WUSTL Record: University News

‘Be first class,’ focus on small acts of kindness, Newark Mayor Cory Booker tells graduates

Kelly Wiese Niemeyer — 2013-05-17 00:00:00

Joe Angeles

Mayor Cory A. Booker, of Newark, N.J., addresses the 2013 graduates of Washington University in St. Louis as Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, right, looks on. Booker urged the graduates to be "first class," to perform acts of kindness and to join with others to tackle the world's challenges.

Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., told the more than 2,700 graduates of Washington University in St. Louis on Friday to focus on being “first class” in the highest sense of the phrase.

“This world is going to try to tell you what it means to be first class,” Booker said.

But that shouldn’t be judged by clothes or a big house or a fancy car, he admonished.

“If you want to be first class, it is about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas, the kindness that you have in your heart,” he told the crowd of about 15,000 gathered on Brookings Quadrangle, to rousing applause.

Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, Booker, 44, is credited with helping revitalize New Jersey’s largest city with his hands-on and innovative approach.

Booker, now in his second term as Newark’s mayor, has been instrumental in more than doubling the rate of affordable housing production; creating the city’s largest expansion of parks and recreation spaces in over a century; and bringing more than $1 billion of new economic development into the city, including its first office towers and hotels in decades.

Booker urged the Class of 2013 to have a vision and then make it happen, but to remember that it takes lots of small acts to accomplish great ambitions. Simple, unglamorous things, such as helping someone illiterate complete forms to receive food stamps, can make a huge difference in a person’s life.

“The biggest thing you can do in any day is a small act of kindness,” he said.

http://youtu.be/OgjvKT78ZqY

He also encouraged them to join with others to take on the world’s challenges, referring to an African proverb that says, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.’

“You're more beautiful than you realize, stronger than you know, more powerful than you can imagine,” he said.

Booker also talked about a challenging time early in his career as mayor. He had taken to talking to residents after killings had occurred and urging people not to accept such violence, that Newark could be better than that.

Then he got word that a boy he knew who lived in his high-rise public housing project had been killed, and Booker was so filled with pain and darkness he could barely respond to those talking to him at the funeral home. Later, as he sat crying in his office, Booker said he realized that it’s in moments of brokenness that we learn valuable lessons.

“Courage is not running into a burning building,” he said. “Courage is when tragedies’ trumpets sound in your life, that you still could hold on to that quiet little voice that tells you to keep going anyway.”

“Failure is never final if you don’t give up,” he said.

Booker, who holds four degrees — a bachelor’s and a master’s from Stanford University, an honors degree from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and a juris doctorate from Yale — received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton after his speech.

This wasn’t Booker’s first visit to WUSTL. He also delivered an Assembly Series lecture on the significance of community service in fall 2007.

Booker also urged the graduates to hear the national anthem as a challenge. “Oh say can you see” a world where a top-notch education is offered to all children, not a privileged few; where we bring an end to poverty; global health rises; and righteousness rolls down like water, he asked. Be warriors of love and kindness, he urged.

“If you can see it, then be it,” he said, reminding them to be dreamers, and not to lose their idealism.

If cynics get you down, he said, just remember, “My mama said, ‘There ain’t no such thing as impossible.’”

For full transcript of Booker's address, visit here.

For a full transcript of Wrighton’s address, visit here.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis

2013-05-17 00:00:00

Hello! Thank you. Thank you very much. I am incredibly thrilled to be here, and I want to thank people for this opportunity. Really, this day is the result of a grand conspiracy of love. So many people came together to make this day so special for the graduates.

I personally want to start off by thanking all the faculty and staff. This is a university that does not just have teachers of facts and figures, but truly has people who love this community and pour their heart and soul into the academic structure here, and I give them my gratitude.

I also want to thank the trustees. I too sat on the board of a great American university and know how much it takes to keep a university on the cutting edge of excellence like this. And I want to single out one particular trustee, that of Ann Tisch, who not only is my dear friend, but for her, I would not be standing before you today.

I also want to thank those people who don’t get thanked enough. We have an America that is often so rushed that we fail to recognize all the love that goes into a day like this. So I want to give my thanks to all the people at this university who serve the food to our young people, who clean floors and bathrooms, who keep the grounds. Those people are brothers and sisters. They take pride in this day as well.

And then there are of course the parents. I am very excited to be before family members now, because I am tickled that there are so many graduates here that are lucky that you do not have my parents here today. Because I had those crazy parents and family that would make so much noise and ruckus at my graduation that — I'm a very tall guy, but I would sink lower and lower in my seat.

I know there’s a lot of people here that believe like my mother did. She said, “Behind every successful child is an astonished parent.” And the truth of the matter is, I know there’s a lot of astonishment here right now today.

But I bring this up really to get to the point of what I want to discuss briefly with you, which is really these lessons of my family. I want to talk just about this idea of vision today, but I want to say as a prelude that I had two different types of folks at my graduations.

My family, interestingly, separated down by gender in how they greeted me and how they embraced me. My mother and my grandmother, now 95 years old, they were the nurturing force in my life. They would hug me and lift me up and make me feel so, so special on my graduations. But my dad and my grandfather seemed to have a very different mission indeed. Their job was to tease me into humility at every single point.

Let me tell you. On my high school graduation, I was president of my high school class, honor society. I was going on a full scholarship to Stanford. But my dad of course had to come up and remind me and say, “Boy, don’t you get so proud. You got in Stanford because of a 4.0 and 1,600. 4.0 yards for carry, 1,600 receiving yards your senior year. You’re going on a football scholarship, man!”

At my college graduation, here am I again, president of my class, graduating with honors, and my dad comes up to me with the program, points to it, and says, “See, son, you’re not graduating magna cum laude or summa cum laude. You’re just, ‘thank you, lawdy, I’m out of here!’”

And of course, my graduation from law school. The ultimate and final graduation. My grandfather and my father come up to me and say, “Listen, boy. Pay attention now. You got more degrees than the month of July, but you ain’t hot! Go out there and get a job!”

And so my mom and my grandmother, my dad and my grandfather, they just had different ways of being. When my mom and my grandmother tell stories, to this day I sit rapt and ready because they have this penchant for accuracy and detail, even though they’ve been telling me some of the same stories for 44 years. I know some people can appreciate that. The reality is, I learn something every time they speak.

And I love listening to my grandfather and my father speak because they too have a certain knack, but their knack is for hyperbole and exaggeration. I mean, my father, when he starts talking about his background, I just sit back and begin to recognize that this is going to be the most dramatic retelling of his life.

In fact, he tells me stories and forgets midway facts he’s given me. Like he walked uphill, the steep hills in the mountains of North Carolina to get to school, and then by the end of the story, he’s walking uphill again to get home. I don't know what kind of geographical anomaly that my father lived in!

And the weather patterns would always get worse. It’s North Carolina, but it always rains. And then the hail period went from hail the size of golf balls to every athletic ball possible. Baseballs and soccer balls. Heck, there were beach balls. Hail soon became galactic asteroids hitting the mountains.

And my father, there’s one of the Ten Commandments that I hope you all remember about honoring your mother and father, but I came close to violating that tenth commandment just last year when my dad began to tell about the time when a tsunami hit his town. And I had to say, “Dad, I’m sorry, you were in the mountains of North Carolina. There couldn’t be no tsunami.” And he got mad and indignant. He said, “Boy, it was before the Internet. It happened. You can’t look it up!”

So I simply want to tell you two stories to honor the two oral traditions in my life. One story about vision, how my father and my grandfather saw it. And then one story about vision from the matriarchs of my family, a spirit of unvarnished truth that I think is very important.

But now, let me get to my dad and my grandfather and tell a story in their spirit that does have a — as Stephen Colbert says — a high level of truthiness, but it’s not quite true.

When I was a young man, I was the youngest person elected to Newark’s city council, and at the time I sat on the board of trustees at Stanford University, and I would have to go out five times a year to San Francisco to get to the board meetings. And it was interesting sitting on a city council, which is like the board of a city, and sitting on a board of university.

And one day when I was in the city council chambers and we were in a fight — and I don’t know what it’s like in this city or the cities you all are from. When I say we were in a fight, we were in a real fight. Somebody had me in a headlock and two around the legs, and my staff member bursts into the room and says, “Cory! You got to go! Your flight leaves in 15 minutes.”

And then he scratches his head and says, “You know what? You’re just not going to be able to make it. I’m sorry. You can’t make the plane. It’s impossible.”

Now, this staffer knew exactly the mistake he had made when he uttered that word to me, “impossible,” because he knew he would get my standard reaction. I put my hand on my hip, and I looked at him hard and said, “You know something, man? My mama told me ain’t no such thing as impossible. Get that car. We’re going to make this plane.”

And my staffer rolls his eyes and says, “All right.” And he runs back, gets the car. I run down the steps to city hall. I dive in the car, and we race off to the airport. Now, I'm mayor of the city now, so I can’t tell you we broke any traffic laws, of course. But one or two might have gotten bruised on the way.

And when we arrived at the airport, I jump out of the car, race into the airport foyer, and you all know. Some of you have studied advanced mathematics. You know there’s this formula that says that the more of a hurry you are in, the longer the line at the airport. I know you’ve done research on that.

And so there’s this long line, but you don’t understand. I am being called by a course of cynics to rise up and show that the impossible can happen. I am on a righteous mission. So I do what I must do for the cause of honor. I cut everybody in line.

And now, I’m standing there at the corner. This woman is throwing carry-on baggage at me, screaming at me for cutting in front of her. But I lean forward and I tell the woman behind the counter. I, go, “Ma’am, I am on Flight 2222, going to San Francisco. Give me my ticket!” And the woman looks at me, “Sir, you don’t understand. That plane leaves in 5 minutes. They probably already closed the door. You can’t get on that plane. It’s impossible.”

This woman did not know my mama. So I put my hand on my hips and I said, “Listen, ma’am, my mama told me ain’t no such thing as impossible.” And then I put my hand on my other hip. And I don’t care in this audience if you’re Irish or Italian, if you’re Native American or Cuban, if you’re Korean or you are from New Jersey. Sometimes in life, you got to get ethnic on people.

And so I said, “My grandmama told me that black people been making a way out of no way for a long time, ma’am.” I said, “Give me that ticket!” And she rolls her eyes. She must have known my age. She rolls her eyes, and she hands me the ticket.

And so now I grab that ticket, fueled with the call of doing impossible things. I turn, and I run through the airport, jumping over bags, twisting, and dodging people. I was running through the airport like a man that we don’t talk about that much anymore.

I get about 25 yards from the gate, and I see this woman closing the door with the combination, and I scream at her, and I say, “stop!” And she turns around, and she sees this former tight end from Stanford University rumbling towards her. She drops her clipboard. She pins herself against the wall, and she goes, “What's wrong?”

And I said, “Ma’am, I’m on that plane!” And she goes, “Sir, you can’t get on this plane.” I said, “You don’t understand! I’ve got to get on that plane!” She goes, “I’m sorry, you can’t. We’ve given away all the seats. It’s impossible.”

I put my hand on my hip. I told her my mama said there's no such thing as impossible. I put my hand on my other hip and I said, “My grandmother told me black people making a way out of no way for a long time.” And then I put my hand on my other hip again. I said, “My great-grandmama, she was a religious woman, and she said I could do all things. Can I get a witness! I can do all things.”

And before I could go deep into Philippians, she says, “Stop, sir, please stop. We don’t need any air rage here, sir. Calm down. You’re right. Okay. Okay. You’re right. There is a seat on the plane. And, sir, if it’s acceptable to you, it’s in first class.”

Well, I dabbed sweat off my brow. I looked at the woman hard, and I said to her, “That’ll be acceptable.” And she opens the door, and I start walking down. I’m a child of the ’80s. ’80s TV. I had just moved on up, so I did my George Jefferson walk, and I am now walking down.

This woman stops me, and she says, “Sir, where are you seated?” And I looked at her indignantly. I said, “Ma’am, I am in first class.”

And this was the first time I had flown first class. And they make seats in first class especially made for former tight ends of Stanford University. There was this wide seat, and I sat down there, and then something

else. They offer you a drink before you take off. Now usually I just drink water. But this was first class. And so I looked at the woman, and I said, “Ma’am, would you get me some Perrier, please?”

I am now having my glass in hand. The plane starts moving back, goes down the runway. The captain gets on the announcement speaker and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to Flight 7342, going to Miami.”

I was first class! But I was headed in the wrong direction.

I make this point in the spirit of my father and my grandfather for these reasons. Please understand that this world is going to try to tell you what it means to be first class. They’re going to give you signals every single day bombarding you that first class has to do with the clothes that you wear or the car that you drive or the house that you live in, but first class has nothing to do with those things.

If you want to be first class, it is about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas, the kindness that you have in your heart. This is first class.

Something happened in my generation that we went from the great call of citizenship, where the people in our country now are looked at more as consumers. We are not a consumer society. We are a society of citizenships. And the call of citizenship calls for you not to judge your value on what you have, but to judge your value on what you give.

And let me tell you this: It’s not just about you. If that story tells you anything, it is the African proverb right there that if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.

We are a nation that lives this spirit. The story of America often is marked in its early days by a celebration of our Declaration of Independence. But the truth of America, when you look at our history, when you look at our people, it screams to a declaration of interdependence. That we need each other. That we do better when we all do better.

And here we are in a difficult point in American history, where many people are thinking that America is like United Airlines. Some people get to first class. The less will be relegated to coach. Some people will be those that go on your plane and clean it with no pension, no health insurance, and no sick days.

But this is not the nation that we dream of in our common aspiration. This is not the country that calls to the consciousness of our people. We are a nation that cannot allow the current trends to continue.

You may be the first generation to have children that have higher obesity rates, higher health costs, worse health outcomes. Higher violent crime in many communities. You may be the generation with greater social stratification, fewer and fewer wealthy people, and more and more poor. We cannot allow this to happen!

We still are a nation that understands, as {Martin Luther} King so eloquently said, that we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a common garment of destiny. That injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere.

And so our vision must be bold. It must be great. It must drive us to do the impossible things, but it also must be focused on the true call of citizenship: To be an exemplar of your values, to live your truth, to be authentic in your spirit, and to join with others in substantive ways to take on this world’s challenges.

And now I tell you an unvarnished story in the spirit of the matriarchs of my family.

I moved into some high-rise what became public housing projects in Newark. I lived there for eight years, and I’m telling you, even to this day, it’s the best, best of the communities I’ve lived in. And I say that not because of the greatness of the small town I grew up in. It was incredible, but there were people in this community that had a sense of mission and a sense of purpose.

I always say I got my BA from Stanford but my PhD in the streets of Newark, and these buildings were full of some of my greatest professors.

Some of my professors came at young ages. Children who I watched grow up. Some of them used to hang out in the lobby of my building, and I would come home, and amazingly, I would see my dad.

You see, in the group of these kids, there was a young man that reminded me of my father. My father used to tell me, “Son, I grew up poor.” Actually, he would heckle me if he heard me say that. He’d tell me, “Cory, don’t tell those people I grew up poor. I was po’. P-o. I couldn’t afford the other two letters.”

But my father was like many of these kids. He grew up poor and to a single mother. He grew up in a segregated environment. Back then, de jure. Now, de facto. He grew up with challenges.

And in this lobby, as I went on in years, I saw one particular group of kids that had one leader of the pack that really was like my dad. He had a sharp wit, and he had incredible humor, and he had a good spirit. I would come home, and I would hang out in the lobby before I went upstairs, talking to them, and I would get in the elevator and go.

And one day I started seeing some things that bothered me. I saw them starting to show some colors. I realized that they must be getting involved with the Bloods in our city. And sometimes I would come home and I would smell things that I hadn’t smelled since my dorm days at Stanford. And so I knew immediately what these signs were, so I stepped up.

I asked the kids, “Hey, guys, we talk every night. Why don’t we go to the movies sometime?” And we went to the movies. That’s when I discovered that there was a movie called “Saw” that was something I shouldn’t have been taking the kids to see.

We went out to diners. If you’re in Jersey, you got to go to a diner. And we just hung out. I brought friends of mine that were involved in the drug trade and had gotten out, had been rescued from the death trap that that is, and everything seemed to be going well.

But suddenly I couldn’t follow up anymore because I got busy doing noble things. I was running for mayor. I was on an important mission, a grand goal, and so I didn't have time to follow up with them, to try to make mentoring connections, to try to be there. I was just racing through the lobby now, dead tired. I would go up.

As my campaign got going, I was Cory Booker, running for mayor! My name was all over the city. And those kids, they rejoiced in knowing that a potential mayor was in their building, and they celebrated me! They catered to my needs, teasing me, and keeping me grounded on tough days.

And on one day I’ll never forget, I came home, and it was like a line of boys holding my lawn signs, cheering me on at the end of a long day. And I felt so good. I was doing my wave and joking with them until I realized, where did they get those lawn signs from?

I did indeed in 2006 get elected to be mayor. Incredible. I’m now the mayor. The biggest city in the state of New Jersey. Man, aren’t I important? I achieved the brass ring, and now I’m going for that next one.

Well, in the time that I was mayor elect, I was getting death threats on my life. The FBI intervened, and I had security assigned to me, big guys with guns. And so when I came home to the lobby, those kids weren't hanging out anymore. I barely noticed it. But of course they weren’t there. They’re not going to hang out in places with armed police standing there looking at them.

But I lost track because I was on a mission, and the mission then was to stop the unrelenting violence in my city.

Once I got elected and swore the oath, that very night people were murdered. And so I was out on every street corner every time there was a shooting, whether it was at 2 a.m. or 2 p.m. I was there to talk to people about our mission, about our goal. We were going to take on this violence. We were better than this.

On a month into my job, I showed up on a street, Court Street in Newark. And there was a body on the floor, on the ground covered in a sheet, another one being loaded into the ambulance, and I went into mayor mode. I was talking to people, telling them, “This is not Newark. We’re better than this!”

My words trying to be a balm on the wound in this community, in this neighborhood. I was feeling mayoral as I walked around. People were looking at me, waiting for what I would say. I got back to my apartment at the end of the day, going through all the Blackberry messages, and there I saw it!

I — I couldn’t — I couldn’t tear my eyes away, because there it was. The incident report for the murder earlier.

I wanted it to go away, because there I saw on my screen was the name of the boy from the lobby of my building who reminded me of my dad. I looked at this name, and I never — wished that it would just disappear, that it couldn’t be true, the boy from my building.

I’ll never forget that funeral. I’ll never forget going to that funeral home. I did not feel mayoral. I stood in the back. I didn’t go up to people engaging them. I didn’t have one encouraging word. I just stood there.

And I watched everybody show up, community members, political leaders. School classmates, teachers, neighbors from my building packed that small funeral home, and I could only stand in the back and watch, my body filling up with a darkness, with a pain I could not heal.

And I just watched. And I just mumbled responses because I was being haunted. Not encouraged, but haunted by the words of our ancestors. Haunted by Martin Luther King who said, “We will have to repent today, not for the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people.”

I was a good person. I stood there, watching all of those people showing up to deplore the situation, all of those people showing up, me among them, to curse the darkness. But where was our light?

I tell you, I left that funeral home before services were over. I ran. I don’t know if I was running from or running to.

I got to city hall. I walked through the offices to my office, this historic office in New Jersey, where giants and legends have sat. I closed the doors. I looked around at this palatial office. Me, a new mayor, and all I could do was find a corner to sit down and cry. I wept. God had put this child right in front of my face. I passed him by every single day.

And I want to tell you graduates, this is the moment of your life that will matter. When you’re ground down in the foundry of pain, when sorrow seems impossibly hard to shake, these are the moments.

I now realize that courage is not giving the big speech. Courage is not running into a burning building. The courage is when tragedies’ trumpets sound in your life, that you still could hold on to that quiet little voice that tells you to keep going anyway.

Courage is when you wake up in the morning with the weight of shame upon your chest with having made a mistake or done something wrong or being discouraged or feeling the grip of unshakable depression, that you still get out of that bed anyway and keep on going.

