Newsroom Stories

Tenor Dominic Armstrong will perform an intimate Liederabend for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences Oct. 26.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present three classic Hollywood films as part of its Some Like it Cool film series Dec. 9, 10 and 11. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, the festival will feature screenings of Rebel Without a Cause (Dec. 9), Anatomy of a Murder (Dec. 10) and North by Northwest (Dec. 11).

Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, will head the seismology research team of an ambitious international effort to map and analyze an unknown part of Antarctica. The project is called AGAP (Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province) after the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, which are the main feature of the region. Wiens, Patrick Shore, computer specialist in earth and planetary sciences, and graduate students David Heizel and Amanda Lough will install 26 seismographs on the frozen surface of central Antarctica, a part of the world that is a geological mystery.

Robert Boston(From left) Kelly Krahl, Lawrence Lewis, Regina Whittington and Brandii Mayes talk at the SPOTs open house Oct. 8.In the last 10 years, the St. Louis area has seen an alarming increase in new diagnoses of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among 13-24 year-olds. Nationwide, St. Louis has among the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in this age group. To head off this trend, Project ARK (AIDS/HIV Resources and Knowledge) and the Adolescent Center in the Department of Pediatrics in collaboration with community partners have launched the SPOT (Supporting Positive Opportunities with Teens) aimed specifically at the 13-24 year age group.

Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Washington University, will deliver the inaugural Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 100, Brown Hall, on the university’s Danforth Campus. Arvidson, who has played key roles in NASA’s missions to Mars, including the current Phoenix Mars Mission, will discuss “Mars: Environments, Habitability, and Life” during the free lecture that is open to the public.

Researchers have shown that self-induced breaks in the DNA of immune cells known as lymphocytes activate genes that cause the cells to travel from where they’re made to where they help the body fight invaders. The new finding is the first to link such serious damage to activation of genes not directly involved in the cells’ attempts to either fix the harm or self-destruct to stop themselves from becoming cancerous.

Disadvantaged and minority populations are more likely to be diagnosed with and die from cancer than other groups in the United States. A five-year, $8.6 million grant to Washington University in St. Louis will explore how improved information and referral systems can help eliminate these disparities.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced that WUSTL has received a major commitment from Stephen and Camilla Brauer to help implement the long-range, strategic plan of its School of Engineering & Applied Science.

Disadvantaged and minority populations are more likely to be diagnosed with and die from cancer than other groups in the United States. A five-year, $8.6 million grant to Washington University in St. Louis will explore how improved information and referral systems can help eliminate these disparities.

Dancer, choreographer, and creative/performance artist Liz Lerman, together with WUSTL faculty, will participate in a panel discussion on the intersection of art and community called “Still Crossing: Expressing Identities, Building Communities” for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Thursday, October 30 in the Women’s Building Lounge, on the Danforth Campus. The panel discussion, free and open to the public, includes Sunita Parikh, Ph.D., associate professor of political science in Arts & Sciences, and Robert Hansman, associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Lerman created the dance, “Still Crossing” to address issues of immigration, transition and the meaning of “home” and “community.” Lerman will be in residence at Washington University to restage this now-classic dance for a student performance in December as the end piece of this project (see accompanying announcement for details.)