Newsroom Stories

The history of the 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st have been scarred by incomprehensible violence and far-reaching political events. This spring, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore both the direct experience and lingering effects of historic upheavals with “In the Aftermath of Trauma: Contemporary Video Installations.”

Lithium-ion batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles, are in high demand, with a global market value expected to reach $33.1 billion in 2019. But their high price tags and short lives need to be addressed before they can be used in more consumer, energy and medical products. Venkat Subramanian, PhD, associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, and his team are working to solve this problem by developing optimal charging profiles for the batteries.

Lihong Wang, PhD, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University in Sweden. Wang, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been one of the prominent figures in developing photoacoustic imaging technology in biomedicine, says Stefan Andersson-Engels, professor of atomic physics at Lund University.

The food was terrible. Kool-Aid, Manwich, Jiffy Pop, Twinkies, Spam (when the word referred to something edible). But Pat Hazell loved it all. In “The Wonder Bread Years,” Hazell — one of the original writers for “Seinfeld” — turns a fond yet pitiless eye to the brick-a-brack of American childhood. The acclaimed one-man show comes to the Edison Ovations Series Jan. 24 and 25.

As an artist, the Sam Fox School’s Patricia Olynyk frequently investigates the intersections of art and science. Now Olynyk is helping to lead a national task force on the topic while also planning a vertical seminar about “The Role of Arts Practice in the Research University.”

An international team of researchers has sequenced the genome of the elephant shark, a curious-looking fish with a snout that resembles the end of an elephant’s trunk. Pictured is lead researcher Byrappa Venkatesh, PhD, of A*STAR in Singapore, holding an elephant shark.

The School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital are part of a new multi-institutional project that aims to create a national pediatric “learning health system” that will feature an extensive clinical data research network. Feliciano “Pele” Yu Jr., MD, is the project’s principal investigator on the Washington University Medical Campus.

Some brain regions in adults retain a childlike ability to establish new connections, potentially contributing to our ability to learn new skills and form new memories as we age, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences in Seattle.

Most WUSTL campuses had a rare snow day Monday after the St. Louis region got blasted with major snowfall during the weekend, followed by bitterly cold temperatures. The School of Medicine remained open, and certain other “essential” services, such as police and facilities management, were operating. Crews were still hard at work Tuesday to clear the snow from walkways and elsewhere around campus.

Washington University boasts one of the nation’s most successful TRIO Programs, a federal initiative to support low-income and first-generation students. The program has helped Arts & Sciences senior Greg Opara, the son of Nigerian immigrants, buy books, travel home for breaks and, most recently, fly to interviews at top medical schools.