Sports update July 2011: Phillips named academic All-American

Rising senior Liz Phillips of the women’s track & field team was named a Capital One First-Team Academic All-American June 23. She is the first WUSTL women’s track & field student athlete to garner academic All-America honors since Morgen Leonard-Fleckman received first-team accolades in 2008. Other WUSTL sports updates will be added throughout the month of July, 2011.

University College hosts ‘Food For Thought’ reception for prospective MLA students Aug. 4

WUSTL’s University College in Arts & Sciences will host a reception titled “Food For Thought” for prospective students of the Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) program at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4, at Jimmy’s on the Park in Clayton, Mo. The evening’s topic will be “Why Shakespeare Matters.” At the event, prospective students can meet faculty, staff and students from University College and learn about the MLA program.

WUSTL law students featured in TIME Bill of Rights special

Washington University in St. Louis School of Law students Kailey Burger, Deona DeClue and Joseph Franklin are featured in TIME magazine’s online Fourth of July coverage focusing on the U.S. Constitution. Visit time.com. Reporters filmed people across the United States reading the Bill of Rights. Burger, DeClue and Franklin read the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments, which focus on due process, speedy trials and civil trials by jury. The students were filmed in St. Louis’ historic Old Courthouse, site of the Dred Scott case. 

Cornerstone awards

Cassandra Newburg accepts an award at the Cornerstone Celebration in Holmes Lounge April 20. Newburg was being honored for her role as a Calc Peer-Led Team Learning leader this year. Also at the awards ceremony, five students and two faculty members received a Sony VAIO S Series Notebook and technology package as part of the Sony Electronics Scholarship Award.

New procedure treats atrial fibrillation

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are performing a new procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heartbeat. Available at only a handful of U.S. medical centers, this “hybrid” procedure combines minimally invasive surgical techniques with the latest advances in catheter ablation. The two-pronged approach gives doctors access to both the inside and outside of the heart at the same time, helping to more completely block the erratic electrical signals that cause atrial fibrillation.

Faculty Senate adopts Open Access Resolution

The WUSTL Faculty Senate adopted an Open Access Resolution that encourages faculty members to make their scholarly and creative works freely available online. The resolution also includes a recommendation for University Libraries and the Bernard Becker Medical Library to develop the capacity to capture faculty scholarship, make it publicly accessible and preserve it over time.

Tiny ring laser accurately detects and counts nanoparticles

A ring-shaped laser no bigger than a pinprick can accurately detect and count individual viruses, the particles that jumpstart cloud formation or those that contaminate the air we breathe. A particle disturbs the light circulating in the ring, splitting the lasing frequency. This split is a measure of the particle’s size.