Washington University receives major gift from Jack Taylor on behalf of Enterprise Holdings

Jack C. Taylor, philanthropist and founder of Enterprise Holdings, has given Washington University in St. Louis $25 million for undergraduate scholarships on behalf of the company, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced. The gift will be added to the existing endowed scholarship fund that was established in 2001 by Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car.

Notables

Pan Li, PhD, and Junjie Zhang, both trainees in the laboratory of Yoram Rudy, PhD, the Fred Saigh Distinguished Professor of Engineering, received awards for best poster presentations in the 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Cardiac Arrhythmia Mechanisms in Galveston, Texas, Feb. 13-18. Li received first prize for his project, “A Model of the Cardiac […]

Physics according to Bernatowicz

The premise behind Tom Bernatowicz’s innovative introductory physics course is that students should understand — even if they sometimes can’t fully share — the enthusiasm physicists feel their work. “We love physics, and we want our students to love it, too,” says Bernatowicz, PhD. “We’re not saying we’ll make it easy just so that they’ll love it, but we do want them to understand because it’s something we ourselves cherish and we want them to see how great it is.”

Helping Japan

Members of the Japanese Happy Hour (JHH) sold T-shirts in the Shell Lobby March 23 to raise funds for Japanese relief organizations.

Author and journalist Alan Webber speaks April 4

Design is a problem solver. Design is a provoker, a test lab for change. Design is a tool for breaking old patterns and discovering new ways of thinking. So argues Alan Webber, cofounder of Fast Company, the pioneering magazine written for and about progressive business leaders. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, Webber will deliver the annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The talk is co-sponsored by the Olin Business School. 

International Service and Higher Education symposium at WUSTL March 30-April 1

Leaders in higher education and international service will come together on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis March 30-April 1 for the International Service and Higher Education Symposium. “International service is not new to higher education, but it is at the threshold of a new era,” says Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and research director for the Center for Social Development at Washington University.

Veteran, humanitarian Rye Barcott to speak March 30

Rye Barcott, author of It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace, will present a lecture titled “Spark Change from Within” at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Brown Hall Lounge. Barcott co-founded the non-governmental organization Carolina for Kibera while he was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Dark matter, dark energy

Edward W. Kolb, PhD, a cosmologist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor at the University of Chicago, will deliver two talks April 15 and 16 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis’ McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.
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