Newsroom Stories

Yvonne Sparks, senior manager of community development for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, delivers the keynote address for the fifth annual “Financial Freedom Seminar: Recovering From the Recession, Reaching for the Future,” on Jan. 22, in Brown Hall. The Society of Black Student Social Workers at the Brown School hosted the seminar in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

An international team of scientists, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has decoded the DNA of a Sumatran orangutan. With this genome as a reference, the scientists then sequenced the genomes of five additional Sumatran and five Bornean orangutans, they report in the journal Nature.

The university’s Bearly Drivers carpool program celebrated its one-year anniversary in January by giving away an iPad through a drawing to a Bearly Drivers carpool member. The program, which includes 76 carpool members in 34 carpools, allows full-time employees on the Danforth, North and West campuses to save money through reduced driving and parking costs, reserve in-demand parking spots, and win prizes through monthly drawings.

The 2011 Geriatrics Symposium, organized by the St. Louis Times and hosted by the Brown School, was held Jan. 7 and focused on “Healthy Aging: Health Promotion & Disease Prevention.” “The event was a multidisciplinary look at aging,” says Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at the Brown School who delivered a talk at the symposium. “The speakers made it clear that social, psychological, biological and spiritual aspects of aging must be considered in promoting a healthy aging society.”

A group of seven third-year physical therapy students went to Argentina for about 10 days in early January to work with the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order of nuns established by Mother Teresa.

The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law recently released the text of a proposed multilateral treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. Leila Nadya Sadat, JD, director of the initiative, says that this is the first time that such a convention has been drafted.

It’s time to nominate School of Medicine staff for this year’s Dean’s Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor awarded to a medical school staff member.

Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and former deputy secretary of state from 1994-2001, will present “Angels of Our Nature: Polarization in America and Its Challenge to Universities and Think Tanks” at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, in Whitaker Hall Auditorium at Washington University in St. Louis. Talbott’s policy address will focus on the challenge of polarization in American politics, considered by many to be at its worst level since the late 19th century. He will reflect on the role of universities and think tanks, bastions of fact-based research and academic freedom, as antidotes to the current maladies of America’s political climate.

Banana-slinging catapult? Check! Smoke ring cannons? Check! Bright orange lab coat and goofy protective goggles? Check! Say hello to Doktor Kaboom!, “ze smartest man to ever enter any room.” Later this month, the humble Doktor will bring his sidesplitting, family-friendly tour of the modern scientific method to Washington University’s Edison Theatre for a special one-time-only performance. 

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis has announced the recipients of the Innovation Grants for Community-Based Teaching and Learning. The grants are intended to provide faculty members with financial support for curriculum development and implementation. The Gephardt Institute also offers technical expertise in key areas of community-based teaching and learning, such as reflection assignments, evaluation methods and tools for working effectively with community partners.