Newsroom Stories

The School of Law’s 2016-17 Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers series at Washington University in St. Louis features an outstanding lineup of judges, lawyers, authors, and academics with expertise in public interest law and policy. The series begins at noon Monday, Sept. 12, with a lecture by Brenda Hollis, chief prosecutor at the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.

X-Calibur, a novel telescope that sees polarized X-rays rather than visible or infrared light, is preparing to launch from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, N.M. The telescope’s scientific team is led by Henric Krawczynski, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will collaborate with the pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Biogen, and Eli Lilly & Co. to investigate the buildup and clearance of tau protein in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists have implicated a type of stem cell in the calcification of blood vessels that is common in patients with chronic kidney disease. The study, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appeared Sept. 8 in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

National experts, advocates, and leading academics will gather in the Brown School’s Hillman Hall Sept. 14-16 as part of a timely policy conference designed to hammer out constructive solutions to pressing social issues facing the country and the next administration.

In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, members of the Washington University in St. Louis College Republicans will plant 2,977 flags — one for each victim in the deadly attacks — on Mudd Field on Saturday, Sept. 10. The flags will stay on view through Monday, Sept. 12.

An open conversation Wednesday, Sept. 14, will explore “Election 2016: Democracy and Disagreement.” Moderated by Adrienne Davis, vice provost and the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law, the event will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

The Sumers Recreation Center will open to the Washington University in St. Louis community on Saturday, Oct. 29. Memberships for staff, faculty and contract employees will be available starting Sept. 19 and include access to 50 free classes and state-of-the-art cardio equipment.

On Friday, Sept. 9, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will mark the 10th anniversary of the school’s founding and the opening of the Museum’s Fumihiko Maki-designed building. The celebration will include food, music, an exhibition showcasing the museum’s permanent collection and a special one-night-only project by celebrated alumna Ebony G. Patterson.

The cost of incarceration in the United States exceeds $1 trillion, or six percent of gross domestic product. That dwarfs the amount spent on corrections alone, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.