Newsroom Stories

Two international research teams — one led by M. Alan Permutt, M.D., professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis — have found variations in a gene that may predispose people to type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The two research teams, which collaborated extensively, will report their findings in companion articles in the April issue of Diabetes.

PakeGeorge E. Pake, Ph.D., recipient of the National Medal of Science, professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, Washington University provost from 1962-1970, and emeritus trustee, died of heart failure Thursday, March 4, 2004, in Tucson, Ariz. He was 79.

W. Ralph Johnson, a distinguished professor emeritus of classics and comparative studies at the University of Chicago, will be the John and Penelope Biggs lecturer in the classics. Johnson’s writings present refreshing interpretations of classical texts, and reveal new insights into ancient writers and the value of their work to contemporary society.

Sam and Marilyn Fox, who have donated time and money to a wide range of community and civic groups that touch the lives of many St. Louisans, are being recognized for their extraordinary generosity and leadership with the 2004 Jane and Whitney Harris Saint Louis Community Service Award.

David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoTracey Kaplan as Madeline and Brian Golden as Stamp in the world premiere of *Kid Peculiar at the Coral Court Motel* by Carter W. Lewis.October 1992. St. Louis and the nation await the Clinton-Bush-Perot presidential debate at Washington University. An estranged mother and son reunite for perhaps the last time at a fading St. Louis icon. The stage is set for Kid Peculiar at the Coral Court Motel, by playwright-in-residence Carter W. Lewis. The St. Louis-based tragi-comedy — commissioned as part of the university’s 150th anniversary celebration — will make its world premiere in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre March 25-28.

Scott Levin and Adam Cromer in the Washington University Opera’s production *Of Mice and Men*.The Washington University Opera will present Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, based on John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20.

LawlorEdward F. Lawlor, Ph.D., dean of the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, will become dean of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB) on July 1, 2004, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Lawlor will succeed Shanti K. Khinduka, Ph.D., who last year announced his intention to retire as dean on June 30, 2004.

When the University Training School for Nurses opened in 1907-08, the admission requirements included “a good common school education, good moral character and a sound physique… .” No tuition was charged for the three-year program, and students received free board and lodging. During World War I, some nurses from the school joined the University’s Base […]

Schedule of events and participant biographies for the Campus Ecology Workshops, part of The Sustainable University Campus, a national colloquium on campus environmental design organized by the School of Architecture and the U.S. Green Buildings Council—St. Louis Chapter March 28 and 30.

Ann Nguyen chose a risky project for her graduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis. A university team had already sifted through 100,000 grains from a meteorite to look for a particular type of stardust — without success. In 2000, Nguyen decided to try again. About 59,000 grains later, her gutsy decision paid off. In the March 5 issue of Science, Nguyen 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.