Arts & Sciences

The text of the Commencement speech by graduate student Ashley Macrander, who earned a doctorate in education. 2016 marked the first time a graduate student gave a speech at the universitywide Commencement.

Robert E. Morrell, a professor emeritus who taught Japanese literature and Buddhism at Washington University in St. Louis for 34 years, died May 11, 2016, in St. Louis after a brief illness. He was 86.

Deanna Barch, a leading researcher on the role of cognition, emotion and brain function in illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression; Irving Boime, a developmental biologist; and Timothy Ley, MD, an expert in cancer genomics and leukemia, will be honored by Washington University in St. Louis, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has announced.

Colleen Walsh Lang, a graduate student in sociocultural anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has been selected to receive the HIVMA student award in recognition of her research on HIV-infected children in Uganda.

John Inazu, associate professor of law, discusses his research on the concept of “confident pluralism,” the idea we can and must live together peaceably in spite of deep differences over politics, religion, sexuality and other important matters.

The odd-looking mountains on Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io, are made by a tectonic process unique to Io (and maybe the early Earth), suggests a numerical experiment by two scientists, including Washington University’s Bill McKinnon.

The Washington University Contract Employee Scholarship provides free University College tuition, on a first-come, first-serve basis, to the 700 contract employees who work full-time at the university. Students may use the scholarship to earn an undergraduate degree or simply explore a new topic.

A lab at Washington University in St. Louis is one of the first in the world to look at spontaneous emission with an instrument sensitive to the wave rather than the particle nature of light. Because the light is entangled with the atom that emitted it, this kind of detection may provide a way to control the quantum state of the atom.

Timothy Moore, John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics and chair of the Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences, recently delivered a lecture titled “Greek Tragedy after Ferguson” at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Leaders of the Women’s Society of Washington University announced the winners of the Harriet K. Switzer Leadership Award and the Elizabeth Gray Danforth Scholarship during the group’s annual membership meeting April 19.