Newsroom Stories

More than 1,000 science researchers from around the world descended upon St. Louis during the second week of August for what Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, wittingly referred to as “Photo-palooza” for the gathering’s focus on photosynthesis research. Washington University’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) served as host to the 11th Workshop on Cyanobacteria and the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) hosted the Light Harvesting Satellite Meeting 2013.

Philip Bayly, PhD, the Lilyan and E. Lisle Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and chair the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, has received a three-year, $429,222 grant from the National Science Foundation to study mehanical properties in the brain.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will launch its 2013-14 exhibition season with Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks and American Places: Painting the Landscape in the Nineteenth Century, both opening Sept. 20. Next spring, the museum will feature In the Aftermath of Trauma, a survey of contemporary video installations, and On the Thresholds of Space-Making, which explores the work of the influential architect Shinohara Kazuo.

In a career stretching more than five decades, Judy Collins has been a piano prodigy, an anti-war activist and a chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning pop icon. On Oct. 12, the Edison Ovations Series at Washington University in St. Louis will welcome Collins for a special, one-night-only performance.

Faculty fellows open their doors to South 40 residents looking for advice, friendship and brownies. Veteran fellow Brian Carpenter says the 15-year old program builds trust and relationships between students and professors and has fundamentally changed the South 40 experience.

​Public health is becoming one of the most pressing social concerns facing the global community, and it’s an issue Alfredo Palacio recognized years ago as president of the Republic of Ecuador. Palacio will visit Washington University during its annual Global Health Week Sept. 23-27 and give an Assembly Series talk on “Government and Health Care: Perspectives from a President and a Physician” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, in Graham Chapel.

Faculty members manned posters highlighting their research at a recent Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences event geared toward helping graduate students meet faculty and learn about research before signing up for laboratory rotations. The event is an engaging step for students earning their PhDs or MD/PhDs through the Medical Scientist Training Program. Pictured is student Allyson Mayer visiting with Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, MD, at the event.

As part of ongoing efforts to bolster pediatric research and lead to new discoveries, Children’s Discovery Institute plans to award more than $2.4 million to research initiatives at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Finding ways to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease has frustrated scientists and clinicians for decades. But now the battle has reached a potentially significant milestone: the launch of the first clinical trials to test whether giving new drug treatments before dementia can prevent Alzheimer’s. Shown are School of Medicine MDs and Alzheimer’s researchers Randall Bateman (left) and John C. Morris.

Samer S. Shehata, PhD, a leading Arab-American expert on Middle East politics, will deliver the keynote address at a public symposium titled “The Crisis in Egypt” at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, at Washington University in St. Louis. The symposium, which will be held in Umrath Lounge, will also feature a roundtable discussion and presentations on the latest developments in Egypt.