With the “Right to Work” movement growing in Wisconsin and other states, a majority of states may soon bar employees and unions from negotiating agreements that require non-members to contribute to the costs of representing them. For unions to survive and thrive, at least two significant changes are necessary, argues Marion Crain, JD, vice provost and the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis.
Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Community Service Office and associate director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis, and LuAnn Oros, community consultant on hunger and homelessness in the Community Service Office, recently were recognized by Operation Food Search as important food drive partners.
Stuart C. Sweet, MD, PhD, an international leader in pediatric lung transplantation, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the United Network for Organ Sharing/Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Scientists are eager to make use of stem cells’ extraordinary power to transform into nearly any kind of cell, but that ability also is cause for concern in cancer treatment. New research at the School of Medicine has revealed that these stem cells are present even in slow-growing, less aggressive tumors.
Colorism, the practice of discrimination based on skin tone, even among people of color, is rarely addressed publicly and is uniquely different from racism. The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law will address this growing international issue in what organizers believe is the first international colorism conference on U.S. soil. The conference, “Global Perspectives on Colorism,” will be held Thursday and Friday, April 2 and 3, in Anheuser-Busch Hall.
Can theater movement-training techniques help real-life computer scientists improve human/robot interactions? Beginning March 26, director Annamaria Pileggi will put that theory to the test with “Sky Sky Sky,” a world premiere drama featuring three human actors and one PR2 robot. Performances take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre, located in Mallinckrodt Center, 6465 Forsyth Blvd.
The School of Medicine’s KL2 Career Development Awards Program has selected its newest scholars. The training program promotes the career development of future clinical investigators.
Carl Frieden, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis,
has received a five-year, $1.56 million grant from the National
Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for
research titled “Alzheimer’s Disease: Defining the apoE-amyloid-beta interaction.”
A reformulation of OxyContin (left) that makes it less likely to be abused than the older formulation (right) has curtailed the drug’s illicit use. But researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a significant percentage still abuse the drug despite package labeling that emphasizes its abuse-deterrent properties.
Oscar-nominated film “Timbuktu,” the Mauritanian masterpiece about Islamist extremists and the community that dares to defy them, headlines this year’s African Film Festival at Washington University in St. Louis, held March 27-29. Other highlights include a youth matinee and a discussion with filmmaker Ekwa Msangi.
