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 | WORLD'S FAIR TRANSFORMS A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS: In the early 1900s, dreams of building a new University campus coincided with dreams of honoring the 100-year anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase with a World's Fair. The Hilltop Campus as we know it today evolved from the realization of these two dreams.
 SUPPLYING DEMAND: For the John M. Olin School of Business, the Olin-Fudan Executive MBA program signals a milestone: entry into the competitive global marketplace and, specifically, China, where extraordinary growth, market-oriented reforms, massive foreign investment, and rising consumer expectations are demanding the high-level leadership and management expertise that Olin and Fudan are known to provide. It also boasts an oversubscribed enrollment and a No.1 ranking among jointly offered EMBA programs in China.
GORDON NAMED DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR GENOME SCIENCES: Jeffrey I. Gordon, M.D., the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, has been appointed director of the University's new Center for Genome Sciences. The Center is the first of three major components to be implemented for BioMed 21, the initiative dedicated to using the latest knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to develop new ways to diagnose, treat, and ultimately prevent a variety of common human diseases.
Research
OUT OF SIGHT: Pointing at an object may not seem complicated, but even such a simple act requires an intricate network of brain activity. Scientists traditionally thought this network included a one-way "information highway" between the brain's visual system and its motor and sensory systems, but researchers at Washington University School of Medicine now challenge this long-held theory.
 ROCK OF AGES: Remember the burning Ponderosa map at the beginning of the long-running TV show "Bonanza"? It's up in flames before you can read it. Now, Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences, and his former graduate student Michael J. Singleton, Ph.D., now at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have replaced that map of the famous ore site, known as the Comstock Lode, with one of their own. Their map is a valuable contribution to geology because it gives an interpretation of the flow of hot waters interacting with rock some 14 million years ago that created the ore district.
ECONOMICS OF HAS-BEENS: It is no secret that advances in technology can greatly impact the value of workers' skills. Older workers often find the updating of complex technology uneconomic, while younger workers acquire and readily employ skills tailored to the newest technology. A recently published study by Glenn MacDonald, Ph.D., the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy, is the first to model and explain the nature and severity of that effect.
Features
 HAPPY TRAILS: For decades, bicycles have been a recreational mainstay for youngsters, especially during the summer months. Bicycling can, however, be an extremely dangerous and even deadly activity for children. Robert Bo Kennedy, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, outlines some hazards of bicycling and steps that can be taken to reduce risk.
WUSTL'S, WORLD'S IRONMAN: While the stamina of the cyclists in the Tour de France last month was impressive, the University has its own world-class endurance athlete in Edwin D. Wolfgram, M.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry. Last fall, less than a month before his 71st birthday, he came in first in the 70-74-year-old age group at the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship Triathlon. Not bad for a guy who didn't start seriously training as an athlete until he was 48 and admits that back then he "couldn't run to the end of the block."
COSMETIC CHANGES: As cosmetic surgery gains popular acceptance, surgeons study people of all ethnicities to establish more comprehensive standards for beauty. "Today, beauty transcends race and color and is truly dependent on the harmonious relationship of a person’s features." says James B. Lowe III, M.D., assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery in the School of Medicine.
Heard on Campus
"Finding a way to end warfare is probably the most important challenge facing mankind, but that's a problem for which there is no easy solution. On the other hand, we know how to provide people with clean drinking water. We have the medical tools to tackle devastating diseases such as malaria. These problems are solvable -- that's where we should be focusing our resources."
- Douglass C. North, the Spencer T. Olin Professor and co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, before departing for the Copenhagen Consensus 2004 conference, a forum for the world's most distinguished economists to explore the costs and benefits of ongoing efforts to address critical global challenges.
Kudos
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton was elected chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum. That organization comprises outstanding business and academic chief executive officers who have joined together to examine issues of critical public concern and, when appropriate, to speak with one voice by issuing public policy papers on matters of national importance.
Ralph G. Dacey, Jr., M.D., the Edith R. and Henry G. Schwartz Professor, head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, and neurosurgeon-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, has been named chairman of the American Board of Neurological Surgery.
Henric S. Krawczynski, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is a recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Outstanding Junior Investigator Award in high-energy physics. He is one of eight scientists in the country to receive this prestigious recognition in 2004.
Peter H. Raven, Ph.D., the George Engelmann Professor of Botany in Arts & Sciences and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, has been appointed to the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush. Professor Raven received the medal, the nation's highest scientific honor, in 2000 for his leadership in efforts to preserve biodiversity and a sustainable environment.
Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences and professor of biology, was awarded the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, the Yale University Graduate School's highest honor. Professor Schaal received both master's and Ph.D. degrees in population biology from Yale.
Sheila A. Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell biology and physiology in the School of Medicine, has won a 2004 Kimmel Scholar Award. These awards are presented annually to a handful of the nation's most promising young cancer researchers by the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research.
WUSTL Links
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