UMSL anthroplogy professor Susan Brownell is in high demand by the media for her expertise on the Olympic Games. She's quoted in numerous publications discussing the London 2012 Summer Olympics. (Photo by August Jennewein)

With the London Olympics just around the corner, the demand has increased for the expertise of a professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Susan Brownell, professor of anthropology at UMSL, is an expert on the Olympic Games, with a special emphasis on Chinese sports. She was in Beijing during the 2008 games and has written two books on China and the Olympics: “Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China” and “Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic.”

In a July 16 article in The Guardian, Brownell spoke about China’s state-supported sports system and how it helps propel those children who show athletic potential.

The Wall Street Journal also sought out her expertise for its Olympic coverage. In a July 19 WSJ article “How China’s Olympic Powerhouse Ran Out of Steam,” Brownell weighed in on China’s shifting emphasis to graduating more all-around athletes, preparing them for life after sports.

“There has been a big debate in China for years about the overemphasis on the pursuit of gold medals,” Brownell said in the article. “The whole debate has become more about expanding opportunities for the general populace.”

Brownell also spoke with KMOX (1120 AM) about the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis.

Brownell was interviewed for a Q&A that appeared in The Atlantic in which she discussed China’s lasting impact on the Olympic Games. She also wrote the article “Human rights and the Beijing Olympics: Imagined global community and the transnational public sphere,” which ran in the June issue of the British Journal of Sociology.

Robbie Hart, a PhD candidate in biology at UMSL, takes cores for tree-ring analysis from Rhododendron traillianumseen, part of the field work he's currently doing in China's Yunnan Province. (Photo provided by Robbie Hart)

How do flowers in a remote area of China factor into the study of climate change?

Since 2009, Robbie Hart, a PhD candidate in biology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has been traveling to China’s Yunnan Province to study how rhododendrons in the region are adapting to global warming.

Hart has inspected more than 10,000 archived flowers at museums and institutions across Europe and the United States, collected from Yunnan Province by 19th and early 20th century explorers.

According to a Christian Science Monitor article, Hart compares the archived specimens with present-day rhododendron samples to see whether rhododendron behavior during the past century reflects changing global weather patterns. He said he wants to find out if flowering plants are adapting their flowering cycles in response to warming global temperatures.

So, how are Yunnan’s rhododendrons responding to climate change? Hart told the Christian Science Monitor that it appears the rhododendrons are being pushed up the mountain in search of cooler temperatures.

Visit Hart’s website to learn more about his thesis.

UMSL professors Susan Brownell and Richard Wright discuss the Olympics for a British Journal of Sociology video podcast. The discussion was filmed in March at the Glen Echo Country Club in Normandy, Mo. (Photo By August Jennewein)

As the world gears up for the 2012 Summer Olympics next month in London, reflection on the last summer games continues.

University of Missouri–St. Louis scholars Susan Brownell and Richard Wright recently sat down to film a video podcast about the Olympics for the British Journal of Sociology in London.

Brownell, professor of anthropology at UMSL, is an expert on the Olympic Games. She was in Beijing during the 2008 games and edited the book “The 1904 Anthropology Days and Olympic Games: Sport, Race, and American Imperialism.”

Wright, Curators’ Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UMSL, is the editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Sociology.

The interview was filmed March 16 at Glen Echo Country Club in Normandy, Mo. The club hosted the golf matches for the 1904 Olympics.

Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. (Photo courtesy of 2.5 China Mainland via Wikimedia Commons)

Four years after the Beijing Olympic Games many of the venues built for the summer contest are underused and draining public finances, according to a recent Reuters article.

Among the structures languishing were two of the most heralded attractions – the main stadium nicknamed the “Bird’s Nest” and the “Water Cube” aquatics center.

“They were given these huge venues … and they had no event management experience, and they weren’t allowed to get any before the Olympic Games,” Susan Brownell, professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and an expert on Chinese sports is quoted as saying in the Reuters article.

“After the Games were over they were learning from scratch in terms of how to manage an event,” she added.

Brownell is the author of “Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China.”

Jean-Germain Gros, associate professor of political science at UMSL, discusses peaceful elections in Senegal and the coup in Mali on Al Jazeera's "NewsHour" program.

People celebrated in streets throughout Senegal last week after Macky Sall was announced as the clear winner of a presidential run-off election pitting him against incumbent Abdoulaye Wade.

The peaceful and quick election that ended Wade’s 12-year reign is rare in West Africa, a region accustomed to turmoil. Senegal remains the region’s lone country to avoid experiencing a military coup. Mali, Senegal’s larger neighbor to the east, had undergone a coup not long before Senegal’s presidential election.

