Greenberg, Anikeeff receive appointments at SPSBE

Sheldon F. Greenberg has been named an associate professor and appointed interim director of the Graduate Division of Business and Management in the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.

Greenberg joined the school in 1994 as director of the Police Executive Leadership Program and subsequently was named chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Programs. He also has served on the school's academic council and is a member of the search committee seeking a successor to Dean Stanley Gabor, who is retiring Sept. 1.

Michael A. Anikeeff, director of the school's Allan L. Berman Real Estate Institute since its founding in 1989, has been named an associate professor. Hopkins is one of only five universities nationwide to offer a master of science in real estate.

APL-managed mission to Mercury selected by NASA

The MESSENGER mission to investigate the planet Mercury, led by principal investigator Sean C. Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and managed by the Applied Physics Laboratory, has been selected by NASA as one of two new Discovery Program missions.

APL will design and build the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, known as MESSENGER, which will be the first spacecraft to visit the closest planet to the sun in more than three decades. Scheduled for launch in 2004, MESSENGER will fly by Mercury twice in 2008 to gather data to guide the next step: a yearlong orbit to conduct detailed scientific studies of the planet beginning September 2009.

"Understanding Mercury and the forces that shaped it is fundamental to understanding other terrestrial planets and their evolution," says APL project manager Max R. Peterson.

Seven miniaturized instruments aboard MESSENGER will attempt to peel back Mercury's veil of mystery, answering such key scientific questions as, Why is Mercury so dense? What are the characteristics and dynamics of its thin atmosphere and Earthlike magnetosphere? What is the nature of the planet's mysterious polar caps?

APL project scientist Ralph L. McNutt Jr. says that in addition to its harvest of scientific information, the $286 million MESSENGER mission has the potential to develop new technologies that can be transferred to industry.

For more information, visit the Web site: sd-www.jhuapl.edu/MESSENGER.

Hopkins Symphony Orchestra announces fall auditions

All players of orchestral instruments are invited to audition for the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, a student/community orchestra comprised of students, alumni, staff and community members. The 90 members of the HSO, under music director Jed Gaylin, are dedicated to making live "classical" music performances available to the general public at an affordable price. Four concerts are performed in Shriver Hall on the Homewood campus each year, along with chamber, outreach and educational concerts.

Auditions will be held at Homewood on Saturday, Aug. 28, and Sunday, Sept. 12. To schedule an appointment, or for more information, call 410-516-6542 or e-mail hso@jhu.edu.

Information needed about photographer from 1960s

A search is under way to locate a photographer named William Hamilton, who worked at Johns Hopkins in the 1960s. Mame Warren, who is conducting research for a book for the university's 125th anniversary, is impressed by Hamilton's work and would like to learn more about him. Anyone who knows anything at all about William Hamilton--or who has photographs or scrapbooks relating to any aspect of Hopkins--is encouraged to contact Warren at 410-435-5314 or mew@jhu.edu.

Study shows lean red meat can play a role in low-fat diet

For years, physicians have avoided red meat when designing heart-healthy diets for their patients. Turns out that's a bum steer, according to a study published in the June 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

With a grant from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, researchers at Hopkins, the Chicago Center for Clinical Research and the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinics put 191 adults with elevated cholesterol levels on a comprehensive low-fat, low-cholesterol diet that included lean meat. Patients were randomly assigned to consume 80 percent of their meat intake from lean red meats (beef, veal or pork) for five to seven days a week for nine months, or to eat lean white meats (fish or poultry) for the same length of time.

At study's end, subjects in both groups had nearly identical changes in their cholesterol levels. All saw an average decrease of 1 to 3 percent in low-density lipoproteins, or "bad cholesterol"; an average increase of 2 percent in high-density lipoproteins, or "good cholesterol"; and an average decrease of 6 percent in triglycerides, molecules needed to make fats.

"Chicken and fish traditionally have been considered healthier than red meat because many cuts of red meat can have too much saturated fat," says Peter O. Kwiterovich, director of the Hopkins Lipid Clinic. "Now, lean cuts of red meat are readily available. If you follow a heart-healthy diet, it doesn't make a difference whether you eat red or white meat, as long as you choose lean cuts."