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 | GWB NAMES NEW DEAN: Edward F. Lawlor, Ph.D., a distinguished scholar of health policy, will succeed Shanti Khinduka, Ph.D., as dean of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work on July 1. Dr. Lawlor comes from the University of Chicago, where he is dean of the School of Social Service Administration, professor at the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, senior scholar in the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, and core faculty member in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.
 GALLERY RECEIVES MAJOR GIFT OF ARTWORK: New York collectors Ann Fertig Freedman and Robert L. Freedman have donated Lo Sciocco Senza Paura (The Fearless Fool) (1984), a major work by American artist Frank Stella, to the Gallery of Art. The piece will be installed prior to Stella's April 14 keynote address at groundbreaking for the Sam Fox Arts Center.
EMERSON, ANHEUSER-BUSCH COMMIT $10 MILLION TO SITEMAN CANCER CENTER: The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center has received a $10 million commitment from two of St. Louis' leading corporations, Emerson and Anheuser-Busch, to expand vital research space and increase support to help ensure people in and around St. Louis will have the newest cancer treatments close at hand.
Research
GOING CLOCKLESS: Computing royalty, including Ivan Sutherland, the father of computer graphics, and Wesley A. Clark, the designer of the world's first personal computer, gathered for a symposium on March 26 at Washington University to contemplate how computing can evade time as the industry prepares to go clockless. "Clocked technology is inadequate to deal with very large integrated circuits," says Jerome R. Cox, Jr., Sc.D., senior professor in computer science and engineering. "Systems of the future will certainly have clockless technology or a blend of clocked and clockless types."
UNSUSPECTED PLAYER IN ALZHEIMER’S DIAGNOSIS: Preliminary research suggests it may someday be possible to diagnose and forecast risk for Alzheimer's disease using skin cells, thanks to a small protein, or peptide, that few previously associated with the disease. Most efforts to develop diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's disease focus on changes in the brain itself. But according to principal investigator Nancy Baenziger, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology, recent studies suggest the disease is systemic, affecting the entire body while most severely damaging the central nervous system.
 OXIDIZING HAZARDOUS PARTICLES: Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor and director of Environmental Engineering Science, combines an electrical field with soft X-rays and smart catalysts to capture and destroy bioagents such as the smallpox virus. "When the aerosol particles come into the device, they are charged and trapped in an electrical field," Biswas explains. "Any organic material is oxidized, so it completely deactivates the organism."
ALCOHOL-INDUCED BLACKOUTS: Genes appear to play a major role in whether a person experiences a blackout after heavy drinking, according to a new study led by Elliot C. Nelson, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry. "Our results suggest more than 50 percent of the risk for having a blackout at some point in life seems to be controlled by genetic factors," says Nelson. "The same is true for the risk of having three blackouts in a single year. Genetic factors account for almost 58 percent of that risk."
Features
HAS AMERICA LOST ITS ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE? Have the dot-com failures, massive losses, globalization, and other events diminished our spirit and permanently caused entrepreneurship to lose its luster in America? Robert J. Skandalaris, chairman of Noble International Ltd., and Kenneth Harrington, director of the Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program and senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at the John M. Olin School of Business, argue that "the process of innovation, entrepreneurship, and change is entering a period of dynamic growth, and entrepreneurial activity has stabilized at the level of pre-dot-com euphoria."
 THE GREENING OF AMERICAN CAMPUSES: Earth Day may arrive each April, but for architecture students and faculty environmental design is increasingly part of the year-round curriculum. "To a large extent, the push is coming from the ground up, fueled by students' passions and interests and enthusiasms," says Peter MacKeith, associate dean in the School of Architecture. "There is also a growing recognition that environmental considerations make good economic sense, as well as good design sense."
UNUSED KIDNEYS: What if all you had to do to receive a kidney transplant was ask someone to donate a kidney? It sounds easy, but for many people, it's not. "There's obviously miscommunication between these two groups," says Amy Waterman, Ph.D., instructor in medicine at the School of Medicine. "Donors see the short-term inconvenience of the surgery and recovery to be a small price to pay to improve the recipients' health. But recipients don't want the donors' health to be harmed and feel like surgery would be an incredible burden for donors."
DIVISION III WUSTL PASSES UP BIG MONEY, BIG PROBLEMS: A top-10 academic institution and a relatively small athletics budget, including no athletics scholarships — is this a recipe for success off the field? Yes, but on the field? It works for Washington University. Ben Malcolmson, sports editor of The Daily Trojan at the University of Southern California, explores the athletic and academic success of Washington University, which has won 12 Division III national championships in the last 15 years, despite the innate differences within the realms of Division I and Division III athletics programs.
Heard on Campus
"[Conservatism] is a movement of ideas. It has always been a movement of ideas."
- Ann Coulter, conservative political analyst, lawyer, and best-selling author, delivering the Assembly Series lecture, "Liberal Lies about the American Right," March 3, 2004.
Kudos
Randall J. Bateman, M.D., neurology resident in the School of Medicine, has been named one of three recipients of the prestigious Corporate Roundtable Clinical Research Training Fellowship, sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology.
James L. Cox, M.D., research professor of surgery, has been named the 2004 recipient of the Texas Heart Institute’s Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievement. He is the 10th surgeon to receive the award in 33 years.
Paula Lupkin, assistant professor of architecture, is one of eight winners of The Culture and Politics of the Built Environment in North America Fellowship for the 2004-2005 academic year. The fellowship is sponsored by The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University.
Paul Michael Lützeler, Ph.D., the Rosa May Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, professor of German and comparative literature in Arts and Sciences, and director of the Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature, received the Goethe Medal, bestowed by the Goethe Institute, on March 22 in Weimar, Germany. This official German award of merit is the highest medal a foreigner can receive for work done in the field of cultural exchange.
The George Warren Brown School of Social Work received the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) International Commission 2004 Partners in Education for International Social Work Award. CSWE is a nonprofit national association representing more than 3,000 members as well as 158 graduate and 453 undergraduate programs of professional social work education.
The softball team won its second University Athletic Association title in five-year history of the varsity program by posting a perfect 8-0 record at the UAA Championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida. As of March 31, the Bears were a perfect 21-0.
Announcements
Reunion 2004 is scheduled for May 20-23. For information on events, accommodations, and travel, visit the Reunion 2004 Web site.
WUSTL Links
About @ Washington University in St. Louis
This newsletter is prepared by the staff of the Office of Special Development Communications Projects and the Office of Alumni and Development Programs. It is intended to provide a summary of what is happening at the University. Alumni, parents, and friends of the University for whom we have valid e-mail addresses automatically receive @ Washington University in St. Louis as a service of the University.
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