The Johns Hopkins Gazette: September 9, 2002
September 9, 2002
VOL. 32, NO. 2

  

In Brief

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Bush plans to appoint Brody to foreign intelligence board

President George W. Bush announced on Sept. 5 that he intends to appoint university President William R. Brody to a two-year term as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

A nonpartisan body that was established in 1965 by President Eisenhower, the board provides the president with advice on the effectiveness with which the intelligence community is meeting the nation's needs.

Brody, who has a doctorate in engineering as well as an M.D. degree, said that the White House was looking for a board member with a science background. The PFIAB currently has 16 members.


Noted engineer to give first talk as JHU faculty member

James E. West, co-inventor of the modern electret microphone used in most telephones and many other devices, will present his first seminar as a Johns Hopkins faculty member on Thursday, Sept. 12. The seminar, called "Modern Electret Microphones and Their Applications," will begin at 4 p.m. in 117 Barton Hall, Homewood campus. Refreshments will be served at 3:45 p.m.

The event is open to the entire Hopkins community.

West recently concluded a lengthy and distinguished career at Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies and joined the Whiting School's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a visiting research professor.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow and former president of the Acoustical Society of America and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The recipient of numerous awards for his research and engineering achievements, West also has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.


CTY plans special information session for faculty and staff

Have a bright child in your house, or know someone who does? The Center for Talented Youth at Hopkins is sponsoring a special information session for faculty and staff from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus.

Each year, bright children in grades two through eight can enroll in CTY's talent searches. Students qualify to enroll by scoring at the 97th percentile on a nationally normed, standardized test such as the CTBS administered in Maryland public schools. Students then test as part of the CTY talent search and receive scores that provide additional information about mathematical and verbal reasoning abilities. Based on test results, students can qualify for CTY's summer and online academic programs, both of which are covered by Hopkins' tuition remission program.

The noontime session will allow attendees to find out more about CTY's programs and the enrollment process. Joy Coleman, outreach coordinator, and Claudia Burns, talent search program coordinator, will host the meeting and answer questions.

Anyone unable to attend can obtain information by calling 410-516-0278 or by visiting http://www.cty.jhu.edu.


Sulforaphane gets new name: Molecule of the week

The American Chemical Society named sulforaphane, a molecule co-discovered by two Hopkins faculty members, molecule of the week for the last week of August on its Chemistry.org Web site.

Paul Talalay, professor of molecular pharmacology at the School of Medicine, and Gary Posner, professor of chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, discovered sulforaphane in the early 1990s.

Talalay's research group, the Brassica Chemoprevention Laboratory, identifies and studies compounds in foods that can reduce a person's chances of developing cancer. They purified and tested an extract from broccoli for biological activity, and then sent the active portion to Posner's lab for determination of the compound's structure.

Talalay and his colleagues later identified broccoli sprouts as a concentrated source of sulforaphane, which promotes the production of enzymes that neutralize highly reactive, dangerous forms of cancer-causing compounds. Posner's group has produced synthetic analogs of sulforaphane that have also shown potential for preventing cancer.

Sulforaphane is no longer in the molecule of the week spotlight, but those wishing to check out the site can go to http://www.acs.org/portal/Chemistry.


Barnes & Noble showcases health books from JHU Press

New books from JHU Press will be featured in a six-week consumer health series planned for a new Barnes & Noble store located in Bowie, Md. The authors will speak, answer questions from customers and sign books.

The series will begin on Thursday, Sept. 19, with JHMI faculty members Lawrence J. Cheskin and Brian E. Lacy, authors of the recently published Healing Heartburn.

The other books that will be featured are Parkinson's Disease and A Life Shaken, Sept. 26; The Johns Hopkins Guide to Diabetes, Oct. 3; The 36-Hour Day, Oct. 10; The Guide to Living With HIV Infection, Oct. 17; and Adolescent Depression, Oct. 24. All events will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information about the books and their authors, go to http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/books/news26.htm.


GO TO SEPTEMBER 9, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE HOME PAGE.