Mathematician John E. McCarthy, PhD, was installed March 2 as the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences
in a ceremony in Holmes Lounge. Following the formal installation and the presentation
of the professorship medallion, McCarthy spoke on “Why Pure Mathematics
Matters.”
By mapping the evolution of cancer cells in patients with myelodysplastic
syndromes who later died of leukemia, Timothy Graubert, Matthew Walter and their Washington University colleagues have found clues to suggest
that targeted cancer drugs should be aimed at mutations that develop
early in the disease.
With every meal, immune cells in the intestine stand like sentries at a citadel, turning away harmful bacteria but allowing vitamins and nutrients to pass. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the cells that chaperone food antigens, or proteins, in the intestine so that the immune system doesn’t mount an attack. Their discovery provides scientists with a potential target for therapies against inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and food allergies.
Louis W. Sullivan, MD, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the administration of President George H. W. Bush and president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine, will lead a public forum on the future of health care at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center, 320 S. Euclid Ave., at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Keith Sawyer, PhD, associate professor of education in Arts & Sciences, will deliver the annual Phi Beta Kappa Lecture for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Monday, March 26, in College Hall on the university’s Danforth Campus. His talk, “Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration,” is free and open to the public.
Through a new partnership between the Habif Health and Wellness Center and the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, students now can have diagnostic X-rays taken right on the South 40. WUSTL has invested in equipment and human resources to make quality medical care even more accessible to nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
Social Security’s cost of living adjustments (COLA) are designed to protect against the erosion of retiree purchasing power when prices go up, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). “Now Social Security self-styled ‘reformers’ seek to lower COLA every year based on their claim that COLA overstates inflation,” says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, a nationally recognized expert on Social Security. The proposed substitute for the current CPI formula, ‘Chained COLA,’ is based on the assumption that benefit recipients substitute lower-priced goods as prices go up. “This the assumption is unrealistic for those millions who only have access to convenience stores that typically offer fewer choice and higher prices,” says Bernstein, the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. “And, further, it is not reasonable to assume that most consumers can outwit the wiles of merchandising experts.”
Sophomore Lucas Tcheyan (left) of Sigma Chi Fraternity and freshman Avital Mandil of South 40 Lee/Beaumont Residential College accept the Green Cup award on behalf of their team members at the Green Cup Awards ceremony March 7 at Ursa’s Fireside on the South 40. The Green Cup recognized the South 40 residential college, North Side team and fraternity that reduced its energy use by the highest percentage during the four-week competition, which ended Feb. 29.
Washington University in St. Louis has been named the 104th national StormReady University by the National Weather Service. The designation recognizes communities — schools, cities and businesses — that take measures to ensure they are prepared for a
severe-weather emergency.
Barry W. Lynn, JD, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, will present “It’s Religion, Stupid, Not the Economy” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, in the Knight Center, Room 200 on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is the Thomas Hennings Lecture, jointly sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics and the Assembly Series.