These are the moments, I tell you right now, when you’re broken that will give you your most valuable lessons if you don’t stop. Failure is never final if you don’t give up.

And so in that room, in that office, as I sat there with tears in my eyes, I found a lesson. It is a truth of humanity. It is the screaming testimony of American history, that we as individuals are more powerful than we know, that life ultimately is not about the big goal. Life is about the small things.

And I tell you this with all the conviction in my heart, that the biggest thing you can do in any day is a small act of kindness. That every day you’ll be confronted by seemingly small situations, and you can make one choice. Either to just accept it as it is, or to take responsibility for changing it.

Yes, have big dreams and big ambitions, but never forget that even the greatest ambitions must be made manifest in the simplest and smallest of acts.

Do you want to be a great parent? That’s a wonderful ambition, but it’s about the small things. Do you want to change the world? That is a wonderful ambition, but it’s about the small things.

To paraphrase Alice Walker in her brilliant book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, she says, “The real revolutionary is always concerned with the least glamorous of things.”

Raising a child’s reading level from 3rd to 4th. Filling out food stamps for someone illiterate because they must eat, revolution or not. Spending time with your elderly citizens recording their history, because they will tell you truths. It is the small things in life. Live with that kind of focus on the small things. Show your kindness and your decency and love, not only in grand acts, but in the small ones. Let it penetrate your very being.

Like the story about the great Mahatma Gandhi taking on the British empire, who was running for a train and leapt upon the train, pulled into third class. His sandal falls off. Everybody on that train looks in sorrow as the great Mahatma Gandhi’s sandals are disappearing in the distance, but Gandhi doesn’t miss a beat. He reaches for his other sandal and tosses it way out on the tracks.

The man helping him said, “Why did you do that?” Gandhi looked at him, perplexed. “Why? Because whoever finds that one sandal, wouldn’t it be great if they found two as well?”

We have so much potential. Alice Walker said, “The most common way people give up their power is not realizing they have it in the first place.”

And so I want to end with this last thing yet to tie this both together, my mom and my dad. It’s from an old man who I met on the streets of Newark. One of these great professors that didn't have letters after his name, but he was Newark’s most longstanding tenant organizer.

In the ’70s, he led our city’s longest rent strike under incredibly bad conditions. He found me as a law student working in Newark and immediately, with a vision, saw in me things I didn’t see in myself. He would joke that he knew I was going to go on and lead this city before I even realized it. We worked together, took on battles, took on slumlords, but I tell you something. Days are long, but years fly by.

And before you knew it, years were taking their toll on Frank Hutchins. He was getting old and sick, and his eyesight started to go, and so we started to have this little joke with each other. I would come to his apartment to visit him, to bring food, to talk. And every time I came, I would say, “Frank? It’s me.” And he would look at me, not being able to see me now, but he would say the words, “I see, Cory. I see you.”

I began to love to hear those words from him. I would visit him. I would take him out. We would even — he’d insist on even going to see a movie, and I said, “Hey, man, I’ve got this great movie, Saw IV. You got to see it.”

And always he would say to me, when he saw me and when I left, he would say to me, “I see you, Cory. I see you.”

In his final days, I was visiting him in the hospice time and time again, and I was told that this was probably going to be it. I walked into his room, and there he was lying in the bed and breathing very rapidly, and I sat with him, and I tell you, there were angels around. There was glorious life. He lived a mighty, mighty time.

And when I left him, when I walked out of that room, he had only tried to say two things to me. The last one was very meaningful. He worked hard to force the words out. “I love you.”

But the one he said I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The one he said that was so true, even though his eyesight was completely gone. He said, “Cory, I see you.”

Graduates of 2013, I tell you this with all of my heart. I see you. You’re more beautiful than you realize, stronger than you know, more powerful than you can imagine.

I see you. I see in this dark world that you are the light. I see that in a world where too many are surrendering to cynicism, to doubt, that you are the hope and the faith.

I see you, graduates of 2013. I see the dreams of generations long ago. I see the hope for generations yet unborn. I see you, class of 2013.

And I tell you this: Have a vision. In fact, every time you hear our national anthem, hear it as a challenge.

Oh, say, can you see a world where in life, as Frederick Douglass says, you don’t get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get? Have it as a challenge to pay with love, to pay with kindness, to pay with decency, to pay with respect.

Oh, say, can you see a world where change does not just roll in on the wheels of inevitability but must be carried in on the backs of soldiers? See yourself as those warriors of love and kindness.

Oh, say, can you see a country that loves every one of its children, where an education like this is not for the privileged few, but abundant for all?

Oh, say, can you see? Can you see an end to the ills of poverty? Can you see global health elevated?

Oh, say, can you see it? Can you see a day when righteousness does roll down like water and justice like a mighty stream? And if you can see it, then be it. And as you be it, as you encounter people in this world, they may look at you and say, “Who is this crazy dreamer? Who is this idealist? Who is this embodiment of hope?”

What you talk about, what you say and what you do, don’t you know that these things are impossible? When they say that to you, I want you to put your hand on your hip and tell them, “My mama said there ain’t no such thing as impossible.”

Congratulations, class of 2013. Be it! See it! God bless you!

Chancellor Wrighton’s message to the graduates

2013-05-17 00:00:00

JOE ANGELES

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton leaves Brookings Quadrangle after delivering his message to the class of 2013 at WUSTL’ 152nd Commencement May 17.

Congratulations to our newest alumni, the Class of 2013! You have accomplished an enormous amount, and you have even greater potential than when you began your studies here. You have earned a degree, but you have done more than grow intellectually. You have also matured emotionally and socially. Your newly acquired education will serve you well throughout your life, and the Washington University friendships and memories are ones I hope you return to often.

Graduates, your achievements here are impressive, but you have not realized success on your own. You have been supported by parents and other family members, by friends, and by Washington University faculty, staff and other students. And many among you have been supported by generous donors who provided scholarship gifts. Graduates, would you join me in thanking those who have supported you in realizing your success here?

Graduating seniors, thank you for teaching me the Harlem Shake! Your efforts have led to a very generous class gift for scholarships for future students. More than 72% of the graduating seniors have contributed to the class gift. Enhancing our financial aid programs is a key goal of our current fundraising effort: Leading Together, the Campaign for Washington University. This Campaign has already resulted in more than $200 million to support student financial aid needs and to reduce student debt. Our goal is to ensure that the Washington University experience remains accessible and affordable to all talented students who are admitted.

We have had fun and excitement in athletics. Thanks to outstanding athletes and excellent coaching, Washington University is ranked among the top Division III NCAA programs in the nation. Our athletes graduate at a higher rate than the class as a whole, have similar grade point averages, and distribute themselves among majors similar to the entire class.

And by the way, our teams win! Our women’s golf team is competing for a national championship. Next week our women’s and men’s tennis teams are in the NCAA quarterfinals next week. Successes in fall, winter and spring sports included winning UAA championships and competing in NCAA playoffs.

You have performed and supported theatre, music, and dance, and you have enhanced our cultural understanding through Black Anthology, Carnival, Diwali, the PowWow, and the Lunar New Year Festival. Many of you have been involved in research and other creative work that will enhance the quality of life.

Our Class of 2013 now begins a new phase of their lives. It is hard to appreciate the nature of the world in 2063, 50 years from now. But we do know that there will be challenges and opportunities to which our alumni will respond, just as our Class of 1963 has done in the 50 years since their graduation.

We celebrate our 50-year reunion class and their achievements. Let’s look back to 1963 to understand life in America at that time. Median family income with a head of family having four or more years of college was only about $9,700, but tuition at Washington University for the 62-63 year was only $1,100. Lawrence of Arabia was named Best Picture at the Academy Awards ceremony; the long-running soap opera General Hospital had its debut; the first James Bond film, Dr. No, premiered in the US; the Beatles released their first album, Please Please Me. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. In medicine, the first successful liver transplant was done by Dr. Thomas Starl at the University of Colorado, and Dr. James Hardy performed the first lung transplant. Surely, 1963 was a year with much accomplishment and promise.

But 1963 was a time of challenge in America. Of course, time stopped in America on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The young, vigorous, eloquent and inspiring 35th president of the United States had only completed a little over 1,000 days in office, but he set our country on an excellent course in his brief presidency, especially in the area of civil rights. 1963 was a year of great racial strife in America. It was early in 1963 that George Wallace was inaugurated as Governor of Alabama proclaiming, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”

On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy broadcast his historic Civil Rights Address in which he promised a Civil Rights Bill and asked for “the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves.” The very next day civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered. On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” at the Lincoln Memorial before about 200,000 people. This profound and inspiring speech continues to change minds and hearts 50 years later.

As I speak today, we can say that we have made enormous progress in this country in assuring civil rights for all. President Barack Obama is in his second term as the first African American president. We have the talented and dynamic Cory Booker as the mayor of Newark. We see African Americans leading great corporations, and it is a source of pride that the largest African American-owned business, World Wide Technology with about $4 billion in revenue, is headquartered here in St. Louis and led by David Steward.

We also enjoy the most successful African American newspaper, the St. Louis American, led by Dr. Donald Suggs. Our alumnus, Ronald Himes, the Henry Hampton Artist-in-Residence, founded and leads the most important African American theatre, the St. Louis Black Rep. Martin Mathews recognized here today with an honorary doctorate has developed a nationally celebrated program to support success of African American youth. Washington University and other colleges and universities have embraced inclusiveness and diversity as a top priority goal, and we can claim progress.

However, events and ensuing discussions this spring at Washington University reveal that we have not made the full progress we aspire to achieve, and we must redouble our efforts. Each year at the Academic Convocation for first year students I have emphasized that “there is no room for racism, discrimination or hatred on this campus.” Those words are important and they will be repeated for the Class of 2017 this fall, but we must work harder, more creatively, and more collaboratively to bring reality to our aspirations and to realize the benefits to all of us that stem from a truly inclusive and diverse community.

Addressing our challenges and responding well to new opportunities requires leadership. I am very pleased to recognize Dr. Edward S. Macias who concludes a quarter century as our chief academic officer. In recent years he has reinvigorated our efforts to strengthen the inclusiveness and diversity of our faculty. Please join me in thanking Dr. Macias for his years of leadership in strengthening our academic enterprise. Ed, please stand.

Our distinguished alumni, including those from the Class of 1963, those younger and those older, reveal that we have a strong record of preparing leaders. Every school can claim many distinguished alumni who are leaders. Here are examples: from Law, the Honorable Richard Teitleman, Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court; from Social Work, Dianne Harrison, President of California State University in Northridge; from Engineering, Don Jubel, Trustee of WU and CEO of Spartan Light Metal Products; from Arts & Sciences, former US Senator Jim Talent and Barbara Thomas, WU Trustee and CFO of HBO Sports; from Medicine, Dr. Edwin Krebs, Nobel prize in Medicine in 1992; from Business, Jim Weddle, Managing Partner of Edward Jones; and from the Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Soo Chan leader of SCDA Architects in Singapore and Cynthia Weese, distinguished architect and former Dean of Architecture here at Washington University, and Judy Pfaff, MacArthur prize-winning artist. Each school has great students who become great alumni.

Looking ahead, we have prepared our new alumni to be leaders in society. In saying we prepare leaders, we do not mean that we are preparing only presidents and CEO’s, as important as those are. We mean that we are preparing leaders in the broadest sense. This would include civic leaders, family leaders, business leaders, Nobel and Pritzker prizewinners, leading artists, designers, physicians, writers, social scientists, scientists, humanists, performers, engineers, lawyers, and social workers. In short, everyone educated at Washington University has the potential to become a leader in their chosen area.

The bachelor’s degree recipients here have benefited from the leadership of the late James E. McLeod, former Vice Chancellor for Students and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Jim, an African American, grew up in Alabama in the 50’s and 60’s and succeeded in that most challenging time. In his leadership role at Washington University he encouraged all students to cultivate habits of achievement.

This past year his colleagues, former students, and friends prepared a short book documenting the McLeod leadership legacy from the Ervin Scholars Program. The book is entitled Habits of Achievement — Lessons for Life Well-lived. This book is available to you and future generations. If you are interested, you can obtain a copy at the bookstore today.

Jim’s leadership style is one we treasure. We call it McLeod’s Way. We celebrated “McLeod’s Way” at the beginning of this academic year. “Caring and sensitive, quiet and dedicated, trusted friend and advisor, Jim McLeod was a wise, creative, and visionary leader whose special way, McLeod’s Way, continues to inspire all who join the Washington University community.” Jim McLeod encouraged the habits of achievement that will benefit all of us.

A very large fraction of our new graduates have already demonstrated leadership in making our world a better place. You have been involved in very significant service activities coordinated by the Gephardt Institute, Campus Y, and religious and Greek organizations. Many graduates have been involved in special programs like the Clinton Global Initiative University, Service First, Relay for Life, Dance Marathon, and Mr. WashU. This year’s winner of the Mr. WashU contest and fundraising program for City Faces was a Ms: Class of 2013 graduate, Ms. Mamatha Challa! In these and many other public service activities students have been creators and leaders in supporting our community.

I am confident that every new graduate has the potential for leadership. You will address effectively the world’s challenges and seize the most exciting opportunities. Indeed, we are depending on you! You have developed habits of achievement. You are already tomorrow’s leaders. Thank you for making Washington University stronger, and we will follow your leadership contributions with great interest.

Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

Bear Cub grants foster entrepreneurship

Caroline Arbanas — 2013-05-16 00:00:00

Joe Angeles

Jung-Tsung Shen, PhD, is one of five WUSTL scientists recently awarded a Bear Cub grant. Shen is developing a photonic switch, pictured on his computer screen, that is much faster, smaller and more energy efficient than other switches now used to support broadband communications.

Scientists are natural problem solvers, full of innovative ideas. But moving those ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace can be difficult, even for those with an entrepreneurial bent.

In part, that’s because federal research dollars typically don’t support the proof-of-concept studies needed to demonstrate the feasibility of a promising new technology or diagnostic test. And while most scientists feel right at home in the laboratory, they often struggle to develop a successful pitch or execute a business plan.

To fill the gap, Washington University’s Bear Cub program provides university scientists with funding to help commercialize their discoveries. Beginning this year, scientists who are funded through the program also have access to business mentors and other hands-on assistance to develop their technologies.

“We want our faculty and students to have every opportunity to commercialize their technologies,” says Bradley Castanho, PhD, director of the university’s Office of Technology Management. “Part of that means creating an atmosphere where scientists are supported and encouraged in their efforts to become entrepreneurs, while also helping to make funding available so they can move their discoveries beyond the lab.”

The university recently announced a new round of Bear Cub funding, with $204,000 going to five scientists:

David Beebe, PhD, the Janet and Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, is developing a way to prevent the formation of cataracts in patients undergoing retinal surgery. To repair the retina, surgeons must remove a portion of the vitreous gel that fills the eye, a process that exposes the lens to oxygen and increases the likelihood of cataracts.

Working with colleagues at Purdue University who developed a novel biological polymer, Beebe will evaluate whether the polymer can preserve the remaining vitreous gel and restore its properties to prevent cataracts from forming. He is now proposing to test the polymer in animal models, with the goal of developing a sterile synthetic polymer powder that could be mixed with sterile saline and infused into the eye at the end of retina surgery. Annually, some 300,000 patients in the U.S. alone could benefit from the technology, the researchers have estimated.

Joseph Gaut, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology, has developed a test for the early detection of acute kidney injury, a complication that can occur in critically ill patients and in those undergoing heart bypass surgery. Some 700,000 U.S. patients undergo heart bypass surgery every year, and one-fourth of them develop kidney damage, which leads to longer hospital stays and deaths, in some cases.

The test developed by Gaut and his colleagues is based on a kidney-specific protein that is elevated in the blood soon after acute kidney damage occurs, typically several days before currently available tests. The researchers will evaluate whether the protein can accurately diagnose early kidney damage in animal models and in heart bypass patients, which would enable earlier treatment.

Michael S. Hughes, PhD, research associate professor of medicine, is working with John E. McCarthy, PhD, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Mathematics, and Samuel A. Wickline, MD, professor of medicine, to develop an imaging technology that captures certain aspects of electromagnetic and acoustic waves and converts that information into an image.

Rather than being based on wave energy, however, the image measures the entropy, or disorder, in an object and can detect features that are not picked up by ultrasound, CT scans and other conventional imaging. Entropy imaging could potentially have wide applications in medicine and be used to identify defects in materials used by the aerospace and other transportation industries or in heavy manufacturing. Another possible application is in security scanning to detect potential threats and in remote surveillance.

Eric Leuthardt, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery, has designed a monitor to noninvasively detect obstructions in vascular grafts and shunts. The monitor uses a nanoscale flow sensor that can be integrated into an implantable shunt or graft. Both can narrow over time and become obstructed, leading to life-threatening complications.

For example, about one in 500 babies is born with hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid on the brain. It is most often treated surgically by inserting a shunt that diverts the fluid to another area of the body. But symptoms of pain in the head, even something like a headache, can lead doctors to order CT scans, nuclear medicine studies and sometimes exploratory surgery to determine whether the pain is related to an obstruction.

The sensor Leuthardt has developed can be activated by light to measure the flow rate of fluids through grafts and shunts, and he plans to test the device in animal models.

Jung-Tsung Shen, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering, has developed a photonic switch that is orders of magnitude faster, smaller and more energy efficient than other switches typically used to support the information superhighway. In the future, demands for broadband signal transmission and processing will require ultra-fast and extremely low-energy optical switching and modulation rates that aren’t possible with current approaches.

The switch designed by Shen and his colleagues uses artificially engineered materials, called metamaterials, that exhibit exceptional optical properties not easily observed in nature. In addition to telecommunications, the switch also could be used in high-resolution medical imaging and in semiconductor manufacturing. Bear Cub funding will allow Shen to further develop and test the switch.

The time has come! More than 2,700 to graduate

2013-05-17 00:00:00

This morning, more than 2,700 degree candidates will gather in Brookings Quadrangle for the 152nd Commencement ceremony, surrounded by family and friends, to celebrate and remember before embarking on the next part of their journey.

In addition to hearing words of inspiration from Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and senior class president J.R. Davis, the graduates of Washington University in St. Louis will hear a commencement address from Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory A. Booker.

Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, Booker, 43, is credited with helping revitalize New Jersey’s largest city with his hands-on and innovative approach.

“It is my great expectation that our graduates will use their Washington University education, much like Mayor Booker has used his, to help bring benefit to their future communities,” Wrighton said.

Wrighton will confer degrees at the ceremony, which begins at 8:30 a.m.

In all, 2,752 candidates will receive 2,873 degrees today. About 52 percent, or 1,491, are graduate and professional degrees, with undergraduates making up the balance.

Order of exercise

Commencement begins with the traditional academic procession. Robert C. Drews, emeritus professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, is serving as grand marshal and will lead graduating students into the Quadrangle.

Alumni from the Class of 1963 — celebrating its 50th reunion — have been invited to march in the procession.

The Mighty Mississippi Concert Band of St. Louis, conducted by Dan R. Presgrave, director for the St. Louis Wind Symphony, is performing music for today’s ceremony, and ushering in the academic procession.

Kathleen Marie Redmon Neubling, a master’s degree candidate in music in Arts & Sciences, will sing “America the Beautiful.”

Wrighton and Stephen F. Brauer, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees and chairman, president and CEO of Bridgeton-based Hunter Engineering Co., will welcome the graduates.

Booker

Booker

Booker then will deliver the commencement address to the Class of 2013.

He has attracted national attention for his education reform efforts to improve city schools; public safety initiatives to reduce crime; and innovative programs to help men and women leaving prison find jobs and reconnect with their community.

Davis

As class president, Davis will deliver the student commencement greeting. Davis will urge his classmates to remember their time at WUSTL and know that they are prepared for the challenges ahead.

Davis

“I plan to emphasize how our shared experience at Washington University has equipped the Class of 2013 with the potential to achieve incredible things,” he said. “In short, the themes to be included are the power of our collective talent and our capacity to meet the challenges facing our generation.”

