No. 1 again: JHH tops 'U.S. News' honor roll for 16th year

Make that 16 in a row. The Johns Hopkins Hospital has again topped U.S. News & World Report's rankings of American hospitals. This year's guide — designed to identify hospitals that excel in a variety of difficult areas of care, according to the magazine's editors — reports rankings of American medical centers in 16 specialties.

Only 14 hospitals out of 5,189 graded made it to the "honor roll," based on being at or near the top in at least six specialties.

In addition to landing at the overall No. 1 spot, Hopkins placed No. 1 in ear, nose and throat, gynecology, kidney disease, rheumatology and urology; No. 2 in neurology/neurosurgery, ophthalmology and psychiatry; No. 3 in cancer, digestive disorders, endocrinology, heart/heart surgery, respiratory disorders and pediatrics; and No. 4 in orthopedics.

For a detailed and complete list of all rankings, go to www.hopkinsmedicine.org or www.usnews.com.

 

Three from JHU named to new Maryland Stem Cell Commission

Three Johns Hopkins faculty members will serve on the 15-member Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission announced on Thursday by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation outside the Billings Administration Building on the university's East Baltimore campus.

Johns Hopkins was chosen to name members of the commission, along with the governor, the University System of Maryland, the Maryland attorney general, the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates.

The commissioners, whose initial terms began on July 1, will establish criteria, standards and requirements to ensure that stem cell research financed by the newly established $15 million Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, which is managed by TEDCO, complies with state law. The purpose of the fund is to promote stem cell research and cures through grants and loans to public and private entities.

The Hopkins members are Diane Griffin, professor of immunology and microbiology at the School of Public Health; Murray Sachs, director of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the School of Medicine; and Jeremy Sugarman, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bioethics Institute.

 

Center for Summer Learning announces Maryland grants

With financial support from the Verizon Foundation, the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins has selected 10 summer program providers across Maryland to engage children in enriching activities on Summer Learning Day, Thursday, July 13.

The programs will receive $1,500 each to support their Summer Learning Day events. These funds will be used to purchase books and other supplies.

Summer Learning Day is designed to focus attention on the issue of summer learning and build public support for a broad range of programs that send children back to school ready to learn.

The local program providers — located in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Carroll, Charles and Washington counties — are schools, camps and community-based organizations that provide summer learning and enrichment activities to children and youth.

In Baltimore, the selected providers are Macedonia Baptist Church Summer Learning Center, Movements Unlimited, Southeast Youth Academy, Coldstream Park Elementary School and St. Francis Academy.

 

Astrophysicist appointed to four space science boards

Johns Hopkins astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett has been appointed to four National Academy of Sciences boards that advise the government on the nation's space science programs.

Bennett, a professor in the Krieger School's Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy and principal investigator of NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, will serve on both the NAS Space Studies Board and its executive committee. The board provides independent and authoritative advice on all aspects of space science and applications.

Bennett also was appointed to co-chair the NAS Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, which monitors the status of space- and ground-based astronomy and astrophysics programs and provides assessments to the National Science Foundation, NASA and other institutions; and to the National Research Council's NASA Astrophysics Performance Assessment Committee, which carries out studies. The committee will report next year on NASA's progress in implementing NAS recommendations on astronomy and astrophysics research.

A cosmologist, Bennett was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005 and also was named winner that year of the academy's Henry Draper Medal, given once every four years for significant contributions to astronomical physics.

 

U.K. Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett to speak today at SAIS

Margaret Beckett, the foreign minister of the United Kingdom, will speak at SAIS today, July 10, during her first official visit to Washington, D.C., as Britain's new foreign minister. Her topic will be "Globalization and Security."

Beckett became the first woman foreign secretary after the Cabinet reshuffle of May 2006. Previously she was secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The event will be held at 11 a.m. in the Nitze Building's Kenney Auditorium. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP to saisalum@jhu.edu or 202-663-5636.

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