Newsroom Stories

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.

A “topping out” ceremony was held Jan. 16 marking the final steel panel being raised and put into place on The Lofts of Washington University, WUSTL’s $80 million retail and student apartment complex under construction in the Delmar Loop. Construction of the first phase of the project is on target to be completed in July, with students and retailers moving in this August.

Jane Comfort and Company has been described by The New York Times as “a postmodernist pioneer in the use of verbal material in dance.” From Jan. 26-30, company member — and WUSTL alumna — Elinor Harrison will return to campus as the 2014 Marcus Residency Dance Artist.

A new study conservatively estimates that one in five women with ovarian cancer has inherited genetic mutations that increase the risk of the disease, according to research by the School of Medicine’s Li Ding, PhD, and her colleagues.

“The House leadership’s procedural excuses for blocking a vote on critical immigration reform make little sense,” says Stephen Legomsky, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the recent Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. In that position he worked intensively with White House and DHS officials and played a major role on comprehensive immigration reform. “It’s now been 7 months since the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Speaker Boehner should allow the people’s elected representatives in the House to consider it without further delay,” Legomsky argues.

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.

Steven Strasberg, MD, the Pruett Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will receive the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association.

This spring, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based architecture and design firm Freecell will create a temporary performance space on a vacant lot in St. Louis’ Grand Center neighborhood. On Jan. 27, founding partners Lauren Crahan and John Hartmann will launch the Sam Fox School’s spring Public Lecture Series with a discussion of their work.