Author: Kelly Wiese Niemeyer

Gavin Dunn, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award. The three-year award will support his investigations into how the body’s immune system can be harnessed to fight brain cancer. 

The Sumers Recreation Center will be closed Monday, July 31, through Friday, Aug. 4, for floor refinishing, cleaning and maintenance. The center will reopen Saturday, Aug. 5.

Robyn S. Klein, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist recognized internationally for her work on the brain’s immune system, has been named vice provost and associate dean for graduate education for the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences. She will begin her new post Jan. 1.

Crystal Ellis, a first-year graduate student working toward a master’s in public health at the Brown School, has received a Newman Civic Fellowship, a one-year national fellowship for student leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to finding solutions to challenges facing communities throughout the country.

Ali Taheri Araghi, a Washington University in St. Louis PhD student in comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, has received Prairie Schooner’s Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing for his story “Snow,” published in the journal’s fall 2016 issue.

KL2 Career Development Awards offer multidisciplinary training in research for future clinical investigators. Applications for a position involving research that addresses the needs of children are being accepted through Sept. 15.

Question: Washington University founded the first of which of these west of the Mississippi River in 1881?

Faculty and graduate students from Olin Business School will be presenting at the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research conference, which takes place in St. Louis July 20-22.

Public Health Cubed is a rapid seed funding mechanism for Institute for Public Health faculty scholars. This cycle seeks projects focused on health equity and community and social disparities. Submit ideas by Aug. 15.

Question: Which former WashU student authored a best-selling children’s book in the 1950s after achieving success as an actress, singer, composer and voice coach?