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.

Kristy Anderson puts people at the center of her work, both in and out of the classroom. “I approach my research with a person-centered philosophy,” says Anderson, a master’s of social work candidate from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “Person-centered is allowing the person with a disability to govern their own lives and goals. We are simply there to help them through the process.” Anderson is one of 12 Outstanding Graduates for 2012 to be profiled in the Record.

Women serve as CEOs of just 17 of the Fortune 500 top companies in the United States. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has been quoted as saying, “The glass ceiling will go away when women help other women break through that ceiling.” However, that may not necessarily be happening. Research from Washington University in St. Louis finds that women often do not support qualified female candidates as potential high-prestige work group peers.

Among surgeries for obesity, a newer, increasingly popular procedure called sleeve gastrectomy provides more weight loss to high-risk severely obese patients than adjustable gastric banding, a new study by Esteban Varela, MD, suggests. Two years after surgery, patients in both groups had lost substantial weight, but those who had had a sleeve gastrectomy shed an average of 16 additional pounds.

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.