Davis, who majored in political science and history in Arts & Sciences, will return to his hometown after graduation to work in operations management and marketing development for a Chicago-based security company.

Wrighton then will confer academic degrees, assisted by Edward S. Macias, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. Diplomas will be presented at individual ceremonies throughout the day.

After the conferral of degrees, Wrighton will address the graduates.

Colleen McCormick Batty, who earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business in December, will sing the “Alma Mater.”

The song concludes the ceremony. Following the academic recession, the university’s schools will hold receptions for graduates and their guests.

Apollo 17 astronaut visits WUSTL for week of events related to lunar exploration

2013-05-16 00:00:00

NASA

Schmitt, shown here in his official NASA photograph taken in 1971, will visit Washington University in St. Louis the week of May 20.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, a geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut, will be visiting Washington University in St. Louis for a week of activities centered on lunar exploration.

On Monday, May 20, Schmitt will give a seminar titled “Field Geology on Another World: Perspectives From the Taurus-Littrow Valley, Moon.” The talk, which beings at 2 p.m. in Room 201 Crow Hall, is free and open to the public.

Schmitt was on board the last Apollo mission to the moon, Apollo 17, which left Earth Dec. 7, 1972, to land near the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis in the Valley of Taurus-Littrow.

Schmitt writes: “For 75 hours, Gene Cernan and I lived and worked in the valley, performing extensive geological studies of the volcanic rocks that partially fill the valley, the boulders that rolled into the valley from the surrounding mountains, and the meteor impact generated soils that cover the valley floor and walls.

“Successful exploration of Taurus-Littrow capped a six-mission investigation of the materials and history of the moon. At the conclusion of these studies, science had gained a first order understanding of the evolution of the moon as a planet.”

Exploration forum with students

After the seminar, Schmitt then will participate in an “exploration forum,” an informal gathering of students to discuss the future of human space exploration, especially what should or could be done differently next time there is a manned mission to the moon. Students from earth and planetary sciences and physics in Arts & Sciences will participate, as will the WUSTL RASC-AL team.

The RASC-AL team is a group of WUSTL undergraduate and graduate students who entered a NASA-sponsored competition called Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) this year. In this competition, students are asked to develop concepts that may provide solutions to design challenges human space exploration currently faces.

The WUSTL team proposed investigating potential landing sites for a lunar outpost at the moon’s South Pole, from which astronauts could test areas in permanent shadow for volatile compounds that would not have survived exposure to sunlight elsewhere on the moon. The evidence of these volatiles and the geological characterization of this unexplored moon region might answer longstanding questions about the moon and its origins.

The team has reached the competition’s second round and will travel to Cocoa Beach, Fla., in June to present its proposal to a panel of NASA, Boeing and other industry judges. The exploration forum will give the team a chance to rehearse aspects of the presentation it will later make at the RASC-AL forum.

An eclectic mix of students in engineering, business administration, earth and planetary science, environmental earth science and medicine, the RASC-AL team is advised by Ramesh Agarwal, PhD, the William Palm Professor of Engineering mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

Review meeting

Tuesday through Thursday, Schmitt will participate in a science team meeting for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Cameras (LROC), hosted by Brad Jolliff, PhD, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences.

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, flying in a low orbit over the moon, has taken many images that show the traces of manned missions. This is the Apollo 17 landing site, where astronauts Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Gene Cernan deployed the final Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). The trails the astronauts took to either side are still visible, as is the final parking place of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a spacecraft launched in 2009 that is currently orbiting the moon in a low orbit that passes over the poles. Its purpose is to prepare for future missions to the moon by making detailed maps of its surface that can be used to identify safe landing sites and potential resources and characterize the radiation environment.

The LRO camera’s principal investigator is Mark Robinson, PhD, professor of earth and space exploration at Arizona State University. The LROC team includes distinguished space scientists from U.S. universities, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Münster in Germany.

At the meeting, the team will discuss spacecraft and camera operations, spacecraft observations (volcanic, tectonic and impact features), future operations, future targets and image processing.

WUSTL alumna selected as a 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer

2013-05-15 00:00:00

Lance Hayashida/California Institute of Technology

Ehlmann

Bethany Ehlmann, who graduated from WUSTL in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in earth and planetary science, joins a roboticist, an astrobiologist, a glaciologist, an artist and an entrepreneur as one of 17 visionary, young trailblazers from around the world who have been selected as this year’s National Geographic Emerging Explorers.

National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers Program recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring adventurers, scientists and innovators who are at the forefront of discovery, adventure and global problem-solving while still early in their careers. Each Emerging Explorer receives a $10,000 award to assist with research and to aid further exploration.

The new Emerging Explorers are introduced in the June 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine, and comprehensive profiles can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/emerging

“As National Geographic celebrates its 125th anniversary year and looks forward to embracing a new age of exploration, we look to our Emerging Explorers to be leaders in pushing the boundaries of discovery and innovation. They represent tomorrow’s Robert Ballards, Jacques Cousteaus and Jane Goodalls,” said Terry Garcia, National Geographic’s executive vice president for Mission Programs.

After earning her bachelor's at WUSTL, Elhmann continued her studies as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. She earned a PhD from Brown University in 2010. She now conducts research on how weathering processes have changed the surface of Mars and other terrestrial planets as a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and as an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, where Curiosity’s mission control is headquartered.

In her current role as a participating scientist with the Curiosity mission, Ehlmann is using the rover’s Chemistry and Camera instrument, known as “ChemCam,” to remotely fire a laser that will blow holes in rocks and create clouds of atoms that indicate the chemical composition of the rocks.

As Ehlmann told the The Chronicle of Higher Education in a recent news article, this is the first time anyone has zapped rocks with lasers on another planet. The laser, she says, will vaporize a patch of the Mars surface, creating a plasma. Light emitted from the plasma forms a “fingerprint” based on the particular atoms that make up the rock. By looking at the ratios of these elements, researchers may be able to determine whether the rocks were formed by upwelling groundwater or by settling sediments in a lake.

“"It would be a grand-slam home run." Ehlmann says,"if we find enhanced carbonates, particularly organic carbon, because that could tell us that Mars might even have been inhabited long, long ago. But there’s a lot of ifs to that, and we’re still a long way away from it.”

Federal work-study meeting May 23

2013-05-15 00:00:00

A meeting to help Danforth Campus employers learn the process and benefits of hiring Federal Work-Study Program students as employees next fall will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 23, in Wilson Hall, Room 214.

Student Financial Services is hosting the meeting, which is geared toward Washington University in St. Louis employers and departments. Topics to be discussed include how to hire undergraduate student workers, paying your student employees, and funding levels the U.S. Department of Education provides to WUSTL, which make hiring work-study students an economical choice for WUSTL employers.

To RSVP, email financial@wustl.edu.

For more information, contact James McDonald, assistant director of Student Financial Services, at (314) 935-6847.

Graduates, welcome to ‘the happiest day of the year’

2013-05-15 00:00:00

Edward S. Macias, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, offers graduates some thoughts on what this day means:

James Byard

Ed Macias is stepping down after a 25-year tenure as chief academic officer.

As provost, my big job at commencement is to introduce the deans. For me, this is akin to being the announcer at a Cardinals baseball game with the power of the public address system behind me. “It’s now my pleasure to introduce … .” I always belt out their names with that same kind of joy and gusto because, after all, this is a lot more important than a baseball game.

There was a time when we had to “assign” faculty to come to commencement just to ensure there were enough of them present. It was a different time. Today, we can barely fit all the faculty members who want to march on stage. Over the years, the idea of commencement has become a much more important celebration for faculty, graduating students and their families, and we have consistently seen bigger and bigger crowds. Why? Because something important and significant is happening here today.

I think happy ceremonies like this are important to society as a whole, and we just don’t have enough of them. Think about this. There are only two times when the whole undergraduate class gets together — at freshman convocation and at graduation, when the undergraduates are joined by our graduate and professional students.

This is why we work so hard to make commencement a beautiful and memorable ceremony, held in the university’s most iconic setting. It’s no accident that nearly everyone you see today will be smiling. I always get a lump in my throat when I process into the Quad leading the faculty to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance.” For me, this is the happiest day of the year.

I remember going to my undergraduate commencement, but I don’t remember who spoke or any of the details of the day that seemed so significant at the time. The truth is, the specifics of today’s ceremony will certainly fade with time, but the day itself will remain with you forever because it will come to help define who you will become. For the rest of your lives, you will be graduates of Washington University.

There are few things in life like this, few happy celebrations that allow everybody to recognize a significant accomplishment that is both a personal and a group accomplishment. Celebrating these graduates as a group is a powerful thing for both our graduates and their families. If we don’t do this, we feel we’ve lost something. We don’t get the chance to thank someone or shake hands or receive congratulations or thanks. We don’t get to see our loved ones in their caps and gowns or hear their names called during the recognition ceremonies.

This is important stuff, and I have just a few parting words of advice:

• Savor the friendships. You may never be face to face with many of your friends again. Social media will keep you in touch, certainly, but treasure and celebrate the many friendships you made here. Say ‘thank you’ as well as ‘goodbye’ when you see your friends today.

• Remember what you learned and who taught you your most important lessons. As you move on in life, think about what you learned and experienced here and how it prepared you for the life you’re living and the work you’re doing. A lot of people helped you get through your education. You had someone along the way who said, “You can do this, just keep going.” That’s what a good teacher, a parent and a friend can do for you. Be aware of those people and be grateful.

• Hold on to your high ideals and expectations for your lives. Hold on to them even more as you get older and perhaps get kicked around a little.

• Thank your parents. Remember how you got here and what allowed you to succeed. Remember the respect for learning that was instilled in you from an early age. You are a product of your family’s ideals and dreams for you. In many ways, thanking parents is what this day is all about.

So thanks for showing up today. It’s more important than you may now even realize. You become part of Washington University history today, joining with all the other Washington University graduates who ever put on a cap and gown, walked into the Quad and sang the “Alma Mater.”

You become part of a very special group of individuals who share the Washington University experience, whether they graduated in 1963 or 2013. It’s no wonder that so many of your fellow alumni have returned today for their 50th reunion. They participate in your happiness today and you participate in theirs. You now share something significant in common with people you have never met, and that makes it all the more powerful.
________________________________________
Macias has missed only one commencement in the past 25 years while serving as the university’s chief academic officer, and that was because his son was graduating from Yale University on the same day. He is stepping down as provost at the end of the academic year. He is also a professor of chemistry and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Q&A with Jim Burmeister

Liam Otten — 2013-05-15 00:00:00

You’ve been involved with commencement planning for more than 40 years. Describe the scale of the day.

Jerry naunheim

Jim Burmeister

JB: This year, we’ll welcome around 2,800 graduates and 13,000 family and friends. We also have about 170 commencement volunteers, as well as transportation people, caterers and other staff and vendors. In Brookings Quadrangle, we’ll set up 15,000 chairs, which takes about three days. But it’s fun to see. Jeff Barlow, the on-site manager, always tells me, ‘We did it this much faster than last year!’

You’re an alumnus yourself. When did you first arrive on campus?

It would have been 1953 or ’54. I was 13 or 14 years old, and got a weekend job administering the Washington University battery, which was a kind of early SAT. I started as a student in ’57. My first full-time job, running the registrar’s office, came in 1969, at which point I also became chairman of the Commencement Committee.

You earned three degrees: a bachelor’s in political science (1961), a master’s in business (1963) and a master’s in psychology (1967). What do you remember of your own commencement ceremonies?

Well, in 1961, we were still in the Field House, but in 1963 we moved over to the Quadrangle, where it’s been ever since. James S. McDonnell [founder of McDonnell Douglas] was the speaker — I remember fighter jets flying overhead, in formation. So it’s been in the Quad for 50 years now. I don’t know of any place in the country that has a nicer facility. It’s really the perfect academic setting.

When do you start planning Commencement?

There are things going on all year round, which sounds crazy, but it obviously gets very, very busy about three months out. We’re communicating with students, with parents, with faculty and staff. We’re coordinating receptions, ordering caps and gowns, planning for inclement weather … all those other administrative details.

What will you be doing during the ceremony?

I’ll just be moving around, making sure that things are where they’re supposed to be. One year, the grand marshal started coming up the wrong aisle, but we caught him in time.

That’s pretty funny. Any other war stories to share?

Honestly, I can’t think of any. Everyone on campus, from the grounds crew to maintenance guys, is really committed to this. Commencement is not the kind of thing that just one or two people can do by themselves. It’s exciting to watch the whole community pull together.

Talking to volunteers, to vendors, to everyone involved, I remind them that, for a lot of visitors, this is the day they will always remember. This is the day that will define, in their minds, what Washington University is. We have to get it right.

As someone who has been on campus for six decades, what do you see as the university’s defining trait? Can you characterize a Washington University culture?

Chancellor Emeritus] Bill Danforth used to say that Washington University is a ‘caring and supportive community of scholars.’ And I think that’s right — I’ve lived it! People say ‘hi’ here. They’re helpful and collegial. They’re interested in things and gracious to their colleagues and concerned about the country and the world. It’s a wonderful atmosphere. I’m not entirely sure how or why we have it, but we do.

Are you still in touch with any of your old classmates?

Oh, yeah! After graduation, I had five or six fraternity brothers who stayed in St. Louis and we still get together for dinner every month. People got married, wives and kids joined the group, but it was always there. That kind of friendship is a precious thing.

What are you looking forward to on May 17? What’s your favorite part of the day?

When it’s all over! [Laughs] When it’s been a great success and the sun has been shining and the sky has been blue and the campus has looked absolutely the best it could ever look. That’s when I’ll relax. That’s when I’ll feel really great.

Do you sweat the weather reports?

Every year! Worrying about the weather is one of the biggest strains. But we’ve mostly been fortunate and things have generally run pretty smoothly. Knock on wood.

So you’re retiring this summer?

That’s right.

And this will be your final year as director of Commencement?

Yes.

Do you think it’s going to be particularly bittersweet?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t given it a lot of thought. I guess I’m not a good planner in my own life — I just plan things for others. [Laughs].

So I guess I’ll find out. But I am staying in St. Louis, and I’m still going to be around campus. These people, these places, these buildings and everything else that goes with it — after all these years, they’re a big part of my life.

There’s no way I could just say, ‘Oh, I’m moving to Wisconsin.’

Morris receives top Alzheimer’s Association honor

Michael C. Purdy — 2013-05-15 00:00:00

Washington University neurologist John C. Morris, MD, received the Alzheimer’s Association’s Medical and Scientific Award for 2013.

Morris

Morris, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (Knight ADRC), was recognized for his many contributions to Alzheimer’s research and treatment at the association’s annual Rita Hayworth Gala in Chicago May 11.

The gala is named in honor of actress Rita Hayworth, who died of Alzheimer’s disease. The actress’s daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, started the tradition of the galas in 1984, and they have raised more than $59 million for Alzheimer’s research.

“We’ve had a long and highly valued relationship with the Alzheimer’s Association,” Morris said. “Receiving this award was a moving and very meaningful honor for me and all of my colleagues at the Knight ADRC.”

Among other accomplishments, Morris’ research team refined the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) system, which was first developed by the founding director of the Alzheimer’s center, Leonard Berg, MD. The CDR now is the standard clinical measure for staging of dementia. Morris’ studies have helped clinicians better distinguish between the normal effects of aging on memory and the earliest clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Over the course of his career, Morris has helped guide the formation of a new consensus that Alzheimer’s disease actively damages patients’ brains for a decade or more before mental functions become noticeably impaired. Morris, Joseph L. Price, PhD, DPhil, professor of anatomy and neurobiology, and others at the ADRC contributed significantly to this consensus through a series of studies that revealed widespread brain damage in patients only recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

This insight led scientists to conclude that treating Alzheimer’s disease prior to cognitive impairment might significantly improve the chances of slowing or stopping the breakdown of normal brain function. Morris and his colleagues at the Knight ADRC have been frontrunners in the development of biomarkers, or factors that can be tested to identify the presence of presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.

“I accept this award on behalf of the investigators, staff, and participants and their families of the Knight ADRC, who together are responsible for the accomplishments this award recognizes,” Morris said.

In 2008, the National Institute on Aging named Morris as principal investigator of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN), an international collaboration of Alzheimer’s research centers. DIAN allowed researchers to validate Alzheimer’s biomarkers in patients with rare inherited forms of the disease.

Based on the groundwork laid by Morris, researchers now are testing preclinical treatment of inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease in a second international research collaborative, the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network Trials Unit, which is led by Randall Bateman, MD, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor in Neurology at Washington University.

National Bike to Work Day is May 17

2013-05-16 00:00:00

Elizabethe Holland Durando

Laura Bierut, MD, professor of psychiatry, and Brad Evanoff, MD, the Richard and Elizabeth Henby Sutter Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, have been cycling to work at the School of Medicine for almost 20 years. The commute from the couple's University City home is a little less than five miles. They encourage other employees to join them on National Bike to Work Day, which is Friday, May 17. For information about Bike to Work Day and commuting tips, click here.

Recognizing excellence in teaching

2013-05-14 00:00:00

kevin Lowder

Richard J. Smith, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished University Professor, congratulates Margaret Anne G. Hinkle, a third-year PhD student in earth and planetary sciences, as she receives a Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Hinkle was one of 15 teaching assistants recognized for exemplary performance during an April 25 ceremony in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge. Departments and programs within Arts & Sciences nominate outstanding teaching assistants for the annual award, which includes a $1,500 cash prize and certificate of recognition. To see brief bios of the 2012-13 teaching award recipients and descriptions of their teaching, visit here.

Washington University teams each win $50,000 Arch Grants in startup competition

Beth Miller and Melody Walker — 2013-05-14 00:00:00

Four startup companies with ties to Washington University in St. Louis have received $50,000 each in the Arch Grants 2013 Global Startup Competition designed to stimulate and support the early-stage entrepreneurial community in St. Louis.

The winning companies are: Sparo Labs, a medical device company founded by two engineering undergraduate students; Juristat, a software company that targets litigators and founded by three alumni; LipoSpectrum LLC, a life science company providing R&D labs with advanced biological lipid-analysis co-founded by an Olin Business School Executive MBA alumnus; and MMBiosensing LLC, which invented a new method of detecting the bio-markers of heart attack and founded by a WUSTL postdoctoral research associate.

The companies were among 20 companies chosen from 40 finalists, trimmed from more than 700 entrants, vying for the $50,000 grants of unrestricted funds. The grants also come with networking and mentoring opportunities and other free services, including legal, accounting, marketing, cloud computing and mentoring support.

Recipients also get access to St. Louis’ angel investment network, the opportunity to be a part of the downtown St. Louis startup community and an opportunity for a $100,000 follow-on grant from Arch Grants.

The win is the latest in a string of awards for Sparo Labs, headed by Andrew Brimer and Abigail Cohen, who are both graduating May 17 from the School of Engineering & Applied Science with bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, respectively.

In April, the team won $25,000 in the engineering school’s inaugural Discovery Competition. In February, the team won $30,000 in the 2013 Olin Cup Competition sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Last summer, the team won first place in two national engineering competitions, resulting in $15,000 in prizes.

Brimer and Cohen have spent nearly two years developing the product and a prototype that empowers patients to quantitatively track and proactively manage asthma, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and other respiratory diseases via seamless integration with smartphones, tablets and computers — ultimately implementing low-cost diagnostic and monitoring spirometry worldwide.

Most spirometers cost between $1,000-$2,000, making them unaffordable for hospitals and clinics in the developing world. However, the Sparo Labs device costs about $8. The low cost could allow health-care providers in developing countries to purchase the spirometers, which are specially designed for accuracy and durability despite their price.

Sparo Labs has filed for a patent and is preparing the product for clinical trials and FDA approval.

Juristat collects electronic lawsuit case data from state and federal court databases. The company uses a proprietary system to index this data into a single dynamic searchable database. Its product can provide more than 150 unique pieces of litigation intelligence, such as the probability of success on motions and appeal or metrics of an attorney’s experience within a practice area or specific court. Users can then quickly search and produce predictive models allowing lawyers to design the best litigation and marketing strategies.

