First for Missouri

Two new National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to Washington University will bring Missouri its first science supercomputing center and an astrophysics simulation laboratory. The laboratory, through cyberspace, will enable users to apply the Einstein theory of general relativity to the simulation of neutron stars and black holes; anyone from the highest tier researcher to the merely inquisitive can thus explore a simulated universe.

Wai-Mo Suen, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator for the grants, totaling $4 million, to support collaborative supercomputing research with investigators here and at other major universities.

One is a three-year $1.8 million grant from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to purchase a supercomputer and establish a Center for Scientific Computing within the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

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George Bush headlines Founders Day

Former President George Bush will address this year's Founders Day dinner Oct. 30 at the America's Center, St. Louis. The annual event is sponsored by the Washington University Alumni Board of Governors to commemorate the University's founding in 1853.

The event will begin with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:15 p.m. The program will begin at 8:30 p.m.

The Founders Day ceremony includes the presentation of the Distinguished Faculty awards, the Distinguished Alumni awards and the Board of Trustees' Robert S. Brookings awards.

Bush began his career in government in 1966, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas' 7th District. In 1971, he was named U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

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Wayman Crow Professorship in physics goes to John Clark

John Walter Clark, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, has been named the Wayman Crow Professor of Physics, effective Oct. 1. A formal installation ceremony will take place in spring 2000.

"John represents a model for an endowed professor," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences. "He is internationally respected for his research, and he has been an outstanding teacher at all levels. In addition, he has worked hard to strengthen both the physics department and the University. I'm delighted to name him to this, the second oldest professorship at Washington University."

Clark received a bachelor of science degree in 1955 and a master of arts in 1957, both from the University of Texas, Austin, and a doctorate in 1959 from Washington University. During the years 1959-1963, he was successively a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, an associate research scientist at the Martin Co., Denver, and a NATO postdoctoral fellow at both the University of Birmingham, England, and the French nuclear research establishment in Saclay.

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Mouse next in line for DNA sequencing; new network formed

The School of Medicine will participate in a major new research program to decipher the genetic makeup of the mouse, one of the most frequently used mammals in medical and behavioral research.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Oct. 5 that it will initiate this project with $21 million, provided over the next seven months to 10 laboratories that have formed the Mouse Genome Sequencing Network. The network will determine the physical organization of the mouse's 21 chromosomes and will sequence the estimated 3 billion chemical letters in the chromosomes' DNA. It expects to complete a working draft in three years.

Washington University will receive $2.7 million of this funding and expects to receive a total of $24.6 million for the first three years. John D. McPherson, Ph.D., assistant professor of genetics, will be the University's principal investigator for the mouse project.

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