88, and human nutrition. She is now attended the Albert Einstein married with two children. College of Medicine after Steve Cohen, A&S ’88, is graduating from Johns Hopkins currently the chief operating and is a fellow of the American officer and a principal at West College of Obstetricians and Road Capital Management, a long/ Gynecologists practicing in Boca short equity hedge fund shop. Raton, Florida. Tom DiBari, A&S ’88, recently Elizabeth MacGillivray, A&S ’88, joined Geneva Advisors, a received her JD from Boston Chicago-based growth equity University after graduating from manager, after a 13-year stint with Johns Hopkins. She is now a a boutique fixed-income firm. principal at Mercer, a global human resources consulting firm. Kathryn “Kacie” Harkins, A&S ’88, received her Master of Public Michael Maline, A&S ’88, is a Health degree from Boston partner at Goodwin Procter in the University in 1998. She now works Business Law Department and a for Aetna and is married with member of the Capital Markets, three children. Life Sciences, and Technology Companies practices. Julie Heaney, Engr ’88, is a partner and member of the Dwain Morris-Irvin, A&S ’88, is an assistant professor and A Nestful of Blue Jays Intellectual Property Litigation research scientist for the Maxine When Chris Hampton. A&S ’83, and his wife, Rene, started a family, Group at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at “we didn’t just have children,” he says. “We had a litter.” Born within Tunnell LLP, a Delaware law firm. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in a five-year window, all four kids are now Johns Hopkins students. The Jordan Karp, A&S ’88, is a senior Los Angeles. family’s “serious first-born” and aspiring neuroscientist Chris Jr., 22, is vice president and general counsel in the home stretch of a combined BA/MS program. Patrick, 21, is the at PharmAthene Inc., a biodefense Joyce Nyberg, A&S ’88, attended jokester of the family (“John Belushi reincarnated,” says his dad) and has company. Lewis and Clark College, where traveled to Ghana, Tanzania, and Honduras pursuing his public health she earned a Master of Arts in degree. Patrick and his younger brother, Gerard, 20, are Phi Kappa Psi William Key, A&S ’88, works for Teaching degree in 1989, with a fraternity brothers and rugby players. Gerard, a double major in public Allstate Insurance and lives in concentration in teaching health and classics, is interning in Rome this semester. And Bridget, 18, Nashville. language arts. She is now chair is a freshman, field hockey player, and future psychologist. When Adam Kristol, A&S ’88, is a of the English Language Arts Hampton’s brood of Blue Jays visits home, their travels and studies principal at ALIGN Real Estate Department for the public school become the heart of dinner-table conversation and lively debate. Consulting in the Miami/Fort district in Miles City, Montana. “We always have a grand time together,” says Dad. KELLY BROOKS Lauderdale area. Marlene Platkin, A&S ’88, earned Amy Lambrecht, A&S ’88, is an MBA in real estate finance in director of development for 1992 at the Columbia Business Advancement Project, a next- School. She is now married with Herman Ayayo, A&S ’88, is an Luis Bendezu, A&S ’88, earned generation, multiracial civil rights two children. editor at Tax Analysts, a nonprofit a medical degree from the organization. Evan Reiter, Engr ’88, is vice publisher that provides tax University of Connecticut in 1992. William LaPlante, Engr ’88 (MS), chair of the Department of information worldwide. He is a physician with the was appointed principal deputy, Otolaryngology and an associate Mecklenburg Medical Group in Mark Basch, A&S ’88, is a assistant secretary of the Air Force professor at Virginia Common- North Carolina and is married with director at Interactive Data, a (Acquisition) in April. He most wealth University. global provider of financial market three children. recently served as portfolio Anne Robinson, A&S ’88, ’90 data, analytics, and financial Mikyle Byrd-Vaughn, A&S ’88, is director for the Missile Defense (MSE), is a professor and solutions. He has two children. a clinical assistant professor and Agency at the Mitre Corp., a department chair of Chemical and coordinator of academic affairs at Christina Beilenson, A&S ’88, not-for-profit organization that Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Bridgeport. After attended University of Maryland provides systems engineering, Tulane University. School of Social Work, where Johns Hopkins, she attended the research and development, and David D. Shin, A&S ’88, a general she earned an MSW in 1996. She University of Bridgeport College of information technology support to and vascular surgeon, is a partner now works for Baltimore City Naturopathic Medicine and the government. with Texas Surgical Associates. Public Schools. Nutrition Institute, where she

