Campus & Community

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.

​​Car Free Month has a new name, but the same goal – to motivate Washington University in St. Louis stu​dents, faculty and staff to try new ways to get around town. Now called Active Transportation Month, the annual event starts April 1 and features free bike tune-ups, a breakfast for bikers and a Metro Scavenger Hunt.

Fiona Marshall, PhD, an archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was installed Feb. 10 as the inaugural James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor. The professorship is named in tribute to the lifelong contributions of the Davises to the university.

​Washington University in St. Louis students volunteers built homes in Oklahoma, dug fish ponds in Panama and helped establish medical clinics in Honduras, learning as much about themselves as about other cultures. Sophomore Itzel Lopez said she learned three lessons during her trip to help migrant farm workers in Texas: “The significance of being present, the gift of gratitude and hope and the blessing of acknowledgement.” 

The importance of human milk in evolution and modern health; biology and race in Ferguson; and the latest research on Cahokia Mounds will be among the presentation topics as three major human biology and anthropology professional groups converge in St. Louis for their annual scientific meetings March 24-28.