Author: Jessica Daues

The 150-year-old mission of the Academy of Science of St. Louis is to “foster the advancement of science and encouragement of public interest in and understanding of the sciences.”

The men’s and women’s basketball teams each win two league games over the weekend.

John DiPersio, M.D., Ph.D., the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professor of Medicine, has received a one-year, $21,197 subcontract from Northwestern University for “Phrase I & II Clinical Trials of Cancer Chemopreventive Agents.” … Jennifer L. Ivanovich, research instructor in surgery, has received a one-year, $34,789 grant from the St. Louis Affiliate of the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation for “The Young Women’s Breast Cancer Program.” … Thomas A. Woolsey, M.D., professor of neurological surgery, has received a two-year, $30,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for the Spring Brain Conference.

The following are among the new faculty members at the University. Others will be introduced periodically in this space. Werner Ploberger, Ph.D., joins the department of economics in Arts & Sciences as professor. He earned a doctorate in applied mathematics at Vienna University of Technology (Austria) in 1981 and a Habilitation in Econometrics there in 1993. He has been affiliated with Vienna University of Technology, the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and the University of Rochester. He was tenured in 1993 (Vienna) and promoted to full professor in 1995 (University of St. Andrews). He has been at the University of Rochester since 1997. His research focus is in the areas of statistics, econometric methodology and time-series econometrics. Stephen Williamson, Ph.D., joins the department of economics in Arts & Sciences as professor. He earned a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1984 and has since been affiliated with Queen’s, Western Ontario, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the University of Iowa. He was tenured in 1989 (Western Ontario) and promoted to full professor in 1992 (Iowa). He served as department chair at Iowa (2000-03). He is co-editor for Economic Theory and associate editor for Journal of Monetary Economics and Review of Economic Dynamics. His research is mainly on macroeconomics, monetary economics and financial economics. Jimin Ding, Ph.D., joins the department of mathematics in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. Ding earned a doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Davis, under the guidance of Jane-Ling Wang. She works in a modern form of survival analysis using techniques that will be applicable to many other areas of statistics. Xiang Tang, Ph.D., joins the department of mathematics in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. He was previously a visiting research professor at the University of California, Davis. He earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked under Alan Weinstein. His areas of expertise are noncommutative geometry, symplectic geometry and quantization. He worked on mathematical problems in statistical thermodynamics while still an undergraduate at Peking University.

Feb. 13 3:22 p.m. — A person reported unknown person(s) used her debit card online to make a purchase. The fraudulent purchase occurred Jan. 30. The victim had possession of her debit card when the fraudulent activity took place. Feb. 14 12:03 a.m. — The complainant reported that suspect(s) unknown entered their unsecured dorm rooms in Myers Residence Hall and took two cameras and an iPod. They believe that the incident occurred between Feb. 11 in the evening and today.

The members-only resources of the Web site for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education now is available to everyone on the Danforth and School of Medicine campuses.

Ida H. Early has been named secretary to the Board of Trustees, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.The appointment is effective July 1, when Harriet K. Switzer, Ph.D., steps down from that post. “Ida Early brings many years of University experience to her new role, and I welcome the opportunity to work with her,” said Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Ida is very familiar with the St. Louis community and our University, and is a person of enormous ability, sensitivity and integrity who, I am confident, will be successful as the next Secretary to the Board of Trustees.”

Work is steadily progressing on three major Danforth Campus construction projects.

Joel Perlmutter, M.D., professor of neurology, has received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America for the HDSA Center of Excellence. … Matthew J. Ellis, MBBCH, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, has received a one-year, $43,412.80 grant from the St. Louis Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc. for “The Navigator Project.” … Roberto Civitelli, M.D., professor of medicine, has received a one-year, $43,200 grant from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation for the Shoenberg Chair. … Jeffrey Crippin, M.D., professor of medicine, has received a two-year, $35,750 grant from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation for research titled “Role of Indocyanine Green (ICG) in Patients with Advanced Liver Disease Undergoing Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) as a Predicator of Post-TIPS Liver Failure and Survival.”

Christina Gurnett, M.D., Ph.D., instructor in neurology, has received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the American Epilepsy Society for research titled “Determination of Seizure Susceptibility Gene Common to Mendelian and Complex Epilepsy.” … Elaine Majerus, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, has received a one-year, $60,000 grant from the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation for research titled “Study of Characterization of ADAMTS13 and Its Interaction with Endothelial Cells.” … Thomas Meuser, Ph.D., research assistant professor of neurology, has received a one-year, $58,979 grant from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety for research titled “Medical Fitness to Drive & a Voluntary State Reporting Law.” … Rakesh Nagarajan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and immunology, has received a one-year, $50,000 grant from Microsoft Research for research titled “Function Express Gold: A caBIG Grid-aware Microarray Analysis Application.”