Science & Technology

A team of engineers at the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University has received two grants totaling more than $1.3 million to develop innovative ways to cleanly burn coal for energy. The awards are part of a more than $5 billion investment strategy by the Obama Administration in clean coal technologies and research and development. ​

For 100 years, the dogma has been that amino-acid sequences determine protein folding and that the folded structure determines the protein’s function. But as a Washington University in St. Louis engineer explains in the  Sept. 20 issue of Science, a large class of proteins doesn’t adhere to the structure-function paradigm. Called intrinsically disordered proteins, these proteins fail fold either in whole or in part and yet they are functional.

Washington University undergraduate students with great solutions to problems can win $25,000 to take their innovative ideas from concept to their own business. The School of Engineering & Applied Science has launched the Discovery Competition with the goal to promote new and innovative discoveries to solve challenges or needs.

Developing new and innovative approaches for the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is the primary goal of an interdisciplinary conference to be held Sept. 27-28 at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

On September 7 the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) announced that Kathryn Miller, PhD, professor and chair of biology at Washington University in St. Louis has been selected as one of 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows. Over the next year the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows will consider and then recommend models for improving undergraduate life-sciences education.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Institute for School Partnership has received a $2.2 million grant from the Monsanto Fund to take the institute’s cornerstone program, MySci, to the next level. In its eighth year serving the St. Louis community, MySci’s mission is to cultivate the region’s next generation of scientists by engaging elementary students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through interactive learning experiences and creative curriculum.

Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering has received an National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award to explore novel imaging techniques using light that promise significant improvements in biomedical imaging and light therapy.

Despite its midwest location, far away from massive NASA mission control centers in Cape Canaveral, Fla., or Pasadena, Calif., WUSTL can boast at least seven graduates (and one current student) now making key contributions to NASA’s latest mission to Mars, “Curiosity.”

Scientists have combined two existing forms of medical imaging — photoacoustic and ultrasound — to generate high-contrast, high-resolution images that could help doctors spot tumors more quickly.