Newsroom Stories

Actress, writer and comedienne Ellie Kemper speaks to a crowded Graham Chapel at the Women’s Society Adele Starbird Lecture April 26. Kemper, a St. Louis native, is best known for her role as Erin Hannon in NBC’s comedy The Office. During her talk, Kemper discussed her rise in Hollywood, along with her affinity for Imo’s pizza and what it was like to be a pupil of Mad Men actor Jon Hamm at John Burroughs School.

Ashley Brosius arrived at WUSTL as a freshman with dreams of medical school. Women, gender, and sexuality studies courses prompted her to alter her academic plans, but Brosius found a way to blend both interests when she co-wrote and received a grant to design and implement a program called “Catalysts for Change,” which aimed to introduce local female high school students to STEM fields. 

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis awarded one Distinguished Faculty Award and three Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration May 2 at Steinberg Hall Auditorium. A reception followed at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Nigar Kirmani, MD, and Douglas Larsen, MD, have been selected to receive the 2012-14 Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Teaching Fellowships at Washington University School of Medicine. The fellowship program was established in 2004 by a gift from the Loebs to advance clinical education and to honor local physicians committed to clinical excellence.

To recognize the 100th birthday of Sam Weissman, Manhattan Project scientist and beloved teacher who helped convert WUSTL’s Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences into a modern research department, the department is hosting a poster session, lecture and symposium Thursday and Friday, May 10 and 11.The festivities will include the second annual Weissman lecture, on the topic of the history of nuclear magnetic resonance, which will be delivered Thursday evening by Charles Slichter, PhD, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Illinois.

The College of Arts & Sciences will introduce a newly revised curriculum, called Integrated InQuiry (IQ), for undergraduate students at Washington University in St. Louis. Developed over a four-year process with input from students, faculty and administrators, the IQ will be available to new undergraduates arriving this fall.

Results of one of the largest studies of heart failure to date show that warfarin is no better than aspirin in reducing the combined risks of brain hemorrhage, stroke and death in most heart failure patients. Clinicians now have reassurance that aspirin is safe for heart failure patients with a normal heart rhythm, according to study co-author Douglas L. Mann, MD.

A combination of two diabetes drugs was more effective in treating 10-17-year-olds with recent-onset type 2 diabetes than one, according to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis who participated in a multicenter clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Washington University School of Medicine segment of the trial was led by Neil H. White, professor of pediatrics and of medicine and director of the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit and a diabetes specialist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton presents William A. Peck, MD, Washington University’s Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Health Policy, with ​the William Greenleaf Eliot Society  “Search” Award at the society’s 45th annual dinner May 1 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton, Mo.

Senior Ji Eun Seo returns an item to Washington University Libraries through the new book drop box on the South 40. Seo and other WUSTL libraries users now can return university library books, music and other materials through the new book drop. The box is located on Shepley Drive across from the South 40 House.