Arts & Sciences

Ralph S. Quatrano, an internationally renowned plant scientist, former dean of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Engineering & Applied Science and former chair of the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences, died Feb. 24, 2026, in St. Louis. He was 84.

The 16th annual St. Louis Area Brain Bee drew 54 high school students from about 30 schools to WashU for a day of neuroscience challenges and panels.

WashU researchers will be looking over data about high-energy neutrinos, retrieved during a balloon flight over Antarctica in January.

Pianist and composer Conrad Tao, an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” (The New York Times), will perform Sunday, March 1, as part of the WashU Department of Music’s Great Artists Series.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have a new model for understanding fruit fly courtship behavior, which can help with other sensory models in neuroscience research.

In the years leading up to the Revolution, Protestant preachers, sometimes referred to as the “black-robed regiment,” used biblical texts and spiritual ideas to reframe the treasonous act of rebellion into righteous moral duty, according to Mark Valeri, vice director of the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

WashU sophomore Courtney Lucas II has been selected by the Institute for Responsible Citizenship for its Washington Program, a selective, two-summer program for talented Black male college students.

Kathleen Finneran, senior writer-in-residence in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, and author of the celebrated memoir “The Tender Land: A Family Love Story” (2000), died Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. She was 68.

The Performing Arts Department will present Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Our Town” in Edison Theatre beginning Feb. 20. Though familiar to generations of audiences, the play’s pastoral setting can disguise its formal inventiveness, says director Andrea Urice.

Research from WashU psychologists finds perception of neighborhood safety affects brain development.