Juristat was co-founded by CEO Drew Winship, JD, formerly a trial lawyer for the Brown & James law firm and an alumnus of Washington University School of Law; Robert Ward, a developer for Beck Automation; and Jordan Woerndle, an analyst for the Neuroinformatics Research Group at the School of Medicine and an alumnus of the School of Engineering & Applied Science. Kent Syverud, JD, dean of Washington University School of Law, is on the advisory board for Juristat.

LipoSpectrum LLC co-founder and CEO Milind Sant, with a doctorate in organic chemistry and an executive MBA from Olin Business School, is employing patented technology developed at Washington University in this bioscience company. The technology, called Multi Dimensional Mass Spectrometry Shotgun Lipidomics (MDMS-SL), provides enhanced, state-of-the-art lipid analysis from biological samples of all types, including plants, animals and humans. Many fields can benefit from detailed molecular level lipid analysis, including cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, cancer, autoimmune and neurological diseases, nutrition, agriculture and bio-fuel (algae).

MMBiosensing LLC, founded by Amos Danielli, a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Lihong Wang, PhD, in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has invented and patented a proprietary method of detecting the biomarkers of a heart attack with significantly higher sensitivity and greatly reduced testing time compared to competitors. The company is developing the technology into a point-of-care device that will greatly reduce emergency room wait times and costs to patients and providers, and improve patient outcomes. The company also won $50,000 in the 2013 Olin Cup competition.

The company’s leadership staff – Abu Abraham, Robbie Garrison, and F. Gabriel Santa Cruz – are all graduates of the Olin Business School.

Class of 2013, grounded in service and study, prepares to step into the world

Kelly Wiese Niemeyer — 2013-05-16 00:00:00

Mark katzman

The Class of 2013 has left its mark on Washington University in St. Louis, and now the graduates are preparing to step out and make an impression in the larger world.

The profile of a WUSTL student is someone who works hard, is well-rounded and has had myriad experiences to prepare not only to succeed professionally, but also to have a lasting impact.

“It’s almost like a gestalt: individually, they’re amazing, but collectively, they’re more than the sum of their parts,” said Jill Carnaghi, PhD, associate vice chancellor for students and dean of campus life.

The 2013 graduates are scholars and athletes, inventors and entrepreneurs. They have trained to be leaders and forward thinkers. Many have conducted research as undergraduates. WUSTL regularly counts among its students winners of prestigious scholarships and other academic distinctions.

In all, 2,752 candidates will receive 2,873 degrees today. About 52 percent, or 1,491, are graduate and professional degrees, with undergraduates making up the balance.

There are 622 doctoral candidates, comprising 280 for the juris doctoris and one for the juris scientiae doctoris degrees from the School of Law; 120 for medical degrees, 88 for doctor of physical therapy, 13 for doctor of audiology, and one for doctor of occupational therapy degrees, all from the School of Medicine; and 119 for the doctor of philosophy degree from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

More than 60 percent of graduates typically plan to enter the workforce after graduation. Top employers of this year’s class include Epic Systems Inc., Capital One, Google, Deloitte and Accenture, according to the Career Center.

Some newly minted physicians won’t stray far as they move into the residency portion of their education. In all, 31 graduates will train at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and another four at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, both of which are staffed by Washington University School of Medicine faculty. Others will be at hospitals across the country.

About one-third of WUSTL students have studied abroad during their college careers. The students gained a broader worldview and an appreciation for perspectives that differ from their own. Students were immersed in another culture in places from Argentina to Australia, and Singapore to Senegal.

Still, many graduates realize their formal learning isn’t complete to achieve their long-term goals. About 30 percent of the WUSTL graduating class, on average, ultimately seeks further formal education, whether in a graduate program or by training to become a doctor or lawyer.

Giving back to the community, whether in St. Louis or across the world, is another core component of many students’ experience. About two-thirds of WUSTL students have performed community service during their time at the university. The Community Service Office estimates that 80 percent of seniors, on average, volunteer during their final year in school.

“The senior class has advanced WUSTL’s culture of community service in countless ways,” said Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Community Service Office and associate director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service. “They have positively impacted the St. Louis community as well as communities across the nation and the globe, and they have inspired the rest of us to follow their lead.”

Many medical students were among those volunteering their time and skills, treating patients at health clinics in St. Louis and internationally. Some conducted research overseas, while others taught local children and families about topics from AIDS to healthy cooking. And many were also involved in activities that seem far afield of medicine, such as sports, music and art.

“I don’t know how they had time for medical school,” joked Kathryn Diemer, MD, assistant dean for career counseling at the School of Medicine.

The Class of 2013 wrapped up its college experience with a unique opportunity. WUSTL hosted the Clinton Global Initiative University in April, a meeting at which students, organizations, experts and celebrities gather to discuss solutions to pressing global issues. About 200 WUSTL students — roughly 50 of whom graduate today — joined others from universities around the world to network and explore ways to make their ideas for change a reality.

Many of the students will continue work on projects they committed to long after they leave WUSTL. Examples include improving water systems for blind schoolchildren in Ethiopia; placing WUSTL students in St. Louis classrooms to teach civics; and establishing a hotline in China to help people quit smoking.

For some, service has become more than a meaningful extracurricular activity. Some students take the next step and decide to give a year or more in service after they have earned their degrees. About a dozen recent alumni or members of the current graduating class plan to volunteer with the Peace Corps, in places such as Zambia and Costa Rica.

Still others have decided to give back by committing to work with Teach for America, guiding students in struggling schools in the United States. The organization said it has made offers to about 50 WUSTL students.

The university experience helped shape the graduates, and they in turn helped leave WUSTL a better place for the next generation of students.

“They’re leaving us with all kinds of gifts they’ve given to enhance the campus community,” Carnaghi said, “and the potential to be great members of whatever community they find themselves in.”

Another — slightly smaller — graduation ceremony

Thu, 16 Say 2013 19:22:23 CST

Whitney Curtis (2)

Children from the WUSTL Family Learning Center on North Campus donned caps and gowns to celebrate their graduation from preschool at a ceremony held at the center May 13. Now, on to kindergarten! Above, members of the class of 2013 pose with Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Below, Daigo Kubota receives his diploma from Chancellor Wrighton and Ann Bingham, director of the center.

Three doctoral candidates named Bouchet Fellows

2013-05-15 00:00:00

Three doctoral candidates at Washington University in St. Louis were inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at the annual Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education April 19-20 at Yale University.

Inducted as the seventh class of WUSTL Bouchet Fellows are Stephanie N. Rodriguez, a doctoral candidate in the immunology program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences; Beverly A. Tsacoyianis, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History in Arts & Sciences; and Sha-Lai L. Williams, who will be conferred a PhD from the Brown School during the university’s May 17 Commencement.

The Bouchet Society, named for the first African American to earn a doctorate in the United States, recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate.

The society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy.

Rafia Zafar, PhD, associate dean for diversity and inclusiveness in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, coordinates the WUSTL chapter of the Bouchet Society.

“Washington University’s graduate students are known to be among the best in America; our Bouchet honorees take their place among the ranks of the highest achieving doctoral candidates in the nation,” Zafar said.

Rodriguez

Rodriguez, who works in the laboratory of Paul M. Allen, PhD, the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Pathology and Immunology, studies the intricate mechanisms of T cell development and how these important immune cells mediate protection to pathogens.

Using a novel CD4 T cell system unique to Allen’s laboratory, her dissertation work investigates the dependence of CD4 T cells on self-molecules for their development into functionally mature and self-tolerant mediators of immune protection, and for continued survival in this mature state.

Her research will address longstanding questions in the field of CD4 T cell development, including the timing, number and duration of immature T cell interactions with cells presenting self-molecules, as well as directly assessing the controversial role of self-molecules in the maintenance of mature CD4 T cells.

The recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Rodriguez has co-authored an article in the Journal of Immunology.

She is director of WUSTL’s Young Scientist Program, which was created in 1991 by medical and graduate students to attract high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds into scientific careers through activities emphasizing hands-on research and interaction between young people and scientists.

She has been involved with the organization since 2009 when she joined as a mentor and tutor.

Rodriguez earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with honors in microbes and immunity from Stanford University in 2009.

Tsacoyianis

Tsacoyianis, a Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow, is completing her dissertation, “Making Healthy Minds and Bodies in Syria, 1903-1961.”

She studies the social and medical history of mental illness in 20th-century Syria, arguing that psychiatrists in Syria presented mental health treatment to Syrians as more than a way to control or cure mental illness, but as a modernizing worldview to suppress and delegitimize spirit-based vernacular treatment.

Her work contributes to scholarly debates in the history of medicine, particularly in the role of religion and science in healing, and debates about the role of the state and various non-state actors in preserving health and shaping the bodies and minds of citizens.

Tsacoyianis has received numerous honors, including a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship and a P.E.O. Scholar award.

She is the book review editor for the Syrian Studies Association, an interdisciplinary, international organization, and speaks and reads multiple languages, including Spanish, French, Hebrew and Arabic.

Through the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, she also has actively worked to secure safe academic positions for international scholars at risk for discrimination and/or political unrest in their home countries.

Tsacoyianis earned a bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern and Judaic studies with a minor in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies from Brandeis University in 2004. She will start a tenure-track position in Middle Eastern history at the University of Memphis this fall after earning a doctorate in August.

Williams

Williams earned a bachelor’s of social work in 1995 from North Carolina State University and a master’s of social work in 1996 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was a licensed clinical social worker for more than 10 years and a supervisor to provisionally licensed clinical social workers in North Carolina for three years.

Her dissertation, “Mental Health Service Utilization Rates Among African-American Emerging Adults,” draws on her research in cultural competence among social work and helping professionals and racial/ethnic disparities in access to and use of quality mental health services.

A Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow, Williams also has received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health under the auspices of its training grant program.

She has co-authored articles in Perspectives on Social Work, Health Promotion Practice and Patient Education and Counseling.

Williams, an ordained evangelist, has volunteered as a youth and young adult counselor with the New Destiny Apostolic Church in Maplewood, Mo., since 2009.

She will join the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri-St Louis as a tenure-track assistant professor in the fall.

About the Bouchet Society

Yale and Howard universities established the Bouchet Society in 2005 to recognize the life and academic contributions of Edward Alexander Bouchet, the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university.

Bouchet was the sixth person in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded the PhD in physics, which he earned from Yale in 1876. He also earned an undergraduate degree from Yale in 1874 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

WUSTL was invited to become a Bouchet chapter member in 2007, joining Georgetown and Cornell universities and the universities of Michigan and Washington, among other peer institutions.

A WUSTL committee selected the university’s latest class of Bouchet Fellows. Members of the committee are: Zafar; Adrienne D. Davis, JD, vice provost and the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law; and Elaine P. Berland, PhD, associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and director of the Liberman Graduate Center.

Alzheimer’s markers predict start of mental decline

Michael C. Purdy — 2013-05-13 00:00:00

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have helped identify many of the biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease that could potentially predict which patients will develop the disorder later in life. Now, studying spinal fluid samples and health data from 201 research participants at the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the researchers have shown the markers are accurate predictors of Alzheimer’s years before symptoms develop.

Roe

“We wanted to see if one marker was better than the other in predicting which of our participants would get cognitive impairment and when they would get it,” said Catherine Roe, PhD, research assistant professor of neurology. “We found no differences in the accuracy of the biomarkers."

The study, supported in part by the National Institute on Aging, appears in Neurology.

The researchers evaluated markers such as the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain, newly visible thanks to an imaging agent developed in the last decade; levels of various proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, such as the amyloid fragments that are the principal ingredient of brain plaques; and the ratios of one protein to another in the cerebrospinal fluid, such as different forms of the brain cell structural protein tau.

The markers were studied in volunteers whose ages ranged from 45 to 88. On average, the data available on study participants spanned four years, with the longest recorded over 7.5 years.

The researchers found that all of the markers were equally good at identifying subjects who were likely to develop cognitive problems and at predicting how soon they would become noticeably impaired.

Next, the scientists paired the biomarkers data with demographic information, testing to see if sex, age, race, education and other factors could improve their predictions.

“Sex, age and race all helped to predict who would develop cognitive impairment,” Roe said. “Older participants, men and African Americans were more likely to become cognitively impaired than those who were younger, female and Caucasian.”

Roe described the findings as providing more evidence that scientists can detect Alzheimer’s disease years before memory loss and cognitive decline become apparent.

“We can better predict future cognitive impairment when we combine biomarkers with patient characteristics,” she said. “Knowing how accurate biomarkers are is important if we are going to some day be able to treat Alzheimer’s before symptoms and slow or prevent the disease.”

Clinical trials are already under way at Washington University and elsewhere to determine if treatments prior to symptoms can prevent or delay inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease. Reliable biomarkers for Alzheimer’s should one day make it possible to test the most successful treatments in the much more common sporadic forms of Alzheimer’s.

Funding for this study was provided by the Longer Life Foundation; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (P30 NS057105); the National Institute on Aging (P50 AG005681, P01 AG003991, and P01 AG026276); Fred Simmons and Olga Mohan, and the Charles and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Research Initiative of the Washington University Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Roe CM, Fagan AM, Grant EA, et. al. Amyloid imaging and CSF biomarkers in predicting cognitive impairment up to 7.5 years later. Neurology, DOI 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182918ca6

Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Weidenbaum legacy honored with May 20 forum

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-05-13 00:00:00

Murray Weidenbaum shows some economic figures to President Ronald Reagan in 1981 at the White House. During Reagan's first administration, Weidenbaum became the first chairman of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.

Renowned economists will gather Monday, May 20, at the university to pay tribute to Murray Weidenbaum, PhD, founder and honorary chairman of WUSTL’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, in a forum highlighting his lifelong accomplishments.

The forum, from 1:30-5:15 p.m. in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium, will begin with a panel discussion on “Current Challenges in Regulation.” The second session will focus on “Today’s Challenges in Macroeconomic Policy.”

After both sessions, speakers and discussants will take questions from the audience.

A highly influential economist and policy adviser, Weidenbaum has a legacy in the academic and governmental realms that began in the early 1960s.

In all, Weidenbaum, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, has served or advised five U.S. presidents, spending much of the time teaching, writing and conducting research. During the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, he served on the U.S. bureau of the budget staff.

After a stint in the business world as the company economist for The Boeing Co., he turned to academia via Stanford University, then Washington University, where he began as an associate professor of economics in 1964.

Two years later, he was named a full professor and chair of the department. During that time, Weidenbaum also directed the NASA Economics Research Program, the department’s largest research project.

He left for Washington, D.C., in 1969 to serve as the first assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy under President Nixon. In 1971, he was installed as the Mallinckrodt professor at WUSTL.

This straddling of two worlds would become a pattern throughout the 1980s.

During the first Reagan administration, Weidenbaum became the first chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. His dual role as teacher and government policy leader continued through the George H.W. Bush White House, when the president sent him on a special mission to Poland and as a member of the EPA’s Clean Air Advisory Committee.

Throughout his academic life, Weidenbaum continued his keen interest in the impact of government on business, serving on the boards of directors at a variety of companies. In 1975, he founded the Center for the Study of American Business at WUSTL.

In 2001, the center was renamed the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

For more information on the tribute forum, including a full list of participants, visit wc.wustl.edu/events/WeidenbaumTributeForum20130520.

Dining Services and seniors say ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’

2013-05-13 00:00:00

Jerry Naunheim Jr.

On May 10, WUSTL Dining Services offered graduating seniors the chance to savor and sample favorite dishes from their four years on campus. Held in Danforth University Center as part of Senior Week, the event featured a “Taste of WUSTL Dining Services” with five stations of fare from Holmes Lounge, the DUC, South 40, the Village and the Bakery. Bon Appétit chefs and other staff members were on hand to say ‘goodbye’ and sign special commemorative T-shirts. Above, senior Karen Mok thanks Bon Appétit's John Wells. Below, senior class president J.R. Davis has his T-shirt signed by Bon Appétit's Vicky Lacy.

Sant named co-director of IP/Nonprofit Law Clinic

2013-05-14 00:00:00

Sant

Geetha Sant, JD, soon will become co-director of Washington University School of Law's Intellectual Property & Nonprofit Organizations Law Clinic.

She will begin her duties July 1, succeeding Peter H. Ruger, JD, who will retire June 30. Sant also will serve as a lecturer in law.

Sant is a former adjunct professor for the Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management program at Washington University in St. Louis’ University College. She earned a law degree from WUSTL in 1989. For more information, visit here.

In recognition of their efforts for St. Louis, Brauers receive 2013 Harris community service award

Barbara Rea — 2013-05-10 00:00:00

Whitney Curtis

Kimmy and Stephen Brauer, flanking Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, attend a ceremony to recognize the couple as the 2013 recipients of the Jane and Whitney Harris St. Louis Community Service Award.

For 14 years, Washington University in St. Louis has had the honor of hosting the ceremony presenting the Jane and Whitney Harris St. Louis Community Service Award, given annually to a husband-and-wife team for their exemplary dedication to advancing the educational, cultural and civic institutions in the region.

The recognition, which comes with a cash contribution to the couple’s chosen charity, is part of the late Jane Freund Harris’ bequest. Jane and her late husband, Whitney, were for many decades leaders in philanthropic efforts in St. Louis, and the award celebrates and rewards those who embrace their philosophy of giving.

At the April 17 ceremony held at Harbison House, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton presented this year’s award to Stephen and Kimmy Brauer for their generous and enduring commitment to St. Louis-area organizations that provide critical support to the region.

The Brauers selected CHARACTERplus to receive the $50,000 prize. And for the first time in the award’s history, the awardees matched the prize.

CHARACTERplus is a character-enriching educational program implemented in more than 600 K-12 public schools throughout Missouri and Illinois. Coincidentally, the organization received the Harris Community Service Award cash contribution last year, donated by the late Sanford McDonnell, co-founder of CHARACTERplus, and his wife, Priscilla.

Among the many special guests gathered for the ceremony were the Harrises’ son, Eugene, and his wife, Lori; Whitney Harris’ widow, Anna; and the Brauers' two sons, Steve and Beau, the latter accompanied by his wife, Suzy. The McDonnell family also was represented by Priscilla, her son, Randy, and daughter-in-law Veronica.

In his welcome, Wrighton lauded the decision by the award’s selection committee.

“I am delighted that Kimmy and Steve Brauer are receiving this award. I’m sure Jane and Whitney Harris would be pleased to see them recognized today for their contributions to advancing the culture and welfare of greater St. Louis. They have demonstrated the type of commitment and dedication that Jane and Whitney cherished so highly and demonstrated in their own lives,” he said.

“Through this award, Jane continues to influence the community in which she was so active and which meant very much to her.”

Wrighton invited Michael Loynd, chair of the selection committee, to join him in the presentation. Loynd began by congratulating the couple: “Steve and Kimmy embody the essence of the award, which is a husband and wife working together to support the St. Louis community.”

He cited both as tremendous assets to St. Louis, adding, “Through their tireless efforts, they have made a profound difference.”

Steve and Kimmy Brauer are native St. Louisans. He is chairman and chief executive officer of Hunter Engineering Co., a global designer, manufacturer and distributor of computer-based automotive equipment. After graduating from Westminster College in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and served a tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1971, he joined Hunter Engineering and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming president in 1980.

His career in public service began as a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army and has included appointments as honorary consul of Belgium and as U.S. ambassador to that country from 2001 to 2003.

CHARACTERplus

Now in its 25th year of operation, CHARACTERplus is a nationally recognized initiative that provides educators with the resources to build positive character traits in young people. One of its premier programs, the CHARACTERplus Way, is so successful it has been added to the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. Other programs offered are anti-bullying workshops, the state and national schools of character program, and the National Character Education Conference.

Siteman's Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure team makes great strides against breast cancer

Jim Goodwin — 2013-05-14 00:00:00

The 15th Annual Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure in downtown St. Louis will be June 15. Since 1998, when the event first took place in St. Louis, Komen has awarded about $28 million for outreach, education, screening and research programs at Washington University Medical Center.

