For example, the most common method of funding requires partnering with other institutions, states, and/or industry, and formation of consortia. In the School of Medicine, the Center for Inherited Disease Research, located on the Bayview Research Campus, is the product of a $21.8 million NIH contract. Investigators at the center will study the genetic origins of diseases that are caused by multiple genes, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

Extending the advances made in the previously established Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Medicine, the School of Medicine has joined with the Applied Physics Laboratory and other scientific institutions in a consortium called the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. This is part of an initial five-year $50 million NASA-sponsored contract that has the potential to grow to $145 million. The institute will be the focal point of NASA's biomedical research program in connection with the long-term human exploration of space.

The Center for Central Asian Studies was formed at the School of Advanced International Studies to study the problems that region faces as it develops. The center was made possible by a $700,000 grant from Smith Richardson. This is the only fully staffed center in the nation devoted to the study of geopolitical issues in the region, which is so culturally and economically important to the U.S. Proficiency in materials research is credited with two particularly impressive examples of the center approach to funding.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center will capitalize on existing expertise in nanotechnology among engineering and physics faculties in the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, where many individual investigators have already had breakthroughs in this area. Funded with $3.4 million from the National Science Foundation, the center is a multidisciplinary project linking the University's researchers with industrial scientists seeking practical applications for novel materials developed on campus. Hopkins received one of only 13 new awards made under this program. Projects will be enhanced with equipment funds from the NSF and the Keck Foundation to purchase a $1.5 million high-resolution transmission electron microscope.

In the other example, the Army Research Laboratory has entered into a $5 million partnership with the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering that will let military researchers study at Hopkins and give the University's students and faculty access to Army laboratories. As part of this non-traditional arrangement, the Army has designated Hopkins as a Materials Research Center of Excellence.

Gifts and endowments for research also contributed to increases in the Hopkins research base. The medical institutions had several key benefactors. A gift of $15 million from a medical school alumnus will support the basic sciences initiative at the school. This gift, added to a combined $11 million in basic science funds from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for facilities renovations and core labs, shared equipment, and faculty development, will better equip the School of Medicine to consolidate its unique position among research institutions.

The Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and the School of Nursing were the beneficiaries of a $1 million gift to support research in geriatric medicine and nursing. This will be used to start an interdisciplinary program in the rheumatological problems of the elderly. A multimillion dollar pledge from an alumnus of the School of Public Health will create the Fund for Young Researchers to augment the recruitment and back the early careers of outstanding young scientists in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology to ensure the advancement of human health.

Foundation funding complemented these gifts, most notably in the biomedical sciences. The Markey Trust, which has awarded Hopkins more than $16 million since its establishment, gave $2 million to the School of Medicine for the creation of a basic medical research fund that will support outstanding young biomedical researchers. Also in the School of Medicine, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professorship in Cancer Research was established with a $5 million commitment from the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research. These funds endowed a distinguished professorial and research chair and related programs of research and training in laboratory and clinical science. The William H. Gates Foundation has awarded the School of Hygiene and Public Health $2.25 million to use computer-based learning and other methods to assist family planning professionals in developing nations. The grant creates the Family Planning Leadership Education Institute and will support William H. Gates Leadership Fellows and Scholars, with emphasis on the creation and use of distance learning strategies.

Technology development and its implementation take time and patience. Last year, these qualities served Hopkins well. The solar-powered NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) spacecraft, designed and built by APL and launched in February 1996, returned images of the black asteroid Mathilde two years before its scheduled arrival at Eros, a smaller asteroid, in 1999. This is the first visit to such an asteroid, the largest and closest to Earth, and the first NASA mission in the faster, better, cheaper series of which the Mars Pathfinder is the second. Hopkins scientists also perfected an all-plastic battery this year in a project initiated and funded by the U.S. Air Force Rome Laboratory. The rechargeable and environmentally friendly device has military and space applications and potential for use in small consumer devices, such as hearing aids and wristwatches. It was given a Best of What's New award by Popular Science magazine, naming it one of the top 100 new products, technology developments, and scientific achievements of 1996.