Year: 2022

About 50 high school students from across the St. Louis region gathered online Feb. 27 to test their knowledge of the brain and to learn about neuroscience research and careers at the St. Louis Area Brain Bee, an annual event hosted by Washington University. 

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and colleagues in Kenya have shown that a screening tool developed at the university can help predict in about 5 minutes whether young people are at high risk and may go on to develop schizophrenia.

Sean Spinks, former director of academic success at Harris-Stowe State University, has been appointed director of the Danforth Scholars program at Washington University, according to Anna Gonzalez, vice chancellor for student affairs. Spinks, who began Feb. 1, is the program’s first full-time director.

Hongyu An, professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, is the new chief of the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Lab (BMRL) in the Division of Radiological Sciences. 

Lindsay Stark’s research shines a light on some of the most endangered, exploited and forgotten people in the world. By unearthing and measuring data on women and children in hazardous settings such as war zones or refugee camps, she helps find ways to keep them safe. “I’m often looking at populations that have been forgotten […]

The Sam Fox School’s Aggie Toppins has made a career of examining graphic design’s influence — and its history of exclusion.

Every day we make thousands of decisions, from the small – what to eat? what to wear? – to the potentially life-changing choices involving our health or financial future. Olin Business School consumer behavior psychologist Hannah Perfecto does her research at the juncture of judgment and decision-making and has learned none of it has to be so hard.

Peggie Smith is a champion for strengthening the rights and legal protections of domestic workers, particularly Black women. Smith became interested in the issue while in graduate school, realizing that there was little research and effort at the time around such laborers’ particular concerns and perspectives. She credits her first-grade teacher, with whom she still keeps in touch, with inspiring her to go into teaching rather than practicing law.

Quing Zhu, the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has devoted her career to perfecting technologies that find — and treat — cancer.

Every day, women are expanding boundaries, pushing forward and showing up in the areas of scholarship, academia and research. And when that happens, we are all better for it. Read about eight remarkable WashU Women who are at the top of their game, showing up with grace and leading the way.