As someone affected by breast cancer, Yulanda Tomlin-Watson is part of a team no one chooses to join. In 1998, the disease took her mother, the nucleus of her extended family.

In her honor, Tomlin-Watson started a team the next year that friends and relatives happily joined. “JoAnn’s Jewels,” named after the woman they lost, has participated in the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure every year since.

“My mom was the heart of our family,” Tomlin-Watson said. “She drew everyone together. That was just her spirit.”

Tomlin-Watson, an asthma coach at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, will continue the tradition June 15, when she joins the Siteman Cancer Center for the 15th Annual Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure in downtown St. Louis.

“Breast cancer is going to affect you some way – you, someone you know,” said Tomlin-Watson, whose group is a Siteman subteam. “We need to do what we can and to be more aware.”

Since 1998, when the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure began, Susan G. Komen has awarded about $28 million for outreach, education, screening and research programs at Washington University Medical Center, said Susan Kraenzle, RN. She is manager of the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

"It moves me to see our city turns out the way it does,” Kraenzle said. “I lost a sister to breast cancer, and I wish she were here to see this and know people are fighting for her and her kids.”

Courtesy of Yulanda Tomlin-Watson

The JoAnn's Jewels team, shown above, takes part in the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure each year. Yulanda Tomlin-Watson, back row center, an asthma coach at St. Louis Children's Hospital, lost her mother to breast cancer.

Of the net proceeds raised locally, up to 75 percent stays in St. Louis to help Siteman Cancer Center and other organizations provide breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs. For example, Komen funds allow Siteman to provide free mammograms to more than 3,200 underserved, low-income women in the area.

“Komen’s help is essential in Siteman’s outreach efforts, and without them we simply would not be able to provide screening to the uninsured to the levels they have established,” Kraenzle said.

Research grants are another important part of Race for the Cure. Money raised nationally at the events made possible the more than $12 million in Promise Grants that Komen has awarded Washington University researchers at Siteman Cancer Center since 2011.

Race for the Cure also provides an excellent opportunity to teach high school students about possible careers in health care and about health in general, said Jennifer Irvin, a school-community health educator at BJC School Outreach & Youth Development.

She too organizes a Siteman subteam that has walked for the past 11 years. Members, including Irvin’s husband and children and students she teaches, also volunteer to hand out race T-shirts and to work at Siteman’s education booth. Participating gave one student the knowledge to perform a breast self-exam that detected a lump. It turned out to be benign, but the 18-year-old needed surgery.

“Today it could be someone else, but tomorrow it could be you,” said Irvin, whose oldest daughter will return from college in Atlanta for the St. Louis race. “I think it’s important to make a difference and to strive for a cure.”

As for Tomlin-Watson, she now hosts the holiday dinners her mother once did. The Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure has become a family tradition, too. Members of JoAnn’s Jewels carry fans bearing an image of the smiling matriarch. During the walk, they reminisce about the times they shared with her.

So many families have been affected by breast cancer, a point Tomlin-Watson recognizes every Race for the Cure when she stops at a particular vantage point along the route. From there, she sees the tens of thousands of other people walking, running and remembering alongside her.

“It’s just a humbling sight to see,” she said. “You see all these people coming together for this one cause.”

Those who join the Siteman team for the 5K run or walk will receive two T-shirts – a Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure shirt and a specially designed Siteman team shirt. Registrants who sign up online also are entered into a drawing for one of two Kindle Fire tablets and will receive a one-year subscription to SELF magazine or GQ magazine. The deadline for registering online is midnight May 28. For more information, visit this link.

OT student receives leadership award

2013-05-13 00:00:00

Sanborn

Erin Sanborn, a doctoral student in the Washington University School of Medicine's Program in Occupational Therapy, is the recipient of the 2013 Women in Science Rosalind Kornfeld Leadership Award given by the Academic Women's Network (AWN) at the university.

The leadership award is given each year to women in the graduating class of the school’s MD and/or PhD programs who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in service to, or advancement of, women within the community. The award was named to memorialize Rosalind Kornfeld, PhD, the founding president of AWN and a valued colleague and mentor to many female scientists at the university. She died in 2007.

Sanborn, who this month will receive her doctorate in occupational therapy, is the first occupational therapy student to be given the Rosalind Kornfeld Leadership Award. She also recently was chosen to participate in Clinton Global Initiative University for a proposal related to her occupational therapy doctorate apprenticeship, which involves helping start the first occupational therapy school in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa.

To read more about the leadership award and its recipients, visit this link.

Engineers in training

2013-05-09 00:00:00

Sid Hastings (2)

Ritenour High School’s Draye Harris (above) launches a plane on behalf of his team during the annual Boeing Engineering Challenge at the Washington University in St. Louis Athletic Complex Field House May 3. Harris was among 100 area high school students from six school districts on 25 teams visiting the WUSTL campus. The teams, assisted by engineers from Boeing Co., competed to determine which glider had the farthest flight, straightest path, longest hang time or highest quality of flight. Gliders with the most creative appearance and most creative engineering also were recognized. (Below) Members of Eureka High School’s “The Flying Pencils” accept an award for their glider. The event was the culmination of a six-month-long project that began in November when the students visited Boeing to receive instructions from a Boeing mentor along with materials for their hand-held gliders. “This competition really helps students think about the principles of flight and design,” Boeing mentor Tom Brandt said. “They might not all choose to go into the aviation industry, but it gets them thinking about other opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and that is rewarding to us as mentors.” Boeing sponsored the design competition, with support from WUSTL's Alumni & Development Office; the Institute for School Partnership (ISP); and the School of Engineering & Applied Science. Boeing is a longtime supporter of K-12 education initiatives at WUSTL, including teacher graduate programs through the ISP.

Scientists show how nerve wiring self-destructs

Julia Evangelou Strait — 2013-05-09 00:00:00

Elisabetta Babetto, PhD

Mouse nerve axons (green) connect to muscle synapses (red) to coordinate movement. Three days after injury, these axons are protected from degeneration because they are missing Phr1, a gene involved in removing damaged axons from the body. In mice that have the gene, injured green axons fragment and disappear by the third day, leaving the red muscle synapses without nerve connections.

Many medical issues affect nerves, from injuries in car accidents and side effects of chemotherapy to glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. The common theme in these scenarios is destruction of nerve axons, the long wires that transmit signals to other parts of the body, allowing movement, sight and sense of touch, among other vital functions.

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a way the body can remove injured axons, identifying a potential target for new drugs that could prevent the inappropriate loss of axons and maintain nerve function.

“Treating axonal degeneration could potentially help a lot of patients because there are so many diseases and conditions where axons are inappropriately lost,” said Aaron DiAntonio, MD, PhD, professor of developmental biology. “While this would not be a cure for any of them, the hope is that we could slow the progression of a whole range of diseases by keeping axons healthy.”

DiAntonio is senior author of the study that appears online May 9 in the journal Cell Reports.

While axonal degeneration appears to be a major culprit in diseases like multiple sclerosis, it also paradoxically plays an important role in properly wiring the nervous systems of developing embryos.

“When an embryo is building its nervous system, there can be inappropriate or excessive axonal sprouts, or axons that are only needed at one time in development and not later,” DiAntonio said. “These axons degenerate, and that’s very important for wiring the nervous system. And in adult organisms, it might be useful to have a clean and quick way to remove a damaged axon from a healthy nerve, instead of letting it decay and potentially damage its neighboring axons.”

DiAntonio compares the process to programmed cell death, or apoptosis, which is also important in embryonic development. Apoptosis culls unnecessary or damaged cells from the body. If cell death programs become overactive, they can kill healthy cells that should remain. And if apoptosis fails to destroy damaged cells in adults, it can lead to cancer.

The new discovery also underscores the relatively recent understanding that loss of axons is not a passive decay process resulting from injury. Just as apoptosis actively destroys cells, axonal degeneration results from a cellular program that actively removes the damaged axon. In certain diseases, the program may be inappropriately triggered.

“We want to understand axonal degeneration at the same level that we understand programmed cell death, in the hopes of developing drugs to block the process when it becomes overactive,” DiAntonio said.

DiAntonio’s major collaborators in this project include Jeffrey D. Milbrandt, MD, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor and head of the Department of Genetics, and first author Elisabetta Babetto, PhD, postdoctoral research scholar.

Studying mice, the researchers found that a gene called Phr1 plays a major role in governing the self-destruction of injured axons. When they removed Phr1 from adult mice, the severed portion of the axons remained intact for much longer than in genetically normal mice.

In the normal mice, a severed axon degenerated entirely after two days. In mice without Phr1, they found that about 75 percent of the severed axons remained at five days, with a quarter persisting at least 10 days after being cut. The mice showed no side effects and suffered no obvious problems due to the missing Phr1.

The findings raise the possibility that blocking the Phr1 protein with a drug could keep damaged axons alive and functional when the body would normally cause the axons to self-destruct.

DiAntonio emphasizes that he is not trying to save axons that have no connection to the rest of the nerve. The paradigm is simply a good way to model nerve injury. In many instances, such as a crush injury or disease processes in which the axon is not severed, blocking the Phr1 protein could potentially preserve an attached axon that would otherwise self-destruct.

Importantly, the research team also looked at optic nerves of the central nervous system, which are damaged in glaucoma, and found similar protective effects from the loss of Phr1.

“This is not the first gene identified whose loss protects mammalian axons from degeneration,” DiAntonio said. “But it is the first one that shows evidence of working in the central nervous system. So it could be important in conditions like glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases where the central nervous system is the primary problem.”

DiAntonio also points out possible ways to help cancer patients. Many chemotherapy drugs cause damage to peripheral axons, which may limit the doses a patient can tolerate.

As part of the new study, the researchers showed that intact axons without Phr1 were protected from the damage caused by vincristine, a chemotherapy drug used to treat leukemia, neuroblastoma, Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, among other cancers.

“In this case, the loss of axons is not caused by disease,” DiAntonio said. “It’s caused by the drug doctors are giving. You know the date it will start. You know the date it will stop. This is probably where I am most optimistic that we could make an impact.”

This work was supported by the American-Italian Cancer Foundation, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant numbers DA020812, NS065053 and NS078007.

Babetto E, Beirowski B, Russler EV, Milbrandt J, DiAntonio A. The Phr1 ubiquitin ligase promotes injury-induced axon self-destruction. Cell Reports. May 9, 2013.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Local health departments find Twitter effective in spreading diabetes information

Leslie Gibson McCarthy — 2013-05-09 00:00:00

The web-based social media site Twitter is proving to be an effective tool for local health departments in disseminating health information — especially in promoting specific health behaviors.

Harris

The latest study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, focused on diabetes, a disease that may affect an estimated one-third of U.S. adults by 2050.

“We focused on diabetes first, both because of increasing diabetes rates,” Harris says, “and also because people living with diabetes tend to use online health-related resources at a fairly high rate, so they are an audience that is already online and on social media.”

The study was published May 2 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) electronic journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, and focused on how local health departments use social media to educate and inform the public about diabetes.

In a one-month period, Harris’ team collected all tweets posted from every local health department with a Twitter account that were diabetes-related. Harris and her team then compared the health departments who utilized Twitter with those who did not.

The findings: Of 217 health departments with Twitter accounts, 126 had tweeted about diabetes, with three diabetes tweets being the median since adopting Twitter.

Health departments tweeting about diabetes were in larger cities, had more staff including public information specialists, and had higher per capita spending than those not tweeting about diabetes. Local health departments tweeting about diabetes were more likely to provide programs in diabetes-related areas like nutrition, physical activity, and chronic disease.

“Social media reaches a large proportion of the population, including low-income and minority groups that are often hard to reach,” Harris says. “Some research has demonstrated that people are looking online for health information, making social media a potentially very useful way to reach a large audience already seeking health information.”

The study was co-authored by Nancy Mueller, project coordinator and an alumnus of the Brown School’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program; Doneisha L. Snider, a student in the MPH program and graduate research assistant at the Center for Public Health Systems Science; and Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, director of the Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research and the Center for Diabetes Translation Research at WUSTL and associate dean for research at the Brown School.

The study was supported by the Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research with a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

To read the full study, visit www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2013/12_0215.htm

To listen to a CDC podcast with Harris, visit www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=8628116&s_cid=fb2342

Law professor Martin installed as Nagel Chair

2013-05-09 00:00:00

Jerry Naunheim

Andrew D. Martin, PhD, vice dean at Washington University School of Law, delivers his address, “Institutional Empiricism in the 21st Century,” during his installation as the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science.

Andrew D. Martin, PhD, vice dean at Washington University School of Law, recently was installed as the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science.

This professorship honors Martin’s work as both a professor of law and a professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. He also serves as the founding director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law. Since 2000, when he joined the Washington University faculty, Martin has mentored nearly 20 doctoral students and received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2011 from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

In addition, he is a principal of Principia Empirica LLC, an analytics consultancy that provides empirically grounded recommendations to businesses, law firms, government agencies and nonprofits. With an expertise in the study of judicial decision making, and a special emphasis on the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, Martin also works extensively in the field of political methodology and applied statistics.

“Andrew has become a giant among scholars and professors of constitutional law and political science,” said Kent Syverud, dean of the law school and the Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor, during the installation ceremony. “His dozens of articles are careful, rigorous and insightful. They’ve come to define the standard for empirical studies of courts in the United States and in the world.”

In addition to Syverud, Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the faculty and Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, offered remarks during Martin’s installation as the Nagel Chair. Lee Epstein, PhD, Provost Professor of Law and Political Science and the Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California, introduced Martin after a welcome by Edward S. Macias, PhD, provost and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences.

The Nagel Chair was established through a bequest from Daniel Noyes Kirby in 1945. It honors Charles Nagel, Kirby’s longtime friend, law partner and fellow lecturer at Washington University School of Law. Nagel was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1881 to 1883, a member of the Republican National Committee from 1908 to 1912, and U.S. secretary of commerce and labor in the cabinet of President William Howard Taft from 1909 to 1913.

To read more and watch a video of the installation visit here.

JERRY NAUNHEIM

Martin is congratulated by his daughter, Olive.

Celebrate Art Museum Day May 18

Liam Otten — 2013-05-09 00:00:00

Has a painting or drawing ever stopped you in your tracks? Have you ever circled a sculpture, collating angles and comparing views? Have you ever been challenged, or simply amused, by an installation or performance?

If so, you’re not alone. On May 18, more than 100 institutions across North America will celebrate Art Museum Day with a variety of free activities, special programming and other initiatives.

This fourth annual event, organized by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), is designed to highlight the impact of museums within their communities and the importance of the visual arts to society at large.

In Missouri, WUSTL’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum — one of only four AAMD member institutions in the state — will welcome visitors with refreshments and student-led tours as well as art-making opportunities and discounts in the Museum Shop.

“Museums, by their very nature, are dedicated to serving the public,” said Sabine Eckmann, William T. Kemper Director and Chief Curator of the Kemper Art Museum, who was elected to the AAMD last fall.

“Everything we do — from planning exhibitions and developing related programming to collecting artworks and preserving them for future generations — is intended to educate and inspire,” Eckmann continued. “Art Museum Day represents an important opportunity for museums to reach out and engage the broadest possible audience, and for that audience to reciprocate by sharing their own encounters with art.”

The AAMD’s Art Museum Day coincides with International Museum Day, organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums. Visitors are encouraged to post stories, responses and reflections on social media platforms, via the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay, and through the Kemper Art Museum’s social media channels.

Founded in 1916, the AAMD represents approximately 210 directors of art museums throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The group is dedicated to establishing and maintaining high standards for both its members and the museums they represent, and serves as a forum for the exchange of information and the exploration of ideas.

For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Carter to lead international education and research in engineering school

Beth Miller — 2013-05-09 00:00:00

Dedric A. Carter, PhD, has been named associate dean for international education and research and professor of the practice in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Carter

In the newly created role, Carter will serve as ambassador-at-large for the McDonnell International Scholars Academy and develop international research partnerships with McDonnell Academy partners; develop graduate, professional certificate and summer programs for international students; and work with corporate partners to provide undergraduate and graduate practice opportunities abroad.

He also will provide support for entrepreneurship programs in the school, and as professor of the practice, he will begin teaching a course in fall 2013 emphasizing the role of scientists and engineers in policy formation.

For more information, visit here.

Commencement celebrations begin Wednesday

2013-05-09 00:00:00

Beginning Wednesday, May 15, more than a dozen distinguished individuals will speak at Commencement-related events for graduates and their friends and families.

The weeklong celebration culminates at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 17, with the 152nd Commencement ceremony in Brookings Quadrangle in which more than 2,700 candidates will receive degrees. Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, credited with helping revitalize New Jersey’s largest city, will give the 2013 Commencement address.

Other speakers and events this week are:

Mary Jo Bang, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts College of Art/Graduate School of Art Recognition Ceremony at 8 p.m. May 16 in Graham Chapel. Student speaker is Kelsey Taylor Brod, a bachelor's candidate in fine arts.

Richard A. Chole, MD, PhD, Lindburg Professor and head of the Department of Otolaryngology, for the Program in Audiology and Communications Sciences Recognition Ceremony and Diploma Distribution at 1 p.m. May 17 in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Teaching and Learning Center.

Edelle Field-Fote, PhD, vice chair and graduate program director for the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, for the Program in Physical Therapy at 1:30 p.m. May 17 in the Khorassan Ballroom, The Chase Park Plaza, 212 N. Kingshighway. The faculty speaker is Shirley Sahrmann, PhD, professor of physical therapy, of cell biology and physiology and of neurology; the student speaker is Daniel Braughton, candidate for a doctorate in physical therapy.

Wayne Fields, PhD, the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English in Arts & Sciences, for the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Hooding and Recognition Ceremony at 11:30 a.m. May 17 in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. in University City.

Karl Grice, BA ’74, MArch/MSW ’76, principal/owner, Grice Group Architects, for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Diploma Ceremony in the Brookings Drive Mall immediately following the main Commencement ceremony. With remarks by honorary degree recipient Juhani Pallasmaa. Student speakers are David Benard Hamm, a bachelor of science candidate in architecture, and Reid Alan Caudill, a master's candidate in architecture.

Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD, cardiologist and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and author of Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation, for the School of Medicine at 3 p.m. May 17 in the Ferrara Theatre at America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza. Student speaker is Ignacio Becerra-Licha, class president, candidate for a doctor of medicine.

Lisa Lewin, BSBA ’96, president of teacher education at Pearson Education, will speak at Olin Business School’s Undergraduate Diploma and Awards ceremony at 11:30 a.m. May 17 in the Athletic Complex Field House.

David Newburger, of Newburger & Vossmeyer in St. Louis, co-director of the Starkloff Disability Institute and commissioner of the City of St. Louis Office on the Disabled, for the Program in Occupational Therapy Diploma Ceremony at 1 p.m. May 17 in Graham Chapel. Faculty speaker is Kerri Morgan, instructor of occupational therapy and neurology; student speakers are Elizabeth Williams, candidate for a master’s in occupational therapy, and Erin Sanborn, candidate for a doctorate in occupational therapy.

Gregory A. Hewett, member of the law school’s National Council and senior managing director in Blackstone Advisory Partners LP, for the School of Law at Mudd Field immediately following the main Commencement ceremony. Student speaker is Zachary A. Greenberg, candidate for a juris doctorate.

Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Spencer T. Olin Professor, for the School of Engineering Graduate Recognition Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. May 17 in Edison Theatre.

Larry Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, will make opening remarks for the Program in Clinical Investigation and the Program in Population Health Sciences at 4 p.m. May 16 in the King Center in the Bernard Becker Medical Library. Faculty speakers Victoria J. Fraser, MD, the Adolphus Busch Professor and head of the Department of Medicine, and Graham Colditz, MD, DrPh, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health, the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and professor of medicine, will follow.

