Amy Kweskin regularly engages in what Barbara Feiner, the university’s CFO, calls “a balancing act.” As university treasurer, Kweskin works to ensure the university has enough liquidity to manage its day-to-day operations. But she also has to make sure the university is not keeping too much extra cash around, missing investment opportunities for longer-term gains. It’s a process that is “critical to the smooth running of our operations,” Feiner says.
Julie Andrews versus The Jackson 5? Bluegrass on the Swiss Alps? Led Zeppelin meets “The Lonely Goatherd”? Whatever has happened to “My Favorite Things”? Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata, that’s what. On Oct. 28, this cutting-edge New York ensemble will make its St. Louis debut with The Hills Are Alive, a genre-bending adaptation of songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music.
Plan to visit this fall’s Health Happening health and wellness fair, titled “Walk this Way.” The fair will be held from 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building atrium. It is open to university faculty, staff and students.
In a musical partnership stretching back nearly 40 years, the Fischer Duo has drawn critical acclaim for its performances of classical repertoire, for rediscovering neglected works of the past and for commissioning new works by contemporary composers. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, the Fischer Duo will showcase all three themes in a free concert for the Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series.
University College, the continuing education and professional studies division of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will host a Dec. 1 reception for prospective students of the Master of International Affairs program. The reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Jimmy’s on the Park, 706 De Mun Ave. in Clayton.
To ensure broad communication, certain key university policies are published on an annual basis in a special policy section of the Record. All members of the university community are essential to the continued endeavor for excellence in WUSTL’s teaching, research, service and patient-care missions.
Scientists have developed a way to evaluate new treatments for some forms of attention deficit disorder. Working in mice, researchers at the School of Medicine showed that they can use brain scans to quickly test whether drugs increase levels of dopamine. The same group found that raising dopamine levels in mice alleviates attention deficits caused by neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a condition that affects more than 100,000 people in the United States.
Itching is one of the most prevalent side effects of powerful, pain-killing drugs like morphine, oxycodone and other opioids. For many years, scientists have scratched their own heads about why the drugs so often induce itch while they are suppressing pain. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can control the opioid-induced itching without interfering with a drug’s ability to relieve pain.
Astrophysicist Richard A. Muller, PhD, will present, “Global Warming–New Results from an Independent Assessment,” for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Graham Chapel. His talk is the annual Arthur Holly Compton Lecture.
Pratim Biswas, PhD, is the new Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton installed him in a ceremony Monday, Oct. 10, in Whitaker Hall. Biswas, chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering (EECE), is one of the world’s leading experts in aerosol science.
