Newsroom Stories

The WUSTL School of Law recently launched a formal alliance with the University of Queensland (UQ), one of Australia’s premier learning and research institutions. Beginning this fall, the law school and UQ’s TC Beirne School of Law will offer a four-year combined degree program. The program will allows U.S. students to study at both WUSTL School of Law and UQ’s law school.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has given Washington University in St. Louis its 2011 award for best overall performance in fundraising. CASE is one of the world’s largest and most respected nonprofit associations for professionals working in advancement and communications fields for educational institutions.

Steven Mumm, PhD (left), research associate professor of medicine, works in his lab at the School of Medicine with Adela Cajic, a rising senior at Affton High School and a participant in the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program. STARS pairs academically talented high school juniors and seniors in the St. Louis area with scientists at five research institutions for a six-week apprenticeship in laboratories, including those on the Danforth and Medical campuses.

Some 75 K-12 educators from across St. Louis attended a one-day conference June 17 in WUSTL’s Whitaker Hall to explore using LEGOs to engage their students in learning science, technology, engineering and math. The teachers built and programmed robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is a challenge for anyone — particularly for women and minorities. A workshop at Washington University in St. Louis July 25 aims to correct that by providing resources for women and underrepresented groups that can assist them in evaluating ideas and moving forward.

Washington University in St. Louis will welcome undergraduates from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, this July for the university’s inaugural five-week Fudan at Washington University Summer Program (July 17-Aug. 19). During the program, 28 Fudan students will enroll in two regularly scheduled courses in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Summer School, where they will study alongside their WUSTL counterparts.

From the land down under to the top of the world to the dusty streets of Soweto, the Edison Ovations Series presents groundbreaking performances by critically acclaimed artists from around the globe. For its 2011-12 season, Edison will visit modern India (by way of New Zealand) with Guru of Chai, revisit The Sound of Music with Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata and welcome back South Africa’s inspirational Soweto Gospel Choir.  

Measuring oxygen during eye surgery, investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered a potential reason that African-Americans are at higher risk of getting glaucoma than Caucasians. They found that oxygen levels are significantly higher in the eyes of African-Americans with glaucoma than in Caucasians.

Washington University’s Department of Genetics has established the Genome Technology Access Center to offer high-speed genome sequencing and other advanced genetic technologies to scientists both within and beyond the university.  

Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the brain cells involved in alcohol-related blackouts and the molecular mechanism that appears to underlie them. Alcohol interferes with key receptors in the brain, which in turn manufacture steroids that inhibit long-term potentiation, a process that strengthens the connections between neurons and is crucial to learning and memory.