Lan Yang, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young science and engineering professionals.

Following the Sept. 6 death of James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has announced a transitional leadership plan for the College of Arts & Sciences. Sharon Stahl, PhD, associate vice chancellor for students and dean of the First Year Center, and Wayne Fields, PhD, the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English in Arts & Sciences, have agreed to take on the additional responsibilities of leading the College of Arts & Sciences on an interim basis.

Rick W. Wright, MD, has been named the Dr. Asa C. and Mrs. Dorothy W. Jones Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine. An author of more than 100 scientific publications, Wright joined the faculty as an instructor in 1994 and became a full professor in 2010. He is a frequently invited lecturer, nationally and internationally.

Arts & Sciences starts the fall semester with a new program director and four new departmental chairs, two of whom are heading newly created and reorganized departments. The Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (ANELL) and the programs in East Asian Studies (EAS) and Jewish and Islamic Studies (JINES) have been reorganized into two full-fledged departments.

4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4

Isidore Silver Memorial Lecture

Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures presents “Like Man and Wife? Same-Sex Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Rome.” Gary Ferguson, prof. of French, U. of Delaware. Free and open to the public. Eads Hall, Rm. 215. For more information, contact Colette Winn at chwinn@wustl.edu.

Taste of St. Louis Service Fair

WUSTL will host the first university-wide Public Service Fair at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 5, in College Hall in the South 40 House. The event will feature more than 30 nonprofit organizations offering a variety of community service and internship opportunities.

Chakravarthi Narasimhan

Marketing professor is ‘pillar of program’ at Olin. FULL STORY

Volleyball on historic pace

The No. 2 volleyball team picked up a 3-0 victory over New York University at the season’s first University Athletic Association round robin Oct. 2. The Bears improved their overall record to 17-0 and won their 51st straight set — a school record. The team sits just six sets shy of the all-time Division III record of 57 straight winning sets.