Newsroom Stories

Despite all the “irrational exuberance” April 26 surrounding the first-ever news conference conducted by a Federal Reserve bank chair, the issues that Chairman Ben Bernanke chose to dance around were equally unsurprising as those he managed to address, says Michele Boldrin, PhD, the chair of the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

No room in the truck for the futon, extra boxes of macaroni or nearly new T-shirts during move-out? Instead of throwing those items away, donate them to Share Our Stuff (SOS). WUSTL’s SOS program seeks to reduce waste and share goods typically thrown away during on-campus and off-campus move-out with those in need in the St. Louis region. SOS hosts drop-off points at Danforth Campus residential areas and off-campus.

Both the Danforth and Medical campuses at WUSTL held many events to celebrate the week of Earth Day April 18-23. At the Medical Campus, Courtney Pike and Liz Wright talk to Changguo Tang, PhD, about gardening and water conservation in front of the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University School of Medicine April 20.

Gary S. Wihl, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, recognized the challenges faculty were having in accepting some of the more prestigious and highly competitive fellowships and last year instituted a Competitive Fellowship Leave program, which allows humanities and social sciences faculty members to minimize the unintended negative consequences of accepting competitive fellowships.

Rodolphe L. (Rudy) Motard, DSc, professor of chemical engineering and chairman of the chemical engineering department from 1978-1991, died April 23, 2011, in South St. Louis County surrounded by his family. He was 85.

The Graduate Student Senate of Arts & Sciences recognized faculty members with Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards during its 12th annual awards ceremony and reception April 13 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

Srinivasan Sridharan, PhD, professor of civil engineering since 1980, died April 24, 2011. He was 69.

Between 40-50 Washington University in St. Louis students each year make up the January Program, a unique experience in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. It allows talented students like Ogi Kwon opportunities to transition to WUSTL and arrive on campus five months after their peers without skipping a beat.

Twelve students at Washington University in St. Louis who had participated in an unusual biology course as freshmen, recently shared the honors as authors on a peer-reviewed research paper that appeared in the journal PLoS One. They had found two bacteriophages, viruses that prey exclusively on bacteria, in the soil of  Clayton, Mo.and University City, Mo., both suburbs of St. Louis. As the finders, they had the naming rights; the new phages are called Angelica and Uncle Howie.

Three Arts & Sciences juniors have recently been awarded prestigious national scholarships, with a fourth receiving an honorable mention. Two students received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and one student received the Morris K. Udall Scholarship for the 2011-12 academic year.