The Distinguished Alumnus Award
Established in 1978, this award honors alumni who have typified the Johns Hopkins tradition of excellence and brought credit to the university by their personal accomplishment, professional achievement, or humanitarian service.
Michael J. Zinner, MD
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Michael Zinner is a nationally known leader in surgery, medical education, research, and patient care. He is currently the surgeon-in-chief and chairman at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The revised edition of his acclaimed text on abdominal surgery, Maingot’s Abdominal Operations, co-authored with Dr. Stanley Ashley Jr., was released in 2007.
Zinner earned his bachelor in engineering science in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1967 and in 1971 earned his MD from the University of Florida School of Medicine. After completing his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he served one year as the hospital’s assistant chief of service in the Department of Surgery.
Zinner has served as chief of surgery and chairman at UCLA, School of Medicine, vice chairman of surgery, and co-director of the Gastrointestinal Surgery Division at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and chief of general surgery and oncology service and co-director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Since 1994, he has held an appointment as the Mosely Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Throughout his career, Zinner has found time to stay connected to Johns Hopkins. Most recently, he served on the committees of both his 35th and 40th reunions. He received a Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in April 2007.
The Heritage Award
Established in 1973, this award honors alumni and friends of Johns Hopkins who have contributed outstanding service over an extended period to the progress of the university or the activities of the Alumni Association.
Charles W. Einolf
Heritage Award
Charles W. Einolf ’56 entered Hopkins’ McCoy College of Engineering as a night school student in 1946 following his discharge from the Army. He worked for IBM full time while at Hopkins and continued until he retired in 1984.
He was a member of the Alumni Council and the Society of Engineering Alumni and he attended alumni events on a regular basis when living in Atlanta and then in Baltimore. In 1982, Einolf and his wife, Dorothy, created the Otto and Hilda Einolf Scholarship Fund in memory of his parents. The scholarship, which supports full- or part-time students at the Whiting School, has funded the education of 26 students since its inception.
Sadly, Einolf died on February 23, 2007. With his passing, Johns Hopkins has lost an uncommonly loyal and talented member of the university community. The Johns Hopkins Heritage Award was presented to his wife and son at the Whiting School’s Leadership Dinner in June 2007.
The Woodrow Wilson Award
Established in 1990, this award for distinguished government service honors alumni who have brought credit to the university by their current or recently concluded public service as elected or appointed officials.
Aristides Melissaratos
Woodrow Wilson Award
Aristides Melissaratos earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1966. In March 2007, he returned to Hopkins to serve as special advisor to the president for enterprise development. In this newly-created position, he oversees the university’s relationship with business and forges new connections between the research and corporate communities.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Melissaratos earned his master’s degree in engineering management from George Washington University and later completed the Harvard School Program for Management Development and the course work for a doctorate (ABD) in international politics at the Catholic University of America.
For 32 years, Melissaratos worked for Westinghouse Electronics Systems (now Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems). In 2003, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich appointed him Secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. Throughout his career, Melissaratos has held executive positions at many companies and has served as a member of economic development-related associations across the state.
In 1999, he established the Melissaratos Family Scholarship at Johns Hopkins to support undergraduate engineering students, with preference given to those from Baltimore City.