Newsroom Stories

​​The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at Washington University in St. Louis is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a new name, new initiatives and new funding for its acclaimed Civic Scholars program. The mission, however, remains the same.

A  bacterial infection turns non-farming social amoebae into farmers, Washington University evolutionary biologists report in the Aug. 24 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

​Washington University in St. Louis welcomed one of its largest and most diverse classes in its history on Thursday, Aug. 20. Some 1,730 students from all 50 states and 23 countries moved into their residential colleges with the help of approximately 350 faculty, staff and student volunteers.​

Fuzhong Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has received an early-career faculty award from NASA.

Washington University School of Law’s Center for Empirical Research in the Law is partnering with the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota to create an online searchable database of the tribe’s extensive body of laws and court decisions. By increasing the transparency of tribal law, the project aims to strengthen the institutions of tribal government and promote tribal self-determination.

Shannon Wood, principal timpani for the St. Louis Symphony, will debut a new work Sept. 13 in the 560 Music Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Written largely during Wood’s month-long stay in Sicily, the piece seeks to capture the rhythms and flavors of life on the Mediterranean island. The premiere will come as part of “Symphony in Your College,” a free concert presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and the St. Louis Symphony.

First-year students at the School of Medicine participated Friday, Aug. 14, in the traditional White Coat Ceremony — a rite of passage in which future doctors are welcomed to the medical school and the medical profession. The class also recited an oath promising honesty and integrity.

​Was​hington University welcomes the Class of 2019 on Thursday, Aug. 20. Students move into the South 40, meet their residential advisors and fellow dorm residents, and later in the day celebrate Convocation, one of the university’s most colorful traditions. ​

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 8:15 a.m. St. Louis time, NASA TV will begin broadcasting the launch of a cargo container at the Tanegashima Space Center off the southern coast of Japan. In addition to water and spare parts, the cargo container will carry CALET, an astrophysical observatory designed to study the high-energy cosmos.​

First-year medical student Anna Arnaud writes about what it means to receive a white coat, which incoming School of Medicine students received at a ceremony Friday, Aug. 14, to initiate the transition from students of science to practitioners of medicine.