Author: Barbara Rea

At the groundbreaking ceremony May 7 on Washington University’s Danforth Campus for two new buildings — Knight Hall and Bauer Hall — needed to address the growth of the Olin Business School’s graduate business education programs, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced a commitment of $3 million from Emerson Charitable Trust. Emerson’s gift is designated for an auditorium for the growing number of special events, lectures, conferences, and student activities offered by Olin. The 300-seat venue will be located on the first floor of Knight Hall.

Dorothy Edwards, PhD, executive director of Green Dot, etc., a center dedicated to effective intervention and prevention of power-based personal violence, will be at Washington University in St. Louis at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, in Lab Sciences Room 300, on the Danforth Campus to give the Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman/Helen Manley Memorial Lecture for the Assembly Series.

Arthur Kleinman, MD, one of the world’s leading medical anthropologists, will speak on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis for the Assembly Series. His lecture, “The Quest for Moral Wisdom in Academic Life: Why William James Still Matters for the Art of Living,” will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 5, in Graham Chapel.

Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach thinks that science and humor have been a winning combination for many successful Americans, all the way back to Ben Franklin. At 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, he will explain his reasoning behind that concept for the annual Ferguson Science Lecture. His talk, “Silly Serious Science: Homage to IgNobel and Ben Franklin” will be held in Graham Chapel on the Washington University Danforth Campus. The program is free and open to the public.

Keith Sawyer, PhD, associate professor of education in Arts & Sciences, will deliver the annual Phi Beta Kappa Lecture for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Monday, March 26, in College Hall on the university’s Danforth Campus. His talk, “Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration,” is free and open to the public.

Kathryn A. Dean, director of the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design and professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, was installed as the JoAnne Stolaroff Cotsen Professor of Architecture. The ceremony was held Dec. 2, 2011, in Steinberg Auditorium.

Just in time for spring baseball, the Assembly Series at Washington University in St. Louis presents its version of a doubleheader: back-to-back lectures in one day by prominent speakers. On Tuesday, March 5, Science historian Susan Lindee, PhD, will speak at 4 p.m. in McDonnell Hall on the evolution of a treatment for cystic fibrosis, once a fatal disease of children. Best-selling author, law professor and “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua, JD, follows at 5 p.m. in Graham Chapel. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

David Rosen, JD, PhD, professor of anthropology and of law at Fairleigh Dickinson University and author of Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism, will present “The Moral Complexity of the Child Soldier ‘Problem’” for the Assembly Series Holocaust Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in Graham Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.

As part of the celebration of Washington University in St. Louis’ 1853 founding, five individuals will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award. The gala also will recognize those being honored with Distinguished Faculty Awards as well as the Robert S. Brookings Award winners. It takes place at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will deliver the keynote address. For ticket information, call (314) 935-6503.

As the fall keynote speaker for the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics, E.J. Dionne, PhD, will present his thoughts on the question “Can Religion and Politics Make Us More Civil and Not Just Angry?” His talk, which also is an Assembly Series program, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in Graham Chapel.