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 77 ALUMNI | Class Notes

1994 ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES Mindy Steinholz, A&S ’88, is a Ritu Sharma, SPH ’94, was Allan Simpao, A&S ’98, is a alumni association president pediatrician in the Bronx. honored in June as a Woman of pediatric anesthesiologist at Terri McBride, SAIS ’99 Stephanie Weissman, A&S ’88, Distinction at the National the Children’s Hospital of Executive Director Conference for College Women Philadelphia. of Alumni Relations is a supervising deputy district Susan T. deMuth attorney for the Riverside County Student Leaders, for her work as co-founder and president of editors District Attorney’s Office. She Lisa Belman reports that her 15-year-old Women Thrive Worldwide, an 2000 Jeanette Der Bedrosian daughter was selected to play advocacy group addressing Dayrel S. Sewell, A&S ’00, is Class notes editor on the England National V16 gender inequality for women founder and principal at the law Nora George, A&S ’11 (MA) Basketball team and competed living in poverty. firm of Dayrel Sewell PLLC, a Contact us at: in the European Championship leading national law firm based in The JHU Office of Alumni Relations New York and focusing on San Martin Center, Second Floor last summer. 1995 litigation, intellectual property, 3400 N. Charles Street Melissa Wu, A&S ’88, Bus ’00 Baltimore, MD 21218-2696 Carla M. Koretsky, A&S ’95 (MA), and real estate. (Cert), ’03 (MBA), is medical 410-516-0363 ’98 (PhD), became dean of 1-800-JHU-JHU1 (5481) director for Immediate Care of Western Michigan University’s [email protected] Southern New Hampshire, the Lee Honors College on July 1. 2005 alumni.jhu.edu walk-in clinics/urgent care centers She has been a faculty member Please send class notes to magnotes affiliated with Southern New Russell Kirk, Peab ’05, debuted @ at WMU since 2000 in the jhu.edu. Due to production Hampshire Medical Center in his second album, To Journal deadlines, your information may not Environmental Studies Program Nashua. She and her husband, Square, in March 2012. He has appear for an issue or two. By and the Department of Geosci- submitting a class note, you agree that Tyler Brannen, have traveled to been performing regularly in ences. Her work focuses on Johns Hopkins can publish your note in Scotland and Australia to compete New York and Baltimore as well the print and online editions. aqueous geochemistry and in marathon races. as volunteering with the Baltimore The Alumni News & Notes section of biogeochemistry, seeking to Symphony Orchestra’s ORCHKIDS Johns Hopkins Magazine is made integrate field, laboratory, and program. possible by your Alumni Association. For modeling studies of mineral- more information, visit alumni.jhu.edu. 1989 water-biological interactions near Otto W. Immel, A&S ’89, a the Earth’s surface. 2008 GOLOMB’S ANSWERS partner in the law firm Quarles & Brady LLP, was named one of two Stephanie Tow, A&S ’08, spent a 2013 Economic Partnership 1998 year abroad as a Fulbright Fellow Japanglish Volunteers of the Year by the based in Hong Kong to teach Matthew Ortman, A&S ’98, is Solutions (Puzzle on page 67) Greater Naples (Florida) Chamber English. Tow graduated from New now an assistant professor of Jersey Medical School in May and List 1: hotel, news, orange1, taxi, of Commerce in April. television medicine at Cooper University started her residency training in Saurin Shah, A&S ’89, reports Hospital in New Jersey. physical medicine and rehabilita- List 2: apartment building, depart- that he wrote a book chapter on ment store, milk, puzzle, service Jaime Pickett, A&S ’98, is a tion with career aspirations the electrification of road 2 doctor of veterinary medicine focused on pediatric disability, List 3: violin, building , air condition- transportation in Plug-In Electric ing3, shirt4, toilet practicing at Banfield Pet Hospital advocacy, health policy, Vehicles: What Role for Washing- academia, and research at the Notes: 1 Very common in orenji jiusu, in Richmond, Virginia. ton? (Brookings Institution Press, international level. “orange juice.” 2 Not “beer,” which is 2009) and was also named Sarah Scott, Engr ’98, is a biiru, where ii indicates that the i has a long duration. Biiru entered Japanese co-portfolio manager of Neuber- teacher in the St. Landry Parish from Dutch bier, with an audible r sound ger Berman Global Equity Fund. district of Opelousas, Louisiana. 2009 at the end, not from the British, which the Japanese would have rendered Radhika Shenai, A&S ’98, lives in Catherine Derbes, A&S ’09, as bia. (To have rendered the entire 1990 Chicago and reports that she is a who has been with Teach for word building phonetically would have managing director and head of America in New Orleans for four required six kana “syllables” in Japa- Alexander Swirnoff, A&S ’90, is a the Consumer Services and years, will remain for an nese.) 3 Keeping only what Japanese patent attorney with Pfizer in the speakers hear as the beginning syllables Healthcare Group for Lloyds Bank additional year to teach math- of air conditioning! 4 The Japanese Greater Boston area. North America. She recently ematics to fifth-graders. write Y-shiatsu with an English letter earned her MBA from the NYU y preceding the phonetically written Stern School of Business. Francesca Ferrono, A&S ’09, is shiatsu to mean “white shirt.” 5 Another studying for a doctorate in extreme example of shortening occurs in the word karaoke, where kara is Japa- Portuguese and teaching at the nese for “empty” (as in karate, literally University of Wisconsin–Madison. “empty hand”); but oke is all that is kept of the English word orchestra. (Thus, karaoke means “empty orchestra.”)

