Newsroom Stories

What you know, but don’t know you know, affects you more than you know, suggests Larry Jacoby, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences. “Memory plays a very powerful role in how we see and interpret the world, even in situations where we are completely unaware of the events that gave rise to these […]

Subsequent speakers for the Monday-night series include Ben van Berkel, Inaki Abalos, Rainer Mahlamäki, William Valentine and Marcelo Ferraz.

A highlight of the event will be a rare performance of the complicated Herzgewächse by students and faculty in the Department of Music.

In recognition of the role that William H. (Bill) Danforth, life trustee and chancellor emeritus, his family and the Danforth Foundation have played in the evolution of Washington University in St. Louis, the Hilltop Campus will be renamed the Danforth Campus, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. An official recognition ceremony will be held Sept. 17, when the new name takes effect.

Peter Kastor, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and American culture studies in Arts & Sciences, will speak on “An Accurate Empire: How American Explorers Described Their Country and Themselves” at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 9. Kastor is the third of six speakers appearing this spring as part of the Faculty Fellows Lecture and Workshop Series, presented by the Center for the Humanities Arts & Sciences.

Cosmic-ray astrophysicist Joseph Klarmann, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, died Tuesday, Feb. 21, at St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights, Mo. He was 78.

Small-scale preliminary trials suggested that careful control of blood pressure could possibly delay or even prevent kidney failure in patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which affects more than 600,000 people in the United States.

Embargoed for 9 a.m. (CST), Monday, Feb. 20, 2006 Earthquakes are a common part of life in California. Towns are prepared for major seismic events and most residents consider earthquake safety an important issue. But in the Midwest, people rarely think of the large New Madrid fault zone underneath their feet. According to seismologists, major New Madrid earthquakes are rare, but when one eventually occurs, it can be catastrophic. So how do small towns that line the New Madrid fault zone improve earthquake preparedness when immediate risk and awareness are low and town budgets are stretched? “Unfortunately earthquake safety in the Midwest is event driven — most people will not begin to care about the risk until an earthquake happens,” says David Gillespie, Ph.D., disaster preparedness expert and professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Town leaders need to think long-term – 25 or 50 years out — about incremental improvements in safety measures that can be sustained. This is a different kind of planning, but it is necessary to be ready for the eventual catastrophic quake that will strike.”

Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, provided an overview of the study of “Stardust in the Laboratory” Monday, Feb. 20, 2006, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held in St. Louis. He also participated in the AAAS “Exploring a Dusty Cosmos” press briefing that morning.

Washington University has a long tradition of undergraduate participation in research, one developed further by programs created by Sarah Elgin, Ph.D., professor of biology; biochemistry and molecular biophysics; and education in Arts & Sciences with financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.