Arts & Sciences

Raymond E. Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will receive the Weidenbaum Center Award for Excellence Medal. The award will be given at a ceremony held during the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy annual dinner April 2. This award honors individuals who have made major contributions to both scholarship and public service. 

Bryce Sadtler, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award by the National Science Foundation. His grant, expected to total more than $610,000 over the next five years, is for research to identify the structural characteristics that make some catalysts better than others for harvesting energy from the sun.

The police shooting earlier this month of Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s Sacramento backyard has renewed protests over officer-involved deaths of unarmed black men, but research led by Washington University in St. Louis suggests young Hispanic men may face an even greater risk of being killed by police, especially in mixed-income neighborhoods with large Latino populations.

Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, collects more than 20 terabytes of data a day. Through big data, new technology and good coffee, Hengen has set out to discover how systems of neurons interact. And, in doing so, he created a new sort of workspace that is both functional and fun.

Research from the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences advances the understanding of the chemical mechanisms involved with depositing rust and forming polymers, which will allow scientists to more easily manipulate and engineer the structures of the materials they make.

When is the last time a stereotype popped into your mind? If you are like most people, the authors included, it happens all the time. That doesn’t make you a racist, sexist, or whatever-ist. It just means your brain is working properly, noticing patterns, and making generalizations.

Like passionate foodies who know the best places to eat in every town, Silk Road nomads may have been the gastronomic elites of the Medieval Ages, enjoying diets much more diverse than their sedentary urban counterparts, suggests a new study in Scientific Reports.

When words fail and argument falls short, art and performance can help reframe important questions. On March 24, three campus choreographers will explore issues of culture, identity and social justice in the dance concert “Common Ground.”

Oskar Eustis, one of the most admired figures in contemporary American theater, will present the annual Helen Clanton Morrin Lecture March 26 for the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.

Given the chance to play Robin Hood, most Americans show little interest in taking from the rich and giving to the poor. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may explain why it’s so hard for voters in modern democracies to erase the economic inequalities that separate most citizens from the nation’s super-wealthy elites.