Newsroom Stories

Under Secretary of the Army Joseph W. Westphal, PhD, will preside over the 93rd annual Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony at Washington University at 2 p.m. Friday, May 13. The ceremony in which 17 cadets will become commissioned officers in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve or Army National Guard will be held at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center, 6475 Forsyth Blvd., on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus. Westphal will also deliver a talk on leadership and the future of the Army and attend a reception for the new lieutenants and their families.  

Jeryl Hayes, Outstanding Graduate in the School of Law, learned at an early age to speak up for her gender, and now she intends to devote her legal career to women’s issues. “Jeryl is passionate, quick, kind, organized, diligent and wholly committed to engagement with issues of power and privilege,” says Laura Rosenbury, JD, professor of law and associate dean for research and faculty development.

Srinivasan Sridharan, PhD, professor of civil engineering at Washington University in St. Louis since 1980, died April 24, 2011, at St. Johns Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis from complications of treatment for leukemia. He was 69.

Nutrition and longevity researchers, including Luigi Fontana, MD, PhD, have found more evidence that eating less may help people live longer. They report that individuals who significantly reduce their calorie intake have lower core body temperatures. Mice and rats consuming fewer calories also have lower core body temperatures, and they live significantly longer than littermates eating a standard diet. 

President Barack Obama released his birth certificate on April 27, but “birther” arguments continue. Election and constitutional law expert Gregory Magarian, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that Obama clearly meets the constitutional qualifications to hold his office. Magarian discusses various situations where “natural born citizen” (as required by Art. II, sec., 1 cl. 4 of the Constitution) may come into question during a presidential election.

Washington University’s renowned Genome Center has been renamed the Washington University Genome Institute. With the name change comes a new focus on multi-disciplinary, genome-based investigations to uncover the genetic underpinnings of human diseases. 

Matthew C. Spitzer, MD, president of the board of directors for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders USA, will be the keynote speaker at Washington University School of Medicine’s 2011 Commencement.

Sports updates for the week of May 9, 2011.

In the first large trial of its kind in the United States, researchers have shown that estrogen-lowering drugs can shrink tumors and reduce mastectomy rates for patients with stage 2 or 3 breast cancer.

Since childhood, Lucy Gellman has been entranced by the world around her. She brought that natural curiosity, and a deep sense of learning through the visual, with her to WUSTL. She already has made a significant impact in art historical research and as a leader both on campus and in the St. Louis community, and now Gellman, Outstanding Graduate in the College of Arts & Sciences, is ready to take what she’s learned and begin to carve out a life and career of impact and meaning.