Campus & Community

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.

A partner at Proskauer Rose, LLP, alumnus Chuck Ortner has been described as a “legendary music expert [and] one of the premier lawyers in the copyright world.”

Michael and Ursula Emery McClure, Rome Prize-winning architect-educators, study Louisiana’s unique culture and geography and apply learned principles to their global work.

Simonsen, Arts & Sciences Class of ’14, is one of three ­inaugural members of the McLeod Scholars Program, a newly established ­undergraduate scholarship ­endowment.

Fans, musicians, journalists and researchers can see how the courts dealt with this question and nearly any other legal issue involving the music industry at The Discography Legal Encyclopedia of Popular Music, accessible through ­thediscography.org.