Campus & Community

Julia Coric, a rising senior studying chemistry in WashU Arts & Sciences, has been selected as an Astronaut Scholar for the 2026-27 school year. She is among 79 students from 54 universities chosen for the prestigious award. 

Julie Ritchey, research laboratory manager of the lab of John DiPersio, MD, in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine, received the 2026 Gloria W. White Distinguished Service Award. For more than three decades, Richey has worked to advance research on stem cell therapies.

WashU was ranked ninth among U.S. universities in the inaugural Cure Innovation Index, an assessment of how effectively institutions translate research advances into market-ready innovations. The index cited WashU’s biomedical research capabilities and support for commercialization and innovation, among other strengths.

WashU Chancellor Andrew D. Martin has been named the 2026 recipient of the National Association of Colleges and Employers Career Services Champion Award, a national honor recognizing visionary leadership in advancing career education and student success.

WashU Medicine researchers Randall J. Bateman, MD, and David M. Holtzman, MD, were honored for their work developing diagnostic blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease with the Bayh-Dole Coalition’s 2026 American Innovator Award.

Three WashU undergraduates — Nitzia Y. Davalos Reyes, Ren Klein and Carlos Madrid — have been selected for the 2026 Gyo Obata Fellowship program. The paid 10-week internships aim to foster the next generation of arts administrators.

Six WashU seniors from the Department of BIology in Arts & Sciences and WashU McKelvey Engineering have won annual awards recognizing their achievements.

WashU will confer seven honorary degrees during its 165th Commencement May 15. Here are the recipients.

Salma Abdalla, at WashU Public Health, and Liz Chiarello, in WashU Arts & Sciences, have been named 2026 Public Scholarship faculty fellows in recognition of their work that connects rigorous research with public audiences.

Three physician-scientists at WashU Medicine — neurologists Suzanne Schindler and Christopher Smyser and otolaryngologist Sidharth Puram — have been recognized by one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies.