Newsroom Stories

The grand opening of the Washington University in St. Louis Institute for School Partnership (ISP) MySci Resource Center at 6601 Vernon Ave. in University City, Mo., takes place at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18.

Sustainability and economic growth: two desirable goals which should demonstrably complement one another, especially in our cities. But how? On Feb. 21, the Sam Fox School and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will present The Innovative Metropolis, a daylong symposium (and web simulcast) on fostering economic competitiveness through sustainable urban design.

Great literature speaks to us across the years and miles. In The Eternal City, her National Book Award-nominated collection, poet Kathleen Graber speaks back, offering reflective yet surprisingly conversational responses to writers and artists from Marcus Aurelius and William Blake to Milan Kundera and Johnny Depp. On Thursday, Feb. 21, Graber will read from her work for The Writing Program Reading Series.

The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates recently adopted a resolution recommending that the federal government expand its protections against conflicts of interest among government contractors. The resolution was based in part on a report Kathleen Clark, JD, ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS).“In recent decades, the federal government has greatly expanded its use of contractors to perform services, and spends hundreds of billions on services every year,” Clark writes. “While an extensive array of ethics statutes and rules regulate government employees to ensure that they make decisions in the interest of the government rather than a private interest, only a few of these restrictions apply to contractor personnel.”

Scientific efforts to explain feeblemindedness, delinquency and racial inferiorities date to the Spanish Inquisition. And while the horrors of Nazi Germany exposed fatal flaws in science’s quest to build the master race, the ethical dilemmas posed by the science of eugenics are far from behind us, warns an anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University School of Medicine faculty members were honored by the school this week for their dedication, talent and contributions to the institution and the field of medicine. Shown is Anne Carol Goldberg, MD, an associate professor of medicine, who was presented with distinguished clinician honors at the event.

In 2011, acclaimed pianist and composer Amina Figarova left Europe for the United States. The result is Twelve, a suite of new songs that Figarova wrote shortly after the move. On Feb. 21, Figarova will visit WUSTL’s Jazz at Holmes Series as part of a 14-city tour in support of Twelve, her 12th full-length album.

For nearly two decades, Black Anthology has been a strong tradition at WUSTL during Black History Month. Students write, perform and produce a politically conscious and artistically creative play highlighting issues affecting the African-American community. This year’s production took place Feb. 1 and 2 in Edison Theatre.

School of Medicine’s Health Happening Fair Feb. 1 gave employees the opportunity to test their grip strength, body composition and gaits, and provided information on an array of services. Pictured is Rob Fitzgerald, an epidemiologist in the Department of Psychiatry, watching as Megan Prouhet, a physical therapy student, programs a device that analyzes body composition.

A program to encourage and support women pursuing careers in information technology is just one of the projects that received a funding boost from this year’s Diversity and Inclusion Grants program. Among last year’s winning proposals was a summer research program for students from Meharry Medical College in Tennessee (right).