78 | johns hopkins magazine | In Memoriam

IN MEMORIAM

Walter Scott Brown, Engr ’28, Henry S. Baker Jr., A&S ’50, Salvatore J. Cantolino, A&S ’57 Ramesh. D. Kulkarni, Med ’66 January 28, Sykesville, Maryland. February 2, Monkton, Maryland. (MA), Med ’61, HS ’64, ’69, March (PGF), August 22, 2012, Maharash- John M. Kopper, Engr ’33,’44 William C. Eppers Jr., Engr ’50, 9, Bradenton, Florida. tra, India. (PhD), January 16, Baltimore. ’62 (PhD), December 14, 2012, Eugene DiCero, A&S ’57, ’57 (MA), Don M. McQuoid, Ed ’69 (MEd), Robert Lowenstein, A&S ’34 Bellbrook, Ohio. January 5, Fremont, California. February 10, Severna Park, (PhD), January 7, West Orange, Humes H. Hart, A&S ’50, ’56 Bruce S. Grimes, A&S ’57, Maryland. New Jersey. (MA), January 16, Waynesville, November 14, 2012, West William M. Runkle, SPH ’70, Theodore “Ted” Stern, A&S ’34, North Carolina. Melbourne, Florida. January 12, Austin, Texas. January 18, Charleston, South James F. O’Neill, Engr ’50, Joseph A. Di Venuto, A&S ’59 Louis W. Bush, Engr ’71, February Carolina. November 12, 2012, Bel Air, (MA), December 19, 2012, 1, Baltimore. Josephine Rodgers Fielder, Nurs Maryland. Springfield, Massachusetts. Robert Oscar “Bob” Mumper, ’37 (Dipl), February 10, Whittier, Solomon J. Cohen, Med ’51, Anthony J. Lazarewicz, Engr ’59 Bus ’72, March 9, Lima, Ohio. California. January 8, Kennebunkport, Maine. (Cert), January 3, Mount Airy, Billy G. Dinsmore, Ed ’74 (MEd), Francis J. Taylor Jr., Engr ’38, Guy N. Cromwell Jr., A&S ’51, Maryland. January 26, Aberdeen, Maryland. January 16, St. Augustine, Florida. January 15, Midlothian, North George R. Fountain, A&S ’60, Carl J. Gerbrandt, Peab ’74 Mildred B. Otenasek, A&S ’39 Carolina. February 10, Glenville, New York. (DMA), January 23, Platteville, (PhD), November 19, 2012, Lynn Taylor Hebden, Peab ’51 Richard Brown Hughes, A&S ’61 Colorado. Baltimore. (Cert), ’54 (AD), February 3, (MA), November 20, 2012, Atlanta. Walter A. Scott, Med ’75 (PGF), Mary Ellen Calhoun Gilson, Nurs Baltimore. Henry D. “Hank” Nadig Jr., A&S January 28, Miami. ’40 (Dipl), December 20, 2012, Walter S. Henly, Med ’51, HS ’52, ’61 (MA), February 11, Lee, Peter J. Tutschka, Med ’75,’76 Dallas, Georgia. February 10, Houston. Massachusetts. (PGF), HS ’75, January 11, Arthur E. Laidlaw, HS ’40, Christopher Van Hollen, A&S ’51 Irwin W. Pollack, Med ’61 (PGF), Farmington, Connecticut. November 19, 2012, Cooperstown, (PhD), January 30, Washington, HS ’61, January 6, Tucson, Peggy Brandon Brown, Ed ’76 New York. D.C. Arizona. (MA), January 25, Baltimore. H. Thomas Robinson, A&S ’41, Charles H. Glatfelter, A&S ’52 Zsolt H. B. Koppanyi, Med ’62 Gayle Layfield Latshaw, A&S ’78 Med ’44, HS ’48, February 22, (PhD), February 6, Gettysburg, (PGF), SPH ’71, January 29, (MLA), February 1, Baltimore. North Branford, Connecticut. Pennsylvania. Midlothian, Virginia. Kuan-Teh Jeang, A&S ’79, Med Marjorie M. Clements, Nurs ’42 Allan R. McClary, Med ’52 (PGF), Robert H. Siegel, A&S ’62 (MA), ’82, ’84 (PhD), January 27, (Cert), February 7, Seaford, January 17, Glen Arm, Maryland. December 20, 2012, South Rockville, Maryland. Delaware. Berwick, Maine. Winslow S. Caughey, A&S ’53 Clifford H. Turen, A&S ’79, Ernest H. Hinrichs Jr., A&S ’43, (PhD), Med ’54, ’56 (PGF), Wilma B. Bias, A&S ’63 (PhD), January 13, Clarksville, Maryland. HS ’49, Bus ’54, February 23, February 25, Hamilton, Montana. Med ’64 (PGF), January 29, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Baltimore. Michael R. Spence, SPH ’80, Martin C. Chaitt, Engr ’53(MS), December 25, 2012, Lakeside, Gibson P. Buchanan, Med ’44, HS November 10, 2012, Palm Beach Richard M. Tisinger Jr., A&S ’63 Montana. ’4 4 , February 2, Verona, Pennsyl- Gardens, Florida. (PhD), January 28, Los Alamos, vania. New Mexico. Frederick N. Scatena, Engr ’87 Vernon B. Morris Jr., Engr ’53 (PhD), January 2, Philadelphia. Kathleen W. Bialostosky, Nurs (MS), January 7, Baltimore. Ramez S. Azoury, HS ’64, Med ’45 (Dipl), January 14, West Linn, ’70 (PGF), January 12, Norfolk, Lavinia Pitzer, Ed ’93 (MS), Joseph F. Skrivan, Engr ’53, ’56 November 15, Washington. Oregon. (MSE), ’58 (PhD), January 26, Virginia. Raphael B. Reider, A&S ’48, Trumbull, Connecticut. Peter W. Kersker, A&S ’64, Grace M. Chu, Bus ’95 (MS), May 6, 2012, Flanders, New Jersey. December 30, 2012, San Francisco, Philip J. Ferris, A&S ’54, Med ’58, January 16, St. Petersburg, Florida. California. November 8, 2012, Lutherville, Barbara Topper, Peab ’64, ’68 Daniel J. DeCicco, Engr ’99 (MS), Mary A. Bentz, Nurs ’49 (Cert), Maryland. (MM), January 26, Medford, January 15, Pasadena, Maryland. November 10, 2009, Albuquerque, Norio B. Endo, A&S ’56, January Oregon. Sophia Schmidt, SPH ’11, January New Mexico. 11, Annapolis, Maryland. Darryl W. Copeland, Bus ’65 25, Frederick, Maryland. John C. Neu, Engr ’49, February William D. Waxter III, Engr ’56, (MS), January 5, Pine Valley, New 4, Annapolis, Maryland. February 11, Cockeysville, Jersey. Maryland.

Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 79 ALUMNI | Afterwords

TRAUMA’S TOLL

Written by | KATI WORONKA, A&S ’99, ED ’00 (MAT)

A friend took her 2-year-old out for a walk one bright spring morning. As they wandered along, she breathed deeply the scent of her neighbor’s flowers. At the end of the street, her little girl pointed at the sky, smiling. illus “Look, Mommy! Airplane!” My friend looked and, sure trat i o

enough, there was a big dark plane, n by

flying low. She turned the stroller D aniel Zender around and sprinted home. As they entered the house, the rumble grew louder and, within moments, the sound of bombs landing about a mile away filled the erstwhile quiet street. She turned on cartoons to drown out the noise. A few days later, during bath time, my friend’s daughter picked up a toy and made it float over the water like an airplane. Then she dropped it quickly and shouted, “BDUSH! BDUSH!” She’s playing war now instead of playing house. I hear so many similar stories, both from old friends I met while living in Syria and from new ones I’ve made while volunteering with projects to aid Syrians. “Back [home], the kids did art organize food rations and negotiate arrange social activities for younger activities at school,” one Syrian woman with the new militias. But as the city children who can’t attend school. One now living as a refugee in Jordan said came under siege, he had to flee. Upon young man told me they are research- to me. “They drew trees, birds, and arriving in a neighboring country, he ing online counseling training so they pictures of other kids playing. Now set about trying to find some way that can help traumatized children begin they draw guns, snipers, and fighter an international NGO might deliver to recover. These young people are jets.” Her children have already missed aid to his city. He has since returned well-educated and well-connected. two years of school. They are hopeful home, living in a battle zone and They could put their own safety first to go home, but their city lies in ruins. doing what he can to help the people and leave the country. But they don’t. The trauma of this war will last he loves. If they are the ones who will build the much longer than the fighting, but the He is not alone. Youth associations new Syria, then maybe trauma can do Syrians I know are strong. They are are popping up throughout the some good after all. also tenderhearted. I recently met one country. Teenagers deliver food when Kati Woronka’s recent novel, Dreams in the young man who, when his city was they can find it, gather volunteers to Medina, is based on her experience of living occupied, joined with his neighbors to clean rubble off the streets, and and working in Syria for almost four years.

80 | johns hopkins magazine Volume 65 No. 3 Fall 2013 | 81

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