Arts & Sciences

In a November wave of The American Social Survey conducted by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, political scientists polled likely primary voters to find that — despite consensus among Democratic candidates and the Trump administration’s actions to repeal environmental regulations — the two parties’ electorates don’t match their candidates’ stances on climate change.

A team of Washington University in St. Louis scientists at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, successfully launched its SuperTIGER (Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) instrument, which is used to study the origin of cosmic rays. 

The interdisciplinary Division of Computational and Data Sciences, one of a few of its kind in the country, focuses on turning the computational lens on social sciences. In the new PhD program, students have two advisers, one in computer engineering and one in a social science domain from social work and public health, political science, or psychological and brain sciences.

Jhan Salazar, a graduate student in biology in Arts & Sciences, was recognized by the Colombian organization Color de Colombia as the “Afro-Colombian of the Year” in the youth category in a nationally televised ceremony in Colombia on Dec. 2.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis will develop and deploy a new telescope designed to measure the linear polarization of X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial objects. The instrument will be flown on a minimum of two scientific balloon launches as early as summer 2021. The NASA-funded effort builds on promising results from a previous balloon-borne mission known as X-Calibur and is dubbed XL-Calibur.

Harsh Moolani initially shrugged off a friend’s advice to quit trying to do it all. Then he considered the source: a remarkable woman with a successful career, good friends — and only a few months to live. Moolani is set to graduate in December with a degree in neuroscience in Arts & Sciences. He will remain in St. Louis and expand Create Circles, the nonprofit he founded to connect older and younger adults.

In a Dec. 10 briefing on Capitol Hill, chemist Sophia Hayes of Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on helium testified that steep price increases and “supply shocks” threaten basic research in academic settings. Shortages will also lead to broader health and industry applications, she said.

Barbara A. Schaal, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at Washington University, has joined the board of directors of the Supporters of Agricultural Research Foundation.

John J. “Jack” Clancy, a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Oct. 28, 2019, surrounded by loved ones. He was 82.

RIP Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. But the geosciences data they collected will live on at Washington University, under the care of a team of archivists in Arts & Sciences. The data includes details about both rovers’ every move as well as many images that helped this space mission capture the public’s imagination.