The Heritage Award

Established 1973 The Heritage 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.

Walter L. Robb, PhD
A great friend to Johns Hopkins and a chemical engineer by training, Walter Robb served as senior vice president of GE Medical Systems for 13 years, and was subsequently appointed chief technology officer of General Electric Company. In 1992, he founded his own consulting firm, Vantage Management.

For many years, Robb has shared his wisdom and leadership with The Johns Hopkins University by serving on the advisory councils of the Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute and the Wilmer Eye Institute. He was a presidential counselor in 2002 and currently holds a seat on the Whiting School’s National Advisory Council.

In 2004, he issued a challenge to Whiting School alumni and friends to support graduate students who choose to pursue advanced degrees in engineering at Johns Hopkins. Donors who gave $50,000 or more toward the creation of a new endowed fellowship received a match from Robb. Thanks to the challenge, seven new fellowships funds were committed within a year’s time.

Robb earned his bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University in chemical engineering and his master’s and doctoral degrees, also in chemical engineering, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Richard A. Howell, MS
Richard A. Howell graduated from Johns Hopkins with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1955 and later received a master’s degree in the same discipline in 1960.

Howell is retired from the Lockheed Martin Corporation (previously Martin Marietta Corporation), where he served as chief engineer of missile systems and as a program director at Orlando Aerospace. After his retirement in 1993 he taught program management and provided technical and management consultation to aerospace.

He has remained involved in Hopkins alumni events in Maryland and Florida for more than 50 years. He is a proud member of the Alumni Council and has shown his commitment to Johns Hopkins through his longterm dedication of personal time and resources.

Howell was honored as Central Florida Professional Engineer of the Year in 1986 and Orlando Aerospace Manager of the Year in 1991. To show his support for undergraduate education, in 2004 he established the Richard and Joan Howell Scholarship in the Whiting School of Engineering.

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.

Vinod K. Agarwal, PhD
Vinod K. Agarwal, a distinguished researcher and notable entrepreneur, earned his PhD at Johns Hopkins in 1977. He also holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor of engineering degree in electronics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.

For more than 14 years, Agarwal was a faculty member at McGill University in Montreal. There he helped establish McGill as the global leader in research and teaching in semiconductor testing. During his academic career, he co-authored and published more than 100 research papers, was appointed as an endowed Nortel/NSERC Industrial Research Chair Professor, and elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE).

In 1992, Agarwal founded LogicVision; he was its president and CEO until 2003 and chairman until 2005. Innovations pioneered by Agarwal and his team at LogicVision have resulted in more than 100 filed and granted patents worldwide. LogicVision’s customers include some of the biggest names in electronic technology such as Intel, Sun Microsystems, LSI Logic, Sony, and Cisco.

Agarwal is currently president and CEO of SemIndia Inc. The company designs, manufactures, and markets innovative products to Indian consumers and is poised to be India’s leading integrated semiconductor company.

Agarwal is a founding member of Canadian Microelectronics Corp. and Micronet. At Hopkins, he is a member of the Department of Computer Science Visiting Committee. In 2002, he was honored as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by SiliconIndia.

Michael D. Griffin, PhD
Michael Griffin received a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1971 and a master’s degree in applied physics in 1983 from Johns Hopkins. He also holds a master’s degree in aerospace science from Catholic University of America, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola College, a master’s degree in civil engineering from George Washington University, and a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland.

Nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate, Michael Griffin began his duties as the 11th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on April 14, 2005. As administrator, he leads the NASA team and manages its resources to advance the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration.

Prior to being nominated as NASA administrator, Griffin served as the Space Department head at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. He has also served as the president and CEO of In-Q-Tel Inc., and in several positions within Orbital Sciences Corp., including chief executive officer of Orbital’s Magellan Systems division and general manager of the Space Systems Group.

Earlier in his career, Griffin served as chief engineer and as associate administrator for exploration at NASA, and as deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. He has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University.

Griffin is the lead author of more than two dozen technical papers, as well as the textbook Space Vehicle Design.

A registered professional engineer in Maryland and California, Griffin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics, an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a fellow of the American Astronautical Society, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.