Newsroom Stories

Blood drives at Washington University have come a long way in a short amount of time. Contention between blood banks, four-day-long drives and limited appeal have been replaced by efficient one-day, campus-wide drives at numerous University locations, which have garnered massive support from students, faculty and staff. The next drive is March 25.

AgarwalA mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis is developing techniques that will lessen our monetary pain at the pump by reducing the drag of vehicles — planes, autos and trucks. Drag is an aerodynamic force that is the result of resistance a body encounters when it moves in a liquid or gaseous medium (such as air). Reduction in drag means less fuel would be required to overcome the fluid resistance encountered by the moving vehicle. Working with undergraduate and graduate students, Ramesh K. Agarwal, Ph.D, the William Palm Professor of Engineering at WUSTL, has successfully demonstrated that the drag of airplane wings and cars/trucks can be reduced by employing the active flow control technology.

The Gateway Arch soars above the City of St. Louis. Eero Sarrinen’s awe-inspiring design is visually stunning, extraordinarily graceful and an architectural masterpiece, but it is also a mathematical marvel.

Washington University School of Law will host a delegation of ten senior diplomats from the United Nations for a public town hall meeting on “Food Security and Humanitarian Intervention” on Tuesday, March 24, from 9-11 a.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. The ambassadors will give brief presentations and then take questions from the audience.

The WUSTL flag is at half-staff in honor of engineering student Anthony Olasov.

Have African-American intellectuals abandoned the Civil Rights Movement? Do black academics need to reengage the larger community, and if so, how? What is the relationship between contemporary politics and popular culture? Some of the nation’s most prominent African-American writers and thinkers will address these questions and more during the 2009 Callaloo Conference, which takes place March 25-28 at Washington University in St. Louis.

Exposure to a chemotherapeutic drug makes the branches of a normal nerve cell degenerate (left).Scientists have identified the first gene that pulls the plug on ailing nerve cell branches from within the nerve cell, possibly helping to trigger the painful condition known as neuropathy. The condition is a side effect of some forms of chemotherapy and can also afflict patients with cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, viral infections, neurodegenerative disorders and other ailments.

An American Indian Pow Wow, a traditional food tasting and a panel discussion on health in Indian Country are among the highlights of American Indian Awareness Week March 23-28. All events are free and open to the public. The annual awareness week and Pow Wow, hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, allow American Indian students to share their unique cultures with the campus and the St. Louis community. The theme of this year’s events is “Celebrating Community Health and Wellness.”

Washington University in St. Louis is the lone school with both men’s and women’s basketball teams remaining in the 2009 NCAA Division III tournament.

Two years ago, Washington University alumna Elizabeth Birkenmeier (LA ’08), then a junior, relished her role as a rash, young Queen Elizabeth in the historical drama “Highness,” winner of WUSTL’s 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition, held annually in the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences. Now Birkenmeier has returned to campus, but this time as a playwright who will witness the world premiere of her own winning production—”Candlestick Park”—at the end of this month.