Arts & Sciences

Biologists in Arts & Sciences have found new ways to encourage the plastic-producing power of purple microbes.

Richard J. Walter, a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of History in Arts & Sciences at WashU, died Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. He was 85.

Courtney Reichhardt, an assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pursue several projects on fibrillar adhesins, the proteins bacteria use to stick to each other and surfaces.

New political science research by Christopher Lucas in Arts & Sciences finds deepfakes can convince the American public of scandals that never occurred at alarming rates — over 40% of a representative sample — but no more so than equivalent disinformation conveyed through textual headlines or audio recordings.

Patty Jo Watson, a professor emerita in anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Arlington, Mass. Watson was one of the world’s leading experts on cave archaeology and agricultural origins.

During his four years in office, Joe Biden was hailed as the most pro-union president in recent history. But whether his record translates into votes for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris remains to be seen. Sociologist Jake Rosenfeld, in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, explains why Democrats have lost some union votes and how the parties are responding.

EmpowHer, a program designed to equip women with the knowledge, resources and support system to run a successful campaign and represent their constituents effectively, is being offered Aug. 23-24 at Washington University in St. Louis.

Field research, science communication and . . . blood feeding. These were some of the skills that high school students Hope Jett and Kari Koerner learned this summer as part of WashU’s Tyson Environmental Research Apprenticeship.

Researchers from multiple disciplines at Washington University teamed up to study how human behavior changes when training artificial intelligence.

Last year, alumnus Chris Boerner became CEO of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. His eyes are on the future of health care — and the innovation that will get us there.