Newsroom Stories

More than 100 area executives joined 30 Olin Business School student leaders at Washington University in St. Louis in discussing topics from U.S. economic policy to business growth during the third annual Leaders in Business Summit Oct. 14 in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center.

The Brown School’s Transdisciplinary Problem Solving course on global hunger and undernutrition hosted a Hunger Banquet Oct. 18 in Brown Hall Lounge to recognize World Food Day. Hunger Banquet guests were given tickets as they entered the event representing food allowances from different income levels around the world. Mirroring the current crisis, food prices rose throughout the event, limiting the amount of food people could purchase. Video features comments by Brown School students Tess Thompson and Susan Vorkoper. 

People visiting the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) on the campus of Washington University School of Medicine might be surprised to hear live music as they arrive at the facility’s bustling lobby. But for the past decade, the CAM has offered not only patient care at nearly two dozen treatment centers and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, but also a tradition of impromptu entertainment.

Highlights include WUSTL law professor Brian Tamanaha on job market for law school graduates (U.S. News & World Report); Olin’s Carol Johanek discussing a new dog food commercial that features high-frequency noises only dogs can hear (Discovery News); and coverage of a WUSTL architecture competition that highlights the Jewish Sukkot holiday (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). More>>>

Front-of-package nutrition labels already exist on many foods in the U.S., but an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel recently recommended standardizing and simplifying this information through a rating system modeled after the Energy Star program. “You shouldn’t have to be a nutrition scientist to make healthy food choices for your family,” says Matthew Kreuter, PhD, member of the IOM panel and director of the Health Communications Research Laboratory at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

As the number 11 has become the rallying number for the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans this season, could 11 also factor in poet Carl Phillips winning the most coveted literary prize in 2011? Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, has been selected — for the fourth time — as a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry. While the Cardinals are pursuing their 11th World Series title, Phillips is nominated for his 11th collection of poetry, Double Shadow.

While the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association claims the World Series will provide a $24.4 million economic boost to the area, a Washington University in St. Louis economist says it won’t change the area’s economic outlook as a whole.

Jean Ponzi, green resources manager at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s EarthWays Center, spoke Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the School of Medicine on “Sustainability 101” as part of Campus Sustainability Week activites on the Danforth and Medical campuses. Friday is the final day of activities on both campuses.

What can art learn from ecology? It’s a question posed both implicitly and explicitly by visionary artist Tomás Saraceno, whose plans for an airborne city render obsolete the very idea of “environmental footprint.” At 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “A Sustainable Future,” an interdisciplinary panel discussion held in conjunction with the exhibition Tomás Saraceno: Cloud Specific.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other legislators are calling for baseball players to stop using chewing tobacco on the field and in front of their fans. “This is an important public health issue,” says Douglas Luke, PhD, director of the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “Not only is smokeless tobacco use hazardous, but young people who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to also start smoking cigarettes.” Luke notes that smokeless tobacco use is a growing problem, particularly for the youngest baseball fans.