Arts & Sciences

If you’ve ever experienced jet lag, you are familiar with your circadian rhythm, which manages nearly all aspects of metabolism. Every cell in the body has a circadian clock, but until now, researchers were unclear about how networks of cells connect with each other over time. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and collaborating institutions have developed a new method that sheds light on these circadian rhythm networks.

The Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2022 arrived on the Danforth Campus South 40 with mini-fridges, duvet covers and big hopes for their new home. But they weren’t alone. They were joined by new faculty fellows Jeff Zacks and Lerone Martin.

A cross-disciplinary team of chemists and physicists in Arts & Sciences is building a better computer chip to improve detection and surveillance for the illegal transport of nuclear materials at U.S. borders. The work is part of a new, five-year, $10 million collaboration in low-energy nuclear science led by Texas A&M University.

Christopher Stark, assistant professor of music in Arts & Sciences, has won a 2018 General Composer Commission from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.

With a strong focus on community, the undergraduate pipeline program ENDURE at Washington University in St. Louis prepares students from diverse backgrounds for neuroscience doctoral programs.

Rita Parai, assistant professor of geochemistry in Arts & Sciences, constrains the history of volatile transport from the atmosphere into the deep Earth in a new publication in the journal Nature.

In studying and teaching American history, Iver Bernstein noticed the prevalence and importance of hope in the American democratic experiment. Nowadays, it may seem that hope is in short supply, but Bernstein says that it continues to be part of America’s foundation and future.

Petra Levin, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, was recently awarded a $2 million grant to identify and characterize the molecular circuits that coordinate or limit the growth and reproduction of bacteria.

Crystal Riley Koenig and Yi-Ling Lin, graduate students in anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have been recognized with 2018 academic excellence awards from the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society.

For nearly three decades, the Weltin Lecture Fund has enabled the Religious Studies Program and Assembly Series to bring renowned scholars of religion to the university. In spring 2018, Elaine Pagels delivered the lecture, sharing her riveting discoveries on art and politics in the Book of Revelation.