Science & Technology

WashU McKelvey Engineering’s Chi Li received a grant from NASA to fine-tune a tool that will be used to understand how weather and atmospheric conditions evolve over time.

WashU plant scientist Ben Mansfeld is studying the genome of wild crabapples to find helpful traits to develop in domestic apple varieties.

As climate change brings more extreme weather events, strengthening families before disasters strike can help protect children’s health and well-being, says Mary McKay, professor at the WashU Brown and an expert on child mental health.

WashU researchers found evidence for chemosymbiotic relationships between animals and microbes emerging prior to the Cambrian explosion.

“Growing Deep Roots,” a one-person show by artist Carolina Caycedo, will open Sept. 9 at the WashU Kemper Art Museum. In this Q&A, Caycedo discusses her work, her interest in migration, just energy transitions and the tenacity of repair.

Hester Blum follows literary questions beyond the archive and into the environments that shaped them. A leading scholar of environmental humanities, Blum is the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English in WashU Arts & Sciences.

A grant from the Department of Defense will fund WashU research to make materials that deter aquatic organisms from attaching to surfaces. The work could have applications for anything in wet environments including medical devices for the human body and membranes used in desalinization.

Plant scientists at WashU organize research on wild plant diseases that could help agricultural systems endure climate change.

Nathan Jacobs, a computer scientist at WashU McKelvey Engineering, and collaborators plan to develop a geospatial artificial intelligence tool to find early signs of instability in crop production.

Washington University in St. Louis is formally partnering with St. Louis to expand environmental monitoring and public health research in city neighborhoods affected by the devastating May 16, 2025, tornado.