Record

The Women’s Society of Washington University (WSWU) is seeking nominations of full-time senior women students for the Harriet K. Switzer Leadership Award. Nominations should be sent to the WSWU Office at Campus Box 1081 or emailed to sharon_britt@wustl.edu by Friday, Feb. 10. This award is presented to the honoree at WSWU’s annual membership meeting in April.

Michael Suarez, SJ, will speak on “Rare Books in the Digital World” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium on the Danforth Campus. Suarez directs the Rare Book School, an independent, nonprofit institute for the study of books, printing, and related subjects located at the University of Virginia.

Betty Birnbaum Hearsh, assistant in dress design in 1951 and instructor in design, art and fashion from 1964-1976, died Dec. 23, 2011. She was 84.

The Longer Life Foundation is seeking applications for research funding in 2012. The group plans to fund four or five grants in 2012. Letters of Intent are due by Feb. 20.

The Division of Emergency Medicine is offering a two-year fellowship designed to allow emergency medicine trainees and others interested in clinical, translational or basic research careers to develop the skills to become successful, independent investigators. The program, which is coordinated through the Clinical Research Training Center, culminates in a master’s degree of science in clinical investigation.

David J. Murray, MD, chose pediatric anesthesia as a way to gain the confidence that  he could manage the very worst that might happen, no matter how bad it got. Now, he uses clinical simulation to help students and residents learn to confront emergencies.

Because of an all-day, collaborative staff retreat on Friday, Feb. 3, involving both Public Affairs and Medical Public Affairs staffs, there will be no Record email on Monday, Feb. 5. The Record website, record.wustl.edu, will continue to be updated as needed. The Record email will return Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Phillip Todd Chazen, a business development specialist in the Career Center at Washington University in St. Louis, died Jan. 26. He was 37.

PB&Joy, the university-wide food drive, soon will be under way and all faculty, staff and students are invited to join a planning committee. Anyone interested is asked to attend a planning meeting Feb. 2 or 3 in Danforth University Center. Last year’s drive yielded three tons of food for area people in need.

The lab of Jospeh Jez, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, crystallizes proteins so that people can see what they look like in three dimensions. But getting proteins to crystallize is difficult and involves an element of luck — so one of Jez’s main jobs is to be the lab’s unreasonable optimist.