Campus & Community

A number of updates to safety and security programs at Washington University will go into effect during the spring semester. The improvements are based on recommendations from the Public Safety Working Group that was convened last fall by Chancellor Andrew D. Martin following a spike in crime in neighborhoods near the Danforth Campus. 

Washington University’s Jerome Cox and Jack H. Ladenson join a small but distinguished group of fellows of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

Taevin Symone Lewis, a recent graduate of the Program in Occupational Therapy at the School of Medicine, died Jan. 1 in a motor vehicle accident in St. Louis. She was 26. A funeral service will take place Saturday, Jan. 11, in Memphis, Tenn.

William Kwang-Yeh Tao, an emeritus trustee of Washington University, died Dec. 17, 2019, in Franklin, Tenn. He was 102. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, in Graham Chapel.

In celebration of another year of change and discovery at Washington University in St. Louis, the Source shares some of its most-read stories of 2019.

On Dec. 12, 707 high school seniors opened their inboxes to learn that they had been accepted early decision to Washington University in St. Louis. But Zussy Chavira Duron of St. Louis got the good news straight from a team of Washington University leaders and the WashU Bear, who traveled to the College Bound St. Louis office to surprise her with an acceptance letter and a full WashU Pledge scholarship.

Jhan Salazar, a graduate student in biology in Arts & Sciences, was recognized by the Colombian organization Color de Colombia as the “Afro-Colombian of the Year” in the youth category in a nationally televised ceremony in Colombia on Dec. 2.

Harsh Moolani initially shrugged off a friend’s advice to quit trying to do it all. Then he considered the source: a remarkable woman with a successful career, good friends — and only a few months to live. Moolani is set to graduate in December with a degree in neuroscience in Arts & Sciences. He will remain in St. Louis and expand Create Circles, the nonprofit he founded to connect older and younger adults.

Social workers have long served traumatized students, sick patients, struggling veterans and troubled families. But can they help the American mayor? Absolutely, said Diamond Munerlyn, who is poised to earn a master’s degree in social work from the Brown School. The recognition ceremony is Saturday, Dec. 14. 

Dana Levy, an internationally renowned artist whose work frequently explores tensions between the man-made and natural worlds, has been appointed the 2019-20 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. The fellowship, jointly sponsored by the Saint Louis Art Museum and the university’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is designed to promote the creation and exhibition of contemporary art as well as the teaching of contemporary art principles.