Arts & Sciences

In 1999, Danish scientist Per Bak made the startling proposal that the brain remained stable for much the same reason a sand pile does; many small avalanches hold it at a balance point, where — in the brain’s case — information processing is optimized. Now scientists have shown for the first time that a brain receiving and processing sensory input follows these dynamics.

Marie Cendrine Taris, assistant to the chair of the Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died after a sudden illness Tuesday, June 2, at St. Mary’s Health Center. She was 46.

Denise Elif Gill, PhD, assistant professor of ethnomusicology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was named a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Gill will finish her book titled “Melancholic Modalities: Affect and Contemporary Turkish Classical Musicians.”

The honors are piling up for students in the Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nine Washington University in St. Louis alumni have been selected to conduct research or teach English this year as participants in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The program recognizes talented students who are committed to promoting global collaboration and understanding through research and teaching.

Scientists have been itching to go to Europa for a long time because this moon is thought to have a global ocean beneath an outer shell of ice — an ocean that may be hospitable to life. In May, NASA took the first step, selecting nine