Author: Jessica Daues

Carl Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences and a 2011 finalist for the National Book Award in poetry, reads from his 2011 book Double Shadow during the National Book Awards’ Finalist Reading Nov. 15. Double Shadow — published this past March — is Phillips’ 11th collection of poetry and earned Phillips a fourth nomination for the National Book Award in poetry.

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University: Joseph Cullen, PhD; Amr Farahat, PhD; Exequiel Hernández, PhD; Baojun Jiang, PhD; Ping C. Lieser, PhD; Asaf Manela, PhD; Matthew Ringgenberg, PhD; and Adina Sterling, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton (center) speaks during the question-and-answer session of the “Report to the Neighbors” meeting Nov. 16 at the Knight Center. The annual event is held to help keep those living in neighborhoods surrounding WUSTL informed on university happenings and also to give neighbors a forum to voice comments and concerns to a panel of university administrators.

Traditionally, fossil-hunters often could only make educated guesses as to where fossils lie. The rest lay with chance. But thanks to a software model used by WUSTL professor Glenn Conroy, PhD, and researchers at Western Michigan University, fossil-hunters’ reliance on luck when finding fossils may be diminishing. Using artificial neural networks, Conroy and colleagues developed a computer model that can pinpoint productive fossil sites.  

The Campus Store will give WUSTL faculty and staff members an opportunity to do some early holiday shopping. The store will hold its 14th annual Faculty/Staff Appreciation Event Wednesday, Nov. 30, and will offer a 30 percent discount to Washington University faculty and staff members from 3-8 p.m.

This holiday season, the WUSTL community can bring burned out or unwanted light strings to campus to be recycled. WUSTL’s Office of Sustainability is partnering with StLouisGreen.com and Operation Food Search on the initiative, which runs Nov. 21-Jan. 17 at the School of Medicine and Nov. 16-Jan. 31 at all other WUSTL campuses.

Thanks to the generosity of Washington University’s faculty, staff and retirees, thousands in the St. Louis community will receive hot meals, job training and warm clothes for the winter. The WUSTL community has raised more than $686,000 in its United Way of Greater St. Louis campaign, surpassing the university’s stated goal of $650,000.

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis: Colin Burnett, PhD; Marie Griffith, PhD; Musa Gurnis-Farrell, PhD; Ron Mallon, PhD; Jacob Montgomery, PhD; Carl Sanders, PhD; Leigh Schmidt, PhD; Rebecca Wanzo, PhD; and Hayrettin Yücesoy, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.

Perceptions and identity play a pivotal role in people’s access to and use of health and mental health care. “Helping people to be comfortable with the health-care service environment so that they seek it out when they know that they need those services is key,” says Vetta L. Sanders-Thompson, PhD, associate professor of public health at the Brown School.

Women undergraduate and graduate students at WUSTL can discuss post-graduation choices and how to attain a successful, fulfilling life at “Composing a Life” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Anheuser-Busch Hall, Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom. The discussion, hosted by the Women’s Society of Washington University, will feature five women with career experience in an array of fields.