Author: Talia Ogliore

Three scientists at Washington University in St. Louis were elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS): Sarah C.R. Elgin, Jonathan B. Losos and Richard D. Vierstra, all members of the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

Each year, the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences awards a prize to a graduating senior in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger. This year’s recipient is Jordan Shaker, who worked in the laboratory of Michael R. Bruchas at the School of Medicine.

Christine Floss, research professor in the Department of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died April 19, 2018, in St. Louis. She was 56. Floss was a leader in the university’s Laboratory for Space Sciences.

Warmer summer and fall seasons and fewer winter freeze-thaw events have led to changes in the relative numbers of different types of bugs in the Arctic, says Amanda Koltz, a postdoctoral fellow in Arts & Sciences. The study relies on the longest-standing, most comprehensive data set on arctic arthropods in the world today: a catalogue of almost 600,000 flies, wasps, spiders and other creepy-crawlies collected at the Zackenberg field station on the northeast coast of Greenland from 1996-2014.

Sarah C.R. Elgin and Samuel I. Achilefu will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2018 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced. Also, William A. Frazier III, professor emeritus, will be honored for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Washington University faculty and students will moderate panels at the Saint Louis Climate Summit, hosted by Saint Louis University. Students, faculty and staff can attend an evening with Bill Nye of “Science Guy” fame and environmentalist Carl Pope on April 23 for free by showing their IDs at the ticket booth.

Raymond E. Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will receive the Weidenbaum Center Award for Excellence Medal. The award will be given at a ceremony held during the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy annual dinner April 2. This award honors individuals who have made major contributions to both scholarship and public service. 

Bryce Sadtler, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award by the National Science Foundation. His grant, expected to total more than $610,000 over the next five years, is for research to identify the structural characteristics that make some catalysts better than others for harvesting energy from the sun.

Research from the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences advances the understanding of the chemical mechanisms involved with depositing rust and forming polymers, which will allow scientists to more easily manipulate and engineer the structures of the materials they make.

S. George Philander, one of the world’s leading experts on climate and the interactions between the ocean and atmosphere, will deliver two talks March 28 and 29 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis’ McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.