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Scientists watch as brain remembers sights and sounds

By Gila Reckess

Scientists are one step closer to determining how we remember what we see and hear.

In a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington University researchers report that some areas of the brain involved in looking at pictures and listening to sounds also are involved in remembering them.

If someone asks what your dog looks like or how your mother sounds, you typically conjure up an image or voice. One of the fundamental challenges behind understanding memory is to determine how the brain reconstructs these experiences and uses them to remember the actual image or sound.

University's campaign goal increased to $1.3 billion

By Marvin Meinz

The University's Board of Trustees voted Oct. 6 to raise the goal of the Campaign for Washington University from $1 billion to $1.3 billion. The campaign, scheduled to run until June 30, 2004, has already raised $929.4 million.

"The wonderful generosity of alumni, friends, parents, faculty and staff," Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said, "has given us the confidence to raise the goal so as to be closer to the $1.5 billion in high priorities identified in our comprehensive planning initiative, Project 21."

Project 21, started in 1993, was the most intensive planning process ever undertaken by the University. Trustees, deans, faculty and members of the national councils --some 300 alumni, academicians and corporate leaders from across the country --carefully examined each area of the University. They identified more than $1.5 billion in high-priority needs and opportunities necessary for the University to maximize its service both to its students and to the wider world early in the 21st century.

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Honored

Schaal named to new Olin professorship

Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and of genetics at the School of Medicine, is to be named the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences.

"Barbara's outstanding research has led to her membership in the national academy, one of the highest honors a research scientist can receive in this country," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences. "And along with her notable research, Professor Schaal is a superb teacher and splendid University citizen. She has taught courses in population biology and genetics, as well as parti-cipating on an interdisciplinary team teaching a freshman seminar, 'Lewis and Clark and the American Experience.' She served with distinction as chair of the Department of Biology from 1993 to 1997 and has made many key contributions to University life in her time here.

Schwarzkopf keynotes Founders Day Nov. 3

Founders Day, the Alumni Association's annual com- memoration of the University's founding, will be held Friday, Nov. 3, at the Chase Park Plaza, St. Louis. U.S. Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf will deliver the keynote address. The evening includes presentation of the Distinguished Alumni and Faculty awards and the Board of Trustees' Robert S. Brookings Award. Cocktails and dinner will precede the program.

Schwarzkopf is one of America's contemporary military heroes. He has served and commanded U.S. Army forces throughout the United States, Europe and the Pacific arena. He served two combat tours in Vietnam and was deputy commander of the joint task force responsible for the Grenada student rescue effort.

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