Author: Diana Lutz

Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth, M.D., and four faculty members received Outstanding St. Louis Scientist Awards at the Academy of Science-St. Louis annual dinner April 24 at the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis.

WUSTL engineers have developed a unique photocatlytic cell that splits water to produce hydrogen and oxygen in water using sunlight and the power of a nanostructured catalyst. The technique will be demonstrated at a poster session May 6, 2007, at the International Symposium on Energy and Environment, held at the University.

Shirley Dyke (left) and Pengcheng Wang adjust wireless sensors onto a model laboratory building in Dyke’s laboratory. An earthquake engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has successfully performed the first test of wireless sensors in the simulated structural control of a model laboratory building. Shirley J. Dyke, Ph.D., the Edward C. Dicke Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Washington University Structural Control and Earthquake Engineering Laboratory, combined the wireless sensors with special controls called magnetorheological dampers to limit damage from a simulated earthquake load. More…

Tabatha Heet, a junior earth and planetary sciences major and Pathfinder student, shows Ray Arvidson, earth and planetary sciences department chair, a potential landing site for the Phoenix mission to Mars.Earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are paving the way for a smooth landing on Mars for the Phoenix Mission scheduled to launch in August this year by making sure the set-down literally is not a rocky one. A team led by Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, has been analyzing images taken from a NASA instrument to make sure that the Phoenix spacecraft lands in a spot on the Red planet’s northern plains that is relatively rock-free. Video included.

Science on Tap, Washington University’s monthly informal science colloquium, is cited in Wired magazine’s April issue. The program is noted along with seven similar forums across the country that promote science conversation in a pub-like setting. Established in fall 2005, Science on Tap highlights topics developed by Danforth Campus scientists through public discussions at Schlafly Bottleworks at 7260 Southwest Ave. in Maplewood.

For the first time in the United States, the presidents of 13 premier universities from Asia and the Middle East will gather at WUSTL May 4-7 to discuss ways their institutions are addressing global energy and environmental concerns.

Wired magazine cites WUSTL’s Science on Tap in the April issue. Established in fall 2005 and organized by Cynthia A. Wichelman, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine in medicine, Science on Tap lets community members gather in a pub setting to discover topics developed by Danforth campus scientists.

The Washington University mathematics team competing in the 2006 William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition ranked ninth in the contest out of 402 teams participating.

Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping, or diminishing, deep in the Earth’s mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground water reservoir at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean — the first evidence for water existing in the Earth’s deep mantle.

Sean C. Solomon, Ph.D., director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, will deliver the 2007 McDonnell Lecture at 7:30 p.m. March 30 in the Jerzewiak Family Auditorium of the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building.