Year: 2024

Elizabeth Colletta, a WashU employee for 31 years, died April 15. She was shot at her St. Louis home in an incident of domestic violence. She was 55. As co-manager of Sponsored Projects Accounting, she helped manage nearly $1 billion in university awards, grants and contracts.

Washington University in St. Louis has announced the 11th cohort of the College Prep Program, a free multi-year program that prepares first-generation, limited-income students for college. This summer, the new cohort of 37 rising high school sophomores will engage in two weeks of on-campus academic and social programming.

Andrew Knight, vice dean for education and globalization and professor of organizational behavior at Olin Business School, has been named executive director of WashU’s George and Carol Bauer Leaders Academy and senior advisor to the chancellor for leadership, effective July 1, announced Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. Knight succeeds Kurt Dirks, who has accepted an appointment at the University of Utah. 

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin has established a Global Advisory Council to maximize the impact of the university’s global efforts in research, education, patient care, recruitment and advancement.

Scientists at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis will explore stratospheric aerosol injection with a $1.5 million grant from the Simons Foundation International.

Washington University in St. Louis staff members are encouraged to apply for the Emerging Leaders Program or the Leadership Excellence and Development Program. The programs further the missions of WashU Leads and the “Here and Next” strategic plan. The deadline is May 31.

The School of Continuing & Professional Studies Prison Education Project held its first commencement May 16 at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Mo. The ceremony followed a May 15 commencement, the project’s third, at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center for men in Pacific.

Scientists from Washington University in St. Louis are preparing to launch a balloon-borne telescope to unlock the secrets of astrophysical black holes and neutron stars. The telescope known as XL-Calibur could be launched from Esrange Space Center in Sweden as early as Wednesday, May 29.

Even slight cognitive changes can affect an older person’s decision to stop driving, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that routine cognitive testing could help older adults and their physicians make decisions about driving that maximizes safety while preserving independence as long as possible.

In a new paper in Physical Review Letters, Kater Murch in Arts & Sciences and his collaborators explore the effects of memory in quantum systems. View an illustrated video about the experiments and findings.