Newsroom Stories

Amy D. Waterman, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, has received a three-year, $899.663 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration for research titled “Increasing Living Donation in Transplant-Eligible Dialysis Patients.” … Gerhild Williams, Ph.D., chair of the German Department in Arts & Sciences and the David M. […]

Burkhardt will present the Thomas Hall Lecture Oct. 25; Jemison will deliver the Black Arts & Sciences Festival Lecture Oct. 26.

Addressing poverty, famine, infectious diseases, international conflict and other world problems is the mission of a new global education and research initiative announced today by Washington University in St. Louis and a partnership of top foreign universities and multinational corporations. Launched with a $10 million endowment commitment from John F. McDonnell and the JSM Charitable Trust, the McDonnell International Scholars Academy creates a growing worldwide network of scholars, researchers and business and governmental leaders. Designed to nurture future global leaders, the program will provide all-expenses-paid tuition, room, board and travel for exceptional graduate students selected from partner universities around the world. Believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, the program will bring foreign students to the United States to study the sciences, reversing a decline that began after 9/11. The program also will help countries of the world collaborate on critical issues including the environment, medicine and energy and food production and help the United States maintain its place as a world leader in innovation and invention. John C. Danforth, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and three-term member of the U.S. Senate will chair the Academy’s external advisory committee. He joined Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, McDonnell and other program founders in announcing the initiative at a news conference held today in New York.

DanforthFormer United States Senator John C. Danforth is a partner with the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP. Danforth represented the state of Missouri in the United States Senate for 18 years. Prior to his retirement from the Senate at the end of 1994, Danforth served on three key committees: the Committee on Finance; Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and the Select Committee on Intelligence. His major legislative initiatives were in the areas of international trade, telecommunications, health care, research & development, transportation and civil rights.

McdonnellJohn F. McDonnell retired as chairman of the board for McDonnell Douglas Corporation in 1997 after a more than 35-year career at the company. He was elected chairman and chief executive officer in 1988, a position he held until September 1994. From then until his retirement at the time of the merger with Boeing, he was chairman of the board. McDonnell led the company successfully through the early 1990’s when the U.S. defense budget and the aerospace markets were shrinking dramatically. In the face of a rapidly consolidating aerospace industry, he oversaw the merger of McDonnell Douglas with Boeing to create the world’s largest, broadest, and strongest aerospace company.

WertschJames V. Wertsch is Marshall S. Snow Professor in Arts and Sciences and the director of international and area studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He also holds the position of professor in the Department of Anthropology at the university. Wertsch’s research is concerned with language, thought, and culture. For the past several years, he has focused on collective memory and identity in countries such as Russia and Ukraine, and he is now examining these topics in the Republic of Georgia.

Brief facts about the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, those who will attend and the Academy network.

A list of university partners and corporate sponsors of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

In addition to a cross-disciplinary Washington University faculty steering committee, an external advisory committee headed by John C. Danforth, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former U.S. senator from Missouri, advises Wrighton, Wertsch and the McDonnell Academy.