Newsroom Stories

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton addresses the WUSTL community on how faculty, staff and students can help relief efforts in Haiti.

New calculations by an international group of theorists paint a better picture of the nature of quark stars and suggest a way for astronomers to find the quark stars among the neutron stars. But WUSTL physicist Mark Alford, commenting on the journal publication in a news article posted Jan. 15 at PhysicsWorld.com, suggests that the new work may not be the last word. Alford, who uses mathematical modeling to explore the properties of quark stars, contends that the mathematical theory it uses is only truly accurate when the quarks are millions of times denser than they are in real neutron stars.

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will launch its spring Danforth University Center Chamber Series at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, with a performance by harpsichordist Maryse Carlin and members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Steve Fazzari What will generate the growth necessary to put many of the unemployed back to work again?  That’s the question economist Steve Fazzari is asking as we move past the first recession of the 21st century.  “In the deep downturns of the 1970’s and early ’80’s, strong consumer spending growth led to strong recoveries. Unfortunately, I just don’t see that happening this time”  says Fazzari.  Includes video interview.

Banks and borrowers went on a leveraged consumption binge that led to the financial crisis in 2008 according to Anjan Thakor. And the entire economy is still feeling the hangover pain from the credit-fueled party that caused bank failures and forced foreclosures across the country. Thakor’s new research examines the cycles of leveraged borrowing by banks and consumers as a possible cause of the crisis. His new theory of ‘infectious leverage’ could help prevent future financial meltdowns.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke coined the phrase “the Great Moderation” back in 2004 to refer to the relative stability of the U.S. economy over the previous two decades. Many believe “The Great Recession” of the past two years has jolted the economy out of its moderate mode and back into a state of high volatility. Washington University in St. Louis economist James Morley disagrees. He argues the Great Moderation is alive and well and will help the economy recovery from this latest financial shock.

Olin Business School is taking its executive education programs on the road and due west on I-70. Destination: Kansas City. Senior faculty will offer the same top-ranked seminars and the 20-month Executive MBA degree program to Kansas City-based professionals as those offered on the St. Louis campus. Olin’s executive MBA program was established in 1983 and has been offered in conjunction with Fudan University in Shanghai, China since 2002. 

The School of Law’s 12th annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series continues Jan. 20 with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture featuring John Payton, J.D., the director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Families with overweight children are sought for a weight-loss study at the School of Medicine.

WUSTL geoarcheologist Jennifer Smith, Ph.D., is featured a History channel documentary that solves a series of geological mysteries about the Sahara’s past. The show, part of the “How the Earth Was Made” series, explains why there are marine fossils embedded in the blocks of stone from which the pyramids are made and drawings of people swimming are scratched into the walls of desert caves.