Month: May 2018

Peter Riesenberg, professor emeritus of history at Washington University in St. Louis, died in his sleep May 14, 2018, in Maine. He was 92. A beloved member of the faculty from 1960 until his retirement in 1993, Riesenberg was the mainstay of “History 101,” the history of Western civilization, for generations of students.

The School of Medicine’s Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, has received the 2018 Copley Medal from the Royal Society in Britain. He is being honored for his studies of human gut microbial communities, which have led to a fundamental shift in the way scientists understand the relationship between microbes, health and disease.

Washington University in St. Louis has admitted 50 rising high school sophomores to its innovative College Prep Program, a multiyear initiative that prepares high-achieving students with limited financial resources for college. The students represent public, private and charter schools from across the region. They will live and study on campus for three summers,  participating in science labs, preparing their college essays and studying with top university faculty.

Anca Parvulescu, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a Collaborative Research Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies for the 2018-19 academic year.

Elizabeth Sepper, professor of law, has been awarded a Program in Law and Public Affairs fellowship at Princeton University for the 2018-19 academic year. Sepper is one of five people to receive the prestigious fellowship.

Two new studies of patients with difficult-to-control asthma show that the eczema drug dupilumab alleviates asthma symptoms and improves patients’ ability to breathe better than standard therapies. Researchers at the School of Medicine and colleagues elsewhere conducted the studies.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and colleagues at Northwestern University and elsewhere have uncovered new clues in early lung transplant failure.

The May 21 issue marks the last Record of the 2017-18 academic year. The next issue will be published Wednesday, May 30, and generally twice weekly through the summer. Visit The Source for the latest news between issues.

Images from in and around the Washington University campuses.

Read the text of graduate student speaker Donald Gerke’s prepared remarks to the Class of 2018. Gerke received a doctorate from the Brown School.