Newsroom Stories

Joseph C. “Bo” Koster, Ph.D., research assistant professor of cell biology and physiology, died Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Central West End. He was 45.

Softball opens season with sweep in Memphis The No. 7 softball team opened the season with a pair of victories Feb. 27 at the Rhodes College Chick-Fil-A Classic in Memphis, Tenn. The Bears defeated Hendrix College, 7-4, in the first game, and host Rhodes College, 12-9, in eight innings in the nightcap. Junior Claire Voris […]

The Brookings Institution and Washington University in St. Louis announce the first recipients of grants from the Academic Venture Fund, the purpose of which is  to support collaboration between the two institutions, particularly long-term projects that impact research, education and policy. Grants are available in amounts from $20,000 to $50,000. Interested fellows, faculty, staff, centers, institutes and programs can submit proposals by June 1 for review in July 2010. 

A new test allows scientists to discover whether ticks are carrying disease-causing bacteria and which animals provided their last blood meal. Results suggest three emerging diseases in the St. Louis area are carried by lone star ticks feeding on record-high populations of white-tailed deer.

The gift of “seeing ourselves as others see us” comes in handy when judging how we’ve made a first impression. Yet many come away with little or no clue about how that first impression was perceived. A new study suggests confidence is a key indicator of how well we’ve assessed impressions left behind.

R. Sherburne Figenshau, M.D., has been named the Taylor Family and Ralph V. Clayman, M.D., Minimally Invasive Urology Chair at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

John W. Lowe, Ph.D., a noted Americanist specializing in Southern literature and studies, is the visiting Hurst Professor in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences the week of March 1. Lowe will give two public lectures: one on “The Haitian Revolution’s Effect on Southern Literature”; the other on William Faulkner.

The American Academy of Microbiology has named three Washington University faculty members as fellows: Herbert W. “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D., Himadri B. Pakrasi, Ph.D., and Michael Diamond, M.D., Ph.D.

Seven alumni of the School of Engineering & Applied Science were honored for career achievement at the annual awards dinner Feb. 18.

Following carbon monoxide poisoning from a furnace at his work place on May 31, 1926, Franz Breutel was unable to remember anything for more than about a second. An interdisciplinary panel will discuss this forgotten amnesic case study at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, in Wilson Hall, Room 214. The lecture, “Remembering Mr. B: The Man with a Two-Second Memory,” is sponsored by the WUSTL Center for Programs.