Newsroom Stories

Although the focus of homeland security has been on reducing the threat of terrorism, the growing threat of poverty is rapidly undermining the nation’s economic vitality and has fueled rising disillusionment, says one of the nation’s leading scholars of poverty issues. “We need to wake up in America and realize that our homeland security is tied as much if not more to the fact that huge numbers of Americans are being left behind economically, and that as a result, the American Dream is quickly turning into an American nightmare,” says Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University in St. Louis.

Summer programs should match a child’s interests, activity level and appropriate age group — and be fun.Summer is just around the corner and that means time for barbecues, baseball and beaches. And kids home from school, sending parents on the age-old quest for finding ways to occupy their child’s time. Some educational experts at Washington University in St. Louis say that opportunities abound for kids aged 2 to 18, and it’s important to tailor them to the needs and abilities of the child.

Photo courtesy University of IowaCould there be a link between the obesity epidemic and eugenic thinking? A historian of science at Washington University in St. Louis poses the question.As obesity rates continue to grow in the United States, threatening the health of millions of Americans, a historian of science warns that social problems such as this cannot be solved through science, especially genetics, alone. In this new “gene age” in which large amounts of research funds are used for studies on the genetics of such complex social traits as alcoholism, criminality or obesity, for example, Garland E. Allen, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says the climate is ripe for a “re-packaged” eugenics in American society. Allen points out that 100 years ago, eugenics, a movement that claimed many social, personality and mental traits were hereditary, was emerging as a major social movement in Europe and the United States. His concern: it might well still be with us today.

As chancellor, he led the University through one of the most critical periods in its development; he is now vice chairman of the Board of Trustees.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission debates new rules that would require mutual funds to disclose how fund portfolio managers are compensated, research by two scholars at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis shows that money manager pay is more influenced by the success of their firm than the investment performance of their clients. The survey of portfolio managers finds that firm success-factors such as firm profitability have more impact on portfolio managers’ bonuses than client success factors like investment performance, though managers are more likely to be dismissed for poor investment performance.

In 1899, the oldest medical college in Missouri became part of the Department of Medicine at Washington University when the Missouri Medical College merged with WUSTL. In 1910, educator Abraham Flexner — a member of the research staff of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching — authored a report titled “Medical Education in […]

In the March 5 issue of Science, Ann Nguyen of Washington University in St. Louis and her advisor, Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, describe nine specks of silicate stardust — presolar silicate grains — from one of the most primitive meteorites known. This is the first reported finding of silicate stardust from a meteorite.

WUSTL ArchivesWashington University’s Fashion Design class of 1960Fashion today is about the new, the hip, the cool and — above all else — the young. But such was not always the case. In 1929, a student fashion show at Washington University in St. Louis changed the apparel industry forever by launching juniors’ fashion. In 1934, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis manufacturers became the first to market juniors’ sizes, such as 5, 7 and 9. On May 2, 2004, the university’s School of Art Fashion Design Show will celebrate its 75th anniversary of bringing some of the hottest and most creative couture this side of Paris to a St. Louis runway. This year’s fully choreographed, Paris-style show will be held at Saint Louis Galleria.

In the year that ends Washington University’s milestone anniversary, it is most fitting that the recipient of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society’s highest award is one of its greatest leaders, William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus. As Chancellor from 1971 to 1995, Danforth was the University’s longest serving chancellor, leading it through one of the most critical periods in its development.

Lung cancer tumor to be treated with radiation.More than half of the lung cancer patients who receive radiation treatment for their illness develop a painful swelling and inflammation in the esophagus known as esophagitis. Although treating the lung cancer is the top priority for doctors, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis hope to lower the risk of this unpleasant side effect. They have quantified risk factors for esophagitis, linking it to the amount of radiation a patient’s esophagus receives and to simultaneous chemotherapy. The findings mean it may be possible to predict and potentially avoid esophagitis, according to Jeffrey D. Bradley, M.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology and lead author of a paper published recently in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.