Newsroom Stories

Zarqa Nawaz knows something about crossing cultures. Born in England of Pakistani immigrants, raised in Toronto, and now living in Saskatchewan, the Muslim writer, producer and filmmaker will give the annual Olin Fellows lecture at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3 in Graham Chapel. The talk, “Crossing Cultures” is free and open to the public. A panel discussion featuring Nawaz as well as other panelists will continue the discussion from 2 – 4 p.m. in the Women’s Building Lounge.

To help curb the expanding waist lines of her constituents, south Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry has proposed a two-year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in her district. If enacted in Los Angeles, or any other American city for that matter, would the plan work? Don’t count on it, says Connie Diekman, R.D., director of University nutrition and president of the American Dietetic Association.

In a continuing effort to make science accessible to the general public, the Department of Physics and University College, both in Arts & Sciences, are offering their annual fall Science Saturdays lecture series. Beginning this Saturday, Sept. 29, four faculty members will describe their research on successive Saturdays.

School of Medicine pain researchers have shown that it’s possible to separate the good effects of opiate drugs such as morphine (pain relief) from the unwanted side effects of those drugs (tolerance, abuse and addiction).

Photo by David KilperBest-selling suspense author Ridley Pearson reads “The Story of Ferdinand” to a group of preschoolers during Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Sept. 20 at the Campus Store on the Danforth Campus.

Leila N. Sadat, J.D., the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law, has been appointed director of the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies by Kent D. Syverud, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A. Shepley University Professor. Michael Peil J.D., assistant dean for international programs, is the new executive director of the Harris Institute.

CottlerLinda Cottler, professor of epidemiology in psychiatry at the School of Medicine, has been named president-elect of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA). She will serve as its president in 2010, the organization’s centennial year.

Hallmarks of autism are characteristic behaviors — repetitive motions, problems interacting with others, impaired communication abilities — that occur in widely different combinations and degrees of severity among those who have the condition. But how those behaviors change as individuals progress through adolescence and adulthood has, until now, never been fully scientifically documented. In a new study, published in the September Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, researchers have found that symptoms can improve with age. “On average, people are getting better,” says Paul T. Shattuck, assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “It is a hopeful finding, but the fact remains that those with severe autism will depend on others for their everyday needs and care for the rest of their lives.”

Ruth DeFries, Ph.D., a 1976 summa cum laude graduate of Washington University in St. Louis’ earth and planetary sciences department in Arts & Sciences, has been named a MacArthur Fellow and will receive $500,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Bone marrow transplants are best known for their potential to cure people with certain types of cancer. But they also hold promise for people with severe cases of sickle cell anemia, also known as sickle cell disease. Now, in a first-of-its-kind procedure, St. Louis Children’s Hospital has performed a bone marrow transplant in a teenager with sickle cell disease, using cells from a donor who is unrelated to him.