John K. Haynes

Morehouse College | Atlanta, GA | 2014

John K.  Haynes Portrait Photo

The official biography below was current at the time of the award. Awardees may choose to provide their latest biographical information on their profile page.

Dr. John K. Haynes is the David Packard Professor in Science, and Dean of the Division of Science and Mathematics at Morehouse College. Since 1979, he has been a faculty member at the College, holding a number of administrative positions as well. He earned the Ph.D. in developmental biology from Brown University in 1971, and was a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1973.

Dr. Haynes' mentoring over three decades is broadly characterized by a global vision for the scientific enterprise; a networking approach to ensure his proteges are connected to peers and leaders alike; and a drive to inculcate in his men tees a sense of professionalism,integrity, compassion and competence. His mentoring philosophy extends well beyond the usual emphasis on course counseling, research experiences, conference participation and the like-moving into more sophisticated attentiveness to issues of cognitive disposition, and assisting mentees to develop a healthy outlook on rejection, uncertainty, and the willingness to embrace new or novel ideas.

Professor Haynes' career-long mentoring at Morehouse has influenced the professional and personal development of more than 3,000 African-American males in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who have been graduated from Morehouse College. Dr. Haynes' stewardship of the undergraduate to graduate transition is profound, and has played no small role in placing Morehouse College at the forefront of historically black colleges and universities that provide baccalaureate training with a view to graduate level work. His graduates have emerged into the world of professional work with critical reasoning skills, an excitement about learning and, importantly, a desire to mentor others in turn. Numerous of his proteges have gone forward to tackle some of our most pressing societal problems, including research on sickle cell anemia, antibiotic resistance, and stem cell research.

Dr. Haynes has mentored eleven junior faculty members at Morehouse, as well as ten program directors that he hired to work on grants for which he was the principal investigator. Dr. Haynes has received more than $29 million in research funding, the majority of these resources providing support for his undergraduate students and, in many instances, support for his faculty development activities at Morehouse. He has served as Principal Investigator on grants to Morehouse College that seek to increase the entry of underrepresented minorities in graduate and health professional schools, including awards from the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.

Professor Haynes holds membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Cell Biology (serving as Chair of the Society's Minorities Affairs Committee from 1994 to 2000), and was elected in 1999 to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest honors society for the liberal arts and sciences.