Newsroom Stories

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.

SawyerEven as the United States faces the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, businesses are spending more money on innovation, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of education and psychology in Arts & Sciences and one of the country’s leading experts on the science of creativity, says that investing in innovation is one of the best ways to beat the recession.

For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week’s Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex.

Rirkrit Tiravanija creates spare yet provocative installations designed to blur lines between art and life, transforming galleries and museums into ephemeral social spaces for cooking meals, playing music and hanging out. Beginnin in May the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will showcase one recent project with its exhibition Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat, a multifaceted video installation that together profiles a loose-knit group of 12 internationally known artists.

The Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis today announced that it has been selected to host USATODAY’s 10th CEO Forum on April 20, 2009. The forum will feature an interview with IAC CEO and media veteran, Barry Diller. USATODAY’s senior media reporter David Lieberman will moderate the event.

The predominance of heartburn among asthma sufferers led many specialists to suspect that acid reflux could be a trigger for the coughing, wheezing and breathlessness of asthma. In fact, it has become standard practice to prescribe heartburn medication to people with poorly controlled asthma, even if they don’t have overt acid reflux symptoms. But a new study shows that heartburn medication does not help control asthma symptoms.

Washington University in St. Louis will open a child-care facility on North Campus by the Fall 2010 semester, announced Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration. The new center will offer care for 150-175 children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 6 years.

Mary B. Campbell, senior vice president for Bank of America, has been named assistant vice chancellor for real estate at Washington University in St. Louis, announced Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration. Campbell’s appointment will be effective April 13.

Somalee Banerjee is the winner of the 2009 Stalker Award. The prize is named in the honor of the late Harrison D. Stalker, Ph.D., who was professor of biology; a leading evolutionary biologist, geneticist and inspired teacher; and a true enthusiast of the fine arts. The award is given to the graduating senior in biology […]