Newsroom Stories

Veteran Ian Smith barely graduated from high school. Today, he is earning his degree in global leadership and management in University College in Arts & Sciences and is leading a team of engineers to develop low-cost prosthetics using 3D printers.

Is privacy a “right”? What are we willing to sacrifice for privacy? How consistent are our beliefs about privacy and how consistently do we “practice” it? In response to these types of questions, Washington University in St. Louis experts on privacy issues, ranging from the history of privacy to privacy law, will participate in a roundtable discussion, titled “Privacy and Surveillance,” from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in Anheuser-Busch Hall, Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

At a Board of Trustees meeting in October, several faculty members were appointed, promoted or granted tenure. Read more to find out the details.

Some 10 boxes, weighing over 100 pounds and carrying everything from breakfast bars, coffee, air fresheners, hand sanitizers, trail mix and home-baked goods, are on their way to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, thanks to Washington University’s Military Care Package group. With the November mailing, the group reached another milestone. Since 2004, WUSTL staff, students, faculty and administrators have donated, packaged and shipped more than eight tons of supplies to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 21st century is bringing challenges to urban areas like never before, as if A Tale of Two Cities is being played out over and over again, in your neighborhood and in cities all over the world. The problems are both local and global, and so are the solutions. It’s this context that has led three Washington University in St. Louis faculty to compile an impressive array of international scholarship in a two-volume book titled Urban Ills: Twenty-first-Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts.

Lee Ratner, MD, PhD, has been named the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Oncology at the School of Medicine. Shown here with Larry J. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, Ratner (right) is an oncologist and noted authority on retroviruses.

School of Medicine researchers have identified a chain reaction that triggers the regrowth of some damaged nerve cell branches, a discovery that one day may help improve treatments for nerve injuries that can cause loss of sensation or paralysis. To study how nerve cells respond to injuries in their branches, researcher Valeria Cavalli grows them in “spots,” like the one pictured.

Students took part in a themed trivia night inspired by the popular mustache-sporting character played by Nick Offerman on the TV show Parks and Recreation. Offerman will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Edison Theatre. Other “Nick Week” activities today include an Offerman cookie contest at Cafe Bergson and a happy hour at 5:30 p.m. at the Gargoyle.

A new academic survey conducted by Washington University in St. Louis’ Center for Social Development and national veterans nonprofit group The Mission Continues points to community volunteerism as an effective tool for addressing veterans’ reintegration challenges.

Daniel E. Feder, JD, has been named managing director of private markets at Washington University Investment Management Co. (WUIMC) — the investment office for the endowment at Washington University in St. Louis. As a senior member of the WUIMC, Feder will play a key role in the overall management of WUSTL’s endowment and other university assets, which were valued at $6.2 billion at the end of the 2013 fiscal year. His appointment is effective Dec. 2.