McKelvey School of Engineering

Rodolphe L. ”Rudy“ Motard, PhD, professor of chemical engineering and chairman from 1978-1991 of the chemical engineering department in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, died April 23, 2011. He was 85.

Srinivasan Sridharan, PhD, professor of civil engineering at Washington University in St. Louis since 1980, died April 24, 2011, at St. Johns Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis from complications of treatment for leukemia. He was 69.

Sarah Fern, Outstanding Graduate in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will graduate with honors in systems science and engineering May 20 and already has secured a job as a business technology analyst. But she also plays piano, and, is “as talented as many students that you’ll find at a conservatory,” says Seth Carlin, professor of music, director of the piano program in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and Fern’s piano teacher. 

Local high school students will launch hand gliders designed over the course of the spring semester in the final flight of the Boeing Engineering Challenge at Washington University in St. Louis. Some 120 students will compete from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the university’s Athletic Complex Field House.

The standard experimental setup for measuring the cellular uptake of nanoparticles is to place cells in a well on a culture plate and cover them with culture medium containing nanoparticles. The assumption underlying these experiments is that the particles remain well-dispersed. But when a Washington University scientist turned cell cultures upside down, he discovered that this assumption doesn’t always hold. Some experiments preparing for the clinical use of nanoparticles may therefore need to be redone.

Rodolphe L. (Rudy) Motard, DSc, professor of chemical engineering and chairman of the chemical engineering department from 1978-1991, died April 23, 2011, in South St. Louis County surrounded by his family. He was 85.

Srinivasan Sridharan, PhD, professor of civil engineering since 1980, died April 24, 2011. He was 69.

Graduate students from across Washington University gathered April 4 for the Graduate Professional Council’s (GPC) Bridging GAPS Awards Ceremony in Danforth University Center. The annual ceremony, organized by the GPC, is a recognition and celebration of the important role that graduate student leadership plays in enhancing interdisciplinary endeavors and the graduate student community.

WUSTL will celebrate Earth Day Friday, April 22, and many sustainability-themed events are planned for the week of April 18-23 throughout the Danforth and Medical campuses, including an owl walk, bike ride, Low-Carbon Cook-Off and Green Cup awards ceremony.

The Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering and the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis have announced a new dual-degree program that combines a master’s degree in engineering and a master’s of business administration. Students can earn an M.Eng and MBA degree in two-and-a-half years with a focus on energy, the environment and corporate sustainability.