Newsroom Stories

Twelve current or former Washington University in St. Louis students have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships to study, conduct research and/or teach English abroad for the 2011-12 academic year. They are among 1,600 U.S. citizens who will spend a full academic year in a host country through the Fulbright Program.    

The Department of Energy has funded a three-university collaboration led by Washington University in St. Louis to approach the problem of algal fuels systematically.In a two-step project, the team will first attempt a comprehensive understanding of the metabolic machinery of selected cyanobacterial strains and then implement that understanding by assembling a novel bacterium with the machinery needed to produce fuel molecules. They will be bringing to bear on the problem of algal fuels the most sophisticated approaches contemporary biology now has to offer: systems biology and synthetic biology.

Andreas Schloenhardt, PhD, associate dean and associate professor of law at the University of Queensland (UQ) TC Beirne School of Law, presents “Be Careful What You Pay For: Trafficking in Persons in Australia,” on Oct. 7, in Anheuser-Busch Hall. Schloenhardt’s lecture was part of a visit to the law school by a delegation from UQ’s TC Beirne School of Law.

The Children’s Discovery Institute has approved funding for three large-scale research initiatives focusing on heart and lung diseases in children. Together, the projects will receive $1.5 million over three years.The institute is a multi-disciplinary, innovation-based research partnership between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the School of Medicine that has awarded more than $23 million in scientific grants since its launch in 2006.

Take a walk on the second floor of North Brookings Hall past the Bridge Conference Room, and you’ll see a different take on a familiar face. A painting of Robert S. Brookings, president of WUSTL’s Board of Trustees from 1895-1928, arrived in September and now hangs on the west-facing wall. The new portrait was painted in 1905 by noted American Impressionist artist Richard E. Miller and replaced another painting of Brookings in the Bridge Conference Room.

Cultivars of popular ornamental woody plants that are being sold in the United States as non-invasive are probably anything but, according to an analysis by a Washington University in St. Louis botanical researcher published in the October issue of BioScience.

High-dose vitamin E supplements increase the risk of prostate cancer, results of a large clinical trial show. The study’s findings, published Oct. 12, 2011, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are based on an updated review of data from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT).

A draft recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force calling for an end to routine PSA testing for healthy men age 50 and older goes too far, says Gerald Andriole, MD, a prostate cancer expert at Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis is among five finalists for the MBA Roundtable Innovator Award Program, which is designed to recognize and promote educational initiatives that advance innovation in MBA education and acknowledge institutions that are driving change in the field.

James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences who died Sept. 6, was remembered through song and speech during three events at WUSTL this past week, including an intimate Liederabend Sunday, Oct. 9, in Holmes Lounge. The performance, with baritone Sidney Outlaw (left), was dedicated to the memory of McLeod, who initiated the university’s first Liederabend, translated as “evening of song,” nearly 30 years ago.