Newsroom Stories

Yanjiao Xie, the son of Zhijun Li and Gongming Xie of Beijing, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Peking University, which is one of 15 leading Asian universities partnered with Washington University in St. Louis in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Juanyi YuJuanyi Yu, the daughter of Yuejian Gao and Zhan Yu of Zhejiang, has been named a McDonnell International Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a bachelor’s degree in information engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, which is one of 15 leading Asian universities partnered with Washington University in St. Louis in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy. She also participated in a summer study program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present its annual sing-along of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, in Graham Chapel. John Stewart, director of vocal activities, directs the program.

The Washington University Opera will present a program titled “In Women’s Chambers” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 8 and 9, in Karl Umrath Lounge. The program will include portions of three 20th-century operas: Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (1946), Conrad Susa’s Black River (1975) and Little Women (1998) by Mark Adamo.

A lecturer from Rwanda is at the School of Medicine learning how to improve care for Rwandans who suffer from the metabolic syndromes associated with HIV/AIDS.

Photo by Mary ButkusStudents volunteer to help construct a Habitat For Humanity house in St. Louis.

Photo by David KilperLong-overlooked research from the 19th-century explorers provides a benchmark that helped create a composite record of the Missouri River that could aid in flood control.

Nov. 15-28 Nov. 15 8:23 p.m. — A student reported the theft of his iPod and several DVDs from his locker in his workspace in Givens Hall. The incident occurred over the weekend. Total value is estimated at $470. Nov. 16 9:18 a.m. — A contractor working in the Stix International H ouse reported that a finish nail gun was taken from the basement between 3 p.m. Nov. 15 and 8:30 a.m. Nov. 16. Totall value is estimated at $350. University Police also responded to two assaults, two auto accidents, two reports of larceny and one report each of trespassing and drug possession.

Poet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African & African American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, has won the 2006 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, given in memory of James Ingram Merrill. The fellowship is awarded annually to a poet for distinguished poetic achievement at mid-career and provides a stipend of $25,000. The academy’s board of chancellors, a body of 15 eminent poets, elected Phillips.

The following are among the new faculty members at the University. Others will be introduced periodically in this space. Robert E. Blankenship, Ph.D., joins the departments of Biology and Chemistry in Arts & Sciences as professor. He earned a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Blankenship spent the past 21 years at Arizona State University and was chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2002-06. His research interests center on the molecular mechanisms of energy storage in photosynthesis. Blankenship and his group investigate this process using an interdisciplinary approach that emphasizes studying the complete range of types of organisms that do photosynthesis, with the goal of discovering the essential aspects of how light energy is stored, as well as elucidating the origin and early evolutionary development of photosynthesis. Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., joins the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. He earned a doctorate in 2006 from Harvard University and a bachelor’s (with highest honors) from Pennsylvania State University in 1999. Herman is interested in linking functional morphology to ecology, and his research uses a combination of modeling and experimental approaches to test hypotheses linking limb design, locomotor performance (especially locomotor energetics) and ranging ecology. He is participating in ongoing excavations at the lower Paleolithic site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, where fossils dated to 1.8 million years provide evidence of the earliest human ancestors outside of Africa. Alicia Walker, Ph.D., joins the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor of medieval art and architecture. She earned a doctorate and master’s from Harvard University and a bachelor’s from Bryn Mawr College. From 2004-06, she was a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Art and Architectural History at Columbia University. At WUSTL, Walker will teach courses about Byzantine, medieval Islamic and Western medieval art. Her primary fields of research include cross-cultural artistic interaction in the medieval world from the ninth-13th centuries and gender issues in the art and material culture of Byzantium. She recently completed articles on the material and intellectual culture of divination in medieval Byzantium and the expression of romance culture in works of middle Byzantine courtly art. She is working on a book-length study of Islamic impact on middle Byzantine imperial imagery and is co-editing a volume of essays titled “Negotiating the Secular in Medieval Art.”