Campus & Community

Rare objects from the University Libraries Department of Special Collections are featured in “Into the Vault,” a new video series produced by Arts & Sciences in collaboration with University Libraries and hosted by Seth Graebner, PhD, associate professor of French in Arts & Sciences. Among them are Galileo’s “Dialogue,” Denis Diderot’s “Encyclopédie,” Charles Darwin’s “The Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects” and a 1678 letter from Isaac Newton to natural philosopher Robert Hooke.

Samuel A. Wickline, MD, has been chosen to receive the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. He will receive the honor Saturday, Dec. 6. Faculty achievement awards will be presented to David A. Balota, PhD, and Steven L. Teitelbaum, MD.

Smart writing on timely topics for the widest possible audience. This is the mission of The Common Reader, a new journal launched this fall by Gerald Early. Early and Managing Editor Ben Fulton discuss The Common Reader, online journalism and the continuing value of ink and paper.

Former U.S. senators John C. Danforth and Joe Lieberman will discuss “The Role of Religion in America’s Broken Politics” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis. The event is sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics as part of the Danforth Distinguished Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

​​Daniel Giammar, PhD, has been named the Walter E. Browne Professor in Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis. He was installed Dec. 1.

A new summer program targeting sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will be available in the summer of 2015. The Middle School Summer Challenge combines advanced coursework in a range of academic interests with leadership development designed to provide participants with a complete scholastic and social experience.

A committee of campus leaders is investigating the best ways to serve an anticipated increase in Pell Grant-eligible students at Washington University in St. Louis next fall and in future years. Harvey R. Fields Jr., PhD, assistant director for academic programs at Cornerstone, the Center for Advanced Learning, is leading the group.

Sadie Pierce (left) and her partner, Lilly Leyh, became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Missouri earlier this month. Leyh is set to graduate in May with master’s degrees in social work and business administration, and Pierce is a recent alum of the Brown School.

​Washington University in St. Louis alumna Louia Kornblatt, a finalist for a 2014 Rhodes Scholarship, is working to help women overcome gender-based violence and find their voice.

At the Oct. 3 Board of Trustees meeting, several Washington University faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure. Read more for details.