Author: Diana Lutz

Sally Elgin wins award for her commitment to finding new, more powerful ways to teach science and to support teachers in the biological sciences.

The decoding  of the Neandertal genome, which suggested modern humans interbred with Neandertals, followed hard on the heals of a WUSTL professor’s critique on mathematical and logical grounds of a gene analysis that suggested no interbreeding.

A groundbreaking ceremony for Preston M. Green Hall was held Friday, April 30, in Uncas A. Whitaker Hall. The building, which will house the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is being named in honor of the late Green, a WUSTL alumnus and benefactor. It will turn the corner at Skinker Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway, connecting on its western edge to the recently completed Brauer Hall.

WUSTL students from the Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences recently distinguished themselves in two competitions: A trophy from the 15th annual Missouri MAA Collegiate Mathematics Competition and more than respectable scores at the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition, a difficult and prestigious national contest.

This year’s Spector Prize — awarded by the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences in memory Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 WUSTL graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger, PhD, — is being shared by two graduating seniors, Rebecca Krock and Olga Minkina.

Three Washington University biologists are being honored this year by the American Society of Plant Biologists, two for sustained achievement in their careers, and the third for a promising beginning.

Fidel Desir is the winner of the 2010 Stalker Award. The prize is named in the honor of the late Harrison D. Stalker, PhD, who was professor of biology; a leading evolutionary biologist, geneticist and inspired teacher; and a true enthusiast of the fine arts.

Water and energy is the theme of an Earth Day seminar sponsored by the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering. Paul Bishop, PhD, the Herman Schneider Professor of Environmental Engineering and associate vice president for research at the University of Cincinnati, will deliver the keynote speech “The Water-Energy Nexus” at 11 a.m. Friday, April 23, in Lopata Hall, Room 101.

In the spirit of former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, the students at Washington University in St. Louis are trying this year “to stem the tide of environmental disaster,” by presenting the facts “clearly and dramatically” through a debate about the use of coal to be held April 27 and a panel discussion about the sustainability of corporate energy use to be held April 29.

As told by WUSTL alumna Stacey Robertson Maurice And then John Evans, the brave man that he is, walked out on the spit to one side of the cove, the waves crashing over his legs. He got out far enough that he was past the worst of the breakers, and then the Zodiac with the […]