Jennifer R. Smith, PhD, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, for the College of Arts & Sciences Recognition Ceremony at 8:30 a.m. May 16 in Brookings Quadrangle. Student speaker is Andreas H. Mitchell, bachelor’s candidate in anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

Barbara S. Thomas, senior vice president and chief financial officer of HBO Sports, will speak at Olin Business School’s Graduate Diploma and Awards Ceremony at 3 p.m. May 17 in Athletic Complex Field House.

The Rev. Starsky D. Wilson, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation and pastor of Saint John’s United Church of Christ in St. Louis, for the Brown School at 3 p.m. May 17 in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. in University City.

Bernard “Bernie” Wolfe, adjunct instructor in University College in Arts & Sciences, for the University College Recognition Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. May 15 in Simon Hall Auditorium. Student speaker is Jessica Leigh Stanko, master’s candidate in international affairs in University College.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, for the School of Engineering & Applied Science Undergraduate Recognition Ceremony at 2:30 p.m. May 16 in the Athletic Complex Field House. Student speaker is Trevor Hu, bachelor’s candidate in systems engineering and finance.

For an updated and complete list of Commencement activities, visit commencement.wustl.edu.

Obituary: Burton E. Sobel, MD, former director of Cardiovascular Division, 75

Julia Evangelou Strait — 2013-05-10 00:00:00

University of Vermont

Sobel

Burton E. Sobel, MD, internationally known leader in cardiovascular medicine, prolific scientist and former longtime director of the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Friday, May 3, 2013, at his home in Vermont, after a long illness. He was 75.

Sobel served as chief of cardiology at Washington University and at Barnes Hospital from 1974 until 1994. He then moved to the University of Vermont, where he was a University Distinguished Professor of Medicine and a professor of biochemistry as well as founder and first director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Vermont.

Sobel’s research was far-reaching and included major contributions to the treatment of heart attacks, including best methods for dissolving blood clots, and the understanding of cardiovascular disease in the context of Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

He pioneered the development of tissue plasminogen activators (tPA), among the most commonly used clot-busting drugs. Sobel’s early work in this area laid the foundation for his leadership roles in multicenter clinical trials that showed the effectiveness of drugs, including tPA, heparin and aspirin, in dissolving clots and reducing deaths due to heart attacks and coronary artery disease.

More recently, Sobel was a leader in the evolving understanding of the relationship between diabetes and heart disease.

“Dr. Sobel was the consummate physician scientist who translated basic science concepts regarding clot-dissolving agents into clinical trials that have saved the lives of countless patients,” said Douglas L. Mann, MD, the Tobias and Hortense Lewin Professor of Medicine and current chief of the Cardiovascular Division. “He also was responsible for putting Washington University’s Cardiovascular Division on the map. His academic legacy lives on here through the innumerable residents, fellows and faculty that he trained and supported.”

Sobel earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1962. After an internship and residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, he continued his cardiology training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. During this period, he also served in the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1968, he joined the faculty of University of California, San Diego.

He came to Washington University in 1973 as an associate professor of medicine and director of the Cardiovascular Division at the School of Medicine and at Barnes and Wohl Hospitals. He was named the Tobias and Hortense Lewin Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Disease in 1985. After his tenure in St. Louis, Sobel joined the faculty of the University of Vermont as chair of the Department of Medicine in 1994.

A prolific academic, Sobel published more than 900 peer-reviewed articles, invited reviews, editorials and book chapters. He also held positions on the editorial boards of many high-profile medical journals focused on cardiology, including editor of Circulation, associate editor of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and board member of Annals of Internal Medicine and The American Journal of Cardiology. As editor of Circulation, he is credited with innovations that raised the journal’s profile and shaped the field of cardiology and its current directions.

He received numerous honors and awards over his long career, including the Eugene H. Drake Memorial Award from the American Heart Association and a Distinguished Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. The same organization also continues to honor him with the named Burton E. Sobel Annual Young Investigator Award.

Sobel was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, and The Royal Society of Medicine, UK, among others.

Sobel is survived by his wife of 55 years, Susan; his children, Jonathan and Elizabeth; and a granddaughter.

A funeral service was held May 8 in South Burlington, Vt.

Celebrating 'Uncommon Journeys': Brown School honors alumni, faculty member

2013-05-08 00:00:00

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis bestowed one Distinguished Faculty Award and five Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration April 17 at Steinberg Auditorium. One of those alumni was selected as an outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD).

This year’s theme was “Celebrating Uncommon Journeys” as the Brown School honored those who whose individual paths have created positive change for people in the St. Louis region and beyond.

A reception followed at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Distinguished Alumni Awards went to:

Villie M. Appoo (MSW ’76), chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois;
Elizabeth M. George (MSW ’96) vice president of the Deaconess Foundation;
Mickey Rosen (LA ’59, MSW ’61), former community organizer with the St. Louis Human Development Corp. and former executive director of the Mildred Simon Foundation. Rosen, who died April 1, 2013, was represented at the awards ceremony by his wife, Adrienne; and
Susan Dickens Schlichter (MSW ’76), retired executive director of Express Scripts Foundation.

The GOLD award went to Stephanie Krauss (MSW ’08), founder, president and CEO of the Shearwater Education Foundation.

Sarah Gehlert (PhD ’91), the E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity, among other positions, was given the Distinguished Faculty Award. She has been at the Brown School since 2009.

To read more about the honorees, visit here.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGAFnbW51ADXzEWw8hbieDKG7R8T57xnq

View video tributes to all of the honorees here.

Siteman director appointed vice chair of national cancer network

Jim Goodwin — 2013-05-08 00:00:00

Eberlein

Timothy Eberlein, MD, director of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, has been named vice chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) board of directors.

The network, which comprises 23 of the world’s leading cancer centers, develops and updates guidelines for treating breast, lung, prostate and other types of cancer.

“It is a tremendous honor to be named to the board of such an outstanding medical association,” Eberlein said. “I look forward to working with my fellow board members to promote exceptional care for patients and sound public policy.”

Siteman is Missouri’s only member of the NCCN, formed in 1995 to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of cancer care.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Eberlein has been elected as vice chair of the NCCN board of directors,” said Robert W. Carlson, MD, chief executive officer of the association. “His perspectives as a cancer center director, scientist, physician and administrator will be invaluable to NCCN.”

Eberlein has been director of Siteman since its inception in 1998. He also serves as the Bixby Professor and Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine, as well as surgeon-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish.

For more information about the NCCN, visit www.nccn.org.

The Siteman Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Missouri, is ranked a top 10 cancer facility by U.S. News & World Report. Comprising the cancer research, prevention and treatment programs of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, Siteman is also Missouri’s only member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Moley elected president of gynecologic society

Diane Duke Williams — 2013-05-08 00:00:00

Kelle Moley, MD, the James P. Crane Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected president of the Society of Gynecologic Investigation (SGI).

Moley

The SGI is an international society that aims to inspire investigation of global problems in women’s reproductive health through achievements in discovery, transferring new knowledge and training future scholars.

Moley, also a professor of cell biology and physiology, additionally is vice chair and director of basic science research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

She is one of a handful of people in the world studying how maternal obesity as well as type 1 and type 2 diabetes affect the implantation and development of mouse embryos, which could provide insight into the pregnancy outcomes of these diseases in humans.

Her work has established that short-term exposure to high concentrations of glucose or insulin during the first 72 hours after fertilization can alter development and result in an increase of congenital malformations, miscarriages and long- term effects on the offspring.

Moley also is co-director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Science, director of the fellowship program in reproductive endocrinology and program director of the Women’s Reproductive Health Research Career Development Program.

Obituary: William H. Daughaday, former director of metabolism, 95

Jim Dryden — 2013-05-10 00:00:00

Daughaday

William H. Daughaday, MD, a leading diabetes researcher, world authority on growth hormone and the former director of the metabolism division at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Friday, May 3, 2013, after a long illness, in Milwaukee. He was 95.

In an article about the early years of the metabolism division, he wrote that the division was characterized by “brown-bag lunches with free exchange of scientific information and lively discussion of the world and cultural affairs” where “yelling to one another from the various laboratories” was standard practice.

His interest in endocrinology dated back to his high school days in Chicago. The father of one of his closest friends was the head of endocrinology at Northwestern University Medical School. Daughaday visited the laboratory regularly and worked there after his first year at Harvard Medical School.

Daughaday was at Washington University from 1947 until 1994.

“Bill Daughaday was a brilliant physician scientist and a gifted clinician and teacher who became fascinated with endocrinology very early in his career and rapidly became one of the preeminent academic endocrinologists of his time,” said Victoria J. Fraser, MD, the Adolphus Busch Professor and head of the Department of Medicine. “His scientific contributions transformed the field, and he made a huge impact here at Washington University through his research, patient care and the educational programs he developed. Bill will always be remembered for his scientific curiosity, intellect and leadership.”

A highly respected clinician and teacher, Daughaday trained several generations of respected endocrinologists. In 1972, with the help of the late Louis V. Avioli, MD, Daughaday authored the first board certification examination for endocrinology and metabolism.

He was the founding director of Washington University’s Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center in 1975 and that center’s successor, the Diabetes Research and Training Center, in 1978. The latter has been continuously funded for 36 years. In 1983, Daughaday was named the first Irene E. and Michael M. Karl Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Among his scientific contributions was his discovery of insulin-like growth factors, which are proteins that help neurons survive, interact with skeletal muscle tissue and protect cartilage.

Daughaday also did pioneering work developing and applying tests to detect the presence of growth hormone, proposing that growth hormone acted on the liver to stimulate the release of insulin-like growth factor 1. He also discovered how tumors that secrete abnormally high levels of insulin-like growth factor 2 can cause profoundly low blood sugar.

He came to the School of Medicine as an assistant resident in medicine at Barnes Hospital. Shortly after that, he did a research fellowship with Gerty and Carl Cori, a laboratory that helped produce eight Nobel Laureates. He joined the faculty and became the first director of the metabolism division (now the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipid Research) in 1951, rising to the rank of professor of medicine in 1963.

Daughaday was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College in 1940 and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1943. After earning his medical degree, he completed an internship and research fellowship at Boston City Hospital. Then he spent 20 months in the U.S. Army, serving as a medical officer near the end of World War II in Italy.

He published more than 300 scientific articles, and his work earned him many honors, including the Fred Conrad Koch Award of the Endocrine Society (a group for which he served as president), election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and to the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Sciences. He also received Washington University School of Medicine’s Second Century Award in 1993.

Daughaday sat on the NIH advisory council to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He chaired the American Board of Internal Medicine’s subspecialty panel on endocrinology and metabolism, and he served as editor of the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, as well as associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and as a member of several other editorial boards.

Following his retirement from Washington University in 1994, Daughaday joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, as a clinical professor of medicine and moved to Balboa Island, Calif.

He is survived by two children, Elizabeth Daughaday Axelrod and John Daughaday; four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. His first wife, Hazel Judkins Daughaday, died in 1991. His second wife, Nancy Wolcott Ebsen, died in 2008.

A private graveside service is planned for May 25 in St. Louis.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipid Research in the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. They may be sent to the attention of Helen Z. Liu, 7425 Forsyth Blvd. Ste. 2100, St. Louis, Mo. 63105. Memorial gifts also may be given online via this link.

Faulty memory finds a new culprit

Melanie Bauer — 2013-05-07 00:00:00

Grandpa's stories often begin with the phrase, “Have I ever told you about the time…?” What he doesn’t know is that, yes, he has told you about that time, and he has told you many times before.

Why is this situation so typical of our conversations with older adults? A recent study conducted at Washington University in St. Louis suggests it may be due to the changing way we perceive events in our lives as we age. The study finds that this perception is influenced by a part of the brain called the medial temporal lobes (MTL), which declines in functioning in old age.

But how does MTL actually help us remember?

Bailey

“The traditional view of MTL is that it helps us with episodic memory,” said Heather Bailey, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Dynamic Cognition Laboratory who conducted the current study along with Jeffrey Zacks, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, and colleagues.

Episodic memory is a type of long-term memory, specifically our memory for events such as our 21st birthday, what we ate for breakfast or our last conversation with a grandparent. However, a more recent view of MTL — one supported by the current study — suggests it is not just responsible for helping us remember the past.

Zacks

“More recent research suggests that MTL is important for helping us identify patterns in our experiences, and chunk and segment them into meaningful events while we’re experiencing them,” Bailey said.

“Chunk” and “segment” are lingo used in segmentation theory to describe the way in which our brains mentally chop up our days. For example, when thinking back on what you did yesterday, you might remember waking up, showering, getting dressed, drinking coffee, driving to work, and so on. Each of these activities is a “chunk” that your brain created and stored in memory.

Study participants viewed short movies of everyday tasks, such as a woman washing dishes, and "chunked" them into segments of activity. Afterward, they were asked to recall what happened.

“It’s not like you press a record button and your brain records your day and then, when you want to think back on it, you’re just hitting a play button and watching a continuous stream of 24 hours. Your brain is naturally chunking the events in your day into discrete parts,” Bailey said.

In their study, published online April 28 by the journal Psychological Science, Bailey, Zacks and colleagues investigated the connection between how people perceive and chunk everyday events and later remember those events.

In their study, older adults were shown short movies of people doing everyday tasks, such as a woman making breakfast or a man building a Lego ship. While watching the movie, they were instructed to press a button whenever they thought one part of the activity was ending and a new part was beginning (i.e., separate the movie into “chunks”). After the movie ended, they were asked to recall what happened.

In addition to assessing memory for the movies, the size of the older adults’ MTL was measured using structural MRI. The study's purpose was to examine the effects of a degraded (i.e., smaller) MTL on how well people can chunk and remember everyday events. The study included both healthy older adults and older adults with Alzheimer’s disease, some of whom had degradation of their MTL.

“Older adults in the study who showed atrophy in MTL showed decline in memory for these everyday activities, and also showed decline in segmenting and chunking these events as they were happening,” Bailey said. “MTL accounted for a huge portion of this relationship we saw between segmentation and memory.”

This means that what people are doing while they’re watching movies or going through their daily lives — how well they’re chunking their experiences into separate memories — has a strong influence on how well they will remember those experiences in the future. How well they are able to chunk and remember is partly due to how well their MTL is functioning, the study finds.

These findings may have relevance in a clinical setting for treating older adults with memory impairments.

“Alzheimer’s disease attacks MTL in the early stages of the disease,” said Bailey. “But even with MTL atrophy, you may be able to train people to chunk better, which might help them remember their everyday activities better, too.”

Forgetfulness is characteristic of the aging mind and conversations with our aging relatives. This Washington University study suggests that the problem may not just be with the process of recalling memories for events, but also with the process of viewing and chunking the events as they unfold.

So, memory improvement for older adults would come from working harder to form new memories better, rather than working harder to bring to mind older memories that already have formed. In this way, how we perceive the world is a strong predictor of how we’ll remember it in the future.

As part of their future research, Bailey and colleagues will design studies to actually combat memory impairment in older adults.

“We want to investigate further this link between event perception and memory. We want to see if we can intervene at an early point in perception, if it will affect memory,” Bailey said.

Nerve stimulation for severe depression changes brain function

Jim Dryden — 2013-05-07 00:00:00

PET scans of patients successfully treated with vagus nerve stimulation show marked increases in cerebral glucose metabolism after 12 months of treatment (bottom image, red/orange area in yellow circle) in parts of the brainstem thought to be critical in depression. In nonresponders, glucose metabolism decreased in the same brain region (top image, blue/green area in yellow circle).

For nearly a decade, doctors have used implanted electronic stimulators to treat severe depression in people who don’t respond to standard antidepressant therapy.

Now, preliminary brain scan studies conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are beginning to reveal the processes occurring in the brain during stimulation and may provide some clues about how the device improves depression. They found that vagus nerve stimulation brings about changes in brain metabolism weeks or even months before patients begin to feel better.

The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Brain Stimulation and are now available online.

“Previous studies involving large numbers of people have demonstrated that many with treatment-resistant depression improve with vagus nerve stimulation,” said first author Charles R. Conway, MD, associate professor of psychiatry. “But little is known about how this stimulation works to relieve depression. We focused on specific brain regions known to be connected to depression.”

Conway’s team followed 13 people with treatment-resistant depression. Their symptoms had not improved after many months of treatment with as many as five different antidepressant medications. Most had been depressed for at least two years, but some patients had been clinically depressed for more than 20 years.

All of the participants had surgery to insert a device to electronically stimulate the left vagus nerve, which runs down the side of the body from the brainstem to the abdomen. Once activated, the device delivers a 30-second electronic stimulus to the vagus nerve every five minutes.

To establish the nature of the treatment’s effects on brain activity, the researchers performed positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging before the initiation of stimulation, and again three and 12 months after stimulation had begun.

Eventually, nine of the 13 subjects experienced improvements in depression with the treatment. However, in most cases it took several months for improvement to occur.

Remarkably, in those who responded, the scans showed significant changes in brain metabolism following three months of stimulation, which typically preceded improvements in symptoms of depression by several months.

“We saw very large changes in brain metabolism occurring far in advance of any improvement in mood,” Conway said. “It’s almost as if there’s an adaptive process that occurs. First, the brain begins to function differently. Then, the patient’s mood begins to improve.”

Conway

Although the patients remained on antidepressants for several months after their stimulators were implanted, Conway says many of those who responded to the device eventually were able to stop taking medication.

“Sometimes the antidepressant drugs work in concert with the stimulator, but it appears to us that when people get better, it is the vagus nerve stimulator that is doing the heavy lifting,” Conway explained. “Stimulation seems to be responsible for most of the improvement we see."

Additionally, the PET scans demonstrated that structures deeper in the brain also begin to change several months after nerve stimulation begins. Many of those structures have high concentrations of brain cells that release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers and also helps regulate emotional responses.

There is a consensus forming among depression researchers that problems in dopamine pathways may be particularly important in treatment-resistant depression, according to Conway. And he said the finding that vagus nerve stimulators influence those pathways may explain why the therapy can help and why, when it works, its effects are not transient. Patients who respond to vagus nerve stimulation tend to get better and stay better.

“We hypothesized that something significant had to be occurring in the brain, and our research seems to back that up,” he said.

Funding for this research comes from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other funding was provided by a Young Investigator Award to Charles Conway from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD) and the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation. Cyberonics, the maker of the vagus nerve stimulation device, donated three cost-free devices to subjects in this trial.
NIH grant numbers are 1K08MH078156-01A1, 9K24MH07951006 and P30NS048056.

Conway CR, Chibnall JT, Gebara MA, Price JL, Snyder AZ, Mintun MA, Craig, AD, Cornell ME, Perantie DC, Giuffra LA, Bucholz RD, Sheline YI. Association of cerebral metabolic activity changes with vagus nerve stimulation antidepressant response in treatment-resistant depression. Brain Stimulation, published online Feb. 2013: doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2012.11.006

Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Brown School conducts experiment with active learning classroom

Leslie Gibson McCarthy — 2013-05-07 00:00:00

Whitney Curtis

Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, interacts with students taking her “Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities” class in Goldfarb Hall's experimental active learning classroom.

For the first half of the second semester, Room 37 in Goldfarb Hall was a normal, seminar-style classroom: tables and chairs in a “u-shaped” configuration; a podium in front of a whiteboard; and an instructor’s podium.

But over spring break at Washington University in St. Louis, Goldfarb 37 was transformed. For eight weeks, Brown School students in 15 courses took part in an experiment in pedagogy that brings teaching — and learning — into a new era.

This isn’t your parents’ lecture hall. Say hello to the wired world of interactive instruction — or active learning.

Goldfarb 37 is now a classroom with six tables arranged to encourage student interaction with each other instead of focusing on a podium. Six flatscreen monitors and laptop hookups are arranged around the room so students can project and share their work. Tables have chairs that easily can roll from station to station or be turned to join the larger group. These types of furnishings and technology facilitate active learning as juxtaposed to more passive learning, reflective of the prior room arrangement.

Whitney Curtis

Features of the classroom include laptop hookups, flatscreen monitors and tables that facilitate group discussion.

