Features

Washington University wants to not only be “in St. Louis,” but “for St. Louis.” With that call to action, the university is taking its commitment to be a good partner in the region to another level.

Two Washington University scientists are reconstructing past climate and cultural shifts in the Peruvian Andes. Today, such high-altitude parts of the tropics are warming faster than the rest of the globe. What Bronwen Konecky and Sarah Baitzel discover could help predict how this delicate ecosystem might be affected in the future.

The effects of climate change cannot be handled piecemeal, argues Derek Hoeferlin. Managing 21st-century waterways will require coordination on a continental scale — and a foundational understanding of how water shapes our environment.

The university develops a new “curriculum” to help members of our community cope during the pandemic.

Not only do low-income and first-generation students at WashU have a plethora of resources available to them, they also have supportive top administrators who understand exactly what the students are dealing with, because they’re first-generation too.

Helping first-generation and low-income students means looking beyond applications and really figuring out the need.

In 2020, so much about what we know to be normal came to a grinding halt for the WashU community. One week in March, we’re looking ahead to spring break, and then suddenly it’s an unending hiatus. Yet the work of the university, and its families, goes on.

WashU alumni are among the researchers working around-the-clock on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They say they won’t rest until there are no more deaths from COVID-19.

Nine Washington University scholars ruminate on race, COVID-19, police brutality and America as the house of pain.

A look at how Washington University came together in the spring and summer to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak — and to prepare for a fall semester that is anything but back to normal.