Campus & Community

Mechanical and materials engineer Sara Roccabianca has been named director of the Center for Women’s Health Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, the David C. and Betty Farrell Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, in St. Louis from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 88.

Catherine Hanaway, a member of WashU’s Board of Trustees, has been appointed to serve as Missouri attorney general. As such, Hanaway will step down from the board. She will be sworn in Sept. 8.

Alexander Chamessian, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, was one of two early-career leaders chosen for this year’s Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award in Pain.

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis has received a landmark $10 million dual-purpose gift from longtime university benefactors Jerry and Judy Kent to create an endowed deanship and to propel the school’s Business of Health initiative.

William H. Webster, an honorary emeritus trustee at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Warrenton, Va. He was 101. 

Beginning Thursday, Aug. 21, the WashU Mobile app will be retired as part of a planned transition to a suite of specialized mobile applications designed to provide direct access to the services that students, faculty and staff use the most.

WashU Medicine postdoctoral researchers Wesley Saintilnord and Matthew Reynolds have been named Jane Coffin Childs Fellows. The fellowship is designed to support the most promising postdoctoral scientists as they seek to advance research into the causes and treatments of human disease.

Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD, a clinical innovator who has developed new devices and techniques for heart valve surgeries, has been named the new director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at WashU Medicine.

Over the next several weeks, the 1,970 members of the Class of 2029 will learn more about WashU’s academic resources, student groups and boba tea options. But during move in, WashU resident advisors, WashU Student Associates and student leaders have one goal: to make every new student feel at home.