Newsroom Stories

David Levine is a former high school teacher who saw a need to serve people with limited access to health care. The Record’s Outstanding Graduate from the School of Medicine, he will graduate May 18 with a medical degree and is headed to New York University in July to begin a residency in internal medicine-primary care.

Individuals interested in addressing the relationship between crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression are invited to participate in the inaugural Benjamin B. Ferencz Essay Competition hosted by the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law. Contestants are encouraged to register for the competition at the competition’s website as soon as possible. The deadline for submission of entries is Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, at 5 p.m. (Central Daylight Time).

Led by Jasvindar Singh, MD, doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking volunteers for a clinical trial testing an investigational device in patients with severe high blood pressure that can’t be controlled with aggressive medical treatments.

A lifetime of entrepreneurship and tenacity drives Vivian Gibson, senior director of volunteer recruitment at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri. Gibson, the Record‘s Outstanding Graduate from University College in Arts & Sciences. will receiver her master’s degree in nonprofit management May 18.

Washington University School of Law will begin offering its Master of Laws in U.S. Law for Foreign Lawyers (LLM) in a new and innovative online format. Called @WashULaw, the program is the first and only top-tier online LLM in U.S. law. @WashULaw will allow foreign lawyers to complete an LLM degree in U.S. law without leaving their law practices or relocating to the United States.

The Internet and social media have opened up new vistas for people to share preferences in films, books and music. Services such as Spotify and the Washington Post Social Reader already integrate reading and listening into social networks, providing what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “frictionless sharing.” “But there’s a problem. A world of automatic, always-on disclosure should give us pause,” says Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Senior Hannah Rabinowitz and junior Colleen Rhoades have been named co-recipients of this year’s Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize. The Isserman Prize recognizes a WUSTL student or students who have made significant contributions in leadership and service to ecumenical or interfaith activities, both on campus and in the wider community.

On May 7, Washington University in St. Louis broke ground on Knight Hall and Bauer Hall, a major expansion project that will nearly double the footprint of Olin Business School on the Danforth Campus. The buildings will be named for dedicated university benefactors and lead gift donors Joanne and Charles F. Knight and Carol and George Bauer.

Eleven Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated entrepreneurs are among the winners of $750,000 in inaugural grants from Arch Grants, the global business plan competition providing $50,000 grants to startups and taking no equity in return. The 11 WUSTL-affiliated winners comprise five alumni, four faculty members and two students.

Child abuse or neglect are strong predictors of major health and emotional problems, but little is known about how the chronicity of the maltreatment may increase future harm apart from other risk factors in a child’s life. In a new study published in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics, Melissa Jonson-Reid, PhD, child welfare expert and a professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looked at how chronic maltreatment impacted the future health and behavior of children and adults. “For every measure studied, a more chronic history of child maltreatment reports was powerfully predictive of worse outcomes,” Jonson-Reid says.