Campus & Community

Washington University in St. Louis is providing all students, faculty, staff and basic service contractor employees free activation for SafeTrek, a personal safety app. SafeTrek is essentially a mobile “blue light,” providing peace of mind and protection in potentially unsafe locations, such as parking garages or dark streets.

Engineering student, start-up founder and track star Deko Ricketts calls solar power “the engineer’s energy.” Here is Ricketts’ amazing journey to WashU, how he made the most of it and how he plans to address the global energy crisis after graduation.

Meet a few more of the entrepreneurs and innovators who also happen to be graduating this spring. All of these students have launched businesses and developed innovative technologies that are improving human health, addressing global issues and helping investors achieve their goals.

Three juniors at Washington University in St. Louis have been awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. They are Emily Goering and Hannah Olsen, who are majoring in biochemistry, and Emma Streff, who is studying chemistry.

Washington University in St. Louis is home to more than 4,000 trees. But this Arbor Day, Kent Theiling, grounds and landscape design manager, would like to recognize one special tree: the American basswood in Brookings Quadrangle. With a 48-inch trunk diameter, the tree is an estimated 104 years old, almost as old as Brookings Hall.

Washington University in St. Louis will award six honorary degrees during its 156th Commencement May 19. During the ceremony, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle on the Danforth Campus, the university will bestow academic degrees on approximately 3,000 members of the Class of 2017.

Leila Sadat, an internationally renowned human rights expert, and David C. Van Essen, an authority on brain structure, function and development, will receive the university’s 2017 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced. Eric Leuthardt, MD, will be honored for innovation and entrepreneurship.

This Earth Day, leaders at Washington University in St. Louis announced a new name and an increased emphasis on the university’s united sustainability effort: the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, or InCEES.

Paul Brophy, a leading expert in economic development and the editor of “On the Edge: America’s Middle Neighborhoods” will be at Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, April 27, to discuss why middle neighborhoods matter. He’ll join with Executive Vice Chancellor Henry S. Webber and author Alan Mallach, who both contributed to “On the Edge,” and a panel of local civic leaders.

All 25 members of the inaugural cohort of the College Prep Program at Washington University have been accepted into college, and the group has received more than $4 million in scholarship offers. Lerone A. Martin, assistant professor, told the scholars: “Do not hide your light to make other people comfortable.”