Construction begins on a Danforth Campus 535-space underground parking garage on the site of the former Prince Hall at Wallace Drive near Forsyth Boulevard. A new University Center is under construction atop the garage.

The School of Engineering names a new dean, Mary J. Sansalone, professor of structural engineering at Cornell University. She succeeds Christopher I. Byrnes, the Edward H. and Florence G. Skinner Professor of Systems Science and Mathematics, who had held the post since 1991.

The Diabetes Center opens at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH), providing a new group-care and patient- education approach for patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Headed by Garry Tobin, associate professor of medicine, the center allows patient access to the latest technology, treatments, and clinical research.

George Warren Brown School of Social Work faculty and graduate students join teams from China's Peking University and Hong Kong's Polytechnic University in a first annual joint Summer Institute to study ongoing effects of Mao Zedong's One-Child Policy and also Chinese aging issues.

The Richard A. Gephardt Institute for Public Service, established in 2005, forms new ties to the Brown School of Social Work with the appointment of Amanda Moore McBride, assistant professor of social work, as its director. She replaces James W. Davis, professor emeritus of political science in Arts & Sciences.

BJH announces creation of its Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence, funded by a $1.56 million grant from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, in part to help recruit and retain underrepresented minority residents and fellows, who, in the 2007 academic year, will comprise 20 percent of its residents for the first time.

Washington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital Outpatient Orthopedic Center.

MetroLink, the St. Louis-area commuter rail service, opens its long-anticipated Cross County Extension, connecting the University's Medical, Danforth, and West campuses to each other and to Downtown St. Louis, the airport, and other commercial and residential areas.

The University Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Barnes-Jewish Hospital begin construction on a $13 million outpatient orthopedic facility located in west St. Louis County. The 60,000-square-foot building will offer one-stop outpatient care for sports medicine; hand, shoulder, foot, and ankle surgery; physical medicine and rehabilitation.

A new symbol for Bear athletics is unveiled by John Schael, director of athletics. It features an updated, more realistic Bear mascot and a new typeface that highlights the University's red and green colors. The original 1926 athletic symbol of the scowling bear with sailor's cap was updated once previously, in 1995.

Kimberly Gayle Walker, GR82, is named the University's first chief investment officer, heading a new governance entity, Washington University Investment Management Co., which seeks to enhance investment returns on the University's endowment and other assets. She previously served as president and CEO of Denver-based Qwest Asset Management Co.

Development begins on the Fossett Laboratory for Virtual Planetary Exploration, a Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences teaching and research facility that will provide 3-D celestial imaging. Support comes from adventurer Steve Fossett, GB68, a University trustee.

Promising research advances on a potential cure for type 2 diabetes, which affects 200 million people worldwide. Two university medical researchers, Marc R. Hammerman, the Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine, and Sharon A. Rogers, research instructor in medicine, cure rats by transplanting embryonic pig pancreases. Primate testing is under way. If successful, the researchers hope to move on to human trials.

Groundbreaking takes place for a new 90,000-square-foot social sciences & law building, just southwest of Anheuser-Busch Hall on the Danforth Campus. Completion of the four-story Collegiate Gothic structure, designed to increase interdisciplinary social sciences collaborations, is slated for fall 2008.

WUSTL representatives (back row from second to left) Kristopher Kelley, Kate Burson, Teresa Wallace, Kenneth A. Harrington, Yiping Chen, and Russell Kohn interact with children at Mahabo Commune in Madagascar.

A Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies symposium marks the 60th anniversary of judgments rendered by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the first major international criminal trial. Conference presenters include the trial's three surviving U.S. prosecutors--Benjamin B. Ferencz, Whitney R. Harris, and Henry T. King, Jr.

(From left) Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton; Trustee David Habif; his wife, Linda Habif; Alan I. Glass, director of the Habif Health & Wellness Center; and Karen Levin Coburn, assistant vice chancellor for students and associate dean for the freshman transition, prepare to dedicate the Wellness Center in an Oct. 27 ceremony.

The College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts names a new dean, Bruce Lindsey, who headed Auburn University's School of Architecture from 2001-2006. He previously served as associate head of Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture.

