The Whiting School of Engineering is offering three new programs for students interested in studying and applying engineering principles to contemporary problems in medicine and biology. Starting in the fall, students can choose from programs in Biomolecular Engineering, Biomaterials Engineering, and Biomechanics, in addition to the already established Biomedical Engineering program at Johns Hopkins. Students interested in careers in research, medicine, industry, and academia can find superior preparation in each of the described programs. Each program differs mainly in the technical content. All programs are ABET accredited. Additional information on these programs are available online at: Biomolecular Engineering, Biomaterials Engineering, Biomechanics, Biomedical Engineering.

Starting next fall, a new master's degree in security informatics will be offered for full-time students at Johns Hopkins University. Leading this effort, professor Gerald Masson (Computer Science) and director of the JHU Information Security Institute, believes that the program will provide solid training for students who wish to enter fields involving computer security, electronic medical records, management, public health research and protection against bio-terrorism. For more information, visit the JHUISI website at: http://www.jhuisi.jhu.edu/education/.

Associate research professor Mingwei Chen (Mechanical Engineering) and colleagues with the Center for Advanced Metallic and Ceramic Systems at Johns Hopkins have made a breakthrough in protective armor research, going to the atomic level to determine the cause for shattering in this lightweight ceramic material. Dr. Chen and colleagues published their findings in the March 7 issue of the journal Science. More details are available online at: http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home03/mar03/armor.html.

Associate professor Lynn Roberts (Geography and Environmental Engineering) was cited for her research in tracking the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, in the January 2003 issue of Discovery magazine. Her research was listed as number eight of the "Top 100 Science Stories of 2002." Dr. Roberts is leading a team of environmental engineers studying the effects of prescription drug pollution on human and aquatic life. For more information visit the DoGEE homepage: http://www.jhu.edu/~dogee.

Citing her research in tissue engineering, MIT's Technology Review has included assistant professor Jennifer Elisseeff's work (Biomedical Engineering) among ten research areas whose emerging technologies will change the world. The full article can be found online at: http://www.technologyreview.com. Also, visit Dr. Elisseeff's website at: http://www.bme.jhu.edu/labs/jhe/.

Congratulations to associate professor Avi Rubin (Computer Science), who recently published a second edition of Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, with co-authors William R. Cheswick, and Steven M. Bellovin. For more information visit: http://wilyhacker.com.

Welcome to assistant professor Mandy Ward who joined the Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering in January 2003. Dr. Ward received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Glasgow University, U.K., in 1990, and has most recently been a research associate with Stanford University. Dr. Ward's research interests include environmental gene expression profiling and bacterial chemotaxis.

The Center for Cardiovascular Bio-informatics and Modeling at Johns Hopkins received a Shared University Research (SUR) award from IBM this spring. Directed by professor Raimond Winslow (Biomedical Engineering) this new center will receive both hardware and software from IBM, which will be used to simulate highly detailed models of heart cells, tissues, and organs and look for variations in gene expression in disease. Assistant professor Randal Burns (Computer Science) received a portion of the award to support his research as director of the Hopkins Storage System Lab. More details are available online at: http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home03/feb03/ibmgrant.html

The Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science (PTE) will host open houses during April and May at its locations in the Baltimore/Washington area. Attendees will be able to meet individually with an academic adviser, and apply and register for summer semester courses. The summer semester begins June 2, 2003. For a complete schedule of upcoming open houses, visit the PTE website at http://www.jhu.edu/pte.

Congratulations to PTE faculty who recently published two new textbooks:

Systems Engineering Principles and Practice by Alexander Kossiakoff and William Sweet, published by Wiley & Son, 2002.

Introduction to Stochastic Search and Optimization: Estimation, Simulation, and Control, James C. Spall, published by Wiley & Son, 2003.

Congratulations also go to Dr. James Spall, Program Chair, Applied and Computational Mathematics, for being named Fellow of the IEEE in January 2003.

In recognition of their outstanding contributions, four faculty were presented awards on March 11, 2003 at PTE's annual faculty meeting:

Steven Biemer and Miller Whisnant received the 2003 Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science Excellence in Teaching Award.

Alexander Kossiakoff and William Sweet received a Special Award in recognition of their new textbook (see above reference).

Scott Kolodziejski's security system.

A domestic shower regulation system by John Wolff.

During the week of April 10th, a group of seven undergraduate students from Johns Hopkins will conduct a microgravity research project aboard NASA's KC-135 aircraft, based in Houston, Texas. The Surface Tension Impelled Low-gravity Liquid Mixing (STILLMix) experiment was proposed to NASA by Hopkins students to gain a better understanding of the physics involved in the mixing of liquids in reduced gravity environments, for potential applications on spacecraft. Team members include: Paul Gosling and Paul Nerenberg from the Physics Department; Henry Cook, Sara Marten, Yo-Rhin Rhim, and Mike Sharma from Mechanical Engineering; andSam Phillips from Civil Engineering. Four of the students will participate in two separate flights, which will achieve short-duration microgravity conditions for up to 23 seconds at a time as the aircraft accelerates downward. This NASA-sponsored program has been in place for ten years, designed specifically to give undergraduates an opportunity to propose, design, and conduct experiments that will contribute to microgravity research. Funding for this project comes from the Johns Hopkins University, as well as the Maryland Space Grant Consortium and Northrup-Grumman Corporation. Visit the STILLMix website for additional information: http://www.wse.jhu.edu/~stillmix.

Congratulations to undergraduate student Manish Gala, Biomedical Engineering, named to USA Today's 2003 College All-USA Academic team, in recognition of his outstanding academic performance and research on how sulindac sulfide reduces risk of colorectal cancer, published in Cancer Letters. Manish also serves as student body president.

Congratulations also to Ph.D. student Jan Kleissl, Geography and Environmental Engineering, who received a Student Paper Award from the American Meteorolgical Society for his paper entitled, "Statistical Analysis of subfilter-scale model coefficients from field-experimental data."