Newsroom Stories

Research by WUSTL anthropologist Crickette Sanz, PhD, and colleague David Morgan, PhD, has spurred the Republic of Congo to enlarge its Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park boundaries to include the Goualougo Triangle. The Goualougo Triangle is a remote, pristine forest that is home to at least 14 communities of “naïve” chimpanzees with little exposure to humans.

At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Thursday and Friday, March 1 and 2, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton reported on a number of recent developments on the Medical and Danforth campuses. Trustees also heard special reports on innovations in medical research and clinical practice.

“Someone at Washington University in St. Louis just hit the lecture jackpot.” So quipped Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune’s influential architecture critic. On Monday, Feb. 27, just two days before his scheduled talk for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, architect Wang Shu became the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, generally considered the profession’s highest honor.

Junior Carol Nnabuife (left) and freshman Eiftu Haile, both in Arts & Sciences, dance during ‘A Taste of Africa,’ a Feb. 27 kick-off event for Africa Week. The full week of activities also featured fashion and comedy shows, an in-depth roundtable discussion and a dance workshop.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Jimmy Lin, PhD, are reaching out to patient advocacy groups and offering to decode the DNA of 99 patients with rare diseases to help find the genetic alterations responsible for their illnesses. The patients’ DNA will be sequenced by the university’s Genomics and Pathology Services (GPS) at no cost to patients or advocacy groups.

Just in time for spring baseball, the Assembly Series at Washington University in St. Louis presents its version of a doubleheader: back-to-back lectures in one day by prominent speakers. On Tuesday, March 5, Science historian Susan Lindee, PhD, will speak at 4 p.m. in McDonnell Hall on the evolution of a treatment for cystic fibrosis, once a fatal disease of children. Best-selling author, law professor and “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua, JD, follows at 5 p.m. in Graham Chapel. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

CAUSE — the Committee for the Assessment of the Undergraduate Student Experience — is a new group established to more thoroughly and accurately measure the WUSTL undergraduate student experience.The committee, 15 members from throughtout the university community, will coordinate WUSTL assessment efforts, educate the campus community and keep an archive of existing and prior assessments.

Chinese architect Wang Shu, who on Monday, Feb. 27, became the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize — widely considered the fields’ highest honor, equivalent to the Nobel — will visit the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Wednesday and Thursday.

Stephen M. Nowlis, PhD, was installed Feb. 23 as the August A. Busch Jr. Distinguished Professor of Marketing in Olin Business School. Nowlis joined Olin Business School in July 2010 after spending many years at Arizona State University, where he was the AT&T Distinguished Professor of Marketing.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is organizing a Missouri-wide Heart Failure Clinical Research Network, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cardiology Chief Douglas L. Mann, MD, says this clinical research consortium is one of only nine regional centers across the country investigating innovative treatments for heart failure.