Newsbriefs ----------------------------------------------------------------- Map thief turns himself in to Florida police The Sun reported on Friday that the man suspected in the theft of valuable maps last month from the George Peabody Library--and other rare books libraries--turned himself in Tuesday to police in Coral Springs, Fla. Gilbert J. Bland Jr., a 46-year-old Florida rare maps dealer, was wanted by the University of Virginia police, who issued three warrants charging him with felony grand larceny in map thefts from books at the university's library on Dec. 5 and 6. Bland's attorney until his arrest, Ira Still, described his client as "very embarrassed, frightened and upset" about the Virginia charges. Bland maintains the Peabody theft "was the only thing that he ever did." University spokesman Dennis O'Shea said the General Counsel's Office is actively preparing to file criminal and civil complaints against Bland if it is determined it is necessary, "but we will not do that if it will in any way interfere with the FBI investigation, which is why we haven't taken action thus far," he said. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bernice A. King to speak at MLK event The Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., will be the featured speaker at this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration event, scheduled from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23, in the Turner Auditorium on the East Baltimore campus. Also appearing will be the Hopkins musical group Unified Voices with additional music provided by the gospel recording group William Becton & Friends. During the ceremony, eight Hopkins employees will be honored for their significant community service activities, an award that echoes the same spirit of volunteerism and citizenship that characterized the life of Martin Luther King. This year's award winners are Marion D'Lugoff (School of Nursing), Benedict Dorsey (Homewood Student Financial Services), Nathaniel Grogan (Hopkins Hospital Security), Armenta M. Jones (School of Public Health Credit Union), Michael Paradise (Hopkins Hospital), Vernon Rice (Homewood Facilities Management), Karen Schrader (JHMI) and Teresa Tufano (Hopkins Hospital). Profiles of the award winners are scheduled to appear in next week's issue of The Gazette. Seating at the Turner Auditorium is limited to university and hospital employees. The event will be broadcast live to 218 Maryland Hall on the Homewood campus, the Tilghman Room in the Turner Building in East Baltimore and the Applied Physics Laboratory. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- University prepared for next step at Eastern site With architectural studies in hand, the university has determined that the former Eastern High School on 33rd Street is sound enough to be converted for use as administrative and academic space. Hopkins officials hope to take control of the property soon and to begin work in the early part of the year. Plans call for a complete renovation of the school, built in 1936 but vacant since 1986, and the construction of smaller buildings to create a 26-acre university complex. Other proposed uses for the site include a high school run by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a 50,000-square-foot "business incubator center" run by Hopkins affiliate Dome Real Estate, and as many as 50,000 square feet of office space for administrative, academic and other university uses. University officials estimate the completed project could pump $200 million into the local economy annually. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- National Merit Scholars keep choosing Hopkins A report released last week shows that once again Hopkins is among the top 10 percent of all colleges and universities enrolling new National Merit Scholars. Robert Massa, dean of enrollment management, said the university ranked 35th of 369 colleges and universities this year. Although Hopkins has been ranked as high as 24th, "it is nevertheless a superior accomplishment to enroll as many of these scholars [51] as we did." Interestingly, Massa said, of the top 35 colleges and universities, only three have smaller enrollments than Hopkins, making our National Merit enrollment one of the top per capita in the country. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Genetically engineered cancer vaccine developed Researchers at the Oncology Center and the departments of Pathology and Pharmacology have developed a genetically engineered vaccine that arms the immune system to destroy cervical cancer cells. Using the vaccine in mice with cervical cancers biologically similar to advanced disease in humans, the researchers eliminated the tumors in the animals with no side effects. Their findings were reported in the Jan. 1 issue of Cancer Research. Human clinical trials of the vaccine are expected to begin in about a year in women with advanced cervical cancer who have failed standard therapy, the scientists said. If the vaccine works, they anticipate that it eventually will be used for prevention of the disease, although they caution that many phases of human testing need to be completed before the vaccine is widely available. "This vaccine is a model for cancer immunotherapy, not just for cervical cancer, but for other virus-associated cancers and any cancer that expresses tumor-associated antigens and that would respond to immune therapy," said T. C. Wu, assistant professor of pathology and principal investigator of this study. -----------------------------------------------------------------