Notables

Neuroscientist Juliet Mwirigi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, has been named a Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Two WashU faculty members have been appointed to leadership posts supporting the university’s Digital Intelligence & Innovation Accelerator.

Two WashU faculty members will receive Outstanding St. Louis Scientist awards: battery engineer Peng Bai, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and biologist Ram Dixit, in Arts & Sciences.

A national organization that recognizes workplaces providing commuter benefits to employees recently named WashU among its 2025 Best Workplaces for Commuters.

Abram Van Engen, chair of the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, has been named the next director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Van Engen has published widely on religion and literature.

Leila Sadat, the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, has been awarded the American Society of International Law’s 2025 Goler T. Butcher Medal.

Mark Valeri, director of WashU’s John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, received the American Society of Church History’s annual award for best book on Christianity’s history by a North American scholar.

Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and director of the Public Health Sciences Division in the Department of Surgery at WashU Medicine, has been awarded the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Population Science.

The Rev. Callista Isabelle, WashU’s inaugural director for religious, spiritual and ethical life, will receive the Zenobia Hikes Memorial Award from NASPA, the nation’s leading organization for student affairs administrators, at its annual conference in New Orleans in March. 

Yixin Chen is the first person from Washington University to be elected a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.