Washington People

Most of us return from a business trip with receipts for coffee and perhaps a glass or two of wine. Doug Wiens, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, once came back with receipts for several hundred dollars of kava root.

He’s Canadian, he plays hockey, and he’s had a brush with Olympic glory. Physician-scientist Gregory D. Longmore, MD, investigates problems relevant to cancer onset and metastasis.

Regarded as one of the nation’s leading African historians, Jean Allman, PhD, shares her passion for the continent through her teaching, mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students, prolific writing and worldwide scholarly presentations, and editorship of a book series that ensures other scholars’ writings about African history are published.

Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Thomas H. Tung, MD, skillfully moves tissues from other parts of the body to create form and function in cases of cancer or trauma in children and adults.

As an engineer, Anne Marie Knott, PhD, saw a need for research that could help firms make better research and development (R&D) decisions. Now Knott, associate professor of strategy at Olin Business School, studies how companies can improve their R&D effectiveness.

Over the past 30 years, books in all their permutations have served as both subject and medium for Franklin “Buzz” Spector, dean of the College and Graduate School of Art. Spector rips, stacks, tears, sews, bends and otherwise alters both found and custom-made volumes. The process can result in an installation, a photograph, an individual object, an editioned artists’ book or even a collage of the torn-away pieces.  

Mary Ann Dzuback, Ph.D., director and associate professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, associate professor of education and adjunct associate professor of history, all in Arts & Sciences, is a gifted teacher and visionary leader.

Amy Waterman, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, is tackling a vexing health problem: There are not enough kidneys for transplants, but patients with kidney failure who choose transplants over dialysis have longer, healthier lives.

Serendipity is a word that Kathleen K. Bucholz, Ph.D., uses a lot as she describes her career path. She didn’t really start out to be a psychiatric epidemiologist or to study how genes and environment intersect to contribute to problems with alcohol. In fact, for much of college, science was an afterthought.

Henry S. Webber has spent a great deal of his time evaluating and planning for the physical development of Washington University’s campuses. As he works to shape WUSTL’s future, he also looks for guidance from its past.