Senior at Homewood found dead in his off-campus residence

Austin Rottier, a senior computer science major from Ellicott City, Md., was found dead in his off-campus residence near the Homewood campus on March 29, just before 9 p.m.

Susan Boswell, dean of student life, said that Baltimore City police informed the university that they had found no evidence of foul play and that preliminary findings lead investigators to believe the student had taken his own life. As of press time on Friday, no official determination had been made.

In an e-mail sent Thursday morning to the Hopkins community, Boswell wrote, "The loss of any of our students diminishes us all, because each and every student contributes so much to the community we build here at Homewood. So sudden a loss is all the more difficult for us, reminding us as it does of how precious — yet fragile — life is."

A date will be announced for a campus memorial service.

 

'U.S. News' releases annual graduate school rankings

Hitting newsstands today is U.S. News & World Report's 2006 "Best Graduate Schools" issue, which includes rankings in medicine, engineering, education and the sciences, a discipline last ranked in 2002. In the category of medical schools/research, Johns Hopkins retains last year's No. 2 spot, again behind Harvard. In specialties, JHU is again No. 1 in internal medicine and tied for first (with Yale) in drug/alcohol abuse. Other rankings: primary care, tied at 41; women's health, 3; geriatrics, 2; AIDS, 2; pediatrics, 3.

In engineering, JHU is tied at 21, up from 26, and ranked No. 1 in biomedical/bioengineering and No. 2 in environmental/environmental health.

In the biological sciences, JHU is tied at 5 with CalTech and ranked in the top 10 in cell biology, neuroscience/neurobiology, microbiology, biochemistry/biophysics/structural biology, molecular biology, ecology/evolutionary biology and genetics/genomics/bioinformatics.

Also ranked are chemistry, tied at 24; computer science, 28; earth sciences, tied at 21; mathematics, tied at 21; and physics, tied at 22.

In schools of education, JHU is in a three-way tie at 32.

For complete listings and methodology, go to www.usnews.com.

 

Weeklong celebration of student employees at JHU begins today

The Homewood campus will kick off its annual celebration of National Student Employment Week with free ice cream from noon to 2 p.m. today, April 3, at Levering Plaza.

Deans Paula Burger, Susan Boswell and William Conley will be doling out free scoops for everyone in honor of the more than 4,200 Homewood undergraduate and graduate students working throughout the Hopkins community, as well as the offices and departments that employ them.

The week's events include a luncheon on Thursday, when the student employee and employer of the year will be announced.

 

Chocolate Factory fundraiser returns to Homewood

Sweets lovers are in luck this week as the Chocolate Factory opens its doors on the Homewood campus for the second year. Hosted by the Center for Social Concern's student advisory board, this year's festival will have triple the number of vendors and prizes as in its maiden year.

The event is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7, in the Glass Pavilion. The $5 admission charge buys five tickets, which can be redeemed for samples provided by local vendors or used to play games or enter raffles. Prizes have been donated by the business community and cultural institutions.

All profits support Baltimore schools, nonprofits and other institutions whose success makes for a better city.

 

SAIS to hold discussion today on America's role in the world

The School of Advanced International Studies will hold a forum, "The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the 21st Century," at 5:30 p.m. today, April 3.

Part of the SAIS Faculty Book Series, the discussion will be based on the book of the same name by Michael Mandelbaum, the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy and director of the American Foreign Policy Program at SAIS. The book was recently published by PublicAffairs.

Mandelbaum's introductory remarks will be followed by a panel discussion by Fritz W. Ermarth, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council; Robert Lieber, professor of government at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service; and Robert Guest, Washington correspondent for The Economist.

The event will be held in the first-floor auditorium of the Rome Building.

 

Undergrads run homeland security event for local high schoolers

On April 7 and 8, a group of Johns Hopkins undergraduates will hold its second annual Securing the Future conference for Baltimore-area high school students wanting to learn about timely issues of homeland security.

Speakers include Steven David, professor of political science and chair of the JHU Homeland Security program; James Kraft, city councilman; William Goodwin, Baltimore fire chief; Earl Lewis, secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation; and Dennis Schrader, director of Homeland Security for the state of Maryland. The conference will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, both days in Levering's Great Room, Homewood campus.

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