Newsroom Stories

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton prepares to plug in a Nissan Leaf electric car during the Nov. 29 installation of the first electric car charging station on the Danforth Campus.

The team registration deadline for the Olin Sustainability Case Competition is Friday, Dec. 7. Open to all WUSTL students, this year’s competition, “Blight, Flight, and Urban Plight,” hopes to stimulate sustainable development of vacant land in the City of St. Louis.

First round submissions for the Sustainable Land Lab competition, sponsored by WUSTL and the City of St. Louis, are due Monday, Dec. 10. Teams are encouraged to propose innovative projects that transform vacant lots in St. Louis into assets that advance sustainability.

Coming up with creative, fresh ideas does not necessarily imply that theywill ultimately be put into practice. However, the odds of one’s ideas making it into practice are better when people are driven to push their ideas through the organization and are savvy networkers, finds new research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

A participant in Pedal the Cause, the cycling event started three years ago to raise money for cancer research in St. Louis, surpassed its $2 million goal this year.

Mark Manary, MD, has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a test to detect asymptomatic inflammation of the gut, a common condition associated with poor growth and development.

Max Wolfson and Amber Lin, second-year medical students, perform at a School of Medicine coffeehouse Nov. 29. Held three times a year and hosted by the school’s Arts Commission, the coffeehouses give students the opportunity to showcase musical and other talents.

A new faculty and staff recruiting guide will help departments in their hiring efforts. Our Guide: The Insider’s Guide to Washington University in St. Louis and Our Surrounding Community is available upon request.

Host families and students are invited to sign up for the Home Plate Program, which matches students with families to share a meal together especially when the students are far from home.

The word from Antarctica is that the polar vortex is setting up early this year and the balloon-borne Super-TIGER cosmic-ray experiment may be launched into the vortex any day now. Once the launch starts, web cams and a tracking map will go live at NASA’a Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility site Blogs and Twitter feeds are already providing a lively running commentary on the buildup to launch.