Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., one of the country’s pre-eminent scholars in African-American history, will serve as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University Feb. 28-March 1. Kelley, who is professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, is a leading scholar of the modern civil rights movement, jazz studies and African-American music and culture.

Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., one of the country’s pre-eminent scholars in African-American history, will serve as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Washington University Feb. 28-March 1. During his visit, he will give two public talks. Kelley, who is professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC), is a leading scholar of the modern civil rights movement, jazz studies and African-American music and culture.

Jeffrey MarlowJeffrey J. Marlow, a senior in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of 20 students nationwide named to the 2007 All-USA College Academic First Team, USA Today’s recognition program for outstanding undergraduates. Two other Washington University students were named to the third team and one student received honorable mention, resulting in Washington University tying with the University of Alabama for the most students selected in the newspaper’s competition.

Studying stars has never been so easy, thanks to Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences. To recognize Zinner’s important contributions to the earth and space sciences, a scientific symposium will be held Feb. 3-4 in Crow Hall, Room 201.

Studying stars has never been so easy, thanks to Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University. For the past 30-plus years, Zinner has helped develop and fine-tune increasingly sophisticated instruments that allow researchers to get detailed information about circumstellar and interstellar dust — actual stardust — right in their own labs. These precision instruments use a measurement technique called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). To recognize Zinner’s important contributions to the development of SIMS and its many applications in the earth and space sciences, a scientific symposium will be held Feb. 3-4 in Crow Hall, Room 201.

In three separate national ratings — faculty scholarly productivity, black student college graduation rates and the number of National Merit Scholars in the freshman class — Washington University ranks in the top 10. WUSTL ranks as the seventh most productive large research university as measured by the faculty’s scholarly productivity, as well as ranking in the top 10 in five broad areas and 21 specific disciplines, according to Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (FSP Index), a new quantitative method for ranking doctoral programs at research universities.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will cost $34,500 for the 2007-08 academic year — a $1,700 (5.2 percent) increase over the 2006-07 current academic year tuition of $32,800. The required student activity fee will total $345, and the student health fee will be $679. The announcement was made by Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance. Room-and-board charges for 2007-08 will be $11,632, an increase of $456 (4.1 percent) over the current year’s charges of $11,176 for the full meal plan and newer student housing.

In three separate national ratings — faculty scholarly productivity, black student college graduation rates and the number of National Merit Scholars in the freshman class — Washington University ranks in the top 10. WUSTL ranks as the seventh most productive large research university as measured by the faculty’s scholarly productivity, as well as ranking in the top 10 in five broad areas and 19 specific disciplines, according to Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (FSP Index), a new quantitative method for ranking doctoral programs at research universities.

Stardust, the NASA spacecraft mission, was given that name in hopes that the seven-year journey to capture comet samples would bring back to Earth, well, stardust. In an article in a special issue of the journal Science, Washington University researchers are the first to report that a sample they received from the mission actually does contain stardust — particles that are older than the sun.

Rafia Zafar, Ph.D., professor of English, of African & African American studies and of American culture studies, all in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture abroad during the 2007 spring semester.