Author: Kelly Wiese Niemeyer

Dining Services has launched composting services for diners at the Danforth University Center this semester. A spot for composting food, napkins and to-go boxes is now next to the containers collecting waste destined for the landfill and for recycling in the DUC.

The Danforth Staff Council invites university staff members to take part in a kickball tournament on Oct. 14, during students’ fall break and immediately following the council’s fall town hall meeting. Sign up to play by Oct. 4.

The College of Arts & Sciences has added two new majors and a new concentration, all available this academic year. They are: a joint economics and computer science major; an astrophysics major; and a production concentration for the existing major in film and media studies.

The Metro transit system is changing both the routes and schedules of its buses, including the lines that serve on and near Washington University. The new service plan, called Metro Reimagined, begins Sept. 30 and aims to focus on routes with the most riders. MetroLink service won’t change. Read details online.

Cindy Brantmeier has been named the university’s first faculty fellow in international research. She will advise faculty on the Danforth and Medical campuses on conducting international research and achieving effective collaborations with international partners.

Gwen Randolph, an immunologist by training, began her career studying immune cells and how they travel around the body. But she has made a career out of breaking down scientific silos and asking questions no one else had thought to ask.

The university’s Africa initiative seeks applications for its collaborative pilot grant program. The program aims to advance research in a variety of fields, such as health, entrepreneurship and sustainability, and to forge collaborations between university faculty and scholars at institutional partners in Africa. Letters of intent are due Sept. 30.

The Center for the Humanities offers internal funding opportunities to Washington University faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Several programs have an Oct. 1 deadline, including the Faculty Fellowship, the Collaborative Research Seed Grant, the Summer Faculty Research Grant and the Grimm Travel Award. Learn more online.

Sharon Cresci, MD, associate professor in the Cardiovascular Division at the School of Medicine, led a committee that developed the American Heart Association’s scientific statement on the potential for precision medicine to improve treatment for patients with heart failure.

Dongyeon “Joanna” Kim, a second-year medical student at the School of Medicine, is one of 50 recipients of a $5,000 summer research fellowship from the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. Kim is researching osteoarthritis, a common, degenerative joint disease that afflicts tens of millions of adults nationwide.