Record

William D. Owens, MD, a highly regarded professor emeritus of anesthesiology and former head of the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine, died of cancer Jan. 3.

John Powers, an assistant professor of film and media studies in Arts & Sciences, has won the 2024 Best First Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Peter Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Endowed Professor in History in Arts & Sciences, has been appointed chair of the Missouri Historical Society’s board of trustees. His term began Jan. 1.

Esther Viola Kurtz, in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, has published an article titled “Call, Response, and Compromisso: Ethical Practice in Capoeira of Backland Bahia, Brazil.”

Floyd E. Bloom, MD, an honorary emeritus trustee at Washington University in St. Louis, died Jan. 8. He was 88. A WashU Medicine alumnus, he made groundbreaking contributions to modern neuroscience.

Computer scientists at Washington University developed TaxaBind, an artificial intelligence tool that combines six information streams to address modeling of ecosystems.

Researchers at WashU Medicine have uncovered why some patients with a rare genetic disorder called primary ciliary dyskinesia have worse lung problems than others with the same disorder.

Environmental engineer Fangqiong Ling, at the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU, has been named among ACS Environmental Au’s “Rising Stars in Environmental Research.”

WashU plans to test its emergency communication system at 8:55 a.m. Tuesday, March 11. (An alternative date is set for March 14 if needed.) The test ensures WashU can effectively communicate with the community in an emergency.

Online voting is open for the top biomedical innovation or discovery of 2024. The first round ends early Monday, March 10.