Newsroom Stories

A bacterium that lives in the human gut adaptively shifts more than a quarter of its genes into high gear when its host’s diet changes from sugar to complex carbohydrates. This not only allows the bacteria to survive rapidly changing nutrient conditions but also helps maintain the stability of the gut’s highly complex microbial society, according to WUSM researchers.

HaskinProfessor Larry Haskin died today, March 24, 2005, after a long struggle with a blood disorder called myelofibrosis. He died in his sleep at home. There will be no public service. He is survived by his wife, Mary Haskin, his son Dierk, his daughters Rachel and Jean, and four grandchildren. Professor Haskin joined Washington University in 1976, following three years with NASA’s Johnson Space Center as chief of the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Division. He served as chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences until 1990.

Robert Moses, one of the leading figures in the American civil rights movement, will give the Assembly Series lecture at 11 a.m. Wed., April 6 in Graham Chapel. The annual Martin Luther King memorial event, sponsored by the Association of Black Students, is free and open to the public. This is the keynote address for the “Documenting Change” symposium.

Events include film screening of “Eyes on the Prize” and a panel discussion about the series; a keynote address by Robert Moses; and an exhibition in Olin Library.

The School of Law and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University will host the fifth annual access to equal justice conference, “Poverty, Wealth and the Working Poor: Clinical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. April 1 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. The conference will explore the many barriers to economic prosperity and well-being for America’s working poor. Particular emphasis will be given to the interplay of race, gender, wealth, and power in regards to employment, welfare, housing, health care, education and the environment.

“An Evening in Paris” — well, actually in the Khorassan Ballroom of the Chase Park Plaza — is the theme of the 2005 Newman Gala, a fund-raising auction and dinner dance April 9 benefiting the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in St. Louis. The gala begins with cocktails and a silent auction at 5:30 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.). The event also includes an oral auction and, following dinner, dancing to Arvell and Company, a seven-piece band performing Motown and other classics. The fund-raiser is considered a vital source of support for the center, whose mission is to form students intellectually, morally, socially and spiritually through education, service and a worshipping community.

Things have been changing around the Becker Library, and the Symposium on Managing Knowledge in the Digital Domain is an engaging event designed to inform WUSM faculty, staff and students of all that is new. The gathering, featuring food and door prizes, takes place 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. April 19 in the library atrium and King […]

The Monsanto Fund has awarded Washington University $3.7 million to develop, build and operate two custom mobile classrooms. Washington University will lead a partnership, including the St. Louis Science Center, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Saint Louis Zoo, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to create and provide programming on the vehicles. The program will help young elementary school students develop enthusiasm for learning and doing science, through interactive experiences and exhibits.

Morris Fiorina, author of a new book on the perceived deep divide between America’s “red” and “blue” states, will lead a discussion on “Polarization, Tolerance, and the State of American Public Opinion” in a community forum at 7:30 p.m. March 28, in May Auditorium, Simon Hall. James L. Gibson, Ph.D., the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University, will join Fiorina for public discussion of his comments.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he worked on the frontiers of space research for more than four decades.