Year: 2019

In commemoration of the 18th anniversary of 9/11, Washington University will lower the American flag over Brookings Hall and ring the Graham Chapel bells 18 times at 9:28 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11. Also, the university’s College Republicans will again plant flags on Mudd Field in honor of the victims of the deadly attacks.

As part of a federal initiative to end the HIV epidemic, Washington University in St. Louis will establish a center to provide guidance and support to local organizations working to reduce HIV infection rates in their communities. Among other things, the center will help organizations provide PrEP, a medicine that prevents HIV infection.

Michael Nowak, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration that won the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The award recognizes the team’s achievement of making the first image of a supermassive black hole, “taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes.”

Michael J. Holtzman, MD, director of the School of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, has received awards totaling $7.5 million to support innovative research aimed at defining and controlling chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Call Andrew” was his graduate students’ catchphrase. They said his sharply focused insight would always provide clarity and direction. In summer 2018, the university made such a call, and Andrew Martin answered, becoming the 15th chancellor of Washington University June 1, 2019.

Washington University has hosted luminaries who have inspired and challenged us. Alumni and faculty recall their memories of hearing three notable speakers on campus.

With Square, LaunchCode, Third Degree Glass Factory and more to his name, alumnus Jim McKelvey Jr. is often called a serial entrepreneur. In fact, he has just never met a problem he didn’t want to solve.

Rafia Zafar, professor of English, American culture studies, and African and African American studies, challenges stereotypes surrounding black American cooking with her new course and book.

Superhero expert Peter Coogan, lecturer in American culture studies and author of the book “Superhero: the Secret Origin of a Genre,” discusses why superheroes are so popular and the origins of the superhero genre.

In her research on mothers, Caitlyn Collins, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, has found that moms in the U.S. (and dads) are struggling to feel like good parents when they don’t get any mandated parental leave.