THE STATELY 23-STORY HOTEL OPENED AT the height of the Jazz Age, but less than a year later, Wall Street’s 1929 crash snuffed out revelry in the opulent ballroom and secret speakeasy. That’s when the property, then one of Baltimore’s tallest buildings, supposedly began accumulating ghosts: failed businessmen, wiped-out tycoons, even a bankrupt couple reputed to have jumped to their deaths on a downtown street with their young daughter.

Early on summer mornings, while mist lingers on the river and great egrets pick their way along the shore, the Anacostia’s beauty rests easy. While the air is still cool, residents of Prince George’s County and D.C. bike, walk and row along a stretch of the Bladensburg waterfront.

A University of Maryland review of scientific literature suggests domestic cats can contract the rapidly evolving bird flu H5N1, potentially putting owners, veterinarians and others at risk if the virus continues to circulate unabated.

Any common face mask provides significant protection against the virus that causes COVID-19, but N95 masks are most effective at slashing the amount emitted by infected people, according to a University of Maryland-led study released Wednesday.

The University of Maryland School of Public Health announced Tuesday it will launch an undergraduate major in global health along with the Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health (GEOH) in Fall 2024. The department will replace and expand upon the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH).

Depending on where Marylanders live, their assurance of safe drinking water isn’t always crystal clear. In some Baltimore neighborhoods, it can be brown. While the city’s drinking water meets federal safety standards when it leaves municipal treatment plants, it might pick up lead, E. coli and other contaminants while flowing through a network of aging pipes before reaching a drinking glass. 

The School of Public Health continued to move fearlessly forward this year, tackling pressing issues at the local, national and global level, while educating the next generation of public health practitioners. Here's a look back at some of the school’s achievements in 2023.

The Maryland Safe Drinking Water Analysis and Testing for Education and Research (WATER) study examines the quality of public drinking water systems and private wells in Maryland through citizen science, field-based research and laboratory analyses.

Award funding will support environmental health Assistant Professor Rachel Rosenberg Goldstein's research on the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in sewage.