Newsroom Stories

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out the orientation of a protein in the antenna complex to its neighboring membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium, a key find in the process of energy transfer in photosynthesis. Robert Blankenship, Ph.D., Markey Distinguished Professor of Biology and Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, led a team that for the first time combined chemical labeling with mass spectroscopy to verify the orientation. The team also included Michael Gross, Ph.D., WUSTL Professor of Chemistry, Immunology and Medicine, and Chemistry graduate students Jianzhong Wen and Hao Zhang. A paper describing this work appeared recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

In an effort to provide a healthy, comfortable and productive work and learning environment for students, faculty and staff, all Washington University in St. Louis campuses will become entirely smoke- and tobacco-free by July of 2010, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.

Croson “The Status of Women in Academia” will be the topic of one of two lectures when Rachel T. A. Croson, Ph.D. visits the Danforth Campus April 14 and 15 in a new series launched by The Center for Research in Economics and Strategy at the Olin Business School.

Nationally-recognized social entrepreneur Bill Strickland will be the featured guest at Washington University in St. Louis when the winners of the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition are announced April 23, 2009. Five finalists are vying for $150,000 — the largest social entrepreneurship award pool in the U.S. — in the competition, which is sponsored by founding partners Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the YouthBridge Community Foundation.

When Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, calls for “corporate social responsibility” and environmentally friendly policies fell mostly on deaf ears in the business world. Today, the green movement has moved from the fringes to the mainstream of society and to prove that point, the Olin Business School chapter of Net Impact is hosting an event, April 23, featuring major corporate executives charged with promoting corporate responsibility and sustainability.

In an effort to provide a healthy, comfortable and productive work and learning environment for students, faculty and staff, all Washington University campuses will become entirely smoke- and tobacco-free by July 2010, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton.

A test developed by physician-scientists at the School of Medicine may help assess more quickly the ability of Alzheimer’s drugs to affect one of the possible underlying causes of Alzheimer’s disease in humans, accelerating the development of new treatments.

Louis P. “Pepper” Dehner, M.D., received the Distinguished Pathologist Award of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) at the academy’s 2009 annual meeting in March. The Distinguished Pathologist Award is its highest honor. Dehner, professor of pathology and immunology and professor of pathology in pediatrics, is renowned for his skills as a […]

International law experts will meet at WUSTL’s Ridgley Hall from 6-7 p.m. on April 14 to celebrate St. Louis’ continuing role in shaping international law. Ridgley Hall is the site of the 1904 meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international organization of national parliaments. The IPU met in St. Louis to issue its appeal for world peace and to adopt a resolution which ultimately led to the 1907 Hague Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, one of the most important humanitarian law treaties of the past century. This commemorative event is part of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative meeting at the law school April 13-15.

Acting on a strong commitment to social justice forged while students here in the late 1960s, Washington University graduates are giving back to their campus community through the “Birds of Passage” fellowship, which will strengthen University ties with the St. Louis region while providing field experience for socially conscious graduate students.