Arts & Sciences

David KilperMiddle-school mathematics teachers met this summer to strengthen curricula thanks to the University’s Science Outreach program.

Washington University is among 15 universities across the country selected by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., to participate in its “Kauffman Campuses Initiative,” a new program aimed at making entrepreneurship education a common and accessible opportunity campus-wide. The Kauffman program builds on an emerging trend at colleges and universities — expanding […]

Washington University in St. Louis and Monsanto Co., Creve Coeur, Mo., have been issued patent 6,608,241 by the United States Patent Office. The patent is for a technique that protects crops from devastating viral diseases that currently threaten or harm many important food crops. The inventors are Roger Beachy, Ph.D., president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and professor in the department of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D., Monsanto chief technology officer and former Monsanto research scientist Stephen G. Rogers.

The human brainThe failing memories of older adults, including their tendency to remember things that never happened, are not an inevitable consequence of aging, according to Washington University research presented Aug. 8 at the American Psychological Association meeting in Toronto. The study offers evidence that false memories and other cognitive declines often associated with normal aging can be more directly linked to measurable declines in executive control functions in frontal brain lobes.

Harriet Hosmer, Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr., 1866, Carrara marbleSince its founding in 1853, Washington University in St. Louis has grown from a small private school to one of the nation’s premiere research universities. Influence 150: 150 Years of Shaping a City, a Nation, the World, which opens Sept. 5 at the Gallery of Art, celebrates that journey with hundreds of archival photographs, drawings, posters, letters, scrapbooks and other materials chronicling key events, people and discoveries in the life of the university.

Martin Luther King, Jr.August 28 marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, one of the most famous and stirring addresses in U.S. history. In commemoration, the International Writers Center (IWC) in Arts & Sciences will host a public roundtable with St. Louis scholars and civil rights activists. The event also includes a video presentation of King’s entire, 15-minute address.

EarlyGerald Early, Ph.D., Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, contends that the Korean War was a driving force behind integration efforts during the early years of the civil rights movement and was therefore one of the most important conflicts in our nation’s history. In his forthcoming book, “When Worlds Collide: The Korean War and the Integration of the United States,” Early argues that the successful integration of the military in Korea encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 school desegregation ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education, and helped change attitudes about race. Had the military failed, integration overall would have suffered, he contends.

WarrenThe administrative costs of federal regulation are budgeted to reach an all-time high of $30.1 billion in 2003, as more money is devoted to the environment, transportation security, and securities regulation, according to a new report issued jointly by the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The budget request for 2004 suggests a slight decline from the 2003 peak to $28.9 billion.

LeVineCivil strife and violence in Liberia has produced numerous calls for U.S. military involvement, but should America heed these calls? Victor T. Le Vine, professor emeritus of political science in Arts & Sciences, contends the United States has a moral imperative to take action in Liberia based on strong historical ties to the nation. In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch commentary, Le Vine explains how the United State brought Liberia into existence and has in the past supported an unjust social system hostile to indigenous people. “We owe the Liberians some relief from the brutal lot we helped to create,” he argues.

Graduate student Frank Seelos discusses the features of the Mars mission rover.Sixteen people at the University helped NASA determine the landing sites for the rovers and will assist in the analysis of the data collected.