Newsroom Stories

Information on debate-related experts, contacts and events on campus.

Welcome to Washington University in St. Louis, host of the 2008 vice presidential debate. The Office of Public Affairs is here to assist you as you cover the debate for your respective news organizations. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for any assistance you might need during your stay here. This online Media Kit is […]

DeBaunMichael DeBaun has been named the Ferring Family Chair in Pediatric Cancer and Related Disorders at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The endowed chair was established by John and Alison Ferring of St. Louis. DeBaun is professor of pediatrics, of biostatistics and of neurology at the School of Medicine and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Washington University has awarded four Bear Cub Fund grants totaling $150,000 to support innovative research projects that could be attractive for licensing by commercial entities or serve as the foundation for a start-up company.

A memorial Service for Jane Loevinger, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Psychology, and inaugural holder of the William R. Stuckenberg Chair in Human Values & Moral Development In Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St Louis, will be held in Graham Chapel at 4 p.m. on Monday, June 23, 2008.

President Bush’s call this week for Congress to end its decades-old ban on offshore oil and gas drilling has highlighted key differences in the big-oil platforms of presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees Barak Obama and John McCain, suggests William Lowry, an expert on the politics of environmental and energy issues at Washington University in St. Louis.

A set of promising new anticancer agents could have unforeseen risks in individuals with heart disease, suggests research at the School of Medicine. The anticancer drugs — which go by the strange name of hedgehog antagonists — interfere with a biochemical process that promotes growth in some cancer cells. But the researchers showed that interfering with this biochemical process in mice with heart disease led to further deterioration of cardiac function and ultimately death.

As if the emotional and financial impact of flood damage isn’t bad enough, floodwaters can also bring health problems. H. James Wedner, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the School of Medicine, says after the water recedes, damp homes and businesses are fertile grounds for mold growth, which can cause allergic reactions and asthmatic symptoms in sensitive people.

SadatThe Supreme Court’s recent ruling giving the Guantanamo Bay detainees the right of habeas corpus “underscores the commitment of the United States to be governed by the rule of law even during times of national stress, and is a courageous response to the overreaching policies of the executive branch, buttressed by a compliant Republican Congress, that have caused world-wide criticism of U.S. interrogation and detention policies,” says Leila N. Sadat, expert on international law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Sadat, the director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, is the author of the leading treatise on the international criminal court, “The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium,” and is closely following the status of the detainees at Guantanamo.

James RichardsThe Gateway Festival Orchestra begins its 45th season of free Sunday-evening performances July 6 with a program of American music designed to celebrate the Independence Day weekend. The concert — featuring works by Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Henry Mancini, John Williams and John Philip Sousa — begins at 7:30 p.m. in Washington University Brookings Quadrangle.