The Johns Hopkins Department of Athletics debuted its Faculty-Coach initiative during the 2025-26 academic year. The program is designed to engage faculty members and create meaningful relationships and community between academic affairs and athletics by serving in a mentoring and supportive role of JHU's scholar-athletes.
 
Faculty Coaches will serve as honorary members of the coaching staff and act as an additional support person for scholar-athletes on the team.  They are available to answer academic questions and help direct scholar-athletes, particularly first year students, to the many resources available to all Johns Hopkins students.
 
The initial two-year commitment, which comes with an option to extend, provides the faculty member the opportunity to attend as many games and practices as their schedule allows, to watch games from the sideline/bench area, and to attend team-specific events, including end-of-year banquets and awards ceremonies.
 
Throughout the 2026-27 academic year, HopkinsSports.com will utilize a Q&A format to allow fans to learn more about a team's designated Faculty-Coach.  Today, we introduce Ben Langmead, the Faculty-Coach for the Blue Jay Water Polo Team.

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Name:  Ben Langmead
 
Faculty-Coach Team:  Water Polo
 
Alma Mater:  Columbia University
 
Position/Title at Johns Hopkins:  Professor, Department of Computer Science
 
Year at Johns Hopkins: 18th
 
Tell us a little about your own athletic background:  I am not an athletic person.  I love walking and recently ran a 2.75 mile race in 32 minutes, which was a good result for me.
 
What is your favorite sport:  Baseball
 
How did you become involved in the Johns Hopkins Athletics Faculty-Coach program:  My colleague, Dr. Gagan Garg, had a sticker on his office entrance saying he was a faculty coach for the JHU women's soccer team.  When I asked him about it, he explained the program.  He asked me if I had any sports team at JHU I felt connected to and I said "yes" because I had taught many water polo players in my courses in the past.
 
While the program is still in its infancy, tell us about your experience working with your team thus far:  I have not met the team yet, but my experience with past water polo players is that they are extremely bright.  They are also a strong, collegial group.
 
What has most surprised you, if anything, about working with and meeting the coaching staff and athletes on your team:  I have not met the team yet, but I have met the coach and I was surprised to hear how demanding his scouting schedule is.
 
As the faculty-coach for the team, what is your goal or what do you hope to accomplish:  I hope to be a resource for the players who are interested in science, computer science, engineering or research in general.
 
Either since you assumed this role or before that time, what is your most memorable Johns Hopkins Athletics experience:  This is not an official Johns Hopkins Athletics experience, but I enjoyed receiving a lesson from one of my Ph.D. students in how to play cricket, which we did on the field next to the O'Connor Center
 
If you have had the opportunity to have scholar-athletes in your class (from your team or others), please describe your experience with them as students:  Some of the most ambitious students I've had in my "Computational Genomics: Sequences" course have been water polo players.  Many of them did research projects with me after that, and a few are currently pursuing careers in research, including in biomedicine and bioinformatics.
 
What would you tell faculty members who are not involved about this program:  Athletes are some of the hardest working people at JHU.  Just think about how much dedication and effort it takes to juggle their coursework with their demanding sports schedules.
 
Tell us something about yourself that not many people are aware of or that you think people would find interesting:  I lived in England for 5 years when I was a teenager.