Jean-Germain Gros, associate professor of political science at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, discussed the recent developments in Senegal and Mali on Al Jazeera’s “NewsHour” program. He pointed out that Senegal is a poor country with a young population that has placed its hopes of an economic turnaround on Sall as the next president.

“He’s perceived to be honest and competent. Hope is penned down on him,” Gros told Al Jazeera. “But I’m afraid the resources may not be there for him to satisfy everyone to their liking.”

Gros is an expert in African politics, particularly involving French-speaking African countries. Francophone Africa encompasses the western region of the continent. A native of Haiti, Gros has also written extensively about the Caribbean nation including his book “State Failure, Underdevelopment and Foreign Intervention in Haiti.” He was recently quoted in a Time magazine article about Jean-Claude Duvalier, the president of Haiti from 1971 to 1986.

Archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos shows a replica artifact with similar markings to the tablet he discovered that is considered the oldest written record in Europe. His discovery of the tablet has been recognized among the top finds of the year.

Discovering the oldest written record in Europe makes for a pretty cool year. Add to it recognition as one of the year’s top findings, and you can say it was a stellar year.

University of Missouri–St. Louis archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos can now check both of those accomplishments off his “bucket list.” The tablet, unearthed last year during a dig in Greece by Cosmopoulos, the Hellenic Government Karakas Family Endowed Professor of Greek Studies at UMSL, and his team has now been named one of the top 10 discoveries of 2011 by the Greek press.

The list was compiled and published Jan. 8 by To Vima, a Greek daily newspaper. The tablet is featured among other great Greek discoveries in 2011 such as a 2,500-year-old wooden figurine discovered in the temple of Artemis at Vravrona, an etch of Minoan hieroglyphic writing, a marble statue in the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus and a small gold object that represents a human eye identical to that of gold, funerary mask of Tutankhamun found in a bottomless grave in the necropolis of Ancient Eleftherna Crete.

Discovering the tablet changed what was known about the origin of literacy and bureaucracy in the Western world. The rare artifact was unearthed at the site in Iklaina, which sits in the middle of an olive grove in southwest Greece. Each summer Cosmopoulos returns to the dig site with a team of about 40-60 students from UMSL and other universities and 25-30 staff and specialists.

“This discovery is the biggest surprise in years of excavation. It was found in a burned refuse dump dated to between 1450 and 1350 B.C.,” Cosmopoulos said.

Zhi Xu, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, demonstrates a noninvasive glucose monitor highlighted as one of five pioneering medical products to watch by Medical Product Manufacturing News.

A noninvasive glucose monitor developed by University of Missouri–St. Louis researchers made Medical Product Manufacturing News’ “Five Pioneering Medical Products to Watch” list.

The monitor was listed among an all-in-one catheter, an Alzheimer’s patch and a leadless pacemaker.

The university has licensed patent rights for the device to St. Louis Medical Devices, Inc., a Missouri company headquartered at UMSL’s own startup company incubator, IT Enterprises, to bring the device to market.

The small monitor – about the size of a cell phone – will allow for pain-free, convenient detection of glucose levels in capillaries of the finger with no waste (strips, lancets, etc.). It tests blood characteristics by shining near-infrared light through the finger, detecting the light transmitted through the targeted area and generating an output signal. A processor receives the output signals, calculates a change in the magnitude of light power transmitted through the finger and determines a characteristic of blood – in this case glucose. Future applications of the device could detect other characteristics, such as cholesterol.

More information:
umsl.edu/news/2011/03/29/glucose

Farida Jalalzai, assistant professor of political science at UMSL, has extensively researched women in executive political leadership roles. She was quoted recently in a Guardian article about Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's first female prime minister.

Farida Jalalzai, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, said the proportion of political women leaders is much greater than their male counterparts, according to an article in The Guardian in London.

“I think people choose some women because they think they are more likely to be benchwarmers per se and that they can ‘take on’ the identities of their male relatives better than a man who perhaps has his own independent political agenda,” Jalalzai told The Guardian. “Sometimes these women actually campaign that they will represent their male relative’s agenda and will utilise (sic) traditional conceptions of women’s role in the family in doing so. This often resonates with the public, who would not normally elect a woman to the position.”

Jalalzai is an expert on women in executive political leadership roles. She was quoted extensively in The Guardian’s article on Yingluck Shinawatra, who recently stepped out of her brother’s shadow to be come Thailand’s first female prime minister. Visit ow.ly/64QEN to read the article.

More information:
umsl.edu/~polisci/faculty/profiles.html#jalalzai