Newsroom Stories

On Feb. 6, Laura Svetkey, MD, professor of medicine at Duke University, will give the inaugural speech in the Women Leaders in Public Health Career Lecture Series at Washington University. The goal of the series, sponsored by the University’s Institute for Public Health, is to offer broad perspectives from female leaders about their careers in diverse fields related to public health.

Along the Missouri River between St. Louis and Hermann, a restored German settlement, is an enchanted valley blessed by low-density land use where people grow North American grapes for Missouri wine, groundcover in interlocking trays for green roofs, vegetables for St. Louis locivore restaurants and native trees for environmentally conscious landscapers. WUSTL readers will recognize many of the contributers to Missouri River Country, a book that celebrates this land and the people who have lived there. All proceeds from the book’s sales will go to land conservation.

WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership is committed to evolution education as part of a sound K-12 science curriculum, and it kicks off its second annual Darwin Day celebration Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7 and 8, with workshops for teachers and students. Darwin Day is celebrated internationally on or around Feb. 12, Darwin’s birthday, as a celebration of science and humanity. Highlighting the weekend on the WUSTL campus: a visit from alum Sean B. Carroll, PhD, vice president for science education at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $45,700 for the 2014-15 academic year — a $1,600 (3.6 percent) increase over the 2013-14 current academic tuition of $44,100, announced Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions — and answers — about tuition and Washington University in St. Louis’ financial resources.

Stuart Bunderson, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance, has accepted an appointment as associate dean of executive programs at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School. He will assume this role March 1.

Ten years ago, on Jan. 24, 2004, the Opportunity rover landed on a flat plain in the southern highlands of the planet Mars and rolled into an impact crater scientists didn’t even know existed. In honor of the rover’s 10th anniversary, Ray Arvidson, PhD, deputy principal investigator of the rover mission, recently took an audience on a whirlwind tour of the rover’s decade-long adventures and discoveries.

WUSTL recently won recognition for its “green” efforts. The university took part in the St. Louis Regional Chamber’s Green Business Challenge, and it won the Star Circle of Excellence Award, the highest designation. Here, Phil Valko (center), WUSTL’s director of sustainability, chats after accepting the award. The award recognizes efforts such as conserving energy and reducing water use.

In the Jan. 24 edition of the journal Science, Ray Arvidson, PhD, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and deputy principal investigator of the MER mission to Mars, writes in detail about the discoveries made by the Opportunity rover and how these discoveries have shaped our knowledge of the planet.

The S. Lee Kling Proton Therapy Center at Washington University Medical Center has begun treating patients with cancer near vital organs such as the spine, brain, heart and eyes. The center is the only one within 225 miles that offers proton therapy, a highly accurate radiation treatment.