New Public Health Institute
The School of Public Health is announcing today the creation of the Sight and Life Research Institute to carry out research into vitamin-related nutritional problems that constitute major health hazards for tens of millions of people--especially children--around the world. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., one of the world's leading health care companies and a pioneer in vitamin synthesis and research, joins the school in establishing the institute, and has pledged $3 million to support its work.
   Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide, a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death. Of the nearly 12 million children under 5 who die each year in developing countries from diseases that are in large part preventable, more than 6 million of those deaths, or 55 percent, are either directly or indirectly attributable to malnutrition. The new institute will direct its research toward solving critical vitamin-related nutritional problems facing undernourished populations and will work to shape policies and programs that effectively prevent vitamin deficiencies around the world. The potential for preventing death and disease from malnutrition and vitamin deficiency is tremendous. In a recent trial in Nepal, vitamin A supplementation reduced maternal mortality by 44 percent. Full story...

Arts Center to become a reality
The university will break ground for its new student arts center on the Homewood campus at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, on a site just southeast of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library.
   The event was planned to coincide with several major university events, including the regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting, the annual Alumni Council meeting and the annual associates dinner, which celebrates the many friends who have contributed to the Johns Hopkins Initiative campaign.
   The 50,000-square-foot, $17 million student center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2000 as a multifunctional facility offering rehearsal, meeting, studio and gathering space for student groups. It also will house performance space and a theater for events open to both students and the community. Full story...

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