“What are we aiming at?”
That’s the question Daniel Coit Gilman asked in 1876, at his inauguration as Johns Hopkins University’s first president. His answer, in part: “The encouragement of research . . . and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell.” Gilman believed that teaching and research are interdependent, that success in one depends on success in the other, and that a modern university must do both well. Johns Hopkins was the nation’s very first research university, and the realization of Gilman’s philosophy here, and at other institutions that later attracted Johns Hopkins–trained scholars, revolutionized higher education in America. For more than 140 years later, Johns Hopkins remains a world leader in both teaching and research, with nine academic divisions—the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey Business School, the Peabody Institute, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and the schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Education— plus the Applied Physics Laboratory, a nonacademic division that supports national security and pursues space science, exploration of the solar system, and other civilian research and development.
Five Facts about John Hopkins University
1. The university’s graduate programs in public health, nursing, biomedical engineering, medicine, and education are considered among the best in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. Individual programs in nursing and public health and the graduate program in biomedical engineering all rank No. 1. The School of Medicine is tied for No. 7 among research-oriented medical schools. Surgery, radiology, and anesthesiology all ranked No. 1 and internal medicine is No. 2. The School of Education is No. 17. The university itself is tied for No. 9 on the list of top national universities. It is No. 1 overall in biomedical engineering, tied for No. 13 in engineering among universities at which the highest degree offered is a doctorate, and tied for No. 20 in computer science. The university ranks at No. 10 on the list of the best global universities.
2. Johns Hopkins claims 29 Nobel laureates past and present. Among current faculty, there are four—as well as 51 American Academy of Arts and Sciences members; 57 members of the Health and Medicine Division, seven recipients of the Lasker Medical Research Award, six MacArthur fellows, four members of the National Academy of Engineering, 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, two Presidential Medal of Freedom winners, and one Pulitzer Prize winner. FIVE FACTS ABOUT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
3. It is the leading U.S. academic institution in total research and development spending. In fiscal year 2020, the university performed $3.110 billion in medical, science, and engineering research. It has ranked No. 1 in higher education research spending for the 42nd year in a row, according to the National Science Foundation. The university also ranks first on the NSF’s list for federally funded research and development, spending $2.682 billion in fiscal year 2020 on research supported by the NSF, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense.
4. Johns Hopkins is Maryland’s largest employer, a major purchaser of goods and services, a sponsor of construction projects and a magnet for students and visitors. In fiscal year 2019, we estimate that Johns Hopkins and its affiliates directly and indirectly accounted for more than $12.6 billion in economic output in Maryland, and 102,404 jobs. Including operations in Washington, D.C., and Florida, we estimate a total economic impact of nearly $13.9 billion and more than 114,000 jobs.
5. The university has a presence in nearly every corner of the globe. It has campuses in Maryland and Washington, plus Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China; faculty and students conduct research on six continents; and more than 20 percent of the university’s students come from countries outside the United States.
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