Douglass C. North, PhD, co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the Spencer T. Olin Professor
Emeritus in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis,
died Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, at his summer home in Benzonia, Mich. He was 95.
Three faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis are among 347 new fellows named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. David W. Piston, PhD; Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD; and Jeffrey M. Zacks, PhD, will receive the highest honor awarded by AAAS in recognition of their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Who were the Pilgrims? Who were the Puritans? And how did they view Native Americans? As the annual Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Abram Van Engen, PhD, assistant professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the beliefs of the two groups, the differences between them and the theology of sympathy.
Researchers at the School of Medicine have received a five-year, $6.5 million grant to study the physiological underpinnings of developmental disabilities in children and to use the findings to search for novel ways to improve such children’s lives. The grant renews funding for the university’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), which is directed by John N. Constantino, MD (left) and Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD.
Cindy Brantmeier, PhD, chair of the Department of Education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and principal investigator in the Language Research Laboratory, provides free professional development to teachers at St. Louis Public School District’s Oak Hill Elementary, where half of all students are learning English. The results are amazing: After posting some of the region’s lowest test scores in language arts, Oak Hill students increased their school’s score by 20 points and it is now fully accredited.
Israel’s parliament has passed a law funding long-term savings accounts for all newborns, based on a proposal developed by Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and associate director of the Center for Social Development (CSD), and on research efforts led by Michael Sherraden, PhD, the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and director of CSD.
U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Nov. 23 a record-breaking $160 billion merger with Irish firm Allergan, the biggest merger to date involving the controversial strategy of tax inversion. The move marks the beginning of the end of the ability to stop corporate tax inversions under current tax rules, said Adam Rosenzweig, JD, professor of law and an expert on international tax law at Washington University in St. Louis.
A personalized method for testing the effectiveness of drugs that treat multiple myeloma may predict quickly and more accurately the best treatments for individual patients with the bone marrow cancer. The process, developed by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, also may aid patients with leukemia or lymphoma.
In trauma patients experiencing severe bleeding, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will evaluate a drug already approved to minimize blood loss in people suffering from hemophilia — a genetic clotting disorder — or heavy menstrual periods.