The Habif Health & Wellness Center, open since January, is dedicated in a ceremony. The new facility brings together the space and staff of three functions previously located in two buildings: primary medicine, mental health services, and the Office of Health Promotion and Wellness. David Habif, who serves on the Board of Trustees and the National Council for the Undergraduate Experience, is the retired director of the Teaneck Radiology Center in New Jersey.

The Genome Sequencing Center wins a four-year, $156 million grant to focus on the DNA sequencing of disease genes, particularly those involved in cancer. The National Human Genome Research Institute grant is one of only three awarded to U.S. sequencing centers.

The women's volleyball team narrowly misses an NCAA Division III championship, falling three games to two to Juniata College. And the women's cross country team takes fourth place in NCAA championships, placing two runners, senior Beth Herndon and junior Tricia Frisella, on the All-America Team.

The nationally recognized director of Harvard University's Center for Cancer Prevention, Graham A. Colditz, is named to head research, education, and community outreach in cancer prevention for the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and BJH, as associate director of prevention and control and the Niess-Gain Professor.

Literal stardust--comet particles older than the sun--is discovered by Frank J. Stadermann, senior research scientist in physics in Arts & Sciences, and other researchers in samples captured on the seven-year journey of the NASA spacecraft Stardust. The finding could help scientists understand the composition and origin of comets.

Washington University ranks in the top 10 nationally in faculty scholarly production, black student college graduation rates, and the number of freshman class National Merit Scholars. Further, the University earned top 10 rankings in 19 specific disciplines, according to Academic Analytics' Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, including No. 1 rankings for political science and for ecology and evolutionary biology.

School of Medicine scientists suggest that genetic factors may play an important role in ongoing cigarette addiction. Principal investigator Laura Jean Bierut, associate professor of psychiatry, says that an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory brain activity may predispose people to certain addictions. The breakthrough could lead to new smoking-cessation treatments.

Chevrolet Team 509 is composed of WUSTL students (from left) Shlomo Goltz, Nathan Heigert, and Hubert Cheung.

The National Cancer Institute awards a five-year, $8.5 million grant to a group headed by Matthew J. Ellis, the Anheuser-Busch Distinguished Professor in Medical Oncology, to evaluate five known subtypes of breast cancer to determine the likely prognosis and most effective treatment for each. The gene analysis of breast tumors will be carried out by researchers at the School of Medicine and collaborating institutions in the United States and Canada.

The AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (ACTU) at the School of Medicine receives a seven-year, $10 million grant from National Institutes of Health to find new treatments for AIDS and HIV-related complications such as dementia, neuropathy, and cardiovascular disease. David M. Clifford, ACTU director, says the unit will focus on developing better treatments with fewer side effects.

A WUSTL team--comprising Olin Business School senior marketing major Hubert Cheung and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts senior visual communication majors Shlomo Goltz and Nathan Heigert--is among five national finalists in the Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge making a formal Detroit presentation to executives from General Motors and its ad agency.

The new Northwest Tower on Children's Place opens, adding eight floors and 195,000 square feet of office space and uniting faculty in the departments of Pediatrics, Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Internal Medicine. Bridges connect the tower to St. Louis Children's Hospital and the Clinical Sciences Research Building, linking the School of Medicine's North and South campuses.

The School of Law launches the Center for Empirical Research in the Law, aiding the collection and analysis of research data and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Its first major project, the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, compiles thousands of documents in civil rights injunctive cases.

Four finalists in the School of Law's Moot Court Competition argue their cases before John G. Roberts, Jr., chief justice of the United States, who was visiting campus to preside over the competition. Roberts is joined on the presiding panel by two U.S. district court judges, a U.S. circuit court of appeals judge, and a Georgetown University law professor.

Washington University joins eight other leading U.S. scientific and medical research institutions to issue a report warning Congress that ongoing stagnant funding of biomedical research puts many research projects at risk and threatens to stall treatment advances for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases.

Chevrolet Team 509 is composed of WUSTL students (from left) Shlomo Goltz, Nathan Heigert, and Hubert Cheung.

