Obesity and excess weight, and their negative impact on health, have become a significant focus for health-care experts in recent years. But new School of Medicine research shows an escalation in the number of those considered obese or overweight in the U.S. continues, also signaling an ongoing upward swing in chronic health conditions.

The university’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP) is helping K-12 teachers from East St. Louis schools get more comfortable teaching science to their students. Educators recently visited the MySci Resource Center for two days, building their science knowledge, learning best practices for instruction and receiving free resources for their classrooms.

President Barack Obama has named internationally recognized cancer expert Timothy Ley, MD, of the School of Medicine, to the National Cancer Advisory Board. The board advises the president, the secretary of Health and Human Services and the director of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the nation’s cancer program.

The New Horizons spacecraft is expected to fly through the Pluto system on July 14 and capture images of the dwarf planet. Your host for Pluto watching will be planetary scientist Bill McKinnon, PhD, of Arts & Sciences. He’s on the mission’s science team, and he will offer comments from mission headquarters at Johns Hopkins University.

At the recent Board of Trustees meeting, several faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure, with most changes effective July 1.