Bruce Carlson, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has found that changes in brain anatomy of an electric fish species and the resulting ability to fully exploit electric signal space did indeed lead to the rapid forming of new species, a result published in the April 29 issue of Science. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22107.aspx

Ravikumar Chockalingam, MD, will take what he has learned as a member of WUSTL’s inaugural Master of Public Health Program in the Brown School and apply it to public health programs locally, in his native India, and beyond. At the Brown School, Chockalingam integrated his community health care worker model into his class work. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22266.aspx

Richard J. Smith, PhD (left), dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, visits with Arts & Sciences PhD student Rajbir Purewal and other teaching assistants after he presented them with the Arts & Sciences’ Graduate Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence during an April 25 ceremony in the Danforth University Center. The award recognizes exemplary performance by graduate teaching assistants. MORE

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22268.aspx

Social Security’s yearly cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are targeted for reduction through a proposed “chained COLA” formula, and that could be a huge problem for those dependent on Social Security income, says the School of Law’s Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, a nationally recognized expert on Social Security. FULL STORY

URL: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22267.aspx

• 3:30 p.m. Music and Literature Reading Group. Interdisciplinary group discusses Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, written by renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks, who considers the potential relationship between music and unusual brain disorders. Discussion led by Maya Gibson, lecturer in American Culture Studies, and Matthew Shipe, lecturer in English. Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities. Free and open to the public. Eliot Hall, Rm. 307. (314) 935-5576.

• Mallinckrodt Bank of America branch closed through July 4.
  Bank of America’s full-service branch on the second floor in the Mallinckrodt Center closed at 2 p.m. Friday, April 29, and will remain closed through Monday, July 4. The bank will reopen July 5 in its new location on the Mallinckrodt Center’s first floor.

• WUSTL women win track meet. The women’s outdoor track team finished in first place out of 13 schools to win the Illinois College True Blue Invitational team title with 137 points April 30 in Jacksonville, Ill. The men’s team placed fifth out of 14 squads. Both teams return to action Saturday, May 7, for the Monmouth College Invitational in Monmouth, Ill.