Newsroom Stories

Two WUSTL professors — Peter J. Kastor, PhD, and Jessica Rosenfeld, PhD — have been named 2012 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellows. Kastor, professor of history and American culture studies, both in Arts & Sciences, will pursue research on Creating a Federal Government, 1789-1829. Rosenfeld, associate professor of English in Arts & Sciences, will work on her book Envying thy Neighbor: Pleasure, Identity and Gender in Late Medieval Literature.

Washington University Department of Pediatrics and St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been catapulted into the national spotlight by the simultaneous election of five pediatric faculty into the top national leadership roles in large and distinguished medical societies.

Michael Runiewicz has been named director of Student Financial Services at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, Runiewicz was associate director of Student Financial Services. Runiewicz replaces Bill Witbrodt, who retired after more than 20 years of service to Washington University June 30.

​Stem cells that come from a specific part of the developing brain help fuel the growth of brain tumors caused by an inherited condition, researchers, including David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

Humans have known for centuries that copper is a potent weapon against infection. New research shows that the bacteria that cause serious urinary tract infections “know” this, too, and steal copper to prevent the metal from being used against them. Blocking this thievery with a drug may significantly improve patients’ chances of fighting off infections, according to researchers.

Former Bears basketball player Dylan Richter was selected by the Harlem Globetrotters in their sixth annual player draft, while senior Elizabeth Phillips was named 2012 Capital One Academic All-America of the Year Division III award winner for women’s track & field/cross country.

Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger III, PhD, an internationally recognized scholar of human memory and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Describing Roediger as “one of the world’s best known and most respected researchers in cognitive psychology,” the APS presented him with its highest honor during the annual convention in Chicago May 24-27.

A blood test can predict whether patients are likely to die of a heart attack in the month after surgery, according to an international study involving thousands of patients.

The budget for issuing and enforcing federal regulation is expected to decline in the 2013 fiscal year, finds a new report from Washington University in St. Louis and George Washington University.

Researchers led by Michael H. Tomasson, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown how an aggressive form of multiple myeloma resists chemotherapy. Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow. Though the finding has no immediate benefit for patients, the scientists say it could help guide research into better treatments.