In Addition to History

New ‘Horned’
Dinosaur
Identified
Researchers from GW and China have
described a new species of plant-eating dinosaur
that stood on its hind feet and was about
the size of a spaniel. Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis
lived around 160 million years ago,
making it similar in age to the oldest-known
member of the “horned dinosaurs,” Yinlong
downsi, although both are hornless.
The researchers—who included GW
biology professors James Clark
and Catherine Forster—discovered
both species in the
same fossil beds, which
they say suggests that this
family of dinosaurs was
more diverse than previously
thought during the Jurassic Period.
The findings were published in December in
the journal PLOS ONE.
An artist’s impression
of a black hole.
Scientists believe
black holes are at
the center of most
massive galaxies,
including our own.
For more on Dr. Clark, the Ronald
Weintraub Professor of Biology, who has
discovered nearly 40 species of dinosaurs,
visit gwimpact.org/academics/jurassic-clark
DINOSAUR: PORTIA SLOAN ROLLINGS / BLACK HOLE: i STOCK.COM/GMUTLU
Multimillion-
Dollar Grants
Boost Workforce
Equity, Drug
Design Research
GW’s Health Workforce Institute announced
in March a $5.5 million award from The
Atlantic Philanthropies to build programs
that will prepare leaders to reduce health
workforce disparities, and to develop pipelines
for underserved students in the D.C.
area who are interested in health care and
careers in the health sciences. Separately,
chemistry professor Cynthia Dowd has
been awarded a $2.6 million grant from the
National Institutes of Health to study a promising
new pathway to treat malaria and tuberculosis.
“Drug resistance is so rampant that
we need to design new ways to treat these diseases,”
Dr. Dowd says.
Scientists Watch
As Black Hole
Swallows Star
A team of astrophysicists for the first time
watched from the beginning as a supermassive
black hole drew in a star, ripped it apart
and ejected an outflow of matter—a cosmic
burp—moving at nearly the speed of light.
Their research tracks the star’s destruction
and the simultaneous eruption of a short,
spectacular radio-wave flare. “We have
never seen matter from a star streaming
into a supermassive black hole and the black
hole emitting a stream of matter at the same
time,” says Alexander van der Horst, a GW
physics professor who was part of the team.
The observation, he says, will help scientists
understand the formation of these outflows,
called jets. Supermassive black holes are
believed to be at the center of most massive
galaxies, including our own Milky Way. The
findings were published in the journal Science
in November. —Ruth Steinhardt
Study Finds
Racial Bias in
Promotion of
NFL Coaches
White NFL position coaches are 114 percent
more likely to be promoted to coordinator
positions than their minority peers, regardless
of age, experience or career performance,
according to a study released in January by
researchers from the GW School of Business
and three other institutions. Though not
covered by the NFL’s Rooney Rule—which
requires teams to interview minority candidates
for head coaching and senior operations
jobs—these promotions can have an effect
on the racial makeup of head coaches. Offensive
and defensive coordinator positions are
directly beneath the head coach. Tracking the
careers of more than 1,200 coaches from 1985
to 2012, the researchers found 70 percent of
head coach hirings involve a promotion from
a coordinator position. —James Irwin
gwmagazine.com / 17