Arts & Sciences

If history is any indication, the economic fallout and increased political demands caused by the coronavirus could pressure government leaders into building a new safety net for lower income groups, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Lily Xu has been awarded the 2020 Harrison D. Stalker Award from the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. The award is given annually to a graduating biology major whose undergraduate career combines outstanding scientific scholarship with significant contributions in the arts and humanities.

Manasvi Verma, a senior majoring in biology in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded the 2020 Spector Prize. The prize recognizes academic excellence and outstanding undergraduate achievement in research.

Nikhil Aggarwal, a senior majoring in the neuroscience track of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded the 2020 Ralph S. Quatrano Prize.

Himadri Pakrasi, founding director of the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES) at the university, will conclude his tenure as director, effective July 1. David Fike, who has been associate director, will serve as interim InCEES director.

Undergraduates in the class “Anthropology of Infectious Diseases” in Arts & Sciences presented their findings during a remote symposium held April 22. The event was the last gathering for students in a course that became far more consequential than anyone could have predicted.

A study by biologist Amanda Koltz in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that as female wolf spiders become larger and produce more offspring, competition among them increases — triggering higher rates of cannibalism and reducing the number of young spiders that survive to adulthood.

Washington University Libraries has selected the winners of the 2020 Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition. The competition offers prizes to both undergraduate students and graduate students who write short essays about their personal book collections. 

New research led by anthropologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that encounters between gorilla groups were much more frequent, and that they had more varied social exchanges than expected. The effort is part of a long-term collaboration with the Congolese government and Wildlife Conservation Society that is changing perspectives on gorilla behavior, ecology and health.

Michael Wysession, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, recently was appointed editor-in-chief of Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, a new peer-reviewed journal from the American Geophysical Union.