Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

Paper airplane competitions were only a part of the annual Engineering Week Feb. 20-25. The annual week, sponsored by the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is designed to raise awareness of the profession and included a scavenger “golden mouse” hunt throughout the engineering school, Nerf gun battles and the traditional “Mr. Engineering” pageant.

Sports updates for the week of March 14, 2011.

Rebecca Skloot uncovered the incredible story of Henrietta Lacks, a medical mystery that illuminates the still-murky intersection of medical science, race and class. Her bookThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has won numerous awards and is a New York Times bestseller. She will speak for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, in Graham Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

R. Marie Griffith, PhD, the John A. Bartlett Professor at Harvard University, has been named director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Griffith, whose appointment takes place July 1, is known as a pioneer in the study of modern evangelical women.

Standing beneath a portrait of Washington University co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, delivers the annual T.S. Eliot Lecture March 4 in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall. The lecture is named in honor of the famed poet and author who was the grandson of William Greenleaf Eliot. Sheinwald titled his address “Britain and America: An Easy Commerce of the Old and New,” taking a line from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, the final poem of his Four Quartet.

James E. McLeod (right), vice chancellor for students, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and a cancer survivor, walks the lead lap with other cancer survivors in the annual Relay for Life March 5-6 at Francis Field. Nearly $260,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society during the 12-hour event that began at 6 p.m. March 5 and ended at 6 a.m. March 6.

A Cannes Film Festival-winning science fiction film from Kenya, Pumzi (Air), is one of the highlights of the sixth annual African Film Festival Friday, March 25, through Sunday, March 27 at Washington University in St. Louis. This year’s eight films, all of which will be shown in Brown Hall, Room 100, focus on themes of immigration and personal responsibility.

Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the top-ranked chess player in America and 8th in the world at age 23, was on campus Feb. 26 for a question-and-answer session and an opportunity for students to test their skills against the best. Nakamura needed just two-and-a-half hours to win 42 games of bullet chess. The event was sponsored by the Washington University Chess Club.

WUSTL sports updates for the week of March 7, 2011.

At the Washington University Board of Trustees meeting Thursday and Friday, March 3 and 4, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton reported on a number of recent developments on the Medical and Danforth campuses.