Washington University Record, February 17, 2000
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Washington University School of Medicine Digital Commons@Becker Washington University Record Washington University Publications 2-17-2000 Washington University Record, February 17, 2000 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record Recommended Citation "Washington University Record, February 17, 2000" (2000). Washington University Record. Book 854. http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record/854 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington University Publications at Digital Commons@Becker. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Record by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Becker. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Inside: Dramatic design for riverfront Medical News: Scientists discover how Washington People: Denise McCartney wins annual architecture competition alcohol damages the developing brain brings zest for life to management job 8 Feb. 17,2000 Volume 24 No. 20 -ifr *vr ntr Washington University in St Louis v v v Students help shape national proposals When officers of the National Ohio, in November, were Shelly Association of Graduate- Schrappen of Arts & Sciences' Professional Students (NAGPS) Graduate Student Senate and arrived in Washington, D.C., this Malaina Brown, a graduate past weekend, Feb. 11-12, to lobby student in Arts & Sciences now on for legislative initiatives among leave from the University. Brown members of Congress, they took is a member of the NAGPS with them a platform crafted in national board. part by students from Washington The platform sets forth an University. ambitious legislative agenda, Holly Williams from the including proposals for: School of Architecture, president • Increased federal funding for of the Graduate-Professional graduate fellowships, which have Council (GPC) representing all diminished in number dramati- eight schools at the University, cally since the 1970s; was part of a NAGPS conference • Expanded tax deductions for SpGSking ffeely Award-winning documentarist Charles Guggenheim (right) makes a point in a that wrote the group's 2000 interest paid on student loans, panel discussion Thursday, Feb. 10, during a campus forum on the First Amendment, which legislative platform. Also at the raising the income ceiling for brought nationally known journalist-alumni back to the University. Other panelists were (from left) conference, held in Columbus, See Proposals, Page 6 Ken Cooper (A&S 77) and Maralee Schwartz (A&S 74), both of the Washington Post; Michael Isikoff (A&S 74) of Newsweek; and Tom Baxter (A&S 71) of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In keynote addresses at the forum, Guggenheim presented a new documentary film, "The First 'Coin of the realm' Freedom," which he produced for the Newseum in Arlington, Va.; and Isikoff discussed the way his undergraduate experience helped shape his commitment to First Amendment values. Equation named for George Zahalak BY TONY FITZPATRICK on the transmission of neural signals. According to Zahalak, Fugitive in 1970 anti-war protest surfaces George I. Zahalak, Eng.ScD., Huxley is perhaps best known in professor of mechanical biomedical and engineering Ioward Mechanic, a former assembled in the Brookings Mechanic has apparently been engineering and biomedical sciences for the Hodgkin-Huxley sstudent who jumped bail Quadrangle May 4,1970, to living in Arizona since 1976 under engineering, has received a Equations, which made possible nearly three decades ago to avoid protest the shooting that morning the name Gary Tredway. He has singular honor: A fundamental a detailed quantitative under- a prison sentence related to the of four anti-war student protest- worked for liberal causes, includ- equation in the molecular theory standing of neural conduction May 1970 burning of the Air ors at Kent State University in ing election reform and environ- of muscle contraction has been based on sound biophysical data. Force ROTC building on the Ohio. The rally culminated just mental protection. He owns an named the "Huxley-Zahalak "For the last 40 years, Huxley Washington University campus, after midnight May 5 with the apartment complex and runs a Equation," for him and Sir has concentrated on the molecu- has surfaced in Scottsdale, Ariz. burning of the ROTC building. successful herbal food company. Andrew Fielding Huxley. lar mechanisms of muscle He surrendered to federal One of several persons charged It was his community involve- Authors Marcello Epstein and contraction and published a first authorities Friday, Feb. 11. with crimes related to the ment that eventually exposed him: Walter Herzog named the version of his mathematical Arizona newspapers began incident, Mechanic was accused in the Scottsdale City Council equation for Huxley and Zahalak theory in a now-classic paper in reporting last week that a long- of throwing cherry bombs at race, media scrutiny of his resume in their book, "Theoretical 1957," Zahalak said. "That paper time Scottsdale community police officers and fire fighters. and credentials revealed that they Models of Skeletal Muscle: contained a simplified version of activist and city council candidate On Oct. 22,1970, he became the were fabrications. Biological and Mathematical what Epstein and Herzog have was in fact Mechanic, a 1970 first person found guilty under a Since surfacing, Mechanic has Considerations," published by dubbed the 'Huxley-Zahalak Washington University graduate 1968 federal anti-riot law. refused to identify those who John Wiley and Sons, New York. Equation.' That version is valid who had been living under an Mechanic disappeared in May helped him remain hidden and Huxley shared a Nobel Prize in only for steady-state conditions, assumed name for decades. 