Newsroom Stories

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) will celebrate its inaugural I-CARES day Friday, Oct. 19. The celebration will feature a talk by Peter H. Raven, former president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, on climate change and its impact on biodiversity, and a presentation by T.R. Kidder, professor and chair of anthropology, on the idea that we may be entering a new geological era, called the Anthropocene, in which humans are the primary geological change agents. There also will be activities for students, including a QR-code scavenger hunt.​

A molecule involved in asthma and allergies has now been shown to make mice resistant to skin cancer, according to Raphael Kopan, PhD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Four Arts & Sciences faculty at Washington University in St. Louis will explore the “politics, issues and theatrics” of this year’s presidential election during a 6 p.m. panel discussion
 Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. The event, which is part of the Arts & Sciences Connections Series, is free and open to the Washington University community. A
 5:30 p.m. reception in Lab Sciences’ Rettner Gallery will precede the discussion, titled “Decision 2012.” 



Engineer Tae Seok Moon has made the most complex logic circuit ever assembled in a single bacterium. The logic circuit, in which genes and the molecules that turn the genes on or off function as logic gates, the simple devices that form the basis for electronic circuits, is one step in an effort to make programmable bacteria that can make biofuels, degrade pollutants, or attack cancer or infections.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, Meriwether will be at WUSTL for a screening of American Meat and panel discussion featuring diverse opinions on the subject. The 82-minute film, introduced by Meriwether, will begin at 6 p.m. in Simon Hall May Auditorium; the panel will follow and conclude at 8:30 p.m.​​

To ensure broad communication, certain key university policies are published on an annual basis in the Record. All members of the university community are essential to the continued endeavor for excellence in WUSTL’s teaching, research, service and patient-care missions.

Academicians, business leaders, judiciary members and a key watchdog group will come together to discuss the future of legal education at “The Law School in the New Legal Environment Symposium” at Washington University School of Law Friday, Oct. 26. The symposium will examine issues such as affordability and access to legal education; faculty; preparation for practice; job placement; and online legal education and how it will change traditional law schools. “Lawyers and law students are facing serious challenges with employment, debt and career satisfaction,” says Kent D. Syverud, JD, dean of the law school. “This symposium will address how American law schools can embrace needed change rather than avoiding it.”

Some Halloween news tips refuse to die, rising from the newsroom morgue each October with a stubborn resolve to once again help trick-or-treaters stay safe on Halloween night. Here’s three timely safety tips that remain very much undead.

Interdisciplinary faculty collaboration is fast becoming a hallmark of Washington University in St. Louis. To help support interdisciplinary teaching, the Office of the Provost announces the second round of the Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant Program. The application deadline for the teaching grants is December 1. In order to assist prospective applicants in putting together proposals, the Provost will hold a workshop from 3:30-5 p.m. in DUC 234 on October 23 facilitated by faculty who were successful in the previous round. Please RSVP for the workshop to Marion G. Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law and vice provost at WUSTL, at mgcrain@wulaw.wustl.edu.

Victoria L. May (right), assistant dean of Arts & Sciences and director of the Institute for School Partnership, speaks at a breakfast at Brittany Woods Middle School Oct. 3 to celebrate the university’s collaboration with the district. The partnership between WUSTL and UCity schools began informally through various programs, and became formal in 2009.