Newsroom Stories

We’ve heard it before: “Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen.” We may roll our eyes and think that’s easier said than done, but a new study from psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis suggests imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals. “The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality,” say co-authors of a study suggesting that merely imagining something close to our hands will cause us to pay more attention to it.

With eight basic medical facts in hand, doctors can now estimate the risk of bleeding for a patient having a heart attack. Using clinical variables, researchers at the School of Medicine, Duke University and collaborating institutions have created a new method to estimate bleeding risk and help lessen the chances that heart attack patients will experience this common complication.

The School of Law will celebrate the outstanding achievements of six individuals at the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards on Friday, April 17 in the Crowder Courtyard of Anheuser-Busch Hall. Presenting the awards will be Kent Syverud, J.D., dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor. Four alumni will receive Distinguished Law Alumni Awards and two will receive Distinguished Young Law Alumni Awards.

The William H. and Elizabeth Gray Danforth University Center opened last August 11 to the joy of students, staff and visitors alike. On Friday, April 17, 2009, the University community will come together to celebrate its formal dedication and honor its namesakes.

A memorial service for Abdullah M. Nassief, M.D., associate professor of neurology, will be held at 1 p.m. May 9 in Connor Auditorium in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center at the School of Medicine. Friends, colleagues, patients and former students are all invited to remember his extraordinary life.

ConstantinoJohn Constantino has been named the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics and director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. The appointment was announced by Charles Zorumski, the Samuel B. Guze Professor of Psychiatry, professor of neurobiology and head of the Department of Psychiatry.

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.