Arts & Sciences

Washington University is in the spotlight for its pivotal role in the Genomics Education Partnership, a collaborative effort to provide research experience in genomics to undergraduate classrooms across the country.

Elizabeth K. Barry, a first-year student in Arts & Sciences, died Dec. 8 in her room in Rubelmann House residence hall on the Danforth Campus. Barry, of Homewood, Ill., was 19.

Harper LeeWith its appealing evocation of childhood and powerful call for tolerance and social justice, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the rare American novel that can be discovered in adolescence yet rewards adult re-reading. In January the book will serve as centerpiece of a National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program. Coordinated by Washington University, the program will feature dozens of lectures, readings, art exhibits, theater productions, book discussions, film festivals and other events exploring the themes of Lee’s novel.

A celebration of the lives and legacy of Donald Finkel, poet-in-residence emeritus of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, who died Nov. 15, 2008, and his wife, poet and novelist Constance Urdang, who died in 1996, will be held at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 12 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge on the WUSTL campus.

PikaardA team led by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has made a breakthrough in understanding the phenomenon of nucleolar dominance, the silencing of an entire parental set of ribosomal RNA genes in a hybrid plant or animal. Since the machinery involved in nucleolar dominance is some of the same machinery that can go haywire in diseases such as cancer, Pikaard and his collaborators’ research may have important implications for applied medical research. Click here for a podcast from Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News: Interview with Craig Pikaard.

Photo by Joe AngelesChancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced during a news conference Dec. 2 the establishment of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization.

Using what cognitive psychologists are discovering in the laboratory to improve learning in the classroom is the goal of a $6.47 million collaborative activity grant to Washington University from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced during a Dec. 2 news conference the establishment of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. The university has dedicated more than $60 million in financial resources during the past year to advance education and research related to energy, environment and sustainability.

Ellen Damschen & Forest ServiceA new paper on ecological corridors co-authored by Washington University biologists Ellen Damschen and John Orrock in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was published online Dec. 1 as part of a special issue on movement ecology. This research reveals that by understanding how species move, you can predict if and how corridors work.

A news conference to announce a clean coal initiative with a goal of making St. Louis the nation’s center for clean coal research will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, at Whitaker Hall on the Washington University Danforth Campus. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, along with heads of Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Ameren, will make the announcement.