1972 shortly before he was has not said whether he met with Physiology and Medicine in 1963 whereas the equation to which Mechanic was among a crowd scheduled to begin a five-year his parents, his sister or his twin for work he did with collaborators See Zahalak, Page 7 of roughly 5,000 protestors who prison sentence. brother, Harvey. Whiz kids Program inspires new generation of scientific researchers BY DAVID LINZEE improved. brains. She passed it around. Putcha "Ugh! Brain juice!" cried one girl, Kristina Vischer chalked a big explained to a refusing to touch it. But a slender X on the blackboard while now engaged girl named Helena said that Girish Putcha set out a audience that holding the brain was her favorite dozen soft rubber balls. The this was a part of the class. students in this freshman biology demonstration At morning's end, several class at Central High School of of motor students come over to shake hands the Visual and Performing Arts in adaptation, the or say thanks. One girl asked North St. Louis looked on ability of the tentatively, "Can people come visit bemused. They'd been told that brain to — you know, where you do these Washington University override the science?" students were going to give them eye in directing Vischer beamed at her. "You demonstrations about how the the muscles. can totally come visit." brain works, but they didn't know Robin This is the whole idea, in fact. what to expect. The medical and Kyles, head of "We hope our teaching teams graduate students are part of the the biology spark interest," said Stephanie Young Scientist Program (YSP), department at Strand, the YSP director. "And that started in 1991 to focus, educate the school, students will apply for Summer and inspire St. Louis City public § looked on with Focus in their junior year." high school students interested in | approval. Youngsters accepted into this science. I "These kids program work with graduate Vischer and Putcha called for Graduate student Suzanne M. Underhill (right) and a trio of human brains provoke a love hands-on," student mentors in labs at the volunteers, and a tall boy stepped lively response in (from left) Angela Scheibel, Candace Nelson and Mary Williams, he said. "You School of Medicine. up to the line and tossed the balls students at St. Louis' Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. can't paper- Another program component at the blackboard, hitting the X and-pencil is the Mad Scientist Network, a every time. Then Vischer took out wary student. The kids grinned. This was them. They'll have a lot of Web site started in 1995 that uses a pair of thick, weird-looking "No, prism. They bend light." getting more interesting. The boy questions tomorrow." more than 500 scientists to answer goggles. "These are prism Vischer said as she put them on. put on a pair of goggles and Meanwhile, Daphne Robinson questions from around the world goggles—" "See? My eyeballs are over on the started throwing way to the left of was introducing her group to the in fields from astronomy to "Prison goggles?" asked one side." the X. Gradually, though, his aim stars of the show, actual human See Young Scientists, Page 6 2 RECORD WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Designs provide 'grand gestures' to link Arch, downtown BY ANN NICHOLSON Contemporary Art in St. Louis Feb. 22 through March 18. rand gestures" to link "The designs of Oppici and the Gateway Arch and Le both understood the power of u grounds with downtown the structure of the Arch and did St. Louis appear in both of the top not try to challenge it vertically," designs in the School of noted Will Bruder, competition Architecture's biannual Steedman adviser and Arizona architect. Competition — an Italian "Their solutions complement the architect's winning proposal and Arch, offering grand gestures the second-place design entered by that create a new urban land- a Washington University graduate scape — both celebrating our student. culture and energizing the The winner, Fabio Oppici of community. Rome, was selected from 61 "The winning scheme really entrants from Europe, North and sparks the imagination with its South America, Asia and Australia. kaleidoscopic wrapping of the Oppici will receive a $20,000 freeway and the new piazza traveling fellowship to interview linking the city with the Arch and research the work of 15 grounds." leading figures in contemporary Stephen Leet, associate Japanese architecture.