Walk up Houston Mill Road toward Clifton Road, past the shady, creekside trails of Hahn Woods and the stately Miller-Ward Alumni House, and you can peer into the upper stories of the tallest building on Emory’s campus: the nine-story Claudia Nance Rollins Building.

Through the windows, even this far away, a world map is clearly visible, the familiar outlines of continents against a dark background. You might wonder about the map. Why is it so prominent? What is its purpose, since it is in a hallway and not inside a classroom or lecture hall? If you had a few minutes and were an inquisitive soul, you might walk toward the building.

You wouldn’t be disappointed.

Spending an afternoon in the Rollins School of Public Health’s Claudia Nance Rollins Building, wandering its wide corridors, modern classrooms, lecture hall, wet and dry labs, and light-filled stairways, is an education in viruses and vaccinations, safe water and sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes and nutrition, and dozens of other topics vital to health and survival.

“I enjoy coming here. This feels like a place that’s optimistic,” says Dean James Curran, whose office is on the eighth floor. “A university’s major strength is its people, and you want to provide optimal support for their work, whether that’s teaching or studying or research.”