Newsroom Stories

Arts & Sciences faculty (from left) Jami L. Ake, PhD, John M. Doris, PhD, Mark Rollins, PhD, and Douglas L. Chalker, PhD, were recognized for their teaching and leadership during Arts & Sciences’ annual faculty reception this month. Ake and Chalker both received the Distinguished Teaching Award; Doris received the David Hadas Teaching Award; and Rollins received the Distinguished Leadership Award.

Steven Fazzari, PhD, a leading scholar on the relationship between rising income inequality and macroeconomic trends in the United States, will be chair of the recently re-established Department of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, has announced.

Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, a disease-prevention expert at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will receive a national award for his contributions to cancer prevention research.

Sherrilyn Ifill, JD (left), president and director-general of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, shares a laugh with Kim Norwood, JD (center), professor of law at the School of Law, and Karen Tokarz, JD, the Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law and Public Service and director of the Dispute Resolution Program, before Ifill’s Assembly Series talk Sept. 17 in Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

A film crew from NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corp., visited the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis last week to film for a series called “Cosmic Front HOTLINK” about the wonders of the universe. Here, they interview Ernst Zinner, PhD, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences. He pioneered techniques to study tiny bits of matter from stars that died before the solar system was born.

​​Steven C. George, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the Elvera & William Stuckenberg Professor of Technology & Human Affairs. He was installed Sept. 22.

Legal segregation may be over, but segregation is hardly a thing of the past. This fall, the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch “The Divided City: An Urban Humanities Initiative.” The $1.6 million project — funded in part by a four-year, $650,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation — will examine segregation from a variety of perspectives.

​Washington University in St. Louis students play glow golf in Danforth University Center during a DUC Presents event sponsored by the Inter-Fraternity Council and Women’s Panhellenic Association. The next DUC Presents event will take place Oct. 4. The International and Area Studies honorary society, SIR, will host a cultural expo.

The U.S. Treasury Department has taken action to curb corporate tax inversions, making it more difficult to for U.S. companies to merge with international firms and move abroad to reduce their taxes. This move attempts to combat specific abuses within a flawed framework, according to an international tax law expert at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.

Medicaid claims are a poor way to identify child abuse and neglect at a population level, according to a study led by Ramesh Raghavan, PhD, associate professor at the Brown School. The study was published online in the August issue of Child Maltreatment.