Humanities & Society

The MySci Resource Center, the new hub of the Institute for School Partnership in University City, Mo., launched Feb. 18 to great fanfare. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, a chemist by training, donned goggles and a lab coat to demonstrate to student visitors how much fun science can be. Video highlights of “Magic” Mark Wrighton are included.

​​Six staff members will be traveling to Santiago, Chile, June 10-14 as part of the second annual Global Diversity and Overseas Seminars (GDOS) Program.

The ability to access, search, and interact with legal case documents that record the freedom suits of former slaves is now just a browser click away, thanks to a major initiative of the Digital Library Services unit of Washington University Libraries. The Libraries secured funding for the project from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, with the Missouri History Museum as an institutional partner. (VIDEO)

Olin Business School’s fourth annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition challenged students to propose plans for developing more than 10,000 vacant properties in St. Louis. From solar panels to community service projects, students came up with creative ideas to combat “Blight, Plight, and Urban-Flight: Stimulating the Sustainable Development of Vacant Land in the City of St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis administrators are urging Congress and the White House to reach a compromise to avoid wide-ranging, across-the-board federal spending cuts that would take effect March 1.

A new study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, examined the use of social media by state health departments in the United States. The study, published Feb. 7 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research, found use of web-based sites such as Facebook and Twitter a growing trend.

Washington University in St. Louis and the City of St. Louis have announced the eight teams selected to move to the final round of the Sustainable Land Lab competition. The competition is the first of its kind in St. Louis where anyone can compete for the opportunity to create a two-year demonstration project to transform a vacant lot into an asset that advances sustainability.

Holden Thorp, PhD, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and a highly respected research scientist and academic leader, will become provost of Washington University in St. Louis on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. He will succeed Edward S. Macias, PhD, who has served as chief academic officer for the past 25 years.

An undergraduate student at WUSTL helped create and launch a mobile app that helps students track the campus circulator shuttle. It’s called the “WUSTL Circulator,” and on its first day, it had up to four times as many downloads as typical new university apps.

Sustainability and economic growth: two desirable goals which should demonstrably complement one another, especially in our cities. But how? On Feb. 21, the Sam Fox School and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will present The Innovative Metropolis, a daylong symposium (and web simulcast) on fostering economic competitiveness through sustainable urban design.