Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

The Washington University in St. Louis Department of Athletics launched its new website Friday, Oct. 1. The website address will remain the same as the old site, bearsports.wustl.edu.

At its fall meeting Oct. 1, the Board of Trustees heard presentations by the dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science and two engineering professors about the new Stephen F. and Camilla T. Brauer Hall, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.

Andy Uecker (left), of the International Institute of Saint Louis, speaks with Adam Steffen, a graduate student in computer science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, during the Public Service Fair Sept. 21 at the Danforth University Center. The fair, sponsored by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, featured more than 40 nonprofit organizations offering a variety of community service and internship opportunities.

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Washington University in St. Louis announced recipients of grants from the joint Academic Venture Fund that support collaborations between scholars at WUSTL and Brookings working on projects that impact research, education and policy.

Many new capabilities have been added to the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) Employee Self Service, allowing WUSTL employees to more easily and quickly manage their benefits and human resources records. The changes also promote sustainability by reducing the amount of paperwork required.

Sports updates for the week of Sept. 27, 2010.

Tokiyasu Fujita (left), former justice on the Supreme Court of Japan and Hiroshi Itoh, PhD, professor of political science at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, speak during the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s two-day symposium Decision-Making on the Japanese Supreme Court Sept. 10. The Center for Empirical Research in the Law hosted the conference.

“Japan Embodied: New Approaches to Japanese Studies,” is a four-semester Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series that examines the way the body has been discussed, experienced, and imagined in Japanese culture. The first seminar begins at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, in Room 18, Busch Hall. The seminars, which are free and open to the public, will continue with events each semester through spring 2012.

Acclaimed author Jonathan Safron Foer, whose latest book, Eating Animals, chronicles his lifelong journey toward vegetarianism, will be on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, in Graham Chapel (please note that this is a location change.) The Assembly Series lecture, co-sponsored by University Libraries, the Campus Bookstore and the senior honorary Mortar Board, is free and open to the public.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon leaves Washington University’s Brauer Hall with his wife, Georganne Wheeler Nixon, Friday, Sept. 17, after outlining his vision for Missouri’s energy future before a group of CEOs and other leaders of major energy producers and industrial and commercial energy consumers at the “Energy Policy Discussion.” The meeting was co-sponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the School of Engineering & Applied Science.