Writings

When I served as the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto—Canada’s most selective law school—I would be asked every so often by one of our alumni what preference their children would enjoy when applying. The answer I gave was always the same: none whatsoever. When I became president of Johns Hopkins University 10 years ago, I found that one in eight newly admitted students benefited from preferences...

Ronald J. Daniels is the president of Johns Hopkins University.  The impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill have been a crash course on the inner workings of constitutional democracy. As historian and journalist Yoni Appelbaum said recently, impeachment is a constitutional mechanism with the words “break glass in case of emergency” emblazoned on it, raising fundamental questions about the balance...

Since the end of World War II, the United States’ preeminence in biomedical research has been widely recognized. There are a number of features of the US system that are responsible for its success, but surely one of the most important was the early embrace of high levels of federal research investment, coupled with the allocation of funds on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis. This trait is credited with helping...

We are proud and privileged to call Baltimore home. Baltimore is a city of creativity, optimism, and determination. Home to leading public and private research universities, world-class medical institutions, and a diverse business community, Baltimore is a city where both artists and start-ups thrive. From creating one of the nation’s first racially integrated library systems to producing today’s modern...

Ronald J. Daniels is the president of Johns Hopkins University. “Prime Minister Orban has murdered my institution. He has ripped it from its historical and geographic context, and stripped it of its identity. . . . He has consciously inflicted grave damage on it in order to damage the prospects for liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.” So said history professor Istvan Rev when I asked him about...

This past spring, the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget had little good news for the nation’s biomedical research enterprise. Prominent among areas targeted for deep cuts, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) faced a threatened 22% reduction in its funding—$7.7 billion less in appropriations than the previous year. Such a draconian action was dismissed upon arrival on Capitol Hill, and...

Ronald J. Daniels is the president of Johns Hopkins University. This op-ed is adapted from a letter to Hopkins students. Last fall, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University, where I serve as president, I happened to overhear a conversation among a group of students. One student was telling the others that he had decided not to enroll in an introductory philosophy course that he had sampled during the “add/drop”...

REBECCA BLANK, RONALD J. DANIELS, GARY GILLILAND, AMY GUTMANN, SAMUEL HAWGOOD, FREEMAN A. HRABOWSKI, MARTHA E. POLLACK, VINCENT PRICE, L. RAFAEL REIF, AND MARK S. SCHLISSEL The biomedical research enterprise finds itself in a moment of intense self-reflection, with science leaders, professional organizations, and funders all working to enhance their support for the next generation of biomedical scientists....

By Ronald J. Daniels and Michael Trebilcock There’s no way to stop globalization or technological progress. Washington should instead focus on helping industrial workers to adapt. If Donald Trump was consistent about one thing on the campaign trail, it was his rejection of the prevailing Washington consensus in favor of globalization and free trade. Now, weeks before taking office, he has pledged to tear...

By Daniel Webster and Ronald Daniels Daniel Webster is a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. Ronald Daniels is president of Johns Hopkins University. Texas this year became the eighth state to require state colleges and universities to allow civilians with permits...