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WUSTL recycled 556,623 pounds of waste this spring to rank in the top 5 percent nationally — No. 15 out of 363 schools — in the annual RecycleMania contest’s Gorilla category. WUSTL also increased its diversion rate — or percentage of total waste recycled or reused — by nearly 10 percent and reduced the total waste produced by 4.5 pounds per person during the competition.

To help ensure the university community is prepared in the event of an earthquake, a voluntary earthquake drill will be held for all WUSTL faculty, staff and students at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, April 28. The drill is a part of the 2011 Great Central U.S. ShakeOut, organized by the Central United States Earthquake Consortium.

Washington University in St. Louis will award five honorary degrees during the university’s 150th Commencement May 20. During the ceremony, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. The other honorary degree recipients are John H. Biggs, PhD; Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD; Griffin P. Rodgers, MD; and George W. von Mallinckrodt.

The Women’s Society honored the legacy of two of the university’s most revered women — Harriet K. Switzer and the late Elizabeth Gray Danforth — at its annual meeting April 13. The society presented the Harriet K. Switzer Leadership Award and the Elizabeth Gray Danforth Scholarship to three exemplary college students at the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

A mobile application called Course Monkey, which allows students to browse the WUSTL course listings quickly and easily on their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, now is available at the Apple App Store.

WUSTL has received a four-year, $550,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to preserve Henry Hampton’s award-winning civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 as well as Hampton’s complete, unedited interviews recorded on film for the documentary.

In recognition of national Undergraduate Research Week, April 11-15, research posters of Washington University undergraduate students were displayed on trees along Oak Walk. The Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research held a number of events last week to raise awareness about the importance of undergraduate research experiences for students’ development and engagement in a discipline.

Members of the Delta Gamma/Sigma Nu group help the annual Thurtene Carnival “Celebrate the Magic of Community” with their facade (above) and performance April 17, the final day of the three-day event. Despite a weekend of wacky weather, an estimated 35,000-40,000 attended the carnival April 15-17 on the north Brookings parking lot on the east end of campus.

Of note Jeffrey G. Catalano, PhD, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has received a five-year, $460,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Nanoscale Mineral Transformations During Biochemical Cycling and the Fate of Trace Elements and Nutrients.” … Jeff Gill, PhD, professor of political science in Arts […]

Provost Edward S. Macias, PhD (center), reads to children at the university’s Family Learning Center April 11 to kick off the Week of the Young Child at the center. The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration that focuses on the needs of young children and their families and recognizes the childhood programs and services that meet those needs.