Newsroom Stories

For years, electronic surveillance has been used to track and capture a host of evil suspects — terrorists, mobsters and spies among them. Keith Woeltje, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, relies on electronic surveillance, too. He is a modern-day microbe hunter, tracking bugs that are invisible to the naked eye but capable of causing mayhem in hospitals.

Peter Wyse Jackson, PhD (left), who has been appointed to succeed Peter H. Raven, PhD, the Engelmann Professor of Botany, as president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, visited the Danforth Campus March 3 to meet biology department faculty and to deliver a seminar on international efforts to slow or halt the loss of biodiversity.

Prospective undergraduate students can experience life on the Danforth Campus firsthand throughout March and April as WUSTL hosts Spring Preview for the Class of 2014. During Spring Preview, admitted students can take a tour of campus, and undergraduate schools also offer special programs and tours of their facilities. 

“There is no greater crime than abandoning your history.” So learns Undine, a hard-charging Manhattan social climber who is forced back to Brooklyn in Fabulation, Lynn Nottage’s Obie Award-winning satire of the African-American bourgeoisie. The Performing Arts Department  in Arts & Sciences will present the sharp-eyed comedy from Thursday through Sunday, March 25-28, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.  

Glenn Stone, a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Washington University, joins National Public Radio host Ira Flatow for a broadcast of NPR’s Science Friday live from St. Louis. The show will focus on the pros and cons of genetically modified crops.

The annual WUSTL Relay For Life will be held Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, at Francis Field’s Bushyhead Track. The relay is a 12-hour family-friendly event that raises funds for the American Cancer Society. Last year, the event attracted more than 2,000 volunteers who helped to generate more than $150,000 for cancer research, advocacy, patient services and education.

The Tyson Living Learning Center at Washington University in St. Louis has been called one of the greenest buildings in the U.S. Green technologies behind the building are the focus of a National Public Radio Science Friday news video and an NPR radio discussion broadcast live from St. Louis March 12.

The School of Medicine hosted a sustainability leadership forum March 9 for corporate and regional facilities managers to share how the medical school is approaching sustainability. The forum, titled “Sustaining Sustainability,” was attended by about 75 area leaders.

Recent earthquakes have rocked the Chilean wine industry, spilling millions of gallons of stored vintages throughout the region.  A study tour from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis will visit Chilean vineyards, wineries and exporters next week for a first-hand look at the industry and how it has been affected by the quakes.

The School of Medicine has received a $14.3 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand its high-powered data center for genomics. The facility’s sophisticated computer networks store massive amounts of genomic data used to identify the genetic origins of cancer and other diseases.