Newsroom Stories

Courtesy imageJohn KinsellaAustralian poet John Kinsella will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, for the Writing Program Reading Series at Washington University in St. Louis. The reading is free and open to the public and takes place in Hurst Lounge, located on the second floor of Duncker Hall, in the northwest corner of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Hoyt and Brookings drives. For more information, call (314) 935-7130.

Despite their money-grubbing reputation, MBA students have more than their future paychecks on their minds. Through both school and student-driven initiatives, the Olin School of Business continues to provide ample proof that it fosters community responsibility in its students. In addition to the array of activities the business school is organizing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, business school students are working to strengthen the St. Louis community as well. On Saturday, Sept. 10, current MBA students, alumni, faculty and staff from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis are teaming up for the first annual Olin Serves Day.

A router in the new Open Network Laboratory, funded by NSF.A novel networking service has been made available to the research community by computer scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, enabling researchers and students remote, free use of the latest networking technology. Ultimately, the new Open Network Laboratory (ONL )can lead to innovations that can expand the capability of the Internet and other networking environments, said its director, Jonathan S. Turner, Ph.D., Henry Edwin Sever Professor of Engineering, and professor of computer science and engineering at WUSTL.

WUSTL researchers provide a field guide to exoplanets.Astronomers looking for earth-like planets in other solar systems — exoplanets — now have a new field guide thanks to earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis. Bruce Fegley, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and Laura Schaefer, laboratory assistant, have used thermochemical equilibrium calculations to model the chemistry of silicate vapor and steam-rich atmospheres formed when earth-like planets are undergoing accretion. During the accretion process, with surface temperatures of several thousands degrees Kelvin (K), a magma ocean forms and vaporizes.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoFegley and Schaefer examine a meteorite.Using primitive meteorites called chondrites as their models, earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have performed outgassing calculations and shown that the early Earth’s atmosphere was a reducing one, chock full of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor. In making this discovery Bruce Fegley, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and Laura Schaefer, laboratory assistant, reinvigorate one of the most famous and controversial theories on the origins of life, the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment, which yielded organic compounds necessary to evolve organisms.

Alian Wang in the laboratoryA large team of NASA scientists, led by earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, details the first solid set of evidence for water having existed on Mars at the Gusev crater, exploration site of the rover Spirit.

The lead counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election litigation and the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights are part of the fall lineup for the School of Law’s eighth annual Public Interest Law Speakers Series. Titled “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers,” the series brings to the University outstanding academics and practitioners in areas such as international human rights, the economics of poverty, civil liberties, racial justice, capital punishment, clinical legal education, and government and private public service.

Chief Justice Rehnquist administers the oath of office to President Bill Clinton.The death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist marks the second major change to the membership of the Supreme Court and the end of a tremendously successful and dedicated career in public service. “As an associate justice and later Chief Justice of the United States, William Rehnquist was one of the leading figures in American law for over three decades,” says Neil M. Richards, former law clerk for Chief Justice Rehnquist and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “He will be remembered as one of the great Chief Justices in American history, and deservedly so. He was a warm, gentle, funny, conscientious, and brilliant man and judge.”

HusseinFor the past 18 months, the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) for Crimes Against Humanity has emitted conflicting signals regarding the means and process by which it will ultimately bring Saddam Hussein to trial. “While it is not possible to predict the ultimate outcome of the current proceedings against Hussein, there is no doubt that skepticism remains as to the Iraqi Special Tribunal’s credibility and legitimacy,” says Leila N. Sadat, expert on international law and international war crimes tribunals and the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The IST’s decision to take up the Dujail case first, and the establishment of the IST itself, raise very interesting questions of international criminal law and procedure.”

Joe Angeles/WUSTL PhotoThe National Football League season has kicked off with a bang and once again, ticket prices are higher than ever. Fans who pay anywhere from $50 to $250 for a single ticket may grouse about the price, but Dan Elfenbein, a professor in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, said football teams routinely under-price their tickets and online ticket scalpers are reaping the benefits.