Newsroom Stories

A Utah juvenile court judge;s decision regarding the foster child of a lesbian couple expose the possible limits of the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer on gay marriage, said Susan Appleton, a national expert in family law.

Arch Grants recently announced its latest cohort of awardees, and once again, Washington University had a strong showing among the selected startups. Of the eleven business awarded $50,000 capital funding grants, four have direct ties to the university.

Amy B. Kweskin, associate vice chancellor for finance and treasurer at Washington University, has been named the university’s vice chancellor for finance and chief financial officer. The appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2016. Kweskin will succeed Barbara A. Feiner, who announced in July that she would retire Dec. 31.

Members of the St. Louis Symphony will join musicians from the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis for “Music of the Great War” Nov. 16 in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Rohit Pappu, PhD, the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering at Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, will help spearhead the newly formed Human Dark Proteome Initiative, launched Nov. 9 by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The Scripps Research Institute.

​At team at Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science found tomato plants that received zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles better absorbed light and minerals, and the fruit had higher antioxidant content.

Readiness for and recovery from public health threats will be highlighted at the eighth annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters and civil unrest are among the topics that will be addressed.

​Hundreds of Washington University in St. Louis students will dance, play games, raise money, cheer student performers and meet “Miracle Kids” and their families during Dance Marathon, a 12-hour dance party on the Danforth Campus that benefits the Children’s Miracle Network.​

Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD, has been named the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. With the new appointment, effective in April, Silverman will become pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and executive director of the Children’s Discovery Institute, a partnership of the school and hospital.

Washington University in St. Louis has received a two-year, $1.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Wolfgang Munar, MD, associate director for Global Social Policy at the Brown School’s Social System Design Lab and associate director of the Institute for Public Health’s Global Health Center, is the project’s primary investigator. The grant money will be used to test a novel methodology that will measure the social structures that enhance or limit adoption of modern contraceptives in rural Ethiopia.