On Thursday Oct. 16, a dedication ceremony for Malone Hall was held in an outdoor pavilion on Decker Quad. Dr. John C. Malone, who contributed $30 million to fund the construction of the building, was honored at the dedication.
Several important Hopkins figures were present, including University President Ronald J. Daniels; Jeffrey Aronson, the chair of the Board of Trustees; T.E. Schlesinger, the dean of the Whiting School of Engineering; Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City; Paul Rothman, the dean of the Medical Faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine; and Russell Taylor, a professor in the department of computer science and the first recipient of the John C. Malone Professorship.
The event featured speeches from dignitaries present, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a reception with hor d’oeuvres and live music, and tours of Malone Hall led by students.
A slideshow depicting the construction of Malone Hall from groundbreaking to completion was shown during seating for the event, before brief opening remarks from Aronson. Aronson introduced those present and a brief video clip depicting the interior of Malone Hall dubbed with comments made by Malone at the groundbreaking ceremony.
After the video, Daniels delivered his remarks. He stressed the importance of Malone Hall to the University’s mission, and how it fits with the University’s atmosphere.
Malone hall will “house and harness the reckless energy that drives us here at Johns Hopkins,” Daniels said. “This is about humanity, solving the problems of mankind, and taking the long view.”
Bloomberg then gave remarks commending Malone for his generosity, and stressing the importance of supportive donors.
“To stay on top in education, you have to be able to compete for the best faculty,” Bloomberg said. “[Malone] is a role model for all of us… he’s a visionary, he does new things, out of the box, all the time.”
Two of the six current recipients of the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship (BDP) will have offices in Malone Hall.
Schlesinger then commented on the impact Malone Hall will have on those who work within and with the University.
“The impact [of Malone] is felt every day, not only by faculty, students and staff, but by collaborators.”
Schlesinger also commended Malone for his work and thanked him for his belief in the University.
“When I met John, he talked about the power of Johns Hopkins engineering,” Schlesinger said. “Your belief in transformative technology allowed you to revolutionize communications.”
A short film entitled “The People of Malone Hall” was then shown. It featured testimonials from occupants of Malone Hall, and emphasized multidisciplinary interaction and the co-occupancy of faculty, students, and staff.
Rothman then spoke about how Malone Hall will allow more interaction between medicine and engineering. He described how medicine has changed in the past 30 years, as exemplified in the treatment of heart attacks and diabetes, which have both moved towards more permanent treatment solutions enabled by engineering technologies. He then emphasized the importance of a strong bridge between the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and how Malone Hall will help.
“What you’ve done here will help us move the frontiers of medicine forward,” Rothman said.
Taylor then introduced Malone and spoke about how Malone has influenced his career. As an undergraduate, Taylor worked for Malone’s thesis advisor while Malone was pursuing his Ph.D. at Hopkins. He used Malone’s algorithms, although they did not meet at the time. The two first met at the ground-breaking ceremony for Malone Hall. Taylor commended Malone’s philanthropy, including his work with the Malone Family Foundation.
Malone then delivered his remarks, beginning with his personal investment in the building.
“It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to give back to the institutions that gave you your start,” Malone said.
He commented on the effectiveness of the building’s multidisciplinary aims in bringing engineering, medicine and computer science together.
“Engineers are problem solvers; researchers are problem solvers,” Malone said. “The intersection of engineering and medicine has a huge contribution to make. And there’s an enormous computational element going forward.”
Following his remarks, Malone was given the honor of cutting the ribbon at the ceremony to officially dedicate the building.
Rob DiPietro, a second year Ph.D. student with a desk in the new space, praised the building’s conduciveness to work.
“I’m very particular about where I work,” DiPietro said. “I never sat at my desk in Hackerman, but I sit at my desk all the time in Malone.”
Tours of the building conducted by students showcased the undergraduate collaborative spaces for computer science majors on the first and third floors, the graduate collaborative space and offices on the second floor, several University labs and labs of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI), a collaborative organization now based in Malone.
The tour also featured the beam at the top of the southwest staircase which was signed by faculty, students and staff during construction.
The Hopkins labs showcased the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, which develops data analysis technologies, and the Health and Medical Security lab, which researches methods to secure medical records. The HEMI labs showcased a drop weight facility which tests the effects of impacts on both hard materials and soft tissue as well as a scanning electron microscope facility.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.