Newsroom Stories

Planning to fill out a tournament bracket during this year’s NCAA March Madness tournament? Be careful. The games might not be as enjoyable if there’s a wager on the line, says a researcher at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

A Cannes Film Festival-winning science fiction film from Kenya, Pumzi (Air), is one of the highlights of the sixth annual African Film Festival Friday, March 25, through Sunday, March 27 at Washington University in St. Louis. This year’s eight films, all of which will be shown in Brown Hall, Room 100, focus on themes of immigration and personal responsibility.

The School of Engineering & Applied Science’s Alumni Achievement Awards dinner was held Feb. 23. A reception for the five recipients was held in Brauer Hall, followed by dinner in Whitaker Hall. Three alumni received Alumni Achievement Awards, one was given the Young Alumni Award and one was honored with the Dean’s Award.

A team of researchers, including earth and planetary scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, for the first time has been able to reconstruct both ocean temperature and general ice thickness of massive glaciers during one of the biggest mass extinctions in history hundreds of millions of years ago. The extinction, which occurred between 445 and 443 million years ago in the Late Ordovician Period, is one of the five biggest mass extinctions in Earth history, wiping out an estimated 75 percent of simple marine species.

Simeon Schlaggar, son of Bradley Schlaggar, MD, PhD, examines a brain at NeuroDay at the Saint Louis Science Center. The event was jointly sponsored by Washington University and the Saint Louis Science Center and was staffed in part by Washington University graduate students.

Helen Piwnica-Worms, PhD, the Gerty T. Cori Professor, has been named head of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Bridging St. Louis and Shanghai and expanding the scope of WUSTL’s academic programs far beyond the Danforth Campus, a new study abroad program is being launched at Fudan University. Aimed at examining Chinese language, culture and society, and the role of China in global and historical contexts, the comprehensive educational program is scheduled to begin in fall 2011.

The New York Times
 He may be bound, but this Prometheus still manages to rock
 03/08/2011 For the playwright Steven Sater the idea of having one’s life altered by flames is intensely personal. When Sater was an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, his apartment caught fire and engulfed his bedroom; he jumped out […]

Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the top-ranked chess player in America and 8th in the world at age 23, was on campus Feb. 26 for a question-and-answer session and an opportunity for students to test their skills against the best. Nakamura needed just two-and-a-half hours to win 42 games of bullet chess. The event was sponsored by the Washington University Chess Club.

Los Angeles Times
 The debate over prostate cancer tests
 03/05/2011 Do PSAs (screening tests for prostate cancer) save lives? A 2009 study followed more than 76,000 American men ages 55 through 74 for 10 years. Half the men were offered yearly PSA tests and the other half received “usual care,” which sometimes included the test. […]