Newsroom Stories

​In advance of Washington University in St. Louis’ Major-Minor Fair on Monday, Oct. 6, Matthew DeVoll, PhD, assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and dean of sophomores, talks about the choices facing second-year students and the options open to them.

Neuroscientist Carl Hart, PhD, will deliver “Demystifying the Science of Drug Addiction: Neuroscience, Self-discovery, Race and U.S. Drug Policy” at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 10, in Anheuser-Busch Hall Moot Courtroom for the Assembly Series. The talk is the annual Chancellor’s Fellows Lecture.

Friends and fans of celebrated author William H. Gass, PhD, the David L. May Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, gathered Sept. 28 in Umrath Lounge to mark his 90th birthday with a special reading from his collected works. The reading, “Passages of Time,” was sponsored by University Libraries.

Older parents, birth defects, maternal nutrition and childhood exposure to CT scans and pesticides are increasingly being associated with brain tumors in children, according to new research led by Kimberly Johnson, PhD, assistant professor of social work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a prestigious BRAIN Initiative Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Wang’s three-year, $2.7 million award, is one of 58 grants totaling $46 million announced Sept. 30 by Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the NIH, in Washington, D.C.

The Railway Exchange Building in downtown St. Louis is an icon, synonymous with Christmas lights, holiday cheer and civic pride. Yet since being vacated by Macy’s in 2013, the structure has sat largely empty. Now The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts are partnering to explore adaptive reuse strategies for the 21-story high-rise.

A six-story concrete and steel structure that will be the skeleton of an energy-efficient, multidisciplinary research building under construction on the School of Medicine campus has been completed. The construction project, which began in summer 2013, has a June 2015 target date for completion.

Ten cutting-edge Sukkahs by architects and designers from around the nation will be installed Oct. 7-13 on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The projects are winners of “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence,” an ambitious contemporary design competition presented by St. Louis Hillel and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Arts & Sciences faculty (from left) Jami L. Ake, PhD, John M. Doris, PhD, Mark Rollins, PhD, and Douglas L. Chalker, PhD, were recognized for their teaching and leadership during Arts & Sciences’ annual faculty reception this month. Ake and Chalker both received the Distinguished Teaching Award; Doris received the David Hadas Teaching Award; and Rollins received the Distinguished Leadership Award.

Politicians who take a stance on tax increases, immigration reform, marijuana legalization and other controversial issues have the power to sway voter opinions in their favor and they can do so without fear of backlash, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California-Berkeley.