Author: Michael Smick

The science communication competition challenges scientists to distill data into an entertaining presentation. The qualifying event will be Feb. 21.

Students living in on-campus housing on the South 40 and North Side and in fraternities are shutting off lights, sharing fridges and unplugging their device chargers to win the WUSTL Green Cup, one of a series of university initiatives that promotes an ethic of sustainability. The Office of Sustainability’s overarching Less is More campaign promotes ongoing energy conservation, waste reduction, water conservation and more.

Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University has raised a total of $1.459 billion, as of Jan. 31, from alumni, parents, faculty, staff, corporations, foundations and friends. The campaign was publicly announced Oct. 6, 2012. Its overarching goal is “to enhance our leadership today to benefit America and the world tomorrow.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this spring on whether prayers before town hall meetings violate the First Amendment clause that prohibits the establishment of religion. John Inazu, a First Amendment expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, highlights one dimension of the litigation often unaddressed by commentators: what he calls the “mistakes of the past, present and future” adopted by proponents of legislative prayer.

An innovative new initiative will bring 20 rising high school sophomores to the Washington University in St. Louis campus for three summers. The students will live on the South 40, take classes for credit and craft their college essays.

Arguably among the most profound scientific advancements of our time, genome sequencing is having significant impacts on the understanding of human health and disease. Yet growing concerns exist around the matter of the return of a patient’s genetic results and the treatment of a patient’s genomic data at all levels of care.

Last year, almost 900,000 low- and moderate-income tax filers participated in a unique tax preparation savings intervention program, depositing approximately $5.9 million more into savings accounts than they would have without the intervention. As the 2014 tax season opens, the Refund to Savings initiative continues with adjustments designed to help more Americans build savings. “The intervention is promising,” says Michal Grinstein-Weiss PhD, associate director of the Center for Social Development, which helped develop the program.

Washington University in St. Louis faculty participated in the annual i teach symposium at the Knight Center earlier this month. It was a chance for faculty and staff from all seven schools to exchange ideas about innovative teaching across disciplines.

As the City of St. Louis marks the 250th anniversary of its founding with a yearlong series of events, scholars from across the nation will provide their perspectives on the city’s historical significance during a daylong symposium Friday, Feb. 14, at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

Robyn S. Hadley, founder and executive director of the “What’s After High School” program in Burlington, N.C., has been named associate vice chancellor and director of the prestigious John B. Ervin Scholars Program at Washington University in St. Louis.