Arts & Sciences

The College of Arts & Sciences has added two new majors and a new concentration, all available this academic year. They are: a joint economics and computer science major; an astrophysics major; and a production concentration for the existing major in film and media studies.

Fredric Raines, associate professor emeritus of economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, in St. Louis. He was 86.

At the Arts & Sciences faculty welcome reception held Sept. 10 in Holmes Lounge, Dean Barbara A. Schaal presented the annual Arts & Sciences faculty awards for excellence in teaching and service. Awards were presented to Elizabeth Borgwardt, Stan Braude, Adrienne Davis, Steve Fazzari and Lerone Martin.

Cindy Brantmeier has been named the university’s first faculty fellow in international research. She will advise faculty on the Danforth and Medical campuses on conducting international research and achieving effective collaborations with international partners.

Washington University’s collaborative Center for Quantum Sensors was awarded a Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) conceptualization grant from the National Science Foundation to help advance applications of quantum information science.

The Center for the Humanities offers internal funding opportunities to Washington University faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Several programs have an Oct. 1 deadline, including the Faculty Fellowship, the Collaborative Research Seed Grant, the Summer Faculty Research Grant and the Grimm Travel Award. Learn more online.

Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, and of radiology and neuroscience at the School of Medicine, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Early rice growers unwittingly gave barnyard grass a big hand, helping to give root to a rice imitator that is now considered one of the world’s worst agricultural weeds. The new research from biologist Kenneth Olsen in Arts & Sciences was published this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Three members of the Washington University faculty have been appointed to serve as faculty fellows in the Office of the Provost,  according to Interim Provost Marion Crain. During the 2019-20 academic year, they will focus on several high-priority academic initiatives.

As part of a federal initiative to end the HIV epidemic, Washington University in St. Louis will establish a center to provide guidance and support to local organizations working to reduce HIV infection rates in their communities. Among other things, the center will help organizations provide PrEP, a medicine that prevents HIV infection.