Newsroom Stories

Groundbreakers Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane had a 17-year partnership, interrupted only by Zane’s death in 1988, that was arguably the most productive in contemporary dance. On Nov. 16-17, the company they formed will return to St. Louis with Body Against Body, a retrospective of groundbreaking duets.

The upcoming holiday season brings with it the annual gaze upon religious displays — and the legal issues that come with them. “The Supreme Court’s approach to public religious displays under the Establishment Clause has been less than clear,” says John Inazu, JD, expert on religion and the constitution and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.“Some commentators have described it as the ‘three plastic animals rule’ –a Christian nativity scene on public property passes muster if it is accompanied by a sufficient combination of Rudolph, Frosty, and their friends.” Inazu says that future litigation will likely press against this line-drawing, but even apparent victories for religious liberty may come at a significant cost.

By decoding the genomes of more than 1,000 people whose homelands stretch from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas, scientists have compiled a detailed catalog of human genetic variation to find the genetic roots of rare and common diseases in populations worldwide. ​

It’s not every day you get to play with the greats. On Oct. 20, famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — arguably the nation’s finest jazz big band — joined the St. Louis Symphony for a performance of Marsalis’ Swing Symphony. The day before, Marsalis and Co. visited WUSTL’s 560 Music Center to conduct a clinic with students from the East St. Louis High School Jazz Band.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have received a five-year, $5.3 million grant to explore the way gender and age influence susceptibility to urinary tract infections, one of the most common bacterial infections.

At the Oct. 5 Board of Trustees meeting, faculty members were appointed with tenure, promoted with tenure or granted tenure. The appointments were effective Oct. 5, 2012.

The Women’s Society of Washington University, sponsors of the Elizabeth Gray Danforth Scholarship that enables select St. Louis Community College graduates to attend Washington University, held a special breakfast for St. Louis Community College faculty and staff and their former students at Washington University on Monday, Oct. 22.

The world is getting smaller, but cities are getting bigger. That growth represents a key challenge and a key opportunity for 21st century sustainability. In November, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet, an international symposium exploring the future of global urban design. The two-day event will feature a range of talks on the ecology, infrastructure and social life of cities, as well as keynote address by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne.

Tillie’s Food Shop moved a step closer to federal historic landmark status with its designation as a historic area from the state of Missouri. WUSTL students in a service-learning course taught by Sonia Lee, PhD, assistant professor of history in Arts & Sciences, helped prepare the application for historic status. The North St. Louis corner was a hub of activity in the 1950s for African-Americans and an example of a black- and woman-owned business. 

The Office of Sustainability is hosting another set of “Brown Bag” information sessions at each WUSTL campus for the Green Offices Program, which launched this past spring. Offices that enroll in the program fill out a checklist of sustainable practices focusing on awareness, education and behavior change with the goal of becoming a certified Green Office. Since the program’s launch, 61 offices have registered to participate and 27 offices have submitted checklists.