Archaeologists again bring Egyptian excavation to the Web

Egyptologist Betsy Bryan and her crew are once again sharing their work with the world through an online diary, a digital window into day-to-day life on an archaeological dig. Visitors to "Hopkins in Egypt Today" at www.jhu.edu/neareast/egypttoday.html will find photos of Bryan and her students working on JHU's 11th annual excavation at the Mut Temple Precinct in Luxor, where they continue to explore the Egyptian New Kingdom (1567 to 1085 BCE).

According to Bryan, modern-day Luxor is rich in finds from the New Kingdom, known as the "golden age" of Egyptian temple building. This is the sixth year Bryan and her team will be excavating the area behind the temple's sacred lake, where previous finds have included granaries and bakeries.

The goal of the Web site is to educate visitors by showing them the elements of archaeological work in progress. Photographer Jay VanRensselaer captures images of the team as they sift through trenches, uncovering mud-brick walls, pottery shards, animal bones and other remains. The Web site typically garners more than 50,000 hits every winter when the dig is active.

 

Students head to Biloxi to assist in post-Katrina cleanup

Fifteen Johns Hopkins undergraduates, joined by two from Loyola College in Maryland and one from the University of Delaware, were scheduled to depart yesterday from Baltimore to spend part of their winter break in Biloxi, Miss., helping victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes. The team will be hosted there by the First Presbyterian Church of Biloxi, which is conducting a hurricane relief effort. JHU seniors Zirui Song of Lacey, Wash., and Thomas McBride of Wilmington, Del., organized the goodwill trip, which will have the students wielding sledge hammers and crowbars to clear debris before home repairs and new construction can begin. Both Song and McBride are majoring in public health studies and are members of Alpha Epsilon Delta, the premedical honor society and volunteer organization at Johns Hopkins.

To cover their travel expenses, the students raised $2,600, with contributions from the Center for Social Concern at Johns Hopkins, Northrop Grumman Corp. and alumni.

 

Energy assistance available for Baltimore City families in need

As natural gas and oil prices increase and the weather turns colder, Johns Hopkins is working with local government and utilities to inform vulnerable Baltimore families about financial help available to them.

BGE and Baltimore Housing's Office of Home Energy Programs are teaming up again for a Baltimore City Energy Expo, which will provide funds for utility or oil bills to income-eligible families. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at Union Baptist Church, 1219 Druid Hill Ave. Households not already certified for the Maryland Energy Assistance Program can apply, provided they have the required documentation. For more information, go to www.baltimorehousing.org/index/cs_ohep.asp.

 

Children's mental health group to move to university's MCC

JHU's Montgomery County Campus is welcoming its newest health research tenant, the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. Effective Jan. 30, the organization will become the third tenant leasing space in Building III.

The National Federation of Families, currently located in Alexandria, Va., leads a nationwide network of family-run organizations supporting children with mental health needs and their families. Sandra Spencer, the group's executive director, said, "The Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus is ideal for our new headquarters because it brings us closer to JHU's cutting-edge work on workforce development and mental health transformation, which directly impacts the individuals we serve."

Philip J. Leaf, a professor at the School of Public Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, said, "The move of the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health to the Montgomery Campus constitutes an enormous infusion of resources and expertise both to the Hopkins family and to our state of Maryland. The collaborations with the Federation made possible by their proximity also will result in an increased ability to access their national network of family-run organizations, to learn about innovations occurring around the country and to facilitate the dissemination of information from researchers and practitioners at [JHU]."

 

Johns Hopkins program trains nurses for humanitarian relief

Nursing in Global Humanitarian Relief, an intensive Johns Hopkins Nursing program designed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary for nurses to respond to both local and global humanitarian emergencies, is being held this week in Baltimore. The program is sponsored by the School of Nursing, the School of Public Health's Center for Refugee and Disaster Response and the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing.

Upon completion of the course, participants will be equipped to understand the principles of organization and administration of humanitarian relief services; anticipate the major causes of morbidity and mortality in an emergency; conduct a rapid needs assessment and determine initial steps for response; plan, implement and evaluate priority health and nutrition interventions in an emergency; review ethical and legal principles of humanitarian relief; and discuss the unique contributions of nursing in humanitarian emergencies.

 

'SAISPHERE' magazine looks at world's energy future

As the world's energy future confronts the international community with strategic, economic, diplomatic, political, technological, environmental and security questions, the editors of SAIS' annual magazine, SAISPHERE, chose as its 2005 theme "New Horizons: Exploring Our Energy Future."

In the just-published issue, members of the faculty and alumni community consider the challenges and discuss how they are likely to play out in the new century.

An online version of the issue is available at www.sais-jhu.edu/pubaffairs/publications/saisphere/ winter05/index.html.

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