Newsroom Stories

The Online College Database has named Washington University in St. Louis one of “50 Colleges Committed to Saving the Planet” in recognition of its new environmental policy major. The College Database called the major “a rigorous journey through the tangled web of politics, bureaucracies, public opinion, regulation, the global political economy, sustainability, global oil battles, climate change, genetically altered foods, air and water quality, and biochemistry.”

Carol Camp Yeakey, PhD, founding director of the interdisciplinary program in Urban Studies and of the Center on Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of 23 scholars selected as 2013 fellows by the American Educational Research Association.

The Blues and the Abstract Truth by St. Louis saxophonist Oliver Nelson (1932-1975) is among the most influential jazz albums of the 1960s, a masterpiece of blues structure, modern arrangement and post-bop cool. On Thursday, Sept. 12, Washington University will pay tribute to this distinguished alumnus with a free concert at 8 p.m. in Holmes Lounge as part of the Jazz at Holmes series.

At Washington University in St. Louis, students in the School of Engineering & Applied Science learn more than how to be an engineer. With opportunities to go abroad to get hands-on experience beyond what they learn in the classroom, they also learn to be leaders in a global society. Sixteen WUSTL students went to Brisbane, Australia, for the International Experience program, sponsored by the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering and the McDonnell Global Energy and Environment Partnership (MAGEEP).

Fuzhong Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, works with Synechocystis 6803 — as well as other microbes and systems — in the areas of synthetic biology, protein engineering and metabolic engineering, with special focus on synthetic control systems to make the organism reach its untapped prowess. He says the biotech world has to overcome several challenges to put the engineered microbes in the applications stage.

To read the joint letter that WUSTL Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Timothy M. Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, sent last month to the 10 members of Missouri’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. William L. Clay, urging their support in helping close the innovation gap, visit here.

By blending their expertise, two materials science engineers at Washington University in St. Louis changed the electronic properties of new class of materials — just by exposing it to light.

With a one-year grant from Washington University’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis plan to use some high-tech methods to better understand the processes, mechanics and interfaces that plants use to move iron from the soil, through water and into the plant.

The seas have risen and covered the earth. A few soaked survivors cling to mountaintops and tall buildings. So begin The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, an inventive, heartwarming and visually spectacular tale by Australia’s Tim Watts. On Oct. 5, this acclaimed one-man-show, part environmental parable, part Orpheus and Eurydice, will launch Edison’s ovations for young people series.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have selected the collaborative firm Freecell Architecture as winner of PXSTL. The $50,000 urban design competition winner will create a temporary space for outdoor performances in Grand Center beginning in spring 2014.