Author: Barbara Rea

During her recent visit to campus, First Year Reading Program author Eula Biss had many opportunities to discuss her book of essays, Notes from No Man’s Land, with students. Here, she leads an informal discussion at Ursa’s Fireside on the South 40.

​Bilal Mark McDowell Bomani, senior research scientist at the NASA Glenn Research Center, will deliver the 17th annual Chancellor’s Fellowship Conference Lecture for Washington University’s Assembly Series. His talk, which will focus on the research he leads in developing the next generation of biofuels that are sustainable, renewable and safe, will be 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 20, in Whitaker Hall, Room 100, on the Danforth Campus.​

​Created 60 years ago, the Assembly Series is Washington University’s premiere lecture series. Its chief mission is to present interesting and important voices, and it is designed to spark meaningful discussion and lead to greater understanding of our world today. Assembly Series programs are free and open to the public. The fall 2013 schedule, below, opens with First Year Reading Program author Eula Biss on September 9.​​​

Bradley L. Jolliff, PhD, is named the inaugural Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences.

At the 46th annual Eliot Society banquet, held April 30 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, members gathered to enjoy an evening of fine dining, engage in conversation and honor the members of the Steinberg and Weil families who were present to receive the society’s highest honor. They were also treated to an inspiring address by General Stanley A. McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command that oversees the military’s most sensitive counter-terrorism units. ​​

​Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton presented this year’s Jane and Whitney Harris St. Louis Community Service Award to Stephen and Kimmy Brauer for their generous and enduring commitment to St. Louis-area organizations that provide critical support to the region. Pictured are Kimmy Brauer and Wrighton.

Anyone with aspirations for climbing the corporate ladder knows that the best advice comes from the insiders at the top, and Cynthia Brinkley has occupied the top rungs at some of the largest and most established companies for more than a quarter-century. For the next Assembly Series program, tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Graham Chapel, Brinkley will share her experiences and insights.

We all know the story of the Roman gladiator, right? Not the whole story, says Harvard classicist and advisor to the 2000 blockbuster film, “Gladiator.” Kathleen Coleman will explain this fascinating and complex culture for the annual Biggs Lecture in the Classics: “Christians in the Roman Arena,” April 9.

“The anthropological concept of culture is extremely important and often misunderstood because many of the things that are assumed to be biologically determined, like criminality or homosexuality or IQ, are really behaviorally and societally defined,” says WUSTL physical anthropologist Robert W. Sussman, and it forms the basis for his Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture, “The Importance of the Concept of Culture to Science and Society,” the next Assembly Series program held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 9.

Mike Parker Pearson’s research team spent six years on a comprehensive dig in and around Stonehenge, emerging with surprising discoveries and new theories on the origins and purpose of the prehistoric ruins. He will share some of these findings in his Assembly Series lecture, “Stonehenge: New Discoveries” at 4 p.m. Wed., March 27, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium on the Danforth Campus.