William H. Danforth to address Commencement

William H. Danforth, chairman of the Board of Trustees, has been selected as the Commencement speaker for the University's 1999 graduation, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The 138th Commencement will be held May 14, beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the traditional academic procession into Brookings Quadrangle.

Danforth's selection recognizes his half-century of service to the University -- as a faculty member, medical administrator, chancellor and board chair -- and the completion of his term as chair of the Trustees.

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Fostering diversity in St. Louis

In an April 15 ceremony in Holmes Lounge, Larry E. Davis, Ph.D., professor of social work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, was installed as the first E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity at Washington University.

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New Stanley Elkin humanities chair goes
to Steven Zwicker

Steven N. Zwicker, Ph.D., professor of English, has been named the first Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities in Arts and Sciences. A formal installation ceremony will take place next fall.

"Professor Zwicker is an internationally recognized scholar, an outstanding teacher and a valuable University citizen," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts and Sciences. "Steve has contributed to Washington University in every aspect of its mission and purpose."

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Historic grant

The School of Medicine has been awarded the largest grant in the University's history. Robert H. Waterston, M.D., Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Professor and head of genetics, will receive a five-year $218.4 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including $38 million announced in March.

The grant is part of a five-year $581.7 million allocation from the NHGRI to three institutions that are sequencing major portions of the human genome. The other two are the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research in Cambridge, Mass., and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

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