Newsroom Stories

The Freshman Reading Program steering committee has announced that the Class of 2014 will be reading and studying “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” by Mohsin Hamid. It is a novel set in the aftermath of September 11 and told from the perspective of Changez, a young Pakistani, who despite his love for America, sympathizes with the attackers.

Winners of the first Olin Sustainability Case Competition to help alleviate campus parking issues, “Team 29,” celebrate with a trophy and the $5,000 prize that accompanied it Feb. 12. Their proposal detailed reducing the need for more campus parking spaces by promoting increased use of green transportation alternatives.

Sports update Feb. 15

In Ireland, the toe-tapping collegiality of an impromptu living room concert can be summed up in single word: craic. And perhaps no band better exemplifies the essence of craic than Danú. Hailed as a “spirit-raising concoction” by The Irish Times, this five-member ensemble is among the most charismatic and sophisticated traditional Irish groups working today, known for mixing ancient Irish songs with new additions to the repertoire in concerts that are at once authentic, clever and fun. 

The university has launched a new Web site that will serve as the hub of information about the tobacco-free policy across all campuses. The new site will offer information about the university’s tobacco-free initiative as well as free cessation programs available to students, faculty and staff who wish to quit. Beginning July 1, smoking and tobacco use will be prohibited in university-owned and -managed properties.  

Christopher I. Byrnes, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis from 1991 to 2006 and the Edward H. and Florence G. Skinner Professor Emeritus of Systems Science and Mathematics, died unexpectedly last week in Stockholm, Sweden. He was 60.

Junior Nick Yozamp, a biology major in Arts & Sciences, won the 2010 Jeopardy! College Championship and a $100,000 cash prize. The St. Cloud, Minn., native emerged victorious after the two-week competition by outplaying 14 undergraduates from across the country. Yozamp is the first WUSTL student to win the title.

Geoff Marcy, popular “planet hunter” and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the Ferguson Lecture for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, in Graham Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Missouri lawmakers should give serious consideration to a proposed bill requiring medical examinations for high school athletes who suffer a head injury, according to recent testimony by WUSTL sports medicine expert Mark E. Halstead, M.D.

Parents of young children with asthma often recognize signs that their child is about to have an asthma attack but delay home treatment until the attack occurs, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found.