4.12.21

COVID Mysteries
Images from on and around the Washington University campuses.

Gordon receives Kober Medal

Jeffrey Gordon, MD, has received the 2021 Kober Medal, one of the highest awards in academic medicine. Given by the Association of American Physicians, the honor recognizes Gordon’s extraordinary contributions to the field of gut microbiome research.

Forging ahead

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin delivers his first State of the University Address in Edison Theatre. (Photo: James Byard/Washington University)
Now more than a year into the pandemic, we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I’m happy to report, despite the challenges we face as a community, that we continue to advance our mission in education, research and patient care.

Highlands hunt for climate answers

With tents pitched at a base camp at 16,000 feet in elevation, researchers wait out an unseasonal snowstorm at the edge of Lake Sibinacocha. The lake is surrounded by glaciated peaks that reach to almost 21,000 feet in elevation. (Photo: Tom Malkowicz)
Two Washington University scientists are reconstructing past climate and cultural shifts in the Peruvian Andes. Today, such high-altitude parts of the tropics are warming faster than the rest of the globe. What Bronwen Konecky and Sarah Baitzel discover could help predict how this delicate ecosystem might be affected in the future.

Watershed moments

Derek Hoeferlin, chair of Landscape Architecture & Urban Design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, leads students on a canoe trip along the Mississippi River, near the Chain of Rocks Bridge north of downtown St. Louis. The outing was part of Hoeferlin’s fall 2020 studio “Field Work 2.0,” which combined virtual and on-the-ground methods of documenting how various communities intersect with surrounding territories, watersheds and infrastructure. (Photo: Danny Reise)
The effects of climate change cannot be handled piecemeal, argues Derek Hoeferlin. Managing 21st-century waterways will require coordination on a continental scale — and a foundational understanding of how water shapes our environment.