School of Medicine

School of Medicine 2013 commencement speakers

This year the Spector Prize has been awarded to two students, Megan Kelly and Jennifer Stevens.The prize, given by the Department of Biology in memory of a 1938 WUSTL graduate, recognizes outstanding undergraduate achievement in research. Kelly did research on the chemical signals used by malaria parasites and Stevens on evolutionary trade-offs in weakly electric fish.

Discovering ways to honor the dignity of individuals coping with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is the goal of an interdisciplinary symposium on “Finding Humanity in Advanced Dementia” to be held in Wilson Hall on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St Louis on Saturday, April 27.

Marilyn Krukowski, PhD, professor emerita of biology, died Sunday, April 7, 2013, in St. Louis from complications of multiple sclerosis. She was 80. Krukowski taught vertebrate structure (anatomy) in the Department of Biology for more than 30 years. Her students raved about the quality of her teaching and often cited the course as the best they ever had taken at Washington University.

In the next decade, the Washington University Medical Center campus will be transformed by renovations and new construction as part of the Campus Renewal Project. Shown is a preliminary rendering of what the Medical Center’s north campus may look like.

March 15 was Match Day for 120 soon-to-be physicians in this year’s Washington University School of Medicine graduating class. They and medical students across the country learned where they will do their residency training. Shown are students Ignacio Becerra-Licha and Somalee Banerjee after they learned where their residencies will take them.

Many WUSTL students will be on hand at the St. Louis Science Center this Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. to explain the brain and their brain research to interested visitors. They are participants in NeuroDay, a free brain science expo featuring hands-on activities and demonstrations that provide a rare opportunity to learn about the human brain, the nervous system, neurological disorders and cutting-edge brain research.

Estrogen levels drop dramatically in menopause, a time when the risk of urinary tract infections increases significantly. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found new evidence in mice that the two phenomena are connected by more than just timing.

A participant in Pedal the Cause, the cycling event started three years ago to raise money for cancer research in St. Louis, surpassed its $2 million goal this year.

Researchers from the new interdisciplinary Center for Biological Systems Engineering at Washington University will host its inaugural symposium, sponsored by Lockheed Martin, from 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7, in Whitaker Hall, Room 100. Rohit V. Pappu, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering, directs the new center. Lockheed Martin is sponsoring the symposium.