Arts & Sciences

Deanna Barch, chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, has been awarded a $3.5 million MERIT award from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The findings, reported in the journal Science, contain positive implications for the survival of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which scientists had previously thought could be doomed because of the effects of climate change, according to study co-author Douglas Wiens of Arts & Sciences.

Alumna Rebecca Rothney founded Pack For a Purpose, which allows travelers to easily leave behind much-needed donations when they travel abroad.

Martin Israel, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the Dean’s Medal this spring. Israel discusses his background and his career in this video from Arts & Sciences. 

Interested faculty are invited to apply for the fall 2018 “Redefining Doctoral Education in the Humanities” faculty retreat, which will take place Sept. 28-29 and Oct. 6.

Zishan (Simoner) Zhao, a rising junior in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died June 2, 2018, from injuries after being hit by a car while attempting to cross a street in Wilmington, N.C. He was 19.

Owen J. Sexton, professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 31 at his home in St. Louis County from complications of dementia, which he had battled for years. He was 91. Sexton was a key advocate for the purchase of the 2,000-acre Tyson Research Center property in 1963.

The Curiosity Rover mission found signs of organic materials on Mars dating back about 3.5 billion years, NASA announced June 7. It could be a big deal, said Raymond Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences, was among the honorees at the 2018 Royal Vagabonds Leadership Awards.

Using a new approach, researchers from Colorado State University and Washington University have uncovered evidence that underscores one long-debated theory about the origins of agriculture.