Campus & Community

ASK: Alumni Sharing Knowledge is one of the more popular university club networking events. Last May, 90 alumni, parents and friends gathered at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles to hear from leaders in the entertainment industry.

WUSTL women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey, who has guided the Bears for 25 seasons and won five national titles, has been chosen for induction into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Besides Fahey, the Hall of Fame Class of 2012 includes players Nikki McCray, Pam McGee, Inge Nissen, and Dawn Staley, and contributor Robin Roberts. Fahey is the first NCAA Division III player or coach to be chosen for such an honor.

Jennifer Wray Cole, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology, died Saturday, July 2, 2011, from injuries sustained in a bicycling accident. She was 52.

Rising senior Liz Phillips of the women’s track & field team was named a Capital One First-Team Academic All-American June 23. She is the first WUSTL women’s track & field student athlete to garner academic All-America honors since Morgen Leonard-Fleckman received first-team accolades in 2008. Other WUSTL sports updates will be added throughout the month of July, 2011.

Gary K. Ackers, PhD, professor emeritus, died from problems related to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease Friday, May 20, 2011, in Oro Valley, Ariz. He was 71.

WUSTL finished third in the 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Division III standings. The third-place finish is the second-highest in school history and the Bears’ ninth-straight top 10 appearance. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 18 sports — nine women’s and nine men’s. Other updates include honors for the women’s track team members Liz Phillips and Taryn Surtees; and the announcement of the freshman football class of 2015.

Robert L. Payton, vice chancellor for university development from 1960-65 and vice chancellor for planning from 1965-66, died May 19, 2011, at a skilled nursing facility in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 84.

At the invitation of an esteemed Chinese researcher, Professor T.R. Kidder, an authority on river basin geoarchaeology, helps uncover the wonders of a remote farming village buried by the Yellow River some 2,000 years ago.

Armed with an engineering background, Anne Marie Knott, professor of strategy, brings a precision to her research. She recently created a tool to measure the effectiveness of a firm’s R&D expenditures — one counter to long-standing strategic theories.

Recovered letters of famed mathematician William Chauvenet, Washington University’s second chancellor, shed new light on his life and tenure at the university.