Chronicle of Higher Education
WUSTL among top five producers of Fulbright scholars
10/24/2010
The U.S. State Department wants its premier fellowship program to help develop creative responses to problems as serious as climate change and pandemics. The Fulbright Program, which had a budget of $253.8 million in the 2010 fiscal year, sent 1,564 students and 1,110 scholars abroad during the 2009-10 academic year to teach or conduct research. In a related table, Washington University is listed among the top 5 producers of Fulbright scholars. The new Fulbright Nexus Program will connect researchers in the United States, Canada, and Latin America in an effort to advance ideas to resolve issues of global concern. Link to Article
Financial Times
Business schools face EMBA challenge
0/25/2010
Because EMBA programmes are designed to run parallel to a professional career, they are proving an ideal additional qualification for engineers, doctors, scientists or even clergymen, all searching for a move to a higher level. Mahendra Gupta, Dean of WUSTL’s Olin Business School, says global economic restructuring is driving the next big developments in EMBA programmes. “EMBA programmes must equip students and companies to retool for slower growth at home and uncover opportunities in emerging markets,” Gupta said. Link to Article
See also Olin ranks 18 in new Financial Times EMBA rankings
New York Times
When a cancer therapy puts others at risk
10/25/2010
There are about 40,000 new cases of thyroid cancer a year, and most patients are treated with radiation, which makes them potentially dangerous to people around them for up to a week. “We’re talking about really small doses,” said Dr. Henry D. Royal, them associate director of nuclear medicine at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. “Who is it going to harm? Link to Article
USATODAY.com
Siblings of kids with autism may also have subtle traits
10/22/2010
As many as one in five siblings of children with autism may have subtler problems with language and speech, according to new research involving nearly 3,000 children. “Smaller studies have reported that in families with children with autism, many children who don’t have an autism diagnosis have had language delay,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. John Constantino, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine. Link to Article
washingtonpost.com
Scientists start daunting task of mapping human brain’s pathways
10/24/2010
The human brain is among the most complex structures in the universe – and researchers will try to map it in just five years. A consortium led by scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota has launched a project, dubbed the Human Connectome, that will diagram all of the major circuits in a healthy human brain. The effort is the first of its kind and will lay the groundwork for understanding how the human brain functions. Link to Article See also St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Latino USA
Yanira’s story: Latina teens at high risk for suicide
10/21/2010
The numbers are shocking: one in seven Latinas in the U.S. will make an attempt to take her own life. It’s not widely known or reported, but young Latinas attempt suicide at much higher rates than girls in other ethnic groups. Luis Zayas, who teaches at the WUSTL schools of medicine and social work, discusses his research on these issues as part of a Latino USA podcast. Zayas founded and directs the University’s Center for Latino Family Research. It’s the only one of its kind in the nation: a social research center dedicated to Latino health, mental health, and family & community development in the U.S. and in Latin America. Link to Article
HealthSCOUT
Mosquito evolution may make it harder to fight malaria: Study
10/24/2010
Complicating efforts to combat malaria, new research indicates that two physically identical strains of a single mosquito responsible for most disease transmissions appear to be evolving into two genetically distinct species. This development could undermine efforts to control mosquito population growth with strategies that may not be effective against both strains. The research team included scientists from the University of Notre Dame, the J.C. Venter Institute, Washington University and the Broad Institute. Link to Article See also Bloomberg / Business Week
The Chicago Reporter
An unclear connection
November 2010
In its procedures about how to handle child sexual abuse, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has unambiguous language about the role poverty should play in determining whether abuse has occurred. None. But Melissa Jonson-Reid, a social work professor at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote in a 2009 paper that the over-representation of poor children in child welfare systems is driven more by the presence of risk for harm to the children. “The problems confronting poor families must be taken seriously and not be cast aside as simple expressions of class bias in the reporting system,” she wrote. Link to Article
St. Louis Business Journal
Cofactor to sequence Ozzy’s genome
10/25/2010
Cofactor Genomics LLC, a St. Louis startup led by former WUSTL genetics researcher Jarret Glasscock, has partnered with two other companies to sequence the genome of a very high-profile client – British rocker Ozzy Osbourne. In 2008, Glasscock left The Genome Center at Washington University in St. Louis to start his own company after the center started receiving requests for smaller genome sequencing projects from academics and industry. Washington University focuses on larger, multimillion-dollar government projects. Link to Article
STLtoday.com
Exhibit documents Muslims shielding Jews from the Holocaust
10/23/2010
“Besa: A Code to Live By,” an exhibit that opened at Congregation Temple Emanuel in Creve Coeur on Thursday, makes the case that the Muslim Albanian villagers who sheltered Jews from deportation to concentration camps did so from a sense of religious obligation. Ahmet Karamustafa, professor of history and religious studies at Washington University, said saving a life is a universally acknowledged Muslim value. Protecting a life, Karamustafa said, “has always ranked at the very top of moral and legal categories articulated by legal and theological scholars in Islam.” Link to Article
STLtoday.com
Businesses take bite out of edible garden trend
10/23/2010
St. Louisans are launching businesses that build vegetable gardens and transform urban and suburban yards into edible landscapes. Washington University’s School of Architecture just launched a landscape architecture program, and although the school does not have a formal edible landscape curriculum, teachers there expect to offer more seminars on the subject to meet student demand. “Without question it’s a topic that’s received quite a bit of attention,” said Don Koster, a senior lecturer, who explained that more students were doing final projects on urban agriculture and issues related to food inequity. Link to Article
News in higher education
Chicago Tribune
NIU campus uneasy as police reveal few details about missing student
10/24/2010
Unease and fear hit the Northern Illinois University campus on Sunday as dormitories remained on lockdown and students waited to hear if remains found in a heavily wooded park belonged to one of their own. The talk on campus centered on freshman Antinette “Toni” Keller, who disappeared Oct. 14. Link to Article
Politico
For college students, it’s so not ’08
10/24/2010
On college campuses where Barack Obama made politics cool again, most students have moved on. They’ve quit bugging their friends about change, they’re no longer trying to sign up new voters and the knock-on-door day trips now draw only the most hard-core. One statistic from Rock the Vote, the most aggressive organization behind youthful political participation, illustrates the difference between now and 2008 — just 280,000 young voters signed up in its midterm elections voter drive, a fraction of the 2.5 million who eagerly put their name on voter forms two years ago. The bottom line: From coast to coast, universities that brim with liberal ideas and idealistic students won’t be sending nearly as many voters to the polls on Nov. 2. Link to Article
Sun-Sentinel (South Florida)
Drunkorexia: Binge Drinking and Eating Disorders on College Campuses
10/19/2010
As new research shows correlations between binge drinking and eating disorders on college campuses, campus health educators are working to raise awareness of the issue. Link to Article
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