|
|
|
University News
Washington University teams with Scott Air Force Base to deliver 13-ton MRI machine to Argentina:
On June 12, members of the 375th Logistics Readiness Squadron loaded the 26,000-pound heart of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine onto a C-17 bound for Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina — and ultimately Argentina. The MRI equipment was donated to a hospital in Salta, Argentina, by Washington University's School of Medicine. After almost three years of planning, the Air Force and the Denton Amendment helped make the movement of this large, high-tech piece of medical equipment possible. The Denton Amendment allows private organizations to use available space on U.S. military cargo planes to ship humanitarian goods.
Developing 'next generation of creative thinkers':
Washington University hosted its third ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp June 14-26. The Danforth Campus welcomed 48 middle schoolers from traditionally underrepresented populations who were academically qualified, recommended by their teachers, and genuinely interested in math and science. The free residential camp gave students a first-hand experience with experiments, role models, and innovative programs to encourage their continued participation in math and science courses in school. A special "ExxonMobil Media Day" was held June 17. Campers worked side by side with scientists to complete an engineering challenge.
$37 million to extend regional biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has extended funding for the Midwest Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (MRCE), anchored at Washington University School of Medicine. The center received a five-year, $37 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to continue to support basic and translational research in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases throughout the Midwest.
|
| |
|
|
Research
Higher drinking age linked to less binge drinking, ...except in college students:
New research from Washington University School of Medicine has found substantial reductions in binge drinking since the national drinking age was set at 21 two decades ago, with one exception: college students. The rates of binge drinking by male collegians remain unchanged, but the rates for female collegians have increased dramatically.
New element found to be a superconductor:
Of the 92 naturally occurring elements, add another to the list of those that are superconductors. James S. Schilling, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, and Mathew Debessai, Ph.D., — his doctoral student at the time — discovered that europium becomes superconducting at 1.8 K (-456 °F) and 80 GPa (790,000 atmospheres) of pressure, making it the 53rd known elemental superconductor and the 23rd at high pressure.
Drug's epilepsy-prevention effect may be widely applicable:
A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine. Scientists found that the FDA-approved drug rapamycin blocks brain changes believed to cause seizures in rats. The same group previously showed that rapamycin prevents brain changes in mice triggered by one of the most common genetic causes of epilepsy, tuberous sclerosis.
|
| |
|
| Features
Iranian-American scholar posts daily updates on election-related turmoil in Iran:
As millions of ordinary Iranians took their political protests into the streets and onto the World Wide Web via cell phones, YouTube, and Twitter, much of the world was getting its first unvarnished look at a complex and diverse society that may be quite different than the one often painted by Western news media, suggests Fatemeh Keshavarz, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences.
Children can learn on the cheap this summer:
Want to take your children somewhere fun and educational this summer but money is tight? No problem, says a children's play expert at Washington University. Your answer might even be as close as your own backyard. "One activity that I always recommend to parents is going to museums as a family," says Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of education and psychology in Arts & Sciences. Sawyer is one of the country's leading experts on the science of creativity. He studies creativity, everyday conversation, children's play, and everyday social life.
|
|
Heard on Campus
“I am extremely pleased that we will be pursuing areas of common interest and opportunities for collaboration in research, policy studies, and academic activities. We share a common benefactor (Robert S. Brookings), who helped a new president design a massive federal intervention in the markets and the economy. The parallels to today are striking, and I know that together we will continue to advance his faith in independent, high-quality policy research and education.”
—Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., about the partnership between the Institution and Washington University |
|
|
| |
When Flexner saw the future:
100 years ago, administrators were advised to abolish Washington University School of Medicine. Fortunately, they did, and so a faltering medical college exchanged certain mediocrity for potential excellence. In April 1909, a wiry, intense man jumped off the train in St. Louis, bound for Washington University's Medical Department. Abraham Flexner had been traveling the country on behalf of the Carnegie Foundation, studying the quality of American medical schools, and so far it had been a dismal journey. Nearly everywhere, he had found shoddy facilities and inadequate curricula. Within a year, he would publish his findings in a watershed book, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, that led more than 100 schools to close and others — including Washington University School of Medicine — to undertake sweeping reforms.
Kudos
C. Robert Cloninger, M.D., the Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professor of Psychiatry and of genetics at the School of Medicine and of psychology in Arts & Sciences, is the 10th recipient of the American Psychiatric Association's Judd Marmor Award. The prestigious award is given annually to recognize an individual or group in the neuropsychological sciences or in history, literature, or pedagogy who makes significant contributions to the multifactorial, biopsychosocial elements involved in mental health and illness.
Victoria Fraser, M.D., the Dr. J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine and co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, received the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Mentor Scholar Fund Award at its recent annual meeting in San Diego.
Robert O. Heuckeroth, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics, has won a Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He was one of only four physician-scientists nationwide to receive the prestigious award, which supports established, independent physician-scientists dedicated to translational research, the transfer of work from the lab to the patient's bedside.
|
|
|
About @Washington University in St. Louis
This newsletter is prepared by Special Development Communications Projects staff in Alumni and Development Programs. It is intended to provide a brief 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.
Copyright 2009, Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 935-5000
|
|
|
|
|