A&S James Barclay Knapp Deanship to be dedicated today

F. Whitten Peters, secretary of the Air Force, will speak today, March 27, at a ceremony dedicating the James Barclay Knapp Deanship of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Peters will talk about the life and military career of James Barclay Knapp, who was a major general in the U.S. Air Force and whose son, J. Barclay Knapp, gave $10 million to endow the deanship and name it in honor of his father.

J. Barclay Knapp, a 1979 graduate of Johns Hopkins and a trustee of the university since 1997, will also speak at the ceremony. The Princeton, N.J., resident is president and chief executive officer of NTL Inc., a New York- and London-based company that is one of the largest operators of cable and telephone systems in the United Kingdom with more than 1.4 million customers.

Knapp is also president and CEO of CoreComm, a U.S. version of NTL. He is a 1983 graduate of the Harvard Business School and began his career by founding, with two partners, Cellular Communications Inc., which became in 1986 the first publicly traded cellular phone company in the United States.

President William R. Brody, board of trustees chair Michael Bloomberg, Provost Steven Knapp and Richard E. McCarty, who holds the James Barclay Knapp Deanship, will also attend the ceremony in the Bloomberg Center's Schafler Auditorium, Homewood campus.

Queer awareness days bring noted speakers to Homewood

Noted gay activist and author Michelangelo Signorile, transsexual activist Dana Rivers and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Mark Doty are among the speakers scheduled for this year's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days. The three-week series, titled "Out in Front," brings to Baltimore individuals in the forefront of the queer rights movement. The series is organized by The Johns Hopkins University Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance, an undergraduate group. All events, free and open to the public, take place on the Homewood campus.

The series opens on Wednesday, March 29, with Advocate editor at large Michelangelo Signorile, who has been active in the queer movement since the early '80s, when he was in the center of the "outing" controversy. Since then, Signorile, a leader in ACT UP, has written for the New York Times and USA Today. His talk, "Sex, the Media and the Closets of Power," will be at 8 p.m. in the Garrett Room of the MSE Library.

Also appearing this week is Harvard professor and bisexual activist Robin Ochs. Ochs' workshop, "Unlearning Homophobia," will examine the nature of homophobia, including internalized homophobia experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, and look at ways to counteract it. The session is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, in the Garrett Room of the MSE Library.

Students get hands-on lesson in preventing spread of germs

When Trish Perl, an assistant professor of medicine, recently visited two local middle schools, she came armed with a UV light and a bottle of "glow germ." Her mission, to emphasize the importance of hand washing, was a shining success--such a success that the kids are helping her launch a hand-washing campaign at Hopkins.

"The 'glow germ' is actually cornstarch with a luminescent substance that shines under UV light," Perl said. "I use it to teach kids how germs can be transferred from surfaces and the importance of scrubbing their hands."

To make this point, Perl sprinkles "glow germ" on a pen and passes it. "When the kids see how easily the germ is spread, quite a few exclamations of 'gross' are heard," Perl said. Then Perl discusses the different types of germs in the environment, how they can be harmful and how they are spread.

Perl also helps students design experiments to determine whether soap, soap and water, or sanitizer is the best cleanser. "It is exciting to lead them through the scientific process," Perl said. "In all of their experiments, commercial sanitizer was the worst."

Perl has offered these hand-washing lessons for three years to the schools her daughters attend. This year, students are designing posters that will be displayed as part of a hand-washing campaign at Hopkins.

Wednesday Noon Series offers hammer dulcimer performance

Ken Kolodner, a Baltimore native with a doctorate from the School of Public Health, is also a hammer dulcimer master. He is in great demand as a teacher, and his CD solo recording of Celtic music, Walking Stones (1997), reached No. 2 on world music charts.

At noon on Wednesday, March 29, Kolodner will give a performance, "A World Music Tour with the Hammer Dulcimer," in Shriver Hall, Homewood campus. He will play traditional music from around the world, including Scotland, French Canada, China and South America.

This performance is part of the Wednesday Noon Series presented by the Office of Special Events. Admission is free.

JHU math tournament brings high schoolers to Homewood

The second annual JHU High School Math Tournament, sponsored by the Math Club and CTY, will bring some 160 high school students to Homewood on Saturday, April 1. Teams from seven schools in Maryland and Virginia will participate in the competition, won last year by Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.