Campus & Community

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.

Researchers from around the world will gather April 10 to discuss the risk of emerging infectious diseases, and how best to translate research to clinical care, at the third annual conference of the Washington University Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease.

Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, is a national leader in gerontology, widely known for her work on productive and civic engagement of older adults. She is also the Bettie Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School, faculty director of productive aging research at the  Center for Social Development and director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, part of the Institute for Public Health, all at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington Univeristy in St. Louis will host the student debate team for a special event Wednesday, March 25. The students will debate the topic “Resolved: Research Universities Should Encourage Entrepreneurial Activity by Students and Faculty” at 5:30 p.m. in Umrath Lounge on the Danforth Campus.