Page 544 – The Source | Washington University in St. Louis

Space

Soaring into history

On May 30, 2020, WashU alumnus Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first astronauts in NASA’s history to launch from a commercially built and operated spacecraft, the SpaceX Crew Dragon. For the Demo-2 mission, the two are testing the spacecraft’s transportation system for future missions.

Business & Entrepreneurship

How an invention gets out of the lab and into the world

Life-changing innovations continue to emerge from the university thanks to creative faculty research, cross-collaboration and the aid of the Office of Technology Management.

Business & Entrepreneurship

The good, the bad, the ugly of big data

Liberty Vittert, professor of practice in data science at Olin Business School, studies how big data is impacting society. Photo art created by Jennifer Wessler

Big data is changing the world, but is it for the better? Liberty Vittert, professor of practice in data science at Olin Business School, discusses big data’s even bigger impact.

Religion

What does science tell us about Adam and Eve?

In his book The Genealogical Adam & Eve: Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry, S. Joshua Swamidass, MD, associate professor of Pathology & Immunology in the School of Medicine and of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, uses science to show that Adam and Eve could have existed and that theology and science don’t lie nearly so far apart.

Advancement

The universal language of generosity

In response to worsening conditions due to COVID-19, WashU’s China Alumni Network organized an appeal for much-needed medical supplies and funds to the Washington University Medical Campus. (Illustration by Monica Duwel)

In early spring, WashU’s China Alumni Network organized an appeal in an effort to give back to their alma mater, raising funds to purchase PPE for the Washington University Medical Campus.

Mokalled receives national early career award

Mayssa H. Mokalled, assistant professor of developmental biology at Washington University School of Medicine, has received the 2020 H.W. Mossman Award in Developmental Biology from the American Association for Anatomy.

A COVID-19 Level Overreaction Is Needed for Substance Use Disorder Treatment: The Future Is Mobile

After a decade of suffering from a still-raging opioid epidemic, after a century in which our advances in the treatment of substance use disorder can be counted on one or two hands, an overreaction to the treatment of addiction—mobile treatment, treatment guided by real-time data, treatment that follows patients back to their community—is very much overdue.

Art & Design

Bulawsky to chair MFA in Visual Art program

Lisa Bulawsky, professor of art, has been named chair of the Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art program in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1.

Medicine & Health

Scientists map how human retinal cells relay information to brain

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine report that specific types of retinal cells that carry the vast majority of visual signals from the human retina to the brain efficiently process and compress that information so it can be transferred. The study may advance our understanding of eye diseases involving the retina.

Chemistry

Cutting-edge computing paves way to future of NMR spectroscopy

New collaborative research from the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, leveraged quantum chemistry approaches to develop additional data infrastructure for an isotope of silicon, 29Si.