Campus & Community

Amy French, a junior majoring in economics in Arts & Sciences, is a goalkeeper for the Bears varsity team. She is also an accomplished jazz singer, and keeps busy accompanying Provost Holden Thorp, a jazz pianist in his free time, at events around the country.

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will honor professor emeritus Harold Blumenfeld, who died last fall at he age of 91, with a Memorial Concert in Graham Chapel April 19. The performance will feature Blumenfeld’s settings of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and Arthur Rimbaud as well as works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Paul Hindemith and Franz Schubert.

Lee Epstein, PhD, was installed as the Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis in a campus ceremony March 17.

The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis is ramping up its efforts and programs on inclusive teaching and learning. One goal is to better engage, include and challenge all students. The effort includes workshops, a faculty fellowship and a faculty institute.

Following a four-month rigorous training and selection process among 46 exceptional applications to the Bear Cub Challenge at Washington University in St. Louis, grants have been awarded to the top applicants. 

​​Lori S. White, PhD, vice president for student affairs at Southern Methodist University, has been named vice chancellor for students at Washington University in St. Louis. The appointment is effective July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. White succeeds Sharon Stahl, PhD, who announced last year​ that she would retire at the end of the 2014-15 academic year.​

Kevin Hays, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis and a Rubik’s Cube champion, will attempt to break a Guinness World Record at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the annual Thurtene Carnival, the nation’s oldest and largest student-run carnival. Hays, from the bottom of a see-through dunk tank, will attempt to break the world record for most Rubik’s Cubes solved underwater. Thurtene Carnival runs from April 17-19 on Brookings Drive on the Danforth Campus.

The 13th Relay For Life, the annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society at Washington University in St. Louis, begins at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 11 and runs through 6 a.m. Sunday, April 12. Highlights include performances from Mama’s Pot Roast, WU Sauce and the Stereotypes, and games such as tug of war, Twister and dodgeball. In the past 12 years, Relay For Life has raised $2 million for cancer research and support. 

Roger J. Phillips, PhD, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and director emeritus of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, April 15, at Washington University in St. Louis. The lecture, titled “No Denying Climate Change on Mars,” will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 100 of Whitaker Hall.

Students on the Medical Campus will present their 10th annual musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” at 8 p.m April 16, 17 and 18 in the Olin Residence Hall Gym on the Medical Campus.