Author: Neil Schoenherr

That’s not a new parking meter or air pump for your tires outside of Brauer Hall — it’s a charging station for electric vehicles. This first charging station on the Danforth Campus is another step in the university’s commitment to sustainability. A ceremony to celebrate the installation is set for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, outside of Brauer Hall. A station also is planned for the Millbrook Parking Facility and more may follow, depending on demand. 

WUSTL employees interested in learning about evening and part-time graduate programs are encouraged to attend a lunch-and-learn session at noon on Dec. 6 in the Danforth University Center.

Mantis shrimp, aggressive, predatory sea crustaceans, have among the most sophisticated vision of all animals. A group of researchers, including Viktor Gruev, PhD, want to recreate that vision to make a specialized camera that could bring more precision to biomedical imaging and weapon targeting in defense.

Detecting whether a patient will have acute kidney injury could become as simple as dipping a paper test strip printed with gold nanorods into a urine sample, a team of Washington University in St. Louis researchers has found.

Alum Robbie Garrison (left), of MMBiosensing, LLC, talks with Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, following the selection of Garrison’s firm as one of seven finalists for the 2012 Olin Cup during a ceremony Nov. 8 in Simon Hall.

There are currently a record 52 military veterans enrolled at Olin Business School Of those, 32 are enrolled in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Established by the federal government in 2008, the program allows institutions of higher learning in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund tuition and fee expenses at their school.

The annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition kicks off at 4 p.m. today in Simon Hall. This year’s case will revolve around vacant land use in St. Louis. Open to all Washington University graduate and undergraduate students, the OSCC provides participants with a chance to learn about practical, real-world applications of corporate responsibility and sustainability concepts so that they can make an impact in the world around them.

Sunscreen contains nanoparticles to protect our skin by reflecting hazardous ultraviolet radiation from the sun. But what happens to those nanoparticles when you wash the sunscreen away? Young-Shin Jun, PhD, has received a three-year, $382,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to determine the physical and chemical evolution of environmental and engineered nanoparticles in natural and engineered aquatic systems, such as wastewater treatment plants.

The City of St. Louis estimates more than 10,000 vacant parcels have come into its ownership through tax foreclosure — and nearly 20 percent of all property within city limits is vacant. A new joint program between the City of St. Louis and the Washington University in St. Louis Office of Sustainability seeks to reframe the issue: turning vacant land into an opportunity that inspires innovative thinking and catalyzes tangible demonstration projects.

Roch Guérin, PhD, has been named chair of the Computer Science & Engineering department effective July 1, 2013. Guérin is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Networks and professor of electrical and systems engineering and computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been on the faculty since 1998.