Newsroom Stories

Five individuals received the Graduate Student Senate’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards at an April 8 ceremony.

Wild African baboons at rest.Investigators from several groups, including Washington University in St. Louis, have found that when it comes to risk of obesity, the food you eat may be less important than the exercise you get. The researchers studied the eating and exercise patterns of two groups of wild baboons in East Africa. Like most primates, one group has to wander and forage for food. The other group lives near a tourist lodge in Kenya; they get lots of their food from the garbage dump. Typically, baboons spend the majority of their day walking from place to place finding food. But the so-called “couch baboons” spent most of their day waiting for food to arrive at the dump and then eating that food. Some of those baboons also became obese and resistant to insulin, just like humans who eat too much and exercise too little.

STARS program

Village

Surgeons use a Sextant to help precisely implant screws and rods in a minimally invasive way.Back surgery — typically an intimidating prospect fraught with tales of post-operative pain — is being performed with less pain, less blood loss and fewer days recovering in the hospital, thanks to a combination of minimally invasive surgical techniques. According to Neill M. Wright, M.D., assistant professor of neurological surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the School of Medicine is one of the few centers in the country using this combination of techniques, but promising results may inspire others to follow suit. Spine surgeons have been trying to limit post-operative pain from back surgery using the same ideas that made gallbladder and knee surgeries less invasive.

Jonathan Knight is director of the office of academic freedom, tenure and governance in the national office of the American Association of University Professors.

Since its founding in 1970, the Manhattan-based dance company has commissioned more than 70 works inspired by Hispanic music and dance.

Softball team ties school wins mark

Campus Watch

At a formal installation on April 3, Stuart A. Solin, professor of physics, became the inaugural holder of the Charles M. Hohenberg Professorship of Experimental Physics in Arts & Sciences. The ceremony, which was held in Holmes Lounge, featured remarks from Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Chairman of the Board of Trustees John F. McDonnell. Also present to commemorate the occasion was Charles M. Hohenberg, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, who, with his mother, Alice, made the gift to Washington University in memory of his father.