School of Engineering announces 2013 distinguished alumni

The School of Engineering & Applied Science celebrated five of its top alumni during the 2013 Alumni Achievement Awards dinner April 18 at the Coronado Ballroom in St. Louis. The school presented four Alumni Achievement Awards, one Young Alumni Award and the Dean’s Award.

Hatchery course helps fuel student start-up companies

St. Louis is becoming widely recognized as a hub for entrepreneurship, and WUSTL students are taking advantage of the close proximity to great resources by starting their own business ventures — with the help of a groundbreaking class. The Hatchery, offered by Olin Business School but open to all university undergraduate students, is one of the university’s capstone entrepreneurship courses. Here, students hold the Olin Cup, the top prize in the top commercial entrepreneurship competition on campus.

2013 Spector Prize goes to two students

This year the Spector Prize has been awarded to two students, Megan Kelly and Jennifer Stevens.The prize, given by the Department of Biology in memory of a 1938 WUSTL graduate, recognizes outstanding undergraduate achievement in research. Kelly did research on the chemical signals used by malaria parasites and Stevens on evolutionary trade-offs in weakly electric fish.

Michel Lauzière, the master of unusual comedy

He’s dashing, debonair and fluent in at least six languages. He’s escaped the insides of balloons and roller-bladed on Letterman. He can honk Beethoven’s Fifth in a space-suit of bicycle horns. He is Michel Lauzière, the Master of Unusual Comedy, and he’s coming to Edison Theatre.

Forum to highlight faculty flexibility benefits

To highlight career flexibility benefits, the Office of Faculty Affairs is hosting faculty forums on family resources, work-life fit and career paths from noon-1 May 6-8 in Schwarz Auditorium. The program is free for School of Medicine faculty and includes lunch. Shown, Bess Marshall, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, used the flexibility benefit to work part time when a relative suffered a heart attack.

Missing link in Parkinson’s disease found

School of Medicine researchers have described a missing link in understanding how damage to the body’s cellular power plants leads to Parkinson’s disease and some forms of heart failure. A mouse heart, in gray, shows signs of heart failure because it is missing a newly discovered key molecule in the process that culls unhealthy mitochondria from cells. Superimposed on the heart is a fruit fly heart tube, shown in color. It shows signs of failure because it is missing another key molecule in mitochondrial quality control.

​​Book idea gets boost from awards, faculty fellowship​

​Rebecca Messbarger, PhD, professor of Italian, has a great start to her next book. Not only did she win two awards for an article summarizing her book idea, next fall she will have more time and resources to devote to writing thanks to her faculty fellowship in the Center for Humanities.

Olin alum Maj. Wolfer memorialized at North Campus

Stuart Wolfer, an Olin Business School 1993 BSBA alumnus, was an Army reservist who was killed during a mortar attack in Iraq in 2008. The ROTC celebrated Wolfer’s life and commitment to his country with the unveiling and dedication of Major Stuart Adam Wolfer Hall at North Campus.
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