News Release

McCarty will hold the James Barclay Knapp Deanship, said William R. Brody, president of the university, who made the appointment. The endowed position was established earlier this year by university trustee J. Barclay Knapp Jr. in honor of his father, a highly decorated major general in the U.S. Air Force.

McCarty, 61, returned to Johns Hopkins in 1990 as chairman of biology after 24 years on the faculty of Cornell University. He served as interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences in 1997 and 1998 and since then has been senior advisor on faculty affairs in the dean's office. In that role, he also has handled special projects, such as planning for new construction and renovation of academic buildings.

"Dick McCarty was a respected and very successful department chair and did a terrific job as interim dean," said William R. Brody. "Since then, he has been centrally involved in the Krieger School's strategic planning and its daily operations. He is an excellent choice -- in fact, the natural choice -- to lead the school now and to maintain and even accelerate its strong forward momentum."

McCarty succeeds Herbert L. Kessler, who resigned as dean of the Krieger School for personal and professional reasons. Kessler, a professor in the Department of the History of Art, will be on sabbatical until Jan. 1, 2001.

"I have a deep love for this place," McCarty said, explaining his decision now to accept the permanent deanship, which he had not pursued while serving as interim dean. "I'm sure there are other people around who could have done this, but they would have had to take time to learn the position. It takes at least six months to settle into the job."

McCarty said he had enjoyed working with Brody and Provost Steven Knapp when he was interim dean and was happy for the opportunity to do so again.

"One of the things that really encourages me is that they have shown a real commitment to the school," McCarty said. "And I have great respect and admiration for the associate deans. I'm looking forward to this."

McCarty was born in Baltimore, graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1960 and earned his Ph.D. in biology from the university in 1964. While at Cornell he served for four years as chairman of the Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology and, later, for two years as director of the Biotechnology Program.

The American Society of Plant Physiologists gave McCarty its Charles F. Kettering Award in 1994, calling him a "central figure" since the 1960s in advances in the understanding of photosynthesis and photosynthetic energy conversion. He has been associate editor of Plant Physiology and a member of the editorial boards of four other journals in his field.