Newsroom Stories

WenLeana S. Wen, 23, a current student at Washington University School of Medicine, and Aaron F. Mertz, 22, a recent alumnus from Washington University, have been named Rhodes Scholars, according to an announcement Nov. 18 by The Rhodes Trust. They are among 32 U.S. students chosen from 896 nominees for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Bit.Fall* by Julius PoppChristiane Paul, adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, will speak on Grid vs. Network: Aesthetics of New Media Spaces at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30. The talk is sponsored by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition [Grid Matrix], on view through Dec. 31.

The Record Monday and Record Thursday will not be published next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next Record Thursday print and e-mail editions Nov. 30 and the next Record Monday e-mail Dec. 4.

Claudia BurrisThe Siteman Cancer Center unveiled its new mobile mammography van at a ceremony Oct. 24 at the Center for Advanced Medicine. Members of “Menopause the Musical,” a traveling stage show celebrating women undergoing the midlife change, performed at the event. The new van, one of just 10 in the country with digital mammography equipment, offers convenient screening in community-based settings.

The fall Universal Transit Pass, allowing WUSTL community members to use Metro, the region’s public transportation system, for no charge, will expire Dec. 31. Benefits-eligible employees may request a spring 2007 U-Pass beginning Nov. 27. Students may request a pass beginning Dec. 1.

The Department of English in Arts & Sciences has received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support Big Read programs next semester. Modeled on successful “city reads” programs, the Big Read is a new national program designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book.

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Poet Susan Wheeler will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Wheeler is the author of four acclaimed collections: Bag ‘o’ Diamonds (1993), Smokes (1998), Source Codes (2001) and Ledger (2005). Her work has appeared in appeared in eight editions of Best American Poetry.

A simple points system may soon help guide treatment of elderly heart failure patients. Researchers at the School of Medicine found that by counting how many of seven easy-to-obtain health factors a patient has, physicians can estimate the patient’s risk of dying.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Breaking down Alzheimer’s (week of Nov. 1) • Preventing transplant rejection (week of Nov. 8) • Predicting glaucoma (week of Nov. 15) • No-incision stomach stapling (week of Nov. 22) • Organ donor health (week of Nov. 29)