Author: Neil Schoenherr

“Christmas Creep,” the “technical” term for the pre-holiday appearance of retail decorations and promotions, crept into stores and marketing in October this year. Major department stores are even pre-empting Black Friday by opening on Thanksgiving Day. Is starting the holiday shopping season earlier and earlier a good marketing move or could it backfire? Four marketing professors at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School discuss this phenomenon.

Himadri Pakrasi, PhD, director of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability, sat down recently with Peter Raven, PhD, the George Engelmann Professor of Botany Emeritus in Arts & Sciences and president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for a conversation about the Washington University Climate Change Initiative.

A team of Olin Business School graduate students recently won the $5,000 first prize in the 18th annual International Case Competition organized by Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. In addition, the team of four MBA students and one master’s in supply chain management student tied with MIT for the “Best Presentation” Award.

A partnership between Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, will give undergraduates from any American college or university a firsthand look this summer at the burgeoning Israeli startup scene. Students have until Feb. 15 to sign up.

Nirupama Rao, Indian Ambassador to the United States, will speak about U.S. and India relations during a visit to the university Saturday, Oct. 19. Rao will present the McDonnell International Scholars Academy 2013 S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture at 5:30 p.m. in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. Rao’s lecture will serve as the capstone to the Washington University in St. Louis-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Corporate Conclave.​

The annual Leaders in Business Summit, held Sept. 25 at Knight Center, featured several panel discussions with prominent local business leaders and Olin Business School faculty members about the evolving global economy and where it might be headed.

Construction is moving quickly on the two new Olin Business School buildings — Knight Hall and Bauer Hall, located next to the Knight Center on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The $90 million project includes two innovative buildings united by a soaring three-story glass atrium.

A technology proposed by Lihong Wang, PhD, professor of engineering, may hold the key to detecting tumor cell circulation, potentially enabling earlier therapeutic interventions and curative surgical treatment and improving survival of patients with cancer.

Philip Bayly, PhD, the Lilyan and E. Lisle Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and chair the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, has received a three-year, $429,222 grant from the National Science Foundation to study mehanical properties in the brain.

More than 1,000 science researchers from around the world descended upon St. Louis during the second week of August for what Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, wittingly referred to as “Photo-palooza” for the gathering’s focus on photosynthesis research. Washington University’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) served as host to the 11th Workshop on Cyanobacteria and the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) hosted the Light Harvesting Satellite Meeting 2013.