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January 2007
University News
ASTHMA CENTER ESTABLISHED: A $7.7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will establish a center for asthma research at the School of Medicine. Directed by Michael J. Holtzman, M.D., the Selma and Herman Seldin Professor of Medicine, the center will investigate the causes of asthma to develop new treatments for the disease.
 GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN RANKED 6th IN NATION: The Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has risen four spots to tie for 6th in the nation, according to a recent survey by DesignIntelligence, a monthly journal published by the Design Futures Council.
MARSHALL SCHOLARSHIP GOES TO ARTS & SCIENCES SENIOR: Jeffrey J. Marlow, a senior from Englewood, Colorado,majoring in earth and planetary sciences, is among 43 Americans to receive a 2007 Marshall Scholarship. The scholarship provides full support for two or three years of study at any British university. Marlow is Washington University's first Marshall Scholar since 1993. CHEAPER ETHANOL ONE STEP CLOSER: Cheaper ethanol through more efficient production and stronger wood are two possibilities resulting from research by Erik E. Nielsen, Ph.D., adjunct professor of biology in Arts & Sciences. The research could lead to crops with stalks that can be used to produce biofuels more efficiently and with less waste.
 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAB FIRST TO FIND 'REAL' STARDUST FROM NASA MISSION: Stardust, the NASA spacecraft mission, was given that name in hopes that the seven-year journey to capture comet samples would bring , well, stardust back to Earth. In an article in the journal Science, researchers at Washington University are the first to report that a sample they received from the mission actually does contain stardust — particles that are older than the sun.
DIAGNOSING A KILLER: Right now there's no rapid way to diagnose sepsis, a fast-moving blood infection that is a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. The illness can quickly overwhelm the body, causing organ failure and death, often within days. New research from the School of Medicine suggests that doctors one day could quickly distinguish sepsis from widespread non-infectious inflammation based on genetic profiles of patients' blood.
WHEN MIGRAINES START IN THE HEART: A severe migraine attack can be agonizingly painful. For some people, medications keep their headaches under control, but for others no drug completely prevents debilitating attacks. For such people, hope may come from a new clinical trial at the School of Medicine that offers an unexpected solution — doctors are closing a hole in the heart to try to fix the ache in the head.
WINDS OF CHANGECASTING: In case you haven’t heard, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion – a deal that made headlines and turned YouTube creators into twenty-something tycoons. YouTube’s popularity (Time magazine’s “Invention of the Year”) helped ignite a video communication explosion that is changing our perception of entertainment, advertising, and news. Video communication also is good for business, according to Jackson Nickerson, Ph.D., professor of organization and strategy in the John M. Olin School of Business.
 ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS DESIGN AND BUILD NEW PLAZA IN ST. LOUIS’ GRAND CENTER: This fall, a group of ten students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts teamed up with Grand Center, Inc. and the Pulitzer Foundation to design and build a new public plaza for visual art at the Grand Center, St. Louis' premier arts and entertainment district. The plaza will host outdoor exhibitions, site-specific installations, performance pieces, and video and new-media work by local and nationally known artists.
"Universities endure because they embody the hopes and ideals of many."
—Chancellor Emeritus William H. DanforthFour faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society. They are: Eugene M. Johnson, Ph.D., professor of neurology and molecular biology and pharmacology in the School of Medicine; H. Mark Johnston, Ph.D., professor of genetics in the School of Medicine; William B. McKinnon, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences; and Alan L. Schwartz, Ph.D., M.D., the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor, head of the Department of Pediatrics, professor of molecular biology and pharmacology, and pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Arye Nehorai, Ph.D., the Eugene and Martha Lohman Professor of Electrical Engineering and head of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, received the 2006 Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society.
Carl Phillips, professor of English and African and African American Studies, has been elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.
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