Arts & Sciences

What can we learn from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein 200 years after it was published? A lot, insofar as the book’s central conflicts — between science and ethics, society and the other — still resonate today.

Alumna Jane Hardesty Poole learned from her physician-father the importance of giving. Today, she continues to support the university in honor of his lifetime of service.

With a PhD in business, you might not expect Chris Boerner, AB ’93,  to be fighting cancer. Yet as head of international markets at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he works to bring life-saving immuno-oncology cancer drugs to international markets. In his free time, Boerner participates in two bike rides that raise more than $1 million annually for cancer research.

In Chicago, Steven Collens, AB ’93, was instrumental in starting 1871 and MATTER, co-working spaces for tech and health-care startups, respectively.

Paul Pariser, AB ’76, is reshaping Manhattan with his real estate development and investment firm, Taconic Investment Partners.

Washington University brings excellent speakers to campus every year to share ideas and new perspectives with students and the community. Here are a few of the speakers from the past year.

Washington University experts offer tips on how to make better and more ethical decisions.

John and Penelope Biggs met in Latin class. Six decades later, their love for classics is still going strong. In April, leading scholars from around the country will present their work as part of the Biggs Family Residency Reunion.

Injecting carbon dioxide deep underground into basalt flows holds promise as an abatement strategy. Now, new research by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis sheds light on exactly what happens underground during the process, illustrating precisely how effective the volcanic rock could be in trapping and converting CO2 emissions.

The history of medicine is “embedded in the DNA of contemporary medical science and medical practice,” said Rebecca Messbarger, director of medical humanities in Arts & Sciences. In this video, Messbarger discusses the importance of medical humanities as well as her own research into the life and work of Anna Morandi Manzolini, one of the most important anatomists of the European Enlightenment.