Newsroom Stories

WUSTL is getting ready to reclaim the Guinness world record for longest massage chain Tuesday, April 24. Graduating seniors first set the record in 2010 before a group in Thailand broke it. Now, the WUSTL football team is hoping to gather 2,000 people on Francis Field — all in an effort to raise awareness about teen suicide.​

As a Washington University undergraduate, Aimee Lagos tutored kids from East St. Louis and later interned with a neighborhood stabilization project. Now a film director based in Los Angeles, Lagos will return to campus Monday, April 23, for a free screening of 96 Minutes, her feature-length debut. Inspired by true events, the film portrays four teenagers from two different worlds — until those worlds collide in the course of a carjacking.

​Students at Washington University in St. Louis work on their facades in preparation for this weekend’s Thurtene Carnival on the Danforth Campus. In addition to amusement rides, games and fun food, the carnival features family-friendly theatrical productions presented by university students. Students design and build temporary structures and write their own scripts, competing for awards, such as “best production” and “best construction.” ​ ​

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.