The Johns Hopkins Gazette: January 8, 2001
January 8, 2001
VOL. 30, NO. 16

  

Briefs

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

NIH taps SOM's Hildreth for prominent new post

James Hildreth has resigned his post as associate dean for graduate studies at the School of Medicine to accept a position at the National Institutes of Health. Hildreth, who will retain his faculty appointment and laboratory at Hopkins, will become director of NIH's Office for Research and Training for the new National Center for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The university expects to announce his successor by March 1.

Hildreth, an associate professor in the departments of Pathology and Pharmacology & Molecular Sciences, stepped into the newly created position of associate dean six years ago. The post was created to give graduate students and graduate program directors a greater voice in the School of Medicine.

His achievements include overseeing a centralized admissions process for all seven doctoral programs at the School of Medicine, forging a close relationship with graduate students and collaborating with faculty on the various committees that shape graduate education. Most recently he has spearheaded the creation of a Professional Development Office to support departments in preparing students for an increasingly complex job market, in which grant-writing skills must be supplemented with public speaking training; detailed knowledge of industry, government and the media; and a host of other skills.

Hildreth, in an effort to increase the school's ability to attract the best minority applicants, started the Summer Internship Program to bring minority or disadvantaged college students from around the country to the School of Medicine for 10 weeks of research. His travel to major universities and colleges has quadrupled minority applications over the past five years. Hildreth's efforts in this arena gained national recognition and led the NIH to him when it established the National Center for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities with a $150 million budget.


APL's MIMI gets its closest look at Jupiter

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is currently in a flyby of Jupiter, getting a boost from the giant planet's gravity to reach Saturn in mid-2004 and begin a four-year tour of the planet. Cassini came within 6 million miles of Jupiter, its closest point so far, on Dec. 30, 2000.

APL researchers are using the Laboratory-built MIMI--Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument--aboard the spacecraft to monitor solar wind conditions upstream of Jupiter, measure energetic ions and electrons emitted by its magnetosphere and produce pictures of the hot plasma contained in the Jovian magnetosphere.

Another space mission, Galileo, has been studying Jupiter since 1995, and this marks the first time that two robotic spacecraft will observe the same gas giant planet at the same time from such close range.


Animal Exposure Surveillance Program is mandatory

The university is reminding all faculty, staff and students who work with animals of their need to enroll in the mandatory Animal Exposure Surveillance Program, designed to prevent occupation-related disease.

To enroll in the program, report to Phipps Building room 3E on the East Baltimore campus. Office hours are 7:30 a.m to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, or to ensure you are already enrolled, contact Ellen Bibb at 410-955-6211 or 410-614-1129. General information on the Animal Surveillance Program can be found on-line at: http://infonet.welch.jhu.edu/research/safety/ safetypolicy/index-900.html.


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