Campus & Community

Holden Thorp, the Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor at Washington University, has been named editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals. He will assume his new role Oct. 28 and will remain on the Washington University faculty. He will be on leave while serving as editor-in-chief.

The 1,736 members of the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2023 arrived Aug. 17. They hail from 19 countries and 47 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Eight percent are from St. Louis, 15 percent are Pell grant-eligible and 9 percent are first in their families to attend college. Twenty percent of the class is Asian, 11 percent is black and 10 percent is Hispanic.

Lingchei Letty Chen, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $195,000 grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Education.

The School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis has launched a new First Amendment Clinic, aimed at allowing students to gain experience by providing legal assistance to organizations, students, journalists and citizens.

Andrea Wang-Gillam, MD, PhD, is an oncologist at Siteman Cancer Center whose family’s careers inspired her lifelong interest in helping people through medicine. Today she aims to improve outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Peter P. Gaspar, professor emeritus of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, July 27, 2019, in St. Louis, following a long illness. He was 84.

The university’s Office of the Vice Chancellor and General Counsel is this year’s recipient of the Gerald R. Ortbals Law Practice Award from Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. The office and other honorees will be recognized during an awards luncheon Aug. 16.

Merton C. Bernstein, the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, died at his home in Brewster, Mass., on Aug. 3, 2019. He was 96.

When the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2023 arrives Aug. 17, they will experience a nine-day Bear Beginnings orientation program that is more inclusive, more fun and, yes, more days. Traditions such as Convocation and the Common Reading Program discussion will continue, but Bear Beginnings also will include new programs.

Eileen G’Sell, senior lecturer in writing and in the Prison Education Project, both in Arts & Sciences, was a finalist in the 2019 Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation grant program for visual art journalists.