Year: 2017

Thi Nguyen has been named associate dean for graduate career and professional development in the Graduate School at Washington University in St. Louis. She is responsible for developing and leading professional and career development initiatives to promote career readiness for graduate students.

The brain hosts an extraordinarily complex network of interconnected nerve cells that are constantly exchanging electrical and chemical signals at speeds difficult to comprehend. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have been able to achieve — with a custom-built microscope — the closest view yet of living nerve synapses.

Washington University in St. Louis has been named a “Voter Friendly Campus” for its success in preparing students to participate in the democratic process.

The African Film Festival returns to campus March 31-April 2. Screenings are free and will be in Brown Hall. The festival sets time aside Saturday for its special “Eye on Youth” programming.

Filmmaker Ericka Beckman (BFA ’74) and visual artist Ian Weaver (MFA ’08) are recipients of the inaugural Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award.

Poet Phillip B. Williams, a 2014 graduate of The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, is among 10 recipients of the 2017 Whiting Award.

Question: Which former professor left behind a pastel-pink typewriter upon leaving the university?

Scientists at the School of Medicine have implicated a specific molecule in the self-destruction of axons, the wiring of the nervous system. Understanding just how that damage occurs may help researchers find a way to halt it.

The School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis is offering a new master’s degree that will use engineering principles to dramatically improve health-care operations.

Four renowned illustrators have donated artworks to the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library, part of Washington University Libraries’ Special Collections, in honor of celebrated alumnus and illustrator Jack Unruh, who died last year.