Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Remembering Einstein’s “miracle year.”The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics — and there’s a very good reason why this particular year was chosen to raise worldwide public awareness of physics. It is also the 100th anniversary of physicist Albert Einstein’s miraculous year in which he wrote five — or three depending on whom you ask — of his most famous scientific papers. Also known as the World Year of Physics, 2005 will feature worldwide events of interest not only to physicists, but also to the general public. Two physicists from Washington University in St. Louis who are both known for their ability to speak and write clearly about physics to the layperson will be giving talks throughout 2005 about Einstein’s ideas and their impact on science and society 100 years later.

Jonathan Townsend, Ph.D., emeritus professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, died on Monday, Nov. 29, 2004. He was 82. The burial was private.

Al Toroian, former director of the university’s news office for 20 years, died Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004, from complications of pneumonia at the Life Care Center in St. Louis. He was 80. A private graveside service will be Wednesday, Nov. 24. A memorial service in Graham Chapel will be scheduled later.

If a severe snow or ice storm causes the University to alter the normal work and/or class schedules, an announcement will be posted on the University’s home page (wustl.edu) and a number of media outlets will air an announcement. Separate announcements will be made regarding the Hilltop Campus (includes all campuses other than the Medical […]

She joined the University in 1991 in the Office of Computing and Communications and has worked her way up.

PhillipsPoet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected — for the second time in a relatively short literary career — as a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award in poetry. Phillips was nominated for his seventh collection of poetry, “The Rest of Love: Poems,” published in February by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The National Book Awards are considered one of the most prestigious prizes in American literature.

EarlySt. Louis’ “striking history” in baseball is not getting the national attention it deserves, says Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis and a noted essayist and baseball fan. “Boston is the big story,” says Early, an American culture critic who served as a consultant on the Ken Burns documentary “Baseball” for the Public Broadcasting Service. “All the stuff about the Red Sox curse, how it’s been so long since they’ve had a World Series win, how they’re the sentimental favorite to win, the East Coast bias — it’s all about Boston.

NorbergRichard E. Norberg, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a co-recipient of the 2004 ISMAR Prize, the highest honor the International Society of Magnetic Resonance awards.

As assistant dean, she “has made outstanding contributions to many aspects of the graduate school’s mission,” Dean Robert E. Thach says.

Henric S. Krawczynski is one of eight scientists in the country to receive the prestigious Outstanding Junior Investigator Award.