Newsroom Stories

Between them, Dan Presgrave, conductor of the Washington University Symphony Orchestra, and John Stewart, director of the Washington University Concert Choir, have taught in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences for a combined total of almost 60 years. On April 17, the pair — both of whom are retiring at the end of the semester — will join forces one last time for the 2011 Chancellor’s Concert. 

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work awarded one Distinguished Faculty Award and five Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration April 5 at Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Two of the alumni also were selected as outstanding “Graduates of the Last Decade.”

Civil rights leader Julian Bond makes a point during a panel discussion in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge that followed his Assembly Series lecture, titled “Post Racial America: Fact or Fiction?” held April 1 in Graham Chapel. Bond’s Assembly Series talk was the keynote address for the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program 20th Anniversary Conference and Alumni Reunion, held on campus March 31- April 1.

For his dissertation Brad Oberle delved into the post-Pleistocene history of two rare species of shootingstars (Dodecatheon), thinking that their response to post-glacial warming might provide clues to the response of plants to global warming. He found that one rare species was a glacial relict that had gradually retreated to a refuge habitat near limestone cliffs. The second rare species was not a species at all but instead an ecotype, or variant, of a widespread species that had adapted to the cooler cliff habitat. The glacial relict is the species most at risk as the climate warms.

WUSTL physics professors will explore “Nobel Laureates Whom We Have Known: Scientists and Citizens” during the 2011 Saturday Science seminar series. The 2011 Saturday Science seminar series — sponsored by the Department of Physics and University College, both in Arts & Sciences — begins Saturday, April 16. The lectures are free and tailored for the general public.

Stuart Bunderson, PhD, of the Olin Business School gives a presentation of his scholarly work during his installation as the first George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance March 31 in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center.

Dancers, drummers and dignitaries participate in the Grand Entry at the 21st annual Pow Wow at the WUSTL Field House April 9. This year’s Pow Wow, a festival of American Indian cultures, brought together some of the largest numbers of dancers and drummers in the event’s history. In addition to dancing, singing and drumming, visitors were able to enjoy a number of traditional arts and crafts and community information booths.

With the theme “Celebrate the Magic of Community,” the 2011 Thurtene Carnival will transform Washington University’s North Brookings parking lot into a vista of thrilling rides and dramatic facades. The carnival will be from 4-8 p.m. Friday, April 15, and from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17.

Sports updates for the week of April 11, 2011.

Ireland native Maria Bernadette Majella Doyle, MD, assistant professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and a member of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital organ transplantation team, will present the annual Women’s Society Adele Starbird Lecture at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, in Graham Chapel. Doyle’s talk, part of the Assembly Series, will provide insight into the life of a transplantation surgeon. It is free and open to the public.