McKelvey School of Engineering

Samuel Achilefu, PhD, of the School of Medicine has won the St. Louis Award for 2014 for his work in creating cancer-visualizing glasses, which were used in surgeries for first time last year. He is the 87th person honored with the annual award since it was established in 1931.

Spencer Lake, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a one-year, $19,919 grant from the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons to study the causes of stiffness and tightening, or contracture, of the joint after an injury to the elbow, called post-traumatic joint stiffness.

Lihong Wang, PhD, continues to build on his groundbreaking technology that allows light deep inside living tissue during imaging and therapy. In the Jan. 5 issue of Nature Communications, Wang, the Gene K. Beare Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals for the first time a new technique that focuses diffuse light inside a dynamic scattering medium containing living tissue.

Shankar Sastry, PhD, professor of engineering, has been awarded the Hind Rattan Award from the NRI Welfare Society of India. The award recognizes nonresident Indians who have made exceptional contributions to society.

In 2014, Washington University continued to play a major role in the St. Louis community while students and alumni made their mark on campus. Among the stories were the debut of the $80 million Lofts of Washington University, a continued investment in Cortex, the innovation district, and two unforgettable alumni.

This year, Washington University researchers advanced our understanding of schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, and developed devices to help surgeons see cancer cell and scientists to capture new vistas through the world’s fastest 2-D camera.

​​Alexander Cox, a recent graduate of the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, was named the 2014 Air Force Cadet of the Year at a Dec. 5 ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He is the 15th recipient of the award.

​A team of biomedical engineers in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis has made an important discovery about how a channel in the heart responds to membrane voltage, which causes the channel to open and also determines the properties of electrical signals that control the heart, contrary to what had previously been believed.​​​

​Fuzhong Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, will study these systems with a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The five-year, $605,000 award is for his project titled “Synthetic Regulatory Systems for Dynamic Metabolic Pathways.”​

Richard A. Dammkoehler, professor emeritus of computer science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. He held appointments at the university for more than 40 years.