Chris Ruff, Ph.D., who is known to decades of students and alumni is retiring from his position as director of the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution (FAE), a role he has held since 2001.

Chris came to Johns Hopkins to join the faculty at the school of medicine in 1983, after undergraduate training at Stanford University, attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, postdoctoral training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and junior faculty positions at Boston University. His research has focused on various aspects of bone structure, bone mechanics and functional morphology. Chris has achieved great success in his research activities, authoring more than 200 manuscripts, delivering over 75 invited lectures, serving as the editor of both the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology and the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, and mentoring more than 35 students. 

He has made substantial contributions to the education of generations of Johns Hopkins students and trainees through the human anatomy course, as a lecturer for many years, as course director in two separate periods totaling nine years, and as the FAE director. Through his leadership, as well as the many contributions of a strong team of faculty members, human anatomy has been among the most highly rated courses in the medical school curriculum for many years. The recently established Master of Science in Anatomy Education program, developed during Chris’ tenure, graduated its inaugural cohort of students this month.

Chris will step down as FAE director June 30. We are very appreciative that Cory Sandone, M.A., director of the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine, has agreed to serve as interim director for the rest of this year.

We are grateful for Chris’ commitment to our students, to the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, and to the school of medicine, and for the many other contributions he has made throughout his career at Johns Hopkins.