HBHI core faculty are named on seven of the 28 endeavors selected for the 2026 Nexus Awards, Johns Hopkins University announced on May 29. All seven are convening awards, the category that funds the cross-disciplinary gatherings at the heart of the initiative.

The awards support work based at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. This year's class reaches across every academic division, including the new School of Government and Policy, and brings together more than 100 scholars. It is the fourth cohort named since the center opened.

Eleven HBHI core faculty are named across the seven 2026 Nexus convening awards.

In the nearly three years since we opened the doors to our Hopkins Bloomberg Center, our 118 Nexus awardees have been instrumental to realizing its founding aspirations as a hub for interdisciplinary convenings, groundbreaking cross-divisional research, and exemplary teaching.

— Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University

Convening is where HBHI has put the program to work. Last year's awards became events that drew national audiences to the Bloomberg Center. The award on Medicare Advantage policy and markets grew into the Medicare Advantage Symposium, and HBHI also continued our work from prior-year Nexus awards on primary care reform and building trust in healthcare.

HBHI faculty also earned Nexus awards in the 2025, 2024, and 2023 cycles.

The awards

  • Health Policy Implications of the 2026 Mid-Term Elections: Daniel Polsky (BSPH), Melinda Buntin (BSPH)

  • ASCENT 2027: Adopting Smell Screening for Cognition and Early Neurocognitive Testing: Nicholas Rowan (SOM), Andrew Lane (SOM), Leila Mady (SOM), Daniel Polsky (BSPH)
  • Clinical, Ethical, Economic, and Public Health Dimensions of Psychedelic Policy: Mario Macis (Carey), Frederick Barrett (SOM), Michael Darden (Carey), Matthew Eisenberg (BSPH), Jeffrey Kahn (Berman), Daniel Polsky (BSPH), David Yaden (SOM)
  • The Price of Hope: Ethics, Economics, and Policy for Rare Disease Therapy: Jeffrey Kahn (Berman), Tom Crawford (SOM), Mario Macis (Carey), Anna Mastroianni (Berman), Daniel Polsky (BSPH)
  • Distinguishing Causation from Correlation: Training for Journalists: Elizabeth Stuart (BSPH), Joanne Kenen (BSPH)
  • From Validation to Vigilance: Convening Framework for Lifecycle Evaluation of Medical AI: David Rastall (SOM), Ayse Gurses (SOM), Ahmed Hassoon (BSPH), Kathy McDonald (SON), Peter Najjar (SOM), David Newman-Toker (SOM), Michael Rosen (SOM), Laura Sigman (SOM)
  • The Economics of Generative AI: Jessie Liu (Carey), Itay Fainmesser (Carey)

The awards extend HBHI's role as a convener of national conversations on the business of health, from the cost of new therapies to the use of artificial intelligence in care.

Learn more about the 2026 Nexus Award Recipients.