“We are treating this as a research experiment,” said Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, associate dean of the Brown School, who is principal investigator for the study and who teaches “Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities,” a core course in the Master of Social Work program, in this classroom.

“As a teacher, I like to work the room,” she said. “This setup enables me to facilitate the learning process, where I can interact with individual students, any of the six groups, or the entire classroom at any given time with fluidity and ease.”

While student groups are busy preparing presentations and papers, McBride and her teaching assistant walk among them, listening to their processes, answering questions and offering advice.

“If I hear a common theme or question that needs answering, I can stop the work that’s going on and say to the class, ‘This is the issue I’m hearing, here is how you might approach it,’ ” she said.

On a late-April morning just two weeks before finals, students in McBride’s class were working together preparing their end-of-the-year project that would culminate in a public multimedia presentation.

“This is unlike any of our other classrooms,” said Karen Lawrence, a first-year master of social work student working with four classmates.

“This class involves a semester-long group project. It was very difficult to interact in groups before, but this new arrangement enables us to bring our individual work together — including our group's 50-page paper — and then collaborate and discuss it as we go along."

Whitney Curtis

The flexibility of the classroom allows the students to tackle group projects and work easily in group settings.

McBride said every component of the active learning classroom is being evaluated — types of chairs, types of tables, even the technology — through surveys and focus groups with the faculty and students who have taught and learned in this space.

The Brown School intends to use the research to inform its classroom design.

“This project represents the Brown School’s commitment to professional graduate-level training,” McBride said, “where we are creating learning environments and applying active learning pedagogies that will develop the problem-solving competencies of our public health and social work graduates.”

Chatterjee receives this year's Isserman Prize

By Kelly Wiese Niemeyer — 2013-05-07 00:00:00

Chatterjee

Arts & Sciences senior Nisha K. Chatterjee is this year’s winner of the Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize.

The award, given annually, recognizes a student who has made a significant contribution in service and leadership to ecumenical or interfaith activities on the Washington University in St. Louis campus.

Chatterjee, a native of La Canada, Calif., has been active with the university's Bhakti Yoga Club as well as the Inter-Beliefs Council. She previously was treasurer and this year serves as president of Bhakti Yoga Club, which helps students experience spiritual culture from ancient India.

She represented Bhakti Yoga Club on the Interfaith Campus Ministries Association, a group composed mostly of clergy and religious organizations’ staff, and helped with joint outreach events. She also was part of a team that helped organize and run this year’s Pluralism Week, which promotes interfaith awareness and dialogue within the WUSTL community.

Chatterjee plans to graduate this month with a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in international and area studies and economics.

The prize was established to honor the late Ferdinand Isserman, a distinguished rabbi and author who was active in social and interfaith issues locally, nationally and internationally. Winners receive $500 and are honored at a luncheon.

Arts & Sciences recognizes six alumni at awards dinner

2013-05-08 00:00:00

Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis recognized the achievements of six alumni during the 16th Annual Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony, held April 25 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton.

Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor, and members of the Arts & Sciences National Council hosted the awards dinner.

The school presented four Distinguished Alumni Awards, one Early Career Achievement Award and one Dean’s Medal.

The 2013 Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are:

James Burmeister (AB '61, MBA '63, MA '67), whose time at WUSTL spans nearly six decades, from working part time in the psychology department at age 14; to earning degrees in political science, business and psychology; to serving as university registrar; then to serving in both alumni relations and public affairs; to his current role as Commencement director;

Ann Johanson, MD (AB '56), the first physician in endocrine clinical research at the California-based biotechnology firm Genentech and one of the first doctors to use a groundbreaking biosynthetic growth hormone to treat children with pituitary deficiency;

James Schiele (AB '52, MLA '85, MA '11, doctoral student), consultant and former chairman and chief executive officer of St. Louis Screw & Bolt Co.; and

Darrell Williams, PhD (MA '86, PhD '91), an economist and founder and publisher of TheLoop21.com, a website that offers news, resources and opinions on issues important to African Americans.

The Early Career Achievement Award recipient is Nicole Kaplan (AB '92), founding president of Telesto LLC, a Florida-based consulting company that provides financial advisory services to corporate entities.

The Dean's Medalist is Marie Oetting (AB '49), a stalwart volunteer for Arts & Sciences and a fixture on campus for more than 60 years, serving on countless planning and advisory committees as well as supporting student scholarships and other important initiatives.

During the awards ceremony, the honorees shared personal stories of their educational experience and the impact it had on their lives and accomplishments.

For biographies and videos on each of the awardees, visit here.

Three faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences

2013-05-06 00:00:00

Three Washington University in St. Louis scientists are among the 84 members and 21 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

The university's new academy members are:

Stephen M. Beverley, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Molecular Microbiology and chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology in the School of Medicine;
Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, Alumni Endowed Professor of Pathology and Immunology and professor of molecular microbiology in the School of Medicine and co-leader of the Tumor Immunology Program at Siteman Cancer Center;
Joan E. Strassmann, PhD, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences.

“I’m still in shock,” said Beverley. “I got the news a few minutes before boarding a flight from London back to St. Louis, and I didn’t really need the plane.”

Beverley
Beverley studies the biology of the protozoan parasite Leishmania, including virulence factors, host response and basic metabolic functions of the parasite.

Leishmania infection, known as leishmaniasis, affects an estimated 12 million people worldwide. It is mainly spread by sand fly bites and is a major public health problem in the Mediterranean basin, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America. Symptoms include large skin lesions, fever, swelling of the spleen and liver, and, in more serious forms of the disease, disfigurement and death.

Beverley and his colleagues have probed many aspects of Leishmania biology through the development and application of advanced genetic tools.

Accomplishments in recent years have included the discovery that one group of Leishmania parasites uses a genetic regulatory system called RNA interference. This system normally is used to control mobile genetic elements that can disrupt the parasite's chromosomes. But scientists can now use the same system to turn genes on and off in the parasite, helping to identify which genes are most important for the infectious process.

Beverley is also active in the hunt for new drug treatments and vaccines for Leishmania.

Beverley earned a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University. In 1983, he moved to Harvard Medical School, where he eventually became the Hsien and Daisy Yen Wu Professor and interim chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology. In 1997, he joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine as head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology.

Schreiber

Schreiber studies the intricate relationship between cancer and the immune system. With his colleagues, he has revived a century-old model of how the immune system interacts with tumors.

When Schreiber began his research, the accepted model of this relationship, called cancer immunosurveillance, suggested that if the immune system recognized a tumor, it would attack the tumor with the same weapons it uses to eliminate invading microorganisms, not stopping until the tumor was destroyed or the immune system’s resources were exhausted.

The model revived by Schreiber and his colleagues, known as cancer immunoediting, also asserts that the immune system can attack tumors. But they propose that three very different outcomes can result. The immune system can eliminate cancer, destroying it; the immune system can establish equilibrium with cancer, checking its growth but not eradicating it; or the cancer can escape from the immune system, likely becoming more malignant in the process.

The research has had far-reaching effects on clinical efforts to enlist the immune system’s help in the battle against cancer. Schreiber’s insight that the immune system can drive cancers into dormancy, for example, has suggested that immune therapy may one day allow cancer to become a chronic but controllable condition.

Schreiber and his colleagues recently demonstrated that some mutated genes in tumors can give rise to tumor-specific protein antigens. They showed that these antigens can be identified using next generation genomic sequencing and bioinformatic techniques, and their efforts now are focused on refining this approach to develop safe and effective personalized cancer immunotherapies.

Schreiber earned a doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973. After a stretch as a postdoctoral fellow and faculty member at the Research Institute of the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., he was recruited to Washington University in 1985. He received a Washington University Faculty Achievement Award in 2008.

Strassmann’s work focuses on cooperative alliances that have occurred at several important steps in the evolution of life that have proven evolutionarily and ecologically successful.

Strassmann

In collaboration with her husband and colleague, David C. Queller, PhD, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, she has measured genetic relatedness within colonies of many wasp species, including Polistes exclamans, and showed that kin selection theory predicts the existence and outcome of within-family conflicts of interest. They also have pioneered the use of DNA microsatellites for relatedness estimation.

In 1998, they began working with the social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum, a model organism for exploring the evolution of social interactions at the physiological, genetic and genomic levels. In a series of papers, they have demonstrated the power of social evolution theory in explaining multicellular organization, from developmental pathways to cell adhesion.

She earned a PhD in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin. From 1980 to 2011, Strassmann was on the faculty of Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she was the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In 2011, she became a professor of biology at Washington University. That same year, she was elected president of the Animal Behavior Society.

New perspective needed for role of major Alzheimer's gene

Michael C. Purdy — 2013-05-06 00:00:00

Scientists’ picture of how a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease harms the brain may have to be revised, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

Holtzman

People with harmful forms of the APOE gene have up to 12 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with those who have other variations of the gene.

Many researchers believe that the memory loss and cognitive problems of Alzheimer’s result from the buildup over many years of brain amyloid plaques. The plaques are made mostly of a sticky substance called amyloid beta.

For years, researchers have thought that the APOE gene increases Alzheimer’s risk by producing a protein that binds to amyloid beta. Scientists thought that this bond could make it easier for plaques to form.

But in a new study now available online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington University researchers show that APOE and amyloid beta don’t bind together in cerebrospinal fluid and in fluids present outside cells grown in dishes. This means they are unlikely to bind together in the fluids circulating in the brain. The cerebrospinal fluid was taken from people who were cognitively normal but have forms of APOE that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.

“This is the first time we’ve looked at naturally produced APOE and amyloid beta to see if and how much they bind together, and we found that they have very little interaction in the fluids bathing the brain,” said David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of neurology. “This suggests that we may need to rethink any therapeutic strategies that target APOE to slow amyloid plaque accumulation and Alzheimer’s.”

According to Holtzman, leading Alzheimer’s researchers recently agreed that targeting APOE is a promising approach both to gain a better understanding of and to improve treatments for Alzheimer’s. But to do that, scientists first must fully understand how the harmful forms of APOE increase risk of the disease.

Verghese

“APOE is a major player in Alzheimer’s, there’s no question about that,” said Philip Verghese, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate. “We did some additional studies in mice and cell cultures that suggested the APOE protein may be blocking a pathway that normally helps degrade amyloid beta.”

APOE is involved in the metabolism of fats, cholesterol and vitamins throughout the body. Scientists have identified three different forms of the gene that each make a slightly different version of the protein.

One version, APOE 2, produces a protein that significantly reduces Alzheimer’s risk. Another, APOE 4, increases risk. Each person has two copies of the gene, and if both copies are APOE 4, the chance of developing Alzheimer’s rises dramatically.

“About 60 percent of the patients we see in the Alzheimer’s clinics have at least one copy of APOE 4,” Holtzman said. “In contrast, only about 25 percent of cognitively normal 70-year-olds have a copy of APOE 4.”

Verghese tested cerebrospinal fluid samples from people who had either two copies of APOE 4 or two copies of APOE 3, another form of the gene that is not associated with increased Alzheimer’s risk.

“We also found that APOE 2, the protective form of the protein, doesn’t bind to amyloid beta in body fluids,” Verghese said.

In follow-up studies, Verghese showed that APOE and amyloid beta “compete” to bind to a receptor on support cells in the brain known as astrocytes.

“Studies by other researchers have shown that astrocytes can degrade amyloid beta,” Verghese said. “The receptor we identified may be important for getting amyloid beta into the astrocyte so it can be broken down. It’s possible that when the harmful forms of APOE bind to the receptor, this reduces the opportunities for amyloid to be degraded.”

The researchers are planning follow-up studies of the effects of APOE-blocking treatments in mice.

This work was supported by the American Health Assistance Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (Grants AG034004 , AG13956, NS074969, and AG027924).

Verghese PB, Castellano JM, Garai K, Wang Y, Jiang H, Shah A, Bu G, Frieden C, Holtzman DM. ApoE influences amyloid beta clearance despite minimal apoE/amyloid-beta association in physiological conditions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online.

Six to receive honorary degrees at WUSTL's 152nd Commencement

Son, 06 Say 2013 22:49:57 CST

Washington University in St. Louis will award six honorary degrees during the university’s 152nd Commencement May 17.

During the ceremony, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle on the Danforth Campus, WUSTL will bestow academic degrees on approximately 2,800 members of the Class of 2013.

Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark, who is credited with helping revitalize New Jersey’s largest city with his hands-on and innovative approach, will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from WUSTL.

The other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are:

Marilyn Fox, civic leader, philanthropist and community volunteer, doctor of humanities;

Martin L. Mathews, president, CEO and co-founder of Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club, doctor of humanities;

Juhani Pallasmaa, a Finnish architect, educator and critic and a leading international figure in contemporary architecture, design and artistic culture, doctor of art and architecture;

Peter Rosen (MD ’60), one of the international leaders in the field of emergency medicine and one of the pioneers and founding fathers of the specialty, doctor of science; and

Howard Wood (BSBA ’61), co-founder of two of the nation’s most successful telecommunications companies: Charter Communications Inc. and Cequel III LLC, doctor of laws.

Booker

In his second term as Newark’s mayor, Booker has been instrumental in more than doubling the rate of affordable housing production; creating the city’s largest expansion of parks and recreation spaces in over a century; and bringing more than $1 billion of new economic development into the city, including its first office towers and hotels in decades.

A 1994 Rhodes Scholar and 1997 Yale law graduate, he has attracted national attention for his education reform efforts to improve city schools; public safety initiatives to reduce crime; and innovative programs to help men and women leaving prison find jobs and reconnect with their community.

Booker also has gained wide attention for implementing new technologies in the city, ranging from creating the state’s largest wireless network of crime-fighting technology — including cameras and gunshot detection — to using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

An avid social media user, Booker has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter.

Booker has been recognized by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire and Time, which selected him to its 2011 Time 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

As mayor, his personal involvement in helping improve life for his constituents has ranged from living on a “food stamp” budget for seven days to raise awareness of food insecurity, shoveling the driveway of a elderly man who requested help via the mayor’s Twitter feed, inviting Hurricane Sandy victims into his home, and saving a woman from a house fire.

Booker earned a bachelor of arts in political science in 1991 and a master of arts in sociology in 1992, both from Stanford University, where he returned in 2012 as its commencement speaker.

Fox

Fox has devoted her energy and resources to countless causes focused on making the St. Louis community better.

She has held leadership roles in a variety of organizations, including the Missouri Botanical Garden, Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis, Jewish Federation of St. Louis and St. Louis Jewish Community Center, the Missouri History Museum and Webster University.

In 1992, she was elected the first female president of the Jewish Community Center and led a successful $17 million campaign for its satellite facility in Chesterfield, Mo. The Chesterfield facility, which opened in 1996, is named the Marilyn Fox Building.

She also served as board vice chair of the United Way of Greater St. Louis; board vice president of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri; and twice chair of the Old Newsboys Day Campaign for Kids.

Fox and her husband, Sam Fox, also are strong supporters of Washington University. They are members of the Danforth Circle of the university’s William Greenleaf Eliot Society.

In recognition of their steadfast support and generosity, one of the seven schools bears the family name: the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Among the honors she has received are the St. Louis Women of Achievement Award in 1993 and Woman of the Year Award from Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis in 1996. The National Conference of Community and Justice recognized her with its Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award in 1998.

In 2007, Fox was inducted into the Old Newsboys Day Hall of Fame for her support of the annual November campaign to fund children’s charities.

Mathews

For more than half a century, Mathews has dedicated his life to community service. A champion for youth, he co-founded a club initially designed to provide structured recreational activities to young men in his north St. Louis neighborhood.

Today, the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club provides cultural, educational and athletic programs to a diverse population of more than 40,000 young men and women, ages 5-18, throughout the St. Louis-metropolitan area.Many of these youth hail from low- to moderate-income families.

By forging relationships with business and civic leaders and developing innovative programs, Mathews helped create a national model.

In 1960, while coaching a boys’ baseball team, Mathews met another neighborhood youth coach, the late Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine.

The men shared a mutual concern: keeping young men on the fields and off the streets.

From that meeting, came a baseball league, then a small storefront building for club meetings, to eventually, after a multimillion-dollar campaign, a facility equipped with an Olympic-size pool, basketball gymnasiums, community meeting and music rooms, computer and tutorial labs, and administrative offices.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan dedicated the new facility, declaring it a model for the country, and presented the co-founders with the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Since then, the club has continued to grow in size and scope with such additions as the James “Cool Papa” Bell multipurpose outdoor athletic complex, a 19,000 square-foot Girls’ Program expansion wing and the Bob Russell Park in North County. In 2001, the club officially became the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club.

Among the programs offered to combat teen idleness and illiteracy are Computer Literacy Instruction, Urban Music, Summer Day Camp, “The Sky is the Limit” and “Maleness to Manhood Workshop Series.” These activities supply youth with education, cultural awareness, job training and mentors.

For his dedication to youth, he has received numerous honors, including A&E Biography Community Heroes, the FBI’s Director’s Community Leadership Award, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s Humanitarian Award and Focus St. Louis’ What’s Right with the Region! Award.

Pallasmaa

Pallasmaa has designed, written and lectured extensively across the world for more than 40 years. Since 2008, he has served on the jury for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

He is an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects — a distinction conferred upon him in 1980 under the Gateway Arch — and the 2009 recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Pallasmaa is the author and/or editor of more than 45 books on topics ranging from architecture and the visual arts to environmental psychology and cultural philosophy.

His book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (1996) has become a classic of contemporary architectural theory and is required reading in architecture schools around the world.

Pallasmaa served as dean and professor of architecture at the School of Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), from 1991-98.

Pallasmaa has contributed significantly to architecture and the arts at WUSTL. He first arrived at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in 1999 — the latest in a long line of prominent Finnish architects associated with the school over the last 60 years.

From 2001-03, he was the Sam Fox School’s Raymond E. Maritz Visiting Professor of Architecture, and he continues to work with graduate students in the school’s Helsinki International Semester program.

Peter MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor of architecture who was on the HUT faculty with Pallasmaa, has edited two collections of his essays.

Last year, Pallasmaa co-authored Understanding Architecture with Robert McCarter, the Ruth & Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, and he received the school’s Dean’s Medal.

Rosen

Rosen, a 1960 graduate of Washington University School of Medicine, serves as senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and visiting professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson.

He also is professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

Rosen has written hundreds of articles, editorials and book chapters to advance the literature of emergency medicine. He was founding editor of Rosen’s Emergency Management: Concepts and Clinical Practice, the field’s highly regarded flagship textbook, soon in its seventh edition.

He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Emergency Medicine and remains on its editorial board.

Rosen has been a prolific speaker over the years, presenting on all matters involving emergency medicine, including difficult cases, medical ethics, communication issues, the history of emergency medicine and even legends in the field, of which he arguably is one.

He has held offices in several academic societies and won numerous prestigious awards, many related to his work teaching and counseling a generation of emergency medicine physicians.

His honors include the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award in 1977 and in 1984, as well as its Award for Outstanding Contribution in Education in 1994.

In 1990, he received the Leadership Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. He also was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993.

Wood

Wood has never forgotten the opportunities he received as a student and graduate of Washington University, which he attended on a full-tuition scholarship.

Since earning a bachelor of science in business administration degree in 1961 from the Olin Business School, he has been an ardent supporter of his alma mater.

After a successful career in accounting, Wood changed course and co-founded what would become two of the nation’s most successful telecommunications companies: Charter Communications Inc. and Cequel III LLC.

While building his businesses, he also helped drive WUSTL’s progress. He served on the Business School Task Force in 1980-81. He is a past president of the Olin alumni association and an inaugural member, since 1995, of the school’s National Council.

Among the Wood family’s major contributions to Olin Business School are the Wood Fellows for MBA candidates and the Wood Scholars for undergraduates, as well as an endowed chair in organizational behavior.

His generosity also has extended to the School of Medicine, assisting in establishing a state-of-the-art simulation center.

He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2000 and named an emeritus trustee in 2011. A life member of the Danforth Circle, he also served on the School of Medicine’s Finance Committee.

