February 19, 2004

Dear Colleagues:

I write to let you know that Dr. William S. Agnew, Director of Physiology and Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience, has requested to be relieved of his administrative duties as department director in order to devote his full time to an innovative program in molecular neurobiology. I have accepted Dr. Agnew's resignation with grateful recognition of his many contributions to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Agnew will remain as Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience and take a sabbatical leave to pursue an exciting new area of research originating in his laboratory aimed at explaining the origins of complex organism phenotypes from limited genomes.

During his tenure as chairman, Dr. Agnew has provided exceptional service to the department, to the basic sciences and to the School of Medicine. After being recruited to Johns Hopkins from Yale University in 1992, Dr. Agnew acted to reinvigorate the academic and administrative foundation of the department to a high standard following an 11year hiatus between permanent directors. He appointed outstanding young faculty, and promoted strong, interdisciplinary programs of senior faculty. Under his leadership the department's sponsored research grew from $2.2 million to more than $8 million per year, including Center and Program Project awards.

The department is the academic home for the highly rated Organ Systems course in the first year curriculum, and the graduate program in Cellular and Molecular Physiology. The nine members of his faculty have provided leadership in medical and graduate education, technology development and biotechnology transfer, minority training program development and services including the Transgenic Mouse Facility.

Dr. Agnew started and ran the Basic Science Initiative, ultimately yielding $13 million from grants and donor gifts to restore infrastructure and renovate more than 80 laboratory and core facilities in 7 of the 8 basic science departments, including all of the laboratories in Physiology. Based on these experiences, he proposed and helped his fellow directors advance the organization and funding of the Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, subsequently headed by Dr. Thomas Kelly, Dr. Jeremy Berg and Dr. Stephen Desiderio.

Dr. Agnew conceived and helped advance the formation of the Center for Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology. He facilitated and helped showcase Dr. Harry Goldberg's innovations in computer based education, "The Living Textbook," in the cardiovascular section of Organ Systems. In his institutional role, he served for 3 ½ years as chairman of the Professorial Promotions Committee, chaired the Search Committee for the Department of Cell Biology, and served on multiple other leadership committees in the University and School of Medicine.

On behalf of the entire School of Medicine, I wish Dr. Agnew well.

Sincerely,
Edward D. Miller, M.D.