Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, will deliver a major policy address at 4 p.m. Friday, March 4, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. He will discuss the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom. His talk, “Britain and America: An Easy Commerce of the Old and New,” is part of the annual T.S. Eliot Lecture.

Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, will deliver a major policy address at 4 p.m. Friday, March 4, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall. His talk is the annual T.S. Eliot Lecture, which is named in honor of the famed poet and author who was the grandson of WUSTL co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot. 

Washington University in St. Louis students are helping students in Scott McClintock’s middle school science class at Maplewood-Richmond Heights use wind turbines, solar collectors and other materials to investigate ways to maximize energy from renewable sources.

Washington University engineering students Nalin Katta and Matthew MacEwan, who also is a School of Medicine student, won the Olin Cup business plan competition Feb. 3 and $50,000 in seed investment for an invention that can replace the protective covering of the brain. With 49 entrants, this year’s competition was the largest group of ventures yet.

The inaugural class has been selected for the Professional Leadership Academy & Network (PLAN), a yearlong professional development program intended to cultivate future leaders at Washington University in St. Louis. And according to PLAN committee members, it was no easy task to choose the class of 26 from the “talented staff pool” of applicants.

The student group that invited Bristol Palin to come to Washington University in St. Louis has mutually agreed with her not to proceed with a contract regarding Palin’s participation in a panel discussion at Washington University on Feb. 7.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $40,950 for the 2011-12 academic year — a $1,550 (3.9 percent) increase over the 2010-11 current academic tuition of $39,400. The required student activity fee will total $410, and the student health fee will be no more than $632. Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance, made the announcement. 

The Advisory Committee for the Diversity and Inclusion Grants has awarded eight grants to Washington University faculty and staff for initiatives that improve the university environment for women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

Adrienne D. Davis, JD, the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed vice provost at Washington University, effective Feb. 1, 2011. Edward S. Macias, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, made the announcement of this new position in his office.

Should weather conditions create potentially hazardous travel conditions, Washington University will evaluate the situation and take into consideration the safety of the faculty, staff and students as well as the services that must be provided despite the inclement weather.