Business & Entrepreneurship

Medical and law schools have seen the percentage of women enrolled grow steadily over the past 20 years, to the point that women frequently represent at least half of most classes. Business schools have yet to catch up with this trend but the Olin School of Business is pioneering the way for women to increase their numbers in MBA programs. More than 800 people are expected to attend the National Association of Women MBA’s annual conference and career fair in early November at WUSTL. This event comes after Olin’s admission to the Forte Foundation, a consortium dedicated to promoting women in business.

Aimed at executives, senior and mid-level managers and human-resource directors, the conference takes place Oct. 26.

According to a 2005 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, nursing homes in the United States in 1999 cost an average of $47,000 per year, with costs rising each year. Choosing a course of care for an elderly family member is both a financial decision and an emotional one. A business and economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis is using game theory to understand these long-term care decisions. More…

American companies continue to grapple with staying competitive in the global economy. Increasingly, companies and business gurus are citing innovation as the key to sustaining American business’ strength. What’s not clear is what it means for a company to be innovative. Washington University business professors say the best way to infuse innovation into a company is not by hiring creative people, but by managing innovation in a systematic way. More…

The pharmaceutical industry could be wasting more than $50 billion a year in manufacturing costs alone, costs that could translate in to lower prices or greater research and development – according to findings of the largest empirical study ever performed of pharmaceutical manufacturing and the Food and Drug Administration monitoring policies. More…

Did the Soviets collude to win chess championships?As allegations of cheating dominate news from the current World Chess Championships in Russia, new research from economists at Washington University in St. Louis offers strong evidence that Soviet chess masters in the Cold War era very likely engaged in collusion to gain an unfair advantage and dominate key international chess championships held from 1940 to 1964.

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoHimadri Pakrasi explains the photobioreactor in his Rebstock Hall laboratory.The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has devoted $1.6 million to sequencing the DNA of six photosynthetic bacteria that Washington University in St. Louis biologists will examine for their potential as one of the nextgreat sources of biofuel that can run our cars and warm our houses. That’s a lot of power potential from microscopic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that capture sunlight and then do a variety of biochemical processes. One potential process, the clean production of ethanol, is a high priority for DOE. Himadri Pakrasi, Ph.D., Washington University Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, and Professor of Energy in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, will head a team of biologists at Washington University and elsewhere in the analysis of the genomes of six related strains of Cyanothece bacteria. More…

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoResearchers have enabled a 14-year-old to play a two-dimensional video game using signals from his brain instead of his hands.Teenage boys and computer games go hand-in-hand. Now, a St. Louis-area teenage boy and a computer game have gone hands-off, thanks to a unique experiment conducted by a team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, and engineers at Washington University in St. Louis. The boy, a 14-year-old who suffers from epilepsy, is the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game, Space Invaders, using only the signals from his brain to make movements. More…

Kay Henry is the new associate dean and director of Executive M.B.A. programs. She comes to the Olin School of Business with a wealth of experience in executive and business education. Henry recently returned from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she spent two years as assistant dean at Zayed University’s College of Business Sciences. She spent seven years at Rice University where she developed and then directed the M.B.A. for Executives program. Henry also spent several years in Boston where she taught management communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and ran executive programs at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development.

Kay Henry joins the Olin School of Business as the new associate dean and director of Executive M.B.A. programs. She comes with a wealth of experience in executive and business education. Henry recently returned from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she spent two years as assistant dean at Zayed University’s College of Business Sciences. She spent seven years at Rice University where she developed and then directed the M.B.A. for Executives program. Henry also spent several years in Boston where she taught management communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and ran executive programs at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development.