© 1987 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Why a Symposium on Biology at Johns Hopkins?1
Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, D.C. 20005
From its inception in 1876, Johns Hopkins University has stood out as an institution where the laboratory and experimentation have been accorded the highest respect and priority, and where the most capable people have been chosen to occupy positions of authority. The first president of the University, Daniel Gilman, was able to guide and shape the university unencumbered by outside influences and began the tradition of hiring the best men to work with him. H. N. Martin and W. K. Brooks in biology were two of these leaders in the early period of the university (1876–1908).
During the middle years (1909–1939), expansion diluted faculty and diverted them away from research and toward teaching. Herbert Spencer Jennings headed the Zoology Department during this middle period and in spite of the general trend away from quality research activities, maintained a standard of excellence in his department. Another leader during this period and one whom some consider more influential than Jennings was Burton E. Livingston, chairman ofthe Plant Physiology Department.
The modern period began in 1939 and saw some rebuilding of the biological sciences after World War II, combining of the Zoology, Botany, and Plant Physiology Departments into one Biology Department, the building of the Mergenthaler Laboratory for Biology, the modernization of the department into one oriented toward molecular biology, and a host of quality appointments. Most of these accomplishments can be attributed to H. B. Willier who headed the department from 1940 to 1955.
Presently the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University is one of this country's leading centers of molecular biology.