Campus & Community

The Department of Defense has awarded Mark Meacham and Arpita Bose a three-year $600,000 grant. The researchers will work to understand extracellular electron uptake in bacteria.

Class Acts celebrates graduates who are working for health equity across the globe, in their neighborhoods and in examination rooms. Meet Gautam Adusumilli and Cory French, doctor of medicine candidates from the School of Medicine, and Keishi Foecke, who is set to earn an undergraduate degree from Arts & Sciences.

Jean Allman and Lilianna Solnica-Krezel will receive Washington University’s 2021 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Andrew D. Martin announced. Also, Aaron DiAntonio and Jeffrey Milbrandt, at the School of Medicine, will be recognized for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Michael Evan Hughes, a neuroscientist and chronobiologist highly respected for his research at the School of Medicine, died May 4 at his home in St. Louis after a six-year battle with brain cancer. He was 41. A public celebration of life will be held Saturday, May 8, in Olivette, Mo.

Joseph A. Fournier, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, won a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. Fournier’s research program focuses on characterizing the dynamics and mechanisms of fast chemical reactions.

Fashion design majors from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will present their work at 4 p.m. May 15 as part of the 92nd Annual Fashion Design Show. Filled with sleek silhouettes, saturated palettes and crazy-quilt textures, the show — titled “The Collective” — is a full-throated rejection of pandemic-era dourness.

The university will award six honorary degrees during its 160th Commencement ceremonies, May 20-21. Among the recipients is NBA great and humanitarian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who will deliver the Commencement address.

McKelvey School of Engineering labs couldn’t shut down due to COVID-19. Megan Flake kept them running smoothly while research was on hold.

Parking & Transportation Services provides updates on parking and traffic flow plans for spring Commencement events, which will take place May 20, 21 and 30.

J. Gmerice Hammond, MD, a cardiologist and health policy research fellow in the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine, has received a Merck Fellowship Research Award from the Association of Black Cardiologists and the American College of Cardiology.