As I embark on my second year at the helm, let me reflect on the great year we just completed in the department.

We landed another stellar crop of interns as new trainees. An impressive seven of our 10 interns have published first-author papers, indicating an academic orientation. An important change we have set in motion is the creation of academic tracks within the residency: for research, public mental health, child psychiatry and clinicians-educators. The idea is to provide mentorship, enrichment and academic opportunity in each of these areas. These changes will help us attract the most talented medical students entering the field. You will read herein about the work of a terrific M.D./Ph.D. student, Seva Khambadkone—first author on a striking study implicating nitrate-cured meats regarding mania.

This year has seen much national recognition of our faculty’s accomplishments. Traci Speed, another Johns Hopkins M.D./Ph.D. student, received an award for early-career psychiatrists from the Association of Women Psychiatrists. Kay Jamison, our Dalio Professor of Mood Disorders, was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her biography of celebrated poet Robert Lowell, whose bipolar disorder both informed and disrupted his literary productivity. Alzheimer’s disease expert Kostas Lyketsos was given the Award for Research in Geriatric Psychiatry by The American College of Psychiatrists.

We have also had an impact on the field this year through national leadership. Anita Everett, former head of our Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Community Psychiatry Program, served this year as president of the American Psychiatric Association. Former faculty star Ben Lee took the reins as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Substance abuse researcher Elise Weerts was named president of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our department’s most notable contribution to the field—Leo Kanner’s discovery of childhood autism—we are also pleased to be breaking new ground in the study of adults with autism. Seasoned geriatric expert Peter Rabins has worked with new faculty member Elizabeth Wise in this intriguing area.

Thanks to everyone for your interest in our work. My warmest wishes to you.