Month: October 2019

As the U.S. once again prepares for national elections, we hope that voters in the St. Louis region will join with elections administrators in strengthening our democratic processes. On election day, it is critical that we all work to note and report voting process barriers.

A memorial service is planned Nov. 18 at Washington University in St. Louis for Harold L. Levin, professor emeritus of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, who died July 16, 2019, in St. Louis. He was 90.

Physician-scientist and rheumatologist John P. Atkinson, MD, the Samuel B. Grant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded the Presidential Gold Medal by the American College of Rheumatology.

Jill Biden (left), wife of former Vice President Joe Biden and a lifelong educator, will deliver the keynote address of “She Leads,” a two-day event organized by the Olin Fellowship featuring female leaders in technology, public service, medicine and other fields. Alumna Brittany Packnett’s talk Oct. 24 in Graham Chapel will kick off the conference.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests the gut microbiome has an impact on how the body breaks down processed foods, such as cereals, pastas, chocolate and soda. The new knowledge could help in the development of healthier, more nutritious processed foods.

A longtime leader in microbiome research, the School of Medicine plans to expand research into the microbiome with a new mouse facility that will further enable researchers to understand how microbes influence health and disease. The facility will be funded with an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and an additional $2.8 million from the School of Medicine.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital,” a symposium exploring how digital images are constructed and operate, Oct. 24-26.

Concerns about the future of Hong Kong as China’s global financial centre are misplaced. Its financial firms and financiers are the jewels of China’s access to global financial markets. China’s leaders will never undermine that.

The fifth annual Olin Sports Business Summit convenes Oct. 18 in Knight Hall’s Emerson Auditorium. The 2019 lineup features numerous presentations from industry executives at professional basketball, football and soccer teams.

Himadri B. Pakrasi, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and director of InCEES, was recently awarded a $1.2-million grant for a collaborative study of cyanobacteria with the ultimate purpose of producing nitrogen-fixing crop plants.