In new 'U.S. News' rankings, JHU retains its spot at No. 14

For the second year in a row, Johns Hopkins claimed a tie in the No. 14 spot in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of the nation's best universities. Sharing the honors are last year's partner, Cornell, and now Chicago.

The No. 1 spot for 2005 went to Harvard and Princeton, followed by Yale at No. 3 and Penn at No. 4. Duke, MIT and Stanford tied at No. 5.

In the rankings for best undergraduate engineering programs whose highest degree is a Ph.D., Hopkins also pulled a repeat, tying at No. 13 with Northwestern and Wisconsin.

In specialty rankings, Johns Hopkins landed the No. 1 spot in biomedical engineering, followed by Duke; University of California, San Diego; Case Western Reserve and MIT.

Hopkins also was included in several unranked categories. In "Programs to look for," the magazine cited JHU under "undergraduate research/creative projects." In "Great Schools/Great Prices," JHU ranked 11th among national universities.

For a complete list of the magazine's 2005 rankings, go to www.usnews.com.

 

Professor wins international prize for work on human cognition

Paul Smolensky, professor and former chair of the Department of Cognitive Science in the Krieger School, has won the fifth annual David E. Rumelhart Prize, a prestigious international award that recognizes individuals or teams making significant contributions to the formal analysis of human cognition.

The youngest scientist ever chosen for this honor, Smolensky, 49, will receive the $100,000 prize and deliver the award lecture at the 27th annual meeting of the Cognitive Society in Stresa, Italy, in July 2005.

Smolensky and his collaborator, Alan Prince of Rutgers University, are responsible for what many in the field consider one of the most important developments in linguistics since the 1950s: optimality theory, which posits that all the world's 6,500 languages share a common set of criteria that make certain expressions preferable. For instance, syllables that begin with consonants are preferred to those that don't, and sentences that begin with a subject are preferred to those that do not.

The prize honors David Rumelhart, a Stanford University professor until 1998, when he became disabled by a severe form of early dementia called Pick's disease.

 

Student Job Fair to be held Sept. 3 on Homewood campus

Students will have the opportunity to meet and interview with a host of campus and off-campus employers at the Student Job Fair scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 3, in Homewood's O'Connor Recreation Center. The event offers free popcorn, refreshments, sodas, a prize wheel and lots of give-aways, including a grand prize.

For more information, go to the Student Employment Services Web site at http://www.jhu.edu/~stujob.

 

SAIS center publishes sports, travel issue of 'Transatlantic'

Transatlantic: Europe, America & the World, published by the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS, has just released a special sports and travel summer issue titled "Soccer or Football? Why Do Europeans and Americans View Sports So Differently?"

Michael Mandelbaum, director of the SAIS American Foreign Policy Program, is interviewed on his new book, The Meaning of Sports, and discusses why Americans prefer football, baseball and basketball to soccer. The issue also analyzes why Europeans, Asians, Africans and Latin Americans are crazy about soccer and why Americans are more blasé about the world's sport.

In a look at the summer Olympics, the magazine interviews the mayor of Athens, examines the security provided by NATO and explores the ancient idea of an "Olympic Truce."

Also in this issue:

Stephen Szabo, SAIS professor of European studies, tells why Germany is looking for a new role in the world and how this will dramatically affect its future relations with the United States.

German foreign minister Joschka Fischer speaks out on Europe's and America's roles in transforming the broader Middle East.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer presents his views on the proposed EU constitution and tells how it would differ from the U.S. constitution.

Published bimonthly, this new publication seeks to explore and explain issues confronting the United States and Europe in an increasingly globalized world. For information about subscribing to Transatlantic, contact Robert J. Guttman, editor in chief, at 202-587-3235 or rguttman@jhu.edu.

 

'Gazette' returns to weekly schedule as academic year begins

With this week's start of the 2004-2005 academic year, The Gazette returns to its weekly schedule. The paper is published on Mondays 42 times a year: weekly during the fall and spring semesters, except Nov. 22, Dec. 20 and Dec. 27; and biweekly during the summer.

The deadline for calendar and classified submissions is noon on the Monday preceding publication. To submit information online, go to http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette.

 

Correction

An obituary of "Miss Mamie" Brown in the Aug. 16 issue incorrectly stated the total number of Johns Hopkins presidents and the number under whom she had worked. Brown, thought to be the university's longest-serving employee, served under nine of Johns Hopkins' 13 presidents, beginning with Isaiah Bowman.

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