Wood received Olin’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992, the Founders Day Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996, the Dean’s Medal from Olin in 2000 and the Robert S. Brookings Award in 2012.

Today, he runs a real estate and cattle farming operation in his hometown of Bonne Terre, Mo.

WUSTL celebrates Earth Week with first bike-in movie

2013-05-06 00:00:00

whitney curtis (2)

Washington University in St. Louis faculty, staff and students ride from the Danforth Campus to Forest Park for the first “bike-in” movie April 25, as part of the 2013 Earth Week celebration. The group watched Back to the Future on Art Hill and enjoyed dinner and dessert from local food trucks prior to biking back to campus. Below: WUSTL alumna Elizabeth Riley and junior Tyler Caldwell. The WUSTL community engaged in a week packed with sustainability-themed activities, which included a potluck picnic, a climate change panel discussion, free bike tune-ups and a workday at Burning Kumquat, the student-run organic garden. For more information about the university’s sustainability efforts, visit sustainability.wustl.edu.

Early responses coming in on Next Generation Science Standards

Diana Lutz — 2013-05-07 00:00:00

The 26 states in blue partnered with a nonprofit educational group to write the Next Generation Science Standards. (Missouri applied to be a partner state but its application was still pending when the process was closed.) Crucially, the partner states include both Republican and Democratic strongholds.

The Next Generation Science Standards have been out for a month now. How are they being received?

California and Massachusetts already have started the process of adopting the new standards. And judging by entries in a blog The New York Times set up to allow science teachers to comment on the standards, most teachers are on board as well.

Michael Wysession, PhD, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences, in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, played a key role in writing the standards.

Wysession was on the leadership team for writing the standards, focusing on earth and space science. He said the team took great care to make sure state legislators and teachers would be comfortable with the new standards.

State control but national uniformity

The United States currently does not have national K-12 science education standards, Wysession said. Each state determines its own standards, reflecting the tradition of independent states’ rights.

“This is the first push at moving us out of a parochial, local view of education,” said Wysession. “We’re saying, ‘You know what? There are things about the practice of science everyone should know, and this is what they are.'”

But it was equally important that the standards not be imposed on the states from the federal level, as was the now widely disparaged No Child Left Behind Act.

The Next Generation Science Standards were written by a states-led team organized by Achieve, a bipartisan nonprofit education group founded by leading governors and business leaders in 1996. Achieve also led the writing of the math and English language arts Common Core, released in 2010.

No tax dollars were spent on the standards. Instead, private foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Noyce Foundation and the Cisco Foundation, provided financing.

Achieve hoped to enlist half a dozen states to participate in the standards-writing process, but so many states volunteered to be partners that Achieve had to limit participation.

“It’s a real mix of red and blue states,” Wysession said of the state partners. That’s important because state legislatures must adopt the standards.

But industry is pushing state legislatures to adopt the standards, Wysession said. Industrial leaders realize that to be competitive, they must have access to a workforce that can solve problems requiring scientific and technical knowledge.

What are the odds the new standards will be adopted by the majority of states? It’s too early to say, but one good omen for supporters is that 45 states have adopted the Common Core — despite concerns that they increase federal control of schools.

Shorter but deeper

The new standards replace overviews with a series of in-depth explorations and require that students understand how science and scientists actually work rather than merely memorize information.

“Information used to be hard to come by,” Wysession explained. “My school years were spent bicycling across town to the library to write my reports. Kids now have a universe of information at their fingertips, and there’s no need for students to memorize factoids. In fact, there is too much information available.”

As Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of the journal Science, put it in an editorial titled “Failure of Skin-Deep Learning,” the traditional approach “tends to promote a superficial ‘comprehensive coverage’ of a field. . . . We need to replace the current ‘comprehensive’ overviews of subjects with a series of in-depth explorations."

“We must teach our students to do something in science class, not memorize facts,” Alberts said in a second editorial.

Many teachers apparently agree. Writing in The New York Times blog for science teachers, one said, “Our system progressively smothers curiosity out of most kids by burdening them with dates, numbers, facts and equations that seem (to them) to have no relevance to their lives.”

Another teacher wrote, “Currently when I give them a test, they can provide canned answers to definitions, statements, etc. However, when they have to apply knowledge, they are mediocre.”

A third said, “ “Students must understand how we know what we think we know, how to think like a scientist, and how to engage in the scientific inquiry process. That type of learning is what’s embodied in [the new standards].”

Adding earth science and engineering

U.S. secondary school science curricula are largely based on recommendations made 120 years ago by a group called the Committee of Ten, said Wysession. The Committee of Ten suggested that “physical geography” be taught in middle school and that biology, physics and chemistry be taught in high school.

Things have changed since then, Wysession said. Many of the most important problems we face as a society involve earth systems, such as air pollution, water shortages and global warming. Yet roughly two-thirds of American students report not being taught about climate change, according to the National Center for Science Education.

In the new standards, at the high school level, the attention paid to earth and space sciences is roughly equal to that paid to chemistry and physics combined. In addition, the standards incorporate a new emphasis on engineering, technology and applications of science.

Wysession said the science standards include evolution and climate change as a matter of course. And, he said, “You can’t cherry-pick. You can’t leave out evolution or climate change and still say your curriculum adheres to the national science standards.”

It should be easy to motivate students to learn the earth sciences, he said, because they are directly relevant to students’ lives.

“Go through the front page of the The New York Times over a year and tally up science topics you see,” he said. “You’ll see earthquakes, oil spills, forest fires, tornadoes — all this stuff that’s in earth science. So I think people would love to teach it and students would love to learn about it."

A college teacher, writing on the The New York Times blog, agrees: “The best way perhaps to teach climate change is to integrate it with teaching of chemistry and physics — because it brings a certain reality to these otherwise sometimes abstract subjects."

One concern a few teachers voice is that climate science can be depressing. Students will be taught about the enormous impact of human activities on our planet, Wysession said, but the standards are also designed to teach them how to discover solutions to problems such as global warming.

A science curriculum specialist and middle-school science teacher takes a stronger view: “I believe there is a moral imperative to teach this generation of students about this topic since they are going to be the generation forced to face and, hopefully, solve the effects of climate change most directly.”

Assessment, professional development and money

The new standards are not curricula. They are intended instead to guide curriculum development. It may be years before the guidelines are fully translated into detailed curricula, teachers are trained and standardized assessments are adopted.

Wysession is acutely aware that most science assessments test memorized facts. New tests must be devised if students are to be assessed on what they can do instead of what they know. But, he said, there will be a report on how best to handle this challenge from the National Academy of Sciences in the next couple of months.

He also is aware that many teachers are unfamiliar with the fields of earth science and engineering, so adopting the standards will entail significant professional development.

One teacher raised this concern in The New York Times blog, “As a professor of pre-service teachers for the elementary grades, I am seeing a tremendous lack of content knowledge required to pass teacher licensing tests . . . It appears that the current crop of teachers are dreadfully unprepared to teach science in their classrooms.”

A science teacher and science director in the New York State public schools said that if you surveyed schools to see how many professional development days were devoted to science “your jaw would drop” and that funding for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math education) is a “blip on the radar” compared to funding for language arts.”

“Money will be important,” Wysession said. “A state can be all gung ho about adopting the standards, and then the economy tanks and they have no money for it.”

He has talked to groups of principals who told him pre-emptively that it would be difficult to make changes without new money.

Worries aside, however, it is apparent that most science teachers are enthusiastic about the Next Generation Science Standards and hopeful that they will go some distance to turning around the science illiteracy that long has plagued American students, giving them a better chance for success in college and in the international job market.

‘Senior Send-Off’ Dining Services event open to all

2013-05-07 00:00:00

On Friday, May 10, from 2-4 p.m., WUSTL Dining Services is offering graduating seniors the opportunity to take one more delicious trip down memory lane with an event highlighting the food and favorite Dining Services staff members from their four years at Washington University in St. Louis.

The event, at the Edison Family Courtyard outside the Danforth University Center, will feature a “Taste of WUSTL Dining Services” with five stations of fare from Holmes Lounge, the DUC, South Forty, the Village and the Bakery. Students’ favorite Dining Services chefs and other staff members will be on hand to wish them farewell and sign a limited quantity of commemorative T-shirts.

The event is a part of the Senior Week lineup and is free to all graduating seniors with an RSVP at: 2013.wustl.edu.

Faculty, staff and guests are invited to come and say goodbye to the Class of 2013 and also enjoy the Taste of WUSTL Dining Services. Tickets for faculty/staff/guests are $6.95 and available on-site.

Discovery helps show how breast cancer spreads

Julia Evangelou Strait — 2013-05-05 00:00:00

Nature Cell Biology

Collagen fiber alignment at the tumor boundary (dashed lines) is predictive of prognosis. Fibers that tend to be perpendicular to the tumor surface (top right, for example) encourage metastasis and indicate a poor prognosis. Fibers that run parallel to the tumor surface (bottom right) protect against cancer spreading. Tumors without DDR2 or SNAIL1 tend to show the protective parallel fiber alignment.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are more likely than others to develop aggressive tumors that spread. The finding opens the door to drug treatments that prevent metastasis.

It has long been known that women with denser breasts are at higher risk for breast cancer. This greater density is caused by an excess of a structural protein called collagen.

“We have shown how increased collagen in the breasts could increase the chances of breast tumors spreading and becoming more invasive,” said Gregory D. Longmore, MD, professor of medicine. “It doesn’t explain why women with dense breasts get cancer in the first place. But once they do, the pathway that we describe is relevant in causing their cancers to be more aggressive and more likely to spread.”

The results appeared online May 5 in Nature Cell Biology.

Working in mouse models of breast cancer and breast tumor samples from patients, Longmore and his colleagues showed that a protein that sits on the surface of tumor cells, called DDR2, binds to collagen and activates a multistep pathway that encourages tumor cells to spread.

“We had no idea DDR2 would do this,” said Longmore, also a professor of cell biology and physiology. “The functions of DDR2 are not well understood, and it has not been implicated in cancer — and certainly not in breast cancer — until now.

At the opposite end of the chain of events initiated by DDR2 is a protein called SNAIL1, which has long been associated with breast cancer metastasis. Longmore and his colleagues found that DDR2 is one factor helping to maintain high levels of SNAIL1 inside a tumor cell’s nucleus, a necessary state for a tumor cell to spread. Although they found it is not the only protein keeping SNAIL1 levels high, Longmore said DDR2 is perhaps the one with the most potential to be inhibited with drugs.

“It’s expressed only at the edge of the tumor,” said Longmore, a physician at Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital and co-director of the Section of Molecular Oncology. “And it’s on the surface of the cells, which makes it very nice for developing drugs because it’s so much easier to target the outside of cells.”

Longmore emphasized that DDR2 does not initiate the high levels of SNAIL1. But it is required to keep them elevated. This mechanism that keeps tumor cells in a state that encourages metastasis requires constant signaling – meaning constant binding of DDR2 to collagen.

If that continuous signal is blocked, the cell remains cancerous, but it is no longer invasive. So a drug that blocks DDR2 from binding with collagen won’t destroy the tumor, but it could inhibit the invasion of these tumors into surrounding tissue and reduce metastasis.

One possible way DDR2 may govern metastasis is its influence on the alignment of collagen fibers. If fibers are aligned parallel to the tumor’s surface, the tumor is less likely to spread. But fibers aligned perpendicular to the surface of the tumor provide a path for the tumor cells to follow and encourage spreading. Tumors without DDR2 or SNAIL1 tend to show the parallel fiber alignment that is protective against spreading.

“This whole notion of fiber alignment and the tumor interface is a hot topic right now,” Longmore said. “Our co-authors at the University of Wisconsin have developed a scoring method for collagen alignment that correlates with prognosis. And the bad prognosis disappears when you take away DDR2.”

With the current emphasis on genetic mutations in cancer, Longmore is careful to point out that 70 percent of invasive ductal breast cancers show DDR2. But in 95 percent of these tumors, the genes in this pathway – from DDR2 to SNAIL1 – are entirely normal, without mutations.

“If you did genomic sequencing, all of these particular genes would be normal,” Longmore said. “You have to be careful not to just focus on mutations in cancer. This is an example of normal genes put together in an aberrant situation. The change in the environment — the tumor and its surroundings — causes the abnormal expression of these proteins. It is abnormal, but it’s not caused by a gene mutation.”

In early drug development efforts, Longmore and his colleagues have done some preliminary work looking for small molecules that may inhibit DDR2 binding to collagen.

“Currently there are no DDR2-specific inhibitors,” Longmore said. “But there is great interest and work being done here and elsewhere to develop them.”

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants P50CA94056 to the Imaging Core of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, GM080673, CA143868 and F31CA165729, and by Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Zhang K, Corsa CA, Ponik SM, Prior JL, Piwnica-Worms D, Eliceiri KW, Keely PJ, Longmore GD. The collagen receptor discoidin domain receptor 2 stabilizes SNAIL1 to facilitate breast cancer metastasis. Nature Cell Biology. Online May 5, 2013.

Elson elected fellow of arts and sciences academy

Julia Evangelou Strait — 2013-05-03 00:00:00

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis faculty member Elliot L. Elson, PhD, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Elson, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, is one of 186 Americans elected as fellows this year by the academy, an organization formed in 1780 to cultivate the arts and sciences and to recognize leadership in scholarship, business, the arts and public affairs.

The academy has more than 4,500 members, including some 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. Fellows are selected through a competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made prominent contributions to their disciplines and society.

“I am delighted that a member of our outstanding faculty has received this tremendous honor,” said Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Dr. Elson is a dedicated scientist, and this recognition is well-deserved. This achievement demonstrates the good fortune we have had at Washington University in attracting premier faculty.”

This year’s new fellows and foreign honorary members will be welcomed during an induction ceremony Oct. 12 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

Elson

Elson joined the faculty of Washington University as a professor in 1979. In addition to his appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, he is also a professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and an adjunct professor of physics in Arts & Sciences.

His research focuses on cellular motion, the movement and distribution of cell surface proteins and the forces that determine the shapes of cells. He and members of his lab also have studied artificial cardiovascular tissues, including their mechanical and electrical properties.

Elson and his lab members also are well-known for designing and building their own unique instruments to answer specialized questions. One such instrument evolved from a novel technique to measure molecular motion. Elson began developing the technique in the late 1960s, while a faculty member at Cornell University. Called fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), it has evolved into a sophisticated technology that has been widely adopted in labs around the world.

Elson, a St. Louis native, earned a doctoral degree in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1964 and went on to postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego. He joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1968.

In 2007, Elson received the Gregorio Weber Award for Excellence in Fluorescence Theory and Applications. The international award recognizes distinguished individuals who have made original and significant contributions to the field of fluorescence. Elson was honored with the Weber Award for his extensive research in fluorescence, including the development of FCS and his continuing work to refine and advance the technique.

Elson has authored more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has served on the editorial boards of several of these journals, including The Journal of Cell Biology, Biopolymers and Biophysical Journal. He is a member of the Biophysical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

School of Medicine, SLCH and BJH nurses honored with 2013 Excellence in Nursing awards

2013-05-03 00:00:00

Shown are Washington University School of Medicine nurses who were winners or finalists in the 2013 Excellence in Nursing awards from St. Louis Magazine. In the top row from the left are: Jamie Menendez, Vicky Peck, Linda Black, Stacy Pokorny, Barb Miller, and Reida McDowell. Seated, from the left, are: Cassandra Ward, Bernadette Hinrichs, Robyn Myers and Mandy Drozda.

Several Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) and St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) nurses received the 2013 Excellence in Nursing Award from St. Louis Magazine. The award honors nurses who have made a difference in the lives of their patients and colleagues.

The fourth annual awards were announced April 25. The winners included:

• Mary Megehan, a cardiac-intensive care staff nurse at SLCH, award recipient in the intensive care category;

• Karen Balakas, a nurse researcher at SLCH, recipient in the research category;

• Linda Black, a staff nurse in the School of Medicine Department of Surgery’s urologic surgery division, recipient in the acute care/general medicine category;

• Benita Austin, a nurse practitioner in palliative-care service at BJH, recipient in hospice/home health/palliative care;

• Meranda Scherer, a resource nurse in transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at BJH, recipient in the medical-surgical nursing category;

• Diana Kraus, a nurse who helps coordinate trauma care at SLCH, recipient in the management/nurse executive/nurse leader category;

• Cassandra Ward, a nurse in the Memory Diagnostic Center in the School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology, recipient in the neurology/psychology/behavioral health category;

• Barbara Logue, a staff nurse in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit at BJH, recipient in the cardiovascular category.

Several School of Medicine, BJH and SLCH nurses were finalists in the program. They are:

• Julie Spencer, Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College;

• Margaret Emmert Capriglione, BJH;

• Rinnah MacVittie, BJH;

• Lisa Murphy, BJH;

• Stacy Pokorny, School of Medicine, SLCH;

• Bernadette Henrichs, School of Medicine, Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College;

• Barbara Miller, School of Medicine, SLCH;

• Colleen Becker, BJH;

• Marianne Fournie, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital;

• Victoria Peck, School of Medicine;

• Robyn Myers, School of Medicine;

• Reida McDowell, School of Medicine, Siteman Cancer Center;

• Jamie Menendez, School of Medicine;

• Donna Kaempfe, SLCH;

• Mandy Drozda, School of Medicine, SLCH;

• Tammy Heffner, SLCH;

• Margaret Ann Shaner, SLCH;

• Julie Stumpf, SLCH.

WUSTL Record: University News

‘Be first class,’ focus on small acts of kindness, Newark Mayor Cory Booker tells graduates

Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis

Chancellor Wrighton’s message to the graduates

Bear Cub grants foster entrepreneurship

The time has come! More than 2,700 to graduate

Apollo 17 astronaut visits WUSTL for week of events related to lunar exploration

WUSTL alumna selected as a 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Federal work-study meeting May 23

Graduates, welcome to ‘the happiest day of the year’

Q&A with Jim Burmeister

Morris receives top Alzheimer’s Association honor

National Bike to Work Day is May 17​

Recognizing excellence in teaching

Washington University teams each win $50,000 Arch Grants in startup competition

Class of 2013, grounded in service and study, prepares to step into the world

Another — slightly smaller — graduation ceremony

Three doctoral candidates named Bouchet Fellows

Alzheimer’s markers predict start of mental decline

Weidenbaum legacy honored with May 20 forum

Dining Services and seniors say ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’

Sant named co-director of IP/Nonprofit Law Clinic

In recognition of their efforts for St. Louis, Brauers receive 2013 Harris community service award​​​​​​​​

Siteman's Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure team makes great strides against breast cancer

OT student receives leadership award

Engineers in training

Scientists show how nerve wiring self-destructs

Local health departments find Twitter effective in spreading diabetes information

Law professor Martin installed as Nagel Chair

Celebrate Art Museum Day May 18

Carter to lead international education and research in engineering school

Commencement celebrations begin Wednesday

Obituary: Burton E. Sobel, MD, former director of Cardiovascular Division, 75

Celebrating 'Uncommon Journeys': Brown School honors alumni, faculty member

Siteman director appointed vice chair of national cancer network

Moley elected president of gynecologic society

Obituary: William H. Daughaday, former director of metabolism, 95

Faulty memory finds a new culprit

Nerve stimulation for severe depression changes brain function

Brown School conducts experiment with active learning classroom

Chatterjee receives this year's Isserman Prize

Arts & Sciences recognizes six alumni at awards dinner

Three faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences

New perspective needed for role of major Alzheimer's gene

Six to receive honorary degrees at WUSTL's 152nd Commencement

WUSTL celebrates Earth Week with first bike-in movie

Early responses coming in on Next Generation Science Standards

‘Senior Send-Off’ Dining Services event open to all

Discovery helps show how breast cancer spreads

Elson elected fellow of arts and sciences academy

School of Medicine, SLCH and BJH nurses honored with 2013 Excellence in Nursing awards

National Bike to Work Day is May 17

In recognition of their efforts for St. Louis, Brauers receive 2013 Harris community service award