The Johns Hopkins Gazette: January 22, 2001
January 22, 2001
VOL. 30, NO. 18

  

Briefs

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

New Info Security Institute kicks off seminar series

The university's new Information Security Institute will launch a spring seminar series on Monday, Jan. 29, with an introductory talk by Ilene Busch-Vishniac, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering. She will talk about the need for the new institute and its future.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Arellano Theater in Levering Hall, Homewood campus.

The program is the first of seven lectures planned by the institute through April. The other talks will focus on topics such as cyber terrorism, intellectual property rights in a digital age and computer privacy issues.

The institute, also known as JHUISI, was established recently to tackle the complex technological, legal, ethical and public policy challenges of keeping information private and computer systems secure in an increasingly electronic world.

The institute will conduct research and offer courses, drawing on experts from nearly every school and division in the university. It will work in partnership with industry and government agencies.


SOM prof appointed to committee on mental retardation

President Clinton, shortly before the end of his term, appointed James Harris, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the School of Medicine, to the Health and Human Services Committee on Mental Retardation. Harris was sworn into the position Jan. 12 for a two-year term.

The committee meets four times a year to advise the White House on policy issues important to the mentally retarded.

Harris is expected to bring scientific expertise on the genetic and environmental mechanisms behind mental retardation to the 21-member committee, as well as understanding of the ways in which mental retardation may, in certain cases, cause disruptive and violent behavior. One issue that may come before the committee is use of the death penalty for murders committed by the mentally retarded.

Harris serves as SOM's director of developmental neuropsychiatry, an academic field he is credited with founding. He previously held appointments as director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and president of the Society of Professors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.


Hopkins' Rhodes Scholar is honored at Homewood event

Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and nearly 125 others convened at Homewood's Glass Pavilion on Jan. 17 to honor Westley Moore, the Hopkins senior recently chosen to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.

The event was hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, which honored Moore, a member, with its Medallion of Honor.

Remarks on Moore's accomplishment were offered by Susan Boswell, dean of students; Jerome Schnydman, executive assistant to the president; Cummings; and Schmoke, a recipient of the prestigious scholarship nearly three decades ago.

Moore, the first student from Hopkins to be named a Rhodes Scholar since 1988, will study international relations at Oxford University for two years. He was one of 32 chosen nationwide from among 950 applicants.

Moore also was presented during the evening with citations from the offices of Gov. Parris Glendening, Mayor Martin O'Malley, the Maryland State Legislature and the Baltimore City Council.


APL explores new wind tunnel model fabrication method

The Applied Physics Laboratory is developing an alternative, low-cost way of fabricating scale models that will make aerodynamic wind tunnel tests a more affordable way for air defense programs to collect high-quality data on conceptual missile designs.

Traditionally, wind tunnel models are made of metal and are very expensive, in part because of the intricacies involved when machining the parts to obtain the best simulation possible; it is therefore too costly for most programs to produce more than one or two models.

APL's research team, led by Richard Heisler and Clifford Ratliff, is investigating alternative ways to create models from nonmetallic materials, such as engineering polymers including thermoplastic--similar to that used to make a computer's housing--and thermoset resins, like those found in tennis rackets and golf clubs.


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