Newsroom Stories

Investigators at the School of Medicine are conducting a study to investigate factors related to memory in older adults. They are seeking healthy volunteers between 70 and 75 years of age who have siblings also willing to participate. Study participants will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to determine the structure of the brain and a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to analyze amyloid levels in the brain.

Poet Martha Collins will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Collins is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Blue Front (2006). The book-length poem is based on a November 1909 lynching that was witnessed by her father, then a five-year-old boy who sold fruit in front of the Blue Front Restaurant in Cairo, IL.

Paul LairdPaul Laird, Ph.D., director of the Division of Musicology at the University of Kansas, will speak on “What Was — And Is — the Baroque Cello?” at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. Laird is the author of Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico (1997), Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research (2002) and The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History (2004).

Steven SmithPresident George W. Bush’s State of the Union address on Jan. 23 may be remembered as one of the least consequential State of the Union addresses in a generation, but its presentation could open the door on a period of real legislative compromise as both parties struggle to boster reputations in advance of the 2008 elections, suggests Steven Smith, an expert on congressional politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Video Available

Jean-Louis DarvilleThe Actor’s GangImagine a world where people cannot speak freely, where leaders are not held accountable, where constant war rages against an unseen enemy. Welcome to 1984, George Orwell’s prescient portrait of an oppressive, totalitarian society. In February, The Actor’s Gang — the experimental Los Angeles troupe led by artistic director Tim Robbins — will present a new stage adaptation of Orwell’s dystopic classic at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

Undergraduate Rankings by Media • Graduate Rankings by Media • Rankings Home Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (FSP Index) Newly published in January 2007, the Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index measures specific data regarding faculty scholarly output, including publications and citations. Altogether, 27 academic areas at Washington Univeristy rank in the top-10 categories. […]

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

The School of Medicine’s Tobacco-Free Policy has been approved and will go into effect April 2, 2007.

Engineers from General Motors (www.gm.com) will come to the Washington University Danforth campus Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007 at Whitaker Hall to discuss their fuel-efficient technologies and vehicles from 3 to 5 p.m. that day. In addition, Washington University will be presenting an overview of its research and educational efforts in the energy and environmental area, as well as providing a vision of the newly created Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering (www.eec.wustl.edu). Following these presentations in the Whitaker Hall Auditorium that begin at 3 p.m., vehicles will be on display in the Whitaker Hall parking lot near the corner of Forest Park Parkway and Skinker Boulevard.

The first time Danielle Giessman’s leg started to hurt, the solution was simple. She stopped kickboxing. But while searching for the source of the pain, she learned that both of her hip sockets were deformed, a condition called dysplasia. Once, doctors would have had few options, but advances in hip surgery and a greater understanding of how the hip joint works are helping patients such as Giessman get back to a pain-free lifestyle.