Newsroom Stories

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.

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.

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.

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.