Year: 2017

Acclaimed pianist Jonathan Biss will launch Washington University’s new Great Artist Series with a solo recital Feb. 9 in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall. The program will feature late works by Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and György Kurtág.

Jonathan Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, co-wrote profiles of Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa, the 2016 Nobel laureates in Chemistry, for a series in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) highlighting the discoveries of the award winners.

Millions of low- and moderate-income Americans who claim certain tax credits will have to wait weeks longer than usual this year for their federal income tax refunds because of a new law aimed at reducing fraud. The delay could prove costly for countless families, finds a new study from the Brown School and the Tax Policy Center.

Matthew R. Barton, MD, a physician-scientist in his seventh and final year of residency in otolaryngology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, died unexpectedly Jan. 23, 2017, at his home of an undiagnosed medical condition. He was 35. Visitation will be Friday evening, and a funeral will be held Saturday, Jan. 28.

Three of Washington University in St. Louis’ premier scholar programs — the Ervin Scholars, the Annika Rodriguez Scholars and the Danforth Scholars — are now part of the new Office of Scholar Programs. The office will provide scholar students a space in the Women’s Building to meet and collaborate.

Stephen Beverley, the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor and head of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Question: Which campus group is the university’s largest student-run organization dedicated to community service?

The School of Law’s 2017-18 “Access to Justice” Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series kicks off Feb. 2 with a lecture by Dan Ariely. The series highlight will be a chat with Mitt Romney Feb. 27.

Washington University and its partner universities in Greater China came together in Shanghai on Jan. 21 for a major conference, the “Forum for Greater China: An Aging Population.” The goal of the conference was to stimulate collaborative research and conversation that will advance solutions to the challenges posed by China’s aging population.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that levels of tau protein can be reduced – and some of the neurological damage caused by tau even reversed ­– by a synthetic molecule that targets genetic instructions. The findings are important for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.