Newsroom Stories

Jeffrey McCune, PhD, has been named director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York, the program aims to increase diversity in higher education by encouraging talented but underrepresented students to pursue doctorates in the humanities and social sciences.

New research at the School of Medicine helps explain why brain tumors occur more often in males and frequently are more harmful than similar tumors in females. Pictured is the study’s senior author, Joshua Rubin, MD, PhD.

The United States has the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world. As a result, many U.S. companies are turning to tax inversions — reincorporating overseas by getting acquired by a smaller company in a country where the corporate tax rate is lower. Adam Rosenzweig, JD, professor of law and expert on international tax, examines why inversions are becoming so popular.

H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost of Washington University in St. Louis, led a National Research  Council committee that published a report July 31 on lab safety in academic research. He says the most important takeway is that a holistic approach is needed.

Richard L. Wahl, MD, has been named the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor and head of radiology at the School of Medicine. He also will serve as director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.

Washington University researchers have found that courses intended to better prepare high school graduates for college also drive some students to drop out. They report that policies increasing the number of required math and science courses are linked to a higher dropout rate.

What paths do quantum particles, such as atoms or photons, follow through quantum state space? Kater Murch of Washington University in St. Louis has used a superconducting quantum device to continuously and repeatedly record the paths the device took through quantum state space. From the cobweb of a million paths, a most likely path between two quantum states emerged, much as social trails emerge as people round off corners or cut across lawns between buildings. The research is featured on the cover of the July 31 issue of Nature.

Young adults who were breastfed for three months or more as babies have a significantly lower risk of chronic inflammation associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, according to research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

The recent birth of a female Grevy’s zebra foal at the Saint Louis Zoo marks another milestone in a long-running Washington University in St. Louis research partnership that is making significant contributions to the preservation of Grevy’s zebra and the equally endangered African wild ass.

A bill introduced July 28 in the U.S. House of Representatives would amend the controlled substances act – the federal law that criminalizes marijuana – to exempt plants with an extremely low level of THC, the part of marijuana that makes users high. Following closely on the heels of a call by the New York Times editorial board for the federal government to legalize marijuana, this could mark a turning point of sorts in the campaign for legalization. Gregory P. Magarian, professor of law, sees two reasons for leaving states with some power over the criminal law of marijuana.