Newsroom Stories

A recent interdisciplinary conference that led to the publication of a special issue of PNAS on domestication raised more questions than it answered. Washington University in St. Louis scientists Fiona Marshall and Ken Olsen, who participated in the conference and contributed to the special issue, discuss some of the key questions that have been raised about this pivotal event in human history.

Fiona Marshall, PhD, professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, was one of seven faculty members to receive the Graduate Student Senate’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award during an April 9 ceremony in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

The annual Mr. Wash. U. event at Edison Theatre was held April 17. It supports City Faces, which provides art classes to children and young adults living in St. Louis public housing. The charity was founded by Bob Hansman, associate professor of architecture and urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

It’s the stage that launched juniors fashion. On Sunday, May 4, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present its 85th Annual Fashion Design Show in the 560 Music Center. The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits by 26 aspiring designers.

The number of women and minorities on corporate boards has remained static in the last 10 years, despite an increasing amount of data supporting the argument that board diversity is related to good business outcomes. “Businesses have a significant opportunity to improve performance through increasing the diversity – in many forms – of their board,” said Hillary Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law and management at Washington University in St. Louis. Sale offers thoughts for both corporations and potential board candidates.

Joseph Loewenstein, PhD, director of the Humanities Digital Workshop, is leading a vertical seminar for faculty, staff and graduate students in the digital humanities. The burgeoning field gives scholars new methods to analyze literature and history and encourages a new kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

WUSTL senior Alaina Smith works as a court advocate with the St. Louis County Domestic Violence Court and as a facilitator at RAVEN, a batterer intervention program. Smith is among this year’s Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethic of Service Award winners.

Scientists often use things in nature as a model to make new things, such as using birds as models for airplanes. One WUSTL engineer is using a basic cell as a model to make genetically engineered bacteria that would produce biofuel or pharmaceuticals. Tae Seok Moon, PhD, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation for his project, “Engineering Biological Robustness through Synthetic Control.”

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has announced the creation of new four-year fellowships in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, made possible by a generous gift from William H. Danforth. Danforth hopes the new fellowships will attract highly motivated students to this field of study and foster a culture of intellectual entrepreneurship focused on research and innovation in plant sciences.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are comparing the long-term benefits and risks of four widely used diabetes drugs given in combination with metformin, the most commonly prescribed medication for treating type 2 diabetes. The principal investigator at the St. Louis clinical site is Janet B. McGill, MD, who is pictured discussing options with study patient Michael Gingrich.