Newsroom Stories

Erik Henriksen, associate professor of physics, and Kater Murch, professor of physics, both in Arts & Sciences, each will receive $1.25 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for their projects over the next five years. Both are founding members of the university’s Center for Quantum Leaps.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are working toward a treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, among them peripheral neuropathies and Parkinson’s disease, that targets SARM1, a key molecule in the death of axons, the wiring of the nervous system.

Leila Sadat, a law professor and founder of the Initiative on Gun Violence & Human Rights at Washington University in St. Louis, equates the U.S. government’s failure to prevent and reduce gun violence with violating children’s human rights. “America’s kids are not okay. As gun violence surges and politicians dither, school shootings are traumatizing a generation of youth,” Sadat wrote in a recent essay. “While only one manifestation of America’s gun violence crisis, school shootings are shocking in their ferocity, the senseless and random nature of the violence, and their impact upon millions of young, captive and vulnerable individuals.”

Evelyn Ngugi, aka “Evelyn From the Internets,” has been posting her hilarious and heartfelt videos for almost a decade. She will give a talk Thursday, Nov. 3, on the Danforth Campus.

When Chancellor Andrew Martin told Anna Gonzalez, the newly named vice chancellor for student affairs and self-proclaimed foodie, that St. Louis boasted a world-class food scene, Gonzalez had her doubts. Two years later, she is happy to say the chancellor was right. Together they have launched the food blog, “Good Eats with Chancellor Martin & Dr. G,” which will showcase great local restaurants.

Voters in this year’s midterm elections, to be held nationwide Nov. 8, will be motivated by a number of hot-button issues, including abortion, climate change, voting rights, the economy and more. Washington University faculty experts weigh in on some of the issues that will be top of voters’ minds as they head to the polls.

Cinderella wishes for festivals. Jack wishes for food. The baker and his wife wish for a child. The storybook world is filled with longing and magic and the happiest of ever afters. For a while, at least. But what happens once the wishes have all come true?

Washington University School of Medicine faculty members Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD, Farshid Guilak, PhD, David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, and Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership is considered one of the highest honors in the health and medicine fields.

“Lest We Forget,” a public art installation by noted Italian-German photographer Luigi Toscano, will open Oct. 20 in WashU’s Ann and Andrew Tisch Park. The exhibition will feature nearly 100 contemporary, large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors — including 12 survivors now living in St. Louis.

The university has begun using a new admissions system, Slate, for most of its graduate-level programs. The move is part of Student Sunrise, a multiyear initiative to consolidate and update WashU’s various student information systems.