Notables

Jennifer Heemstra was installed as the Charles Allen Thomas Professor in Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis during a ceremony April 10 at the Whittemore House. Her lab is focused on harnessing the capabilities of proteins and nucleic acids to address unmet needs in biomedicine and the environment.

Arts & Sciences recognized four alumni and a friend of the school for their achievements, service and commitment to the liberal arts during its Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner, held April 11.

The University Archives recently acquired the papers of Jack Arnett Kirkland, an associate professor in the Brown School at WashU and an internationally known scholar who writes, lectures and consults on the African American family and social and economic development.

Outstanding students and student organizations were recognized at the annual Excellence in Leadership Awards April 14 at the Danforth University Center.

Katharine Pei, director of Student Transitions & Family Programs at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed to a four-year term on the national advisory board of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina.

Seanna Leath, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected to receive the Society for Research on Adolescence’s Early Career Award.

Corinna Treitel, a professor and chair of history in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was installed recently as the university’s William Eliot Smith Professor in History.

Sanjoy Baruah, an expert in scheduling theory and safety-critical system design, has been named the Hugo F. & Ina Champ Urbauer Professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Rajendra S. Apte, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor and vice chair of innovation and translation in the John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2024 Roger H. Johnson Award.

Eric Thompson, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon noted for his expertise in caring for children with complex neurological conditions, particularly brain and spinal tumors, has been named director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and neurosurgeon-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.