Newsroom Stories

The inaugural Lavender Recognition Ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, in College Hall in the South 40 House. Co-hosted by LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership and the Social Justice Center, the ceremony honors the achievements and contributions of graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer students and their allies.

New data offer hints to why Parkinson’s disease so selectively harms brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine, says Karen O’Malley, PhD, a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Despite efforts to freeze non-security discretionary spending, the budgets of federal regulatory agencies are increasing in both 2011 and 2012. The estimated cost of running regulatory agencies in fiscal year 2011 is $54.9 billion, a 5.7 percent increase over 2010 spending, according to a new study from the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

Three School of Medicine nurses received the 2011 Excellence in Nursing Award from St. Louis Magazine April 20. The award winners were Jeane Kuensting, nurse practitioner in the Department of Internal Medicine’s Bone Marrow Transplant division; Jennifer Seigel, nurse practitioner in the Department of Surgery; and Lori Watkins, head nurse in the Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases.

Two Washington University scientists have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. John E. Heuser, MD, professor of cell biology and physiology, and Scott J. Hultgren, PhD, the Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology and director of the Center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research, are among the 72 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the academy this year.

Jennifer Hoefert always knew she wanted to spend her career helping people. It’s the “how” that changed. Hoefert, 26, a former deaf education specialist and second-grade teacher, will receive a post-baccalaureate certificate in premedical studies at Commencement May 20. The post-baccalaureate program in University College in Arts & Sciences helps adult students who lack an undergraduate background in the sciences earn the requirements needed for medical school.

Frank Yin, PhD (left), the Stephen F. and Camilla T. Brauer Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, presents Yunfei Shi, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, with the grand prize in a Tsinghua University Alumni Photo Contest during a Tsinghua Centenary Celebration, held April 30 in Whitaker Auditorium at Washington University.

WUSTL’s first all-campus food drive set a cash donation record and collected nearly 3 tons of food, much of which will go to the 135,000 St. Louis-area children at risk for hunger this summer. “This amount from the Washington University PB&Joy Food Drive was the second-largest amount collected in the virtual food drive’s five-year history,” says Gary Wells, Operation Food Search general manger.

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.  

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.