By 2004, the analysis showed, that number is likely to grow to 85,200. The first and still one of the elite American research universities, Johns Hopkins expands human understanding of the universe on every level, from the cosmic to the subatomic. Hopkins physicians are prying open secrets of the genetic basis of cancer. Its astronomers and physicists are exploring back in time to the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang. Historians trace the ancient origins of written expression.
Engineers work to understand how homes can be held together through hurricanes and earthquakes.
But paying the researchers, as well as buying their test tubes and getting their computers fixed, has a disproportionate economic impact much closer to home. That's a major infusion of outsiders' cash into the Maryland economy. Better yet, many of those dollars stay here. AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp. Dollars paid to Hopkins employees tend to stay in-state as well. Those businesses then turn those dollars around and spend them yet again, and again spend many of them close to home.