Newsroom Stories

Can getting from a class at the west end of campus immediately to a class at the east end leave you huffing and puffing? Starting in fall 2012, classes on the Danforth Campus will begin 10 minutes after their published start time, announced Provost Edward S. Macias, PhD. The only exception will be School of Law classes. This change extends the time between classes from seven minutes to 10 minutes. 

John A. Cooper, MD, PhD, professor of cell biology and physiology, has received a four-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for research titled “Actin and Microtubule-Based Mechanisms for Functions of NK Lymphoid Cells.” … Regina F. Frey, PhD, director of The Teaching Center and professor of the practice in chemistry in […]

WUSTL recycled 556,623 pounds of waste this spring to rank in the top 5 percent nationally — No. 15 out of 363 schools — in the annual RecycleMania contest’s Gorilla category. WUSTL also increased its diversion rate — or percentage of total waste recycled or reused — by nearly 10 percent and reduced the total waste produced by 4.5 pounds per person during the competition.

Pinelopi Goldberg, PhD, the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Economics at Yale University, will address “Exchange Rates & Prices: A Micro Approach” for the Distinguished Women in Economics & Strategy lecture series at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in Simon Hall, Room 103. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by WUSTL’s Center for Research in Economics & Strategy.

Ken Harrington (second from right), managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, jokes with members of team Edele, which was awarded $10,000 from the center and the $5,000 student prize during the annual YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition April 14 in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. Edele means “opportunity” in Amharic and is a social enterprise selling running apparel with the proceeds funding organizations addressing malnutrition in developing nations.

Students from the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club Adams Park Unit paint a colorful mural promoting the Tour de Grove professional bike race in the Grove neighborhood bordering the Washington University Medical Center. The Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. received a grant from the St. Cronin Housing Corp. to fund four murals throughout the neighborhood.

Indira Mysorekar and a team of researchers at the School of Medicine are studying asymptomatic infections in the placenta and uterine lining to see if they may play a role in preterm birth.  

Lisa Jones (right) talks with Guillermina Lozano, PhD, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after the Minority Research Scholars Symposium April 20 at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The symposium was sponsored by the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Diversity Programs Office.

Washington University in St. Louis will award five honorary degrees during the university’s 150th Commencement May 20. During the ceremony, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. The other honorary degree recipients are John H. Biggs, PhD; Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD; Griffin P. Rodgers, MD; and George W. von Mallinckrodt.

In the late 20th century, Chinese authorities enacted sweeping legal reforms, but in recent years, officials have stepped back from these reforms in the face of increasing citizen protests and concerns about social stability. “Horrified by the chaos of the Maoist era, Chinese authorities rebuilt their legal system in the 1980s and 1990s,” says Carl Minzner, JD, leading expert on Chinese law and politics and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Now Chinese Party and court authorities have begun to move away from the reform track of the last several decades, reasserting tighter control over the Chinese judiciary, restricting the activities of public interest lawyers, and resurrecting earlier mediation practices.