Washington People: Karen Seibert

Karen Seibert, PhD, research professor of pathology and immunology and of genetics, helps scientists connect and collaborate. Seibert, who does so with a mixture of warmth, optimism, enthusiasm and humor, is the director of Genomic Pathology Services at Washington University, a groundbreaking service that simultaneously analyzes many different genes to help patients and their doctors identify the best treatment options.

Engineers Week features events for all

Engineers Week 2014 begins Sunday, Feb. 16, and runs through Feb. 22. Events at WUSTL are centered around the Space Race, to bring engineering to life for students, educators and the campus community. There will also be contests in butter sculpting and paper airplane-making.

New guides developed to help communities address tobacco issues

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the surgeon general’s landmark report on smoking, the Brown School’s Center for Public Health Systems Science, in partnership with the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, has published two new tobacco control guides — Policy Strategies and Pricing Policy — that aim to give state and local communities the guidance and resources needed to move tobacco-control policies forward.

New SCOTUS brief argues Hobby Lobby’s request is unconstitutional

​The popular arts and crafts store Hobby Lobby is seeking a religious exemption from covering certain forms of contraception it would be required to provide under the contraception mandate of the Affordable Care Act. The case is headed to the Supreme Court, with oral arguments set to begin this spring. “Granting the exemption would shift the cost of accommodating Hobby Lobby’s religious exercise to employees who do not share its beliefs,” argues Elizabeth Sepper, JD, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Such cost-shifting violates the Establishment Clause.” Sepper is one of several experts who have authored an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court arguing the unconstitutionality of Hobby Lobby’s request.

National Book Award winner Mary Szybist

Incarnadine is a fleshy hue, a blushing, pinkish crimson, akin to salmon or rust or rose, the color of pale sunsets, of angels’ robes, of water stained by blood. But blue is the color that dominates “Incarnadine” (2013), Mary Szybist’s second collection: the blues of bright skies and dark oceans, of pretty dresses and ominous clouds, of feathers and bubbles and bruises long past healing.