Newsroom Stories

​The 18th annual Summer Writers Institute will be held on Washington University’s Danforth Campus this July, giving writers of varying experience levels the opportunity to join a diverse and energetic writing community. Evening sessions this year meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of Monday through Friday. Also, the weekend sessions will be afternoons only instead of daylong seminars. The institute begins Friday, July 12, and runs through Friday, July 26.​

Brown School students representing the country of Kyrgyzstan perform a traditional national Kyrgyz Dance during the Brown School’s 19th annual International Festival April 12 in Brown Hall, Brown 100. The event featured 13 performances from 17 countries.

Scientists working at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered two tiny grains of silica (SiO2; the most common constituent of sand) in meteorites that fell to earth in Antarctica. Because of their isotopic composition these two grains are thought to be pure samples from a massive star that exploded before the birth of the solar system, perhaps the supernova whose explosion is thought to have triggered the collapse of a giant molecular cloud, giving birth to the Sun.

Pre-K through 6th-grade students and their teachers at Cool Valley Elementary School were the lucky recipients of more than 350 books donated by education students in Washington University’s Kappa Delta Pi honor society. As part of KDP’s service project this year, they raised funds to purchase the children’s books, which they delivered to the school on April 12.

Eleven Washington University research teams will share $2.7 million in new grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute, a research collaboration between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

A recent case-study competition organized by the Health Professional Student Leadership Council allowed students from various programs to learn how to collaborate across disciplines to improve patient care. Pictured is Lana Joseph, a doctoral student in audiology, explaining her thoughts on a case to physical therapy student Kelsi Smith while nursing student Stacie Chaffin listens.

Timothy Eberlein, MD, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected president of the Southern Surgical Association.

Lindsey Steinberg has been selected to receive the 2013 Sowden Prize, given each year by the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences. The prize, named in honor of the late John C. Sowden, a professor of chemistry  and a successful carbohydrate chemist, is the highest honor the Chemistry Department bestows on a graduating senior chemistry major.

Hoping to help future generations of WUSTL students as they themselves have been helped, the Senior Class Council recently kicked off its Senior Gift Campaign with a rousing, fun video featuring Chancellor Wrighton and a group of seniors dancing the Harlem Shake in the chancellor’s office.

“Design Thinking and Innovation,” presented in cooperation with KC America’s Creative Crossroads, will be held from 7-9 a.m., Wednesday, April 24 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. The  interdisciplinary executive education seminar is taught by faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and the College of Architecture.