To help understand, stimulate, and manage sustainable economic growth in a remote Madagascar community, five students from the schools of Law, Business, Social Work, and Arts & Sciences, and the director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Kenneth A. Harrington, fly to the Mahabo Commune for field studies.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's momentous Dred Scott decision--which denied full citizenship to African-Americans and helped ignite the Civil War--Washington University holds a symposium and panel discussions in St. Louis, where the civil rights case first was filed.

The College Swimming Coaches Association of America announces that the Washington University men's swimming and diving team posted the best team grade-point average in the NCAA Division III the previous term--for the third consecutive semester. Coach Brad Shively says, "To excel in the classroom at such a strong academic institution says a lot about the character and work ethic of our team."

The women Bears basketball team just misses a national championship, falling 55-52 to DePauw in the title game at Springfield, Mass. The men's team takes third nationally, winning its NCAA championship consolation game after losing by two points to Virginia Wesleyan in the semifinal.

To ease the impact on patients and staff of upcoming Interstate 64/ Highway 40 construction, BJH plans inpatient and outpatient service additions at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital in suburban Creve Coeur, including pediatric surgery and pediatric diagnostic clinics. The University, through a joint WUSTL-BJC task force, analyzes strategies to lessen the construction's impact on students, employees, and patients.

Jeff Pike, dean of the College of Art and the Graduate School of Art, is named the first Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman, Jr. Professor of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Pike is one of some 20 faculty members named to endowed professorships during the school year.

Construction begins on University Center, being built atop the new underground parking facility. Expected to house student operations such as KWUR and Student Life, as well as the Career Center, University Center is slated for July 2008 completion.

John Watts, a freshman in the School of Engineering, falls to top-ranked, three-time NCAA singles tennis champion Matt Seeberger of UC-Santa Cruz in the 2007 NCAA Division III singles final, 6-4, 6-4. Meanwhile, the men's baseball team ends its season with a 4-2 loss to Luther College in the NCAA Central Region Championship, finishing with a 30-11 overall record.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton (left) presents Charles F. Knight (right) with the William Greenleaf Eliot Society's 2007 "Search" Award..

With a second-place finish for the women's softball team in NCAA Division III finals and a fifth-place finish for the men's tennis team, Washington University moves into fourth place in the 2006-2007 U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup competition. Points are awarded based on an institution's finish in nine women's sports and nine men's sports.

NBC's managing news editor and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert gives the Commencement address in Brookings Quadrangle at the University's 146th Commencement.

The 2007 "Search" Award--presented annually by the William Greenleaf Eliot Society in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of teaching, research, and service to society--goes to Charles F. Knight, chairman emeritus of Emerson Electric Co. Knight and his wife, Joanne, have supported schools and research across the University, including the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center (dedicated April 4) and the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professorship in Orthopaedic Surgery.

Professorships funded by donors

George and Carol Bauer
Professorship in Organizational Ethics and Governance
Donor: The Bauer Foundation

Dr. Robert Belliveau Professorship
Donor: Dr. Robert Belliveau

Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown
Professorship
Donor: Mrs. Seymour Brown

Florence and Frank Bush
Professorship in Art
Donor: The Estate of Florence A. Bush

Dr. Nicholas V. Costrini
Professorship in Gastroenterology
& Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Donor: Dr. Nicholas V. Costrini and Coral R. Costrini

Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professorship in Arts & Sciences
Donor: Anonymous

Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert
F. Hitzeman, Jr. Professorship for the Dean of the College and
Graduate School of Art
Donor: Herbert F. Hitzeman, Jr. and Jane Reuter Hitzeman

Ladenson Professorship in Pathology
Donor: Jack H. Ladenson, Ph.D.

E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee
Professorship
Donor: E. Desmond Lee and Mary Ann Lee
John S. Lehmann University Professorship
Donor: John S. Lehmann Trust

Professorships funded by other sources

Robert S. Brookings Distinguished Professorship in Arts & Sciences

Thomas H. Eliot Distinguished Professorship in Arts & Sciences

Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professorship in Arts & Sciences

James P. Keating Professorship in Pediatrics

Unanue Distinguished Professorship in Immunology Visiting professorships

A.G. Edwards Visiting Professorship in Entrepreneurship
Donor: A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.