Campus & Community

While the location of the annual Pow Wow is changing this year, the tradition and excitement are not. The 25th annual Pow Wow, a festival of American Indian cultures at Washington University in St. Louis, will be held Saturday, April 4, at the Dunham Student Activity Center on the campus of nearby Fontbonne University.

Six researchers at Washington University are being honored as outstanding scientists by the Academy of Science-St. Louis. University recipients are faculty members Ralph Quatrano, Jennifer K. Lodge, Samuel Achilefu, Charles M. Hohenberg, Gautam Dantas and Steven Teitelbaum (right), who received a lifetime achievement award.

​Since the quiet phase of the campaign began in 2009, some 39 percent of Washington University’s faculty and staff – nearly 5,000 employees so far – have contributed $33.4 million to the campaign. That money helps to fund scholarships, supports academic and scientific initiatives, advances learning and enhances facilities.

In 1972, a group of 20 New York artists founded the A.I.R. Gallery, the first not-for-profit cooperative exhibition space for women artists in the United States. On Tuesday, March 31, former A.I.R. director Kat Griefen will serve as keynote speaker for “A.I.R. Refreshed: Women in the Art World from the 1970s to Today” at Olin Library on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Match Day, when medical students across the country find out where they will head for their residency programs, was March 20. At the School of Medicine, more than 120 students gathered for the delivery of envelopes that contained news of where the soon-to-be graduates had matched. Shown is medical student Justin Krogue and his family.

An entire generation grew up watching the hit PBS show “Reading Rainbow” from 1983-2006, but a new generation of children have vastly different technological skills and habits. Not a problem for LeVar Burton, who has combined the power of storytelling with today’s advancements in technology to boost the “Reading Rainbow” franchise. That will be the subject of his lecture for the Washington University in St. Louis Assembly Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus.

At the forefront of ancient DNA research is evolutionary biologist and MacArthur Fellow Beth Shapiro, DPhil, who will deliver the annual Ferguson Science Lecture at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, in Knight/Bauer Hall’s Emerson Auditorium. The program, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Woman’s Club of Washington University.

Note: Jeff Smith’s talk has been canceled due to a weather-related travel delay. There are currently no plans to reschedule his presentation. Jeff Smith, an urban policy professor and former Missouri state senator, will discuss “Ferguson in Black and White” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 23, in Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Student Entrepreneurial Program (StEP) at Washington University in St. Louis kicks off its speaker program at 5 p.m. Monday, March 23, with entrepreneurial brothers Andrew and Matthew Brimer. Andrew Brimer (right), a 2013 graduate of Washington University, runs Sparo Labs. His brother, Matthew, operates a company called General Assembly in New York. The event takes place in Room 276 of the Danforth University Center and is free and open to the public.

​​Lan Yang, PhD, has been named the Edward H. and Florence G. Skinner Professor in the Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She was installed March 16.