Author: Ken Duenke

GandhiPediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Sanjiv K. Gandhi, M.D., will join the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital in September 2004. Gandhi’s appointment is part of the Medical Center’s effort to ensure the pediatric heart and lung services, collectively called cardiothoracic services, are among the nation’s best.

Courtesy of Missouri Historical SocietyWUSTL will rededicate Francis Field, site of the 1904 Olympic track & field events, at 5 p.m. on June 16.Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will be joined by Charlie A. Dooley, St. Louis county executive; Jeff Rainford, chief of staff for St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay; John Schael, Washington University athletic director; Robert Marbut, chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s National Governing Bodies’ Council; and former Olympic athletes Craig Virgin and Wendy Williams for a 5 p.m. ceremony June 16 recognizing the 100th anniversary of the 1904 Olympics at WUSTL and the Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay. During the ceremony, which has been moved inside due to inclement weather, Wrighton will host a rededication of Francis Field, the site of the 1904 Olympic track and field events. The ceremony will be held in the Field House in WUSTL’s Athletic Complex.

An olive leaf served as the inspiration for the first Olympic Torch that will travel to all five continents, carrying the message of peace for the Olympic Games of 2004.Washington University in St. Louis will part of the Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay as part of the 100th anniversary of the 1904 Olympics held at the university, starting at approximately 7:45 p.m. Thursday, June 17. The torch will be carried into Washington University’s Francis Field, as well as up and down the steps of Brookings Hall, the main administration building. Torchbearers are St. Louis philanthropist E. Desmond Lee, former Washington University volleyball coach Teri Clemens, and Michael DeBaun, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and of biostatistics at the Washington University School of Medicine. Click here for complete information on all Torch and rededication events on campus.

MacDonaldIt is no secret that advances in technology can greatly impact the value of workers’ skills. Older workers often find the updating of complex technology uneconomic, while younger workers acquire and readily employ skills tailored to the newest technology. The result: the latter group’s productivity rises, diminishing the value of output produced by their older counterparts. A recently published study by Glenn MacDonald, Washington University’s John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy, is the first to model and explain the nature and severity of this effect.

Charter schools are attended disproportionately by poor, minority students.Since their creation in the early 1990s, charter schools have come under fire from many civil rights supporters. “Traditional advocates of civil rights claim that charter schools are but another opportunity for whites to escape from the public school system and gain advantage for their children at taxpayers’ expense,” says Tomiko Brown-Nagin, associate professor of law and of history at Washington University in St. Louis. “This criticism overlooks the astounding fact, however, that most charter schools have been established in poor, minority neighborhoods and are attended disproportionately by poor, minority students — those whose schools and neighborhoods have been untouched by Brown v. Board of Education.”

Joyce and Howard Wood, both alumni of the John M. Olin School of Business, have created the Joyce and Howard Wood Distinguished Professorship in Business. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced the gift of $1.7 million, which has been augmented with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge. William P. Bottom, Ph.D., will be formally installed as the first holder of this professorship at a later date.

A conference for board directors of public and private companies will be held June 25-26 at Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business in the school’s Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center. The board of directors’ conference, “Strategies and Techniques for Improving Board Performance,” will focus on corporate governance issues.

BardachKenneth C. Bardach has been named associate dean and director of ExecEdge Corporate Education at the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, announced Stuart I. Greenbaum, dean and Bank of America Professor at the Olin School. Bardach joins Olin from Case Western Reserve, where he served as associate dean of Executive Education Programs at the Weatherhead School of Management. Bardach brings more than 30 years of academic and corporate experience to his post, having twice served in executive education director positions at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and having directed corporate management education and development programs for numerous organizations.

Lung transplantation increases the survival of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) by an average of almost four-and-a-half years, according to research led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The American Society for Clinical Investigation has honored Daniel Brennan, David Holtzman, Barry Sleckman and Dwight Towler.