Newsroom Stories

Janji, a socially conscious running shorts business created by members of the Washington University in St. Louis cross country team, will release its original running apparel at a public launch party in St. Louis Thursday, May 3. The venture aims to make a global impact on the food and water crisis through its running apparel.

Ah, spring. The rains rain, the flowers bloom, and the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences presents its annual Chancellor’s Concert. The performance — which takes place Sunday, April 22, in the 560 Music Center — is among the largest-scaled of the year, featuring well over 100 musicians from the Washington University Symphony Orchestra and the Washington University Choirs.

The nation’s top 20 public firms could have added nearly $1 trillion to their market value if, in 2010, they had used a new tool, known as the research quotient (RQ), to determine their research and development (R&D) budgets, says its creator, Anne Marie Knott, PhD, associate professor of strategy at Washington University in St. Louis.

Paul Dowkontt (left) of the Department of Physics in Arts & Sciences is congratulated by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton April 11 as he receives a wrapped silver platter in recognition of his 25 years of service to Washington University at the 2012 25th Anniversary Reception.

What is the American Dream’s role in today’s society? Experts from Washington University in St. Louis will explore this question in a panel discussion at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in Brown Hall Lounge on the Danforth Campus. Panelists are Steven Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences; Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences; and Mark R. Rank, PhD, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School.

What is the Burrito Index? Can marriage impact cancer survival rates? Washington University in St. Louis students in social work and public health will explore these and many other topics at the Brown School’s inaugural Research Without Walls Student Research Symposium at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in Brown and Goldfarb Halls on the Danforth Campus.

WUSTL dedicated the 10th annual Relay for Life, a signature fundraising event for the American Cancer Society, to James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, who died Sept. 5, 2011, after a two-year battle with the disease. Luminary candles — each bearing the name of an individual who has battled cancer — illuminated Bushyhead Track, and McLeod’s daughter, Sara, read the speech given by her father at last year’s opening ceremony.

Aaron Ciechanover, MD, PhD, the Distinguished Research Professor at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and co-recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his contributions to the discovery and description of a process cells use to discard unwanted proteins, will give a special seminar at Washington University in St. Louis Friday, April 27. His lecture, “The Ubiquitin Proteolytic System: From Basic Mechanisms Through Human Diseases and on to Drug Development,” will take place at 4 p.m. in the Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. The seminar is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Actress, writer and comedienne Ellie Kemper, best known for her supporting role as Kelly “Erin” Hannon in NBC’s The Office, will deliver the annual Women’s Society Adele Starbird Lecture at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 26, at Washington University in St. Louis. During her talk, titled “Journey of an American Actress,” Kemper will discuss her rise in Hollywood. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Graham Chapel on the university’s Danforth Campus.

When a child has autism, siblings are also at risk for the disorder. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that the genetic reach of the disorder often extends to half siblings as well. The discovery is giving scientists new clues to how autism is inherited.