Author: Talia Ogliore

William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, is a co-investigator on the NASA New Horizons team that published the first comprehensive profile of Ultima Thule in the May 17 issue of the journal Science.

A native mosquito in Missouri has fewer parasites when it shares its waters with an interloper, according to new research from biologists at Tyson Research Center, the environmental field station for Washington University in St. Louis.

Rory Mather has been awarded the 2019 Harrison D. Stalker Award from the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. The award is given annually to a graduating biology major whose undergraduate career combines outstanding scientific scholarship with significant contributions in the arts and humanities.

Eric Hsu, a senior majoring in biology in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded the 2019 Spector Prize. The prize recognizes academic excellence and outstanding undergraduate achievement in research.

An internship gave Cameron Hill, a senior in Arts & Sciences, the opportunity to make real connections with people at a St. Louis jail and informed her effort to propose changes to the bail system. After graduation, and before applying to medical schools, she will embark on a traveling research fellowship with the American Voices Project.

Iris Marie Chin, a senior majoring in biology in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded the 2019 Ralph S. Quatrano Prize. The prize is awarded to the thesis showing greatest evidence of creativity in design, research methodology or broader scientific implications.

The university’s interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Sensors aims to harness the power of quantum mechanics to detect and decipher some of the universe’s greatest mysteries. The effort is timely as Congress recently approved a federal program supporting the development of quantum technologies.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis finds that women and mice both shift their daily schedules earlier by up to a few hours during the first third of their pregnancy. The new study shows how impending motherhood induces changes in daily timing of a mother which, when disrupted, may put a pregnancy at risk, as reported in the Journal of Biological Rhythms.

The American Society of Naturalists has recognized Jonathan B. Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor at Washington University and director of the Living Earth Collaborative, with its 2019 Sewall Wright Award.

Researchers in Arts & Sciences made an energy storage device that can withstand a hammer striking it more than 40 times. The shatterproof supercapacitor is also nonflammable, unlike lithium-ion batteries. The new work is the cover story of the April 23 issue of the journal Sustainable Energy and Fuels.