Faculty Achievement Award nominations sought

Nominations are being accepted for Washington University’s annual Faculty Achievement Awards, known as the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award and the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award. The Compton Award is given to a distinguished member of the faculty from one of the six Danforth Campus schools and the Cori Award to a faculty member from the School of Medicine.The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, Feb. 15.

Gene in eye melanomas linked to good prognosis

Melanomas that develop in the eye often are fatal. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have identified a mutated gene in melanoma tumors of the eye that appears to predict a good outcome.

First Amendment weakens gun rights advocates’ insurrection argument

Many gun rights advocates have asserted that the Second Amendment – which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms – serves a collective interest in deterring and, if necessary, violently deposing a tyrannical federal government. “The strength of this assertion is significantly weakened by the power of the First Amendment,” says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “We have spent almost a century developing the First Amendment as the main vehicle for dynamic political change. Debate and political expression is preferable to insurrection as a means of political change and our legal culture’s attention to the First and Second Amendments reflects a long-settled choice of debate over violent uprising.”

CGI U application deadline Jan. 30

The final application deadline for students interested in participating in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is Wednesday, Jan. 30. The annual CGI U meeting brings together students, youth organizations, topic experts and celebrities to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

Apte new Cibis Professor of Ophthalmology

Rajendra S. Apte, MD, PhD, is the new Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The second faculty member to hold the Cibis chair, Apte focuses his research on inflammation and aberrant blood vessel growth that together wreak havoc in eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older Americans.

Embedding with startups to study entrepreneurship

Washington University’s business, engineering, and law schools are collaborating on a new course in 2013 that will embed students in the center of the thriving entrepreneur community in downtown St. Louis. Students will trade their campus classroom for working space at T-REx, a new St. Louis tech incubator that offers startup companies affordable offices in the historic Railway Exchange Building.

Martha Collins on craft of poetry Jan. 24

In Blue Front (2006), poet Martha Collins draws on news accounts and historical documents to depict the brutal, 1909 lynching in Cairo, IL. On Thursday, Jan. 24, Collins, the Visiting Hurst Professor of Creative Writing in Arts & Sciences, she will present a free public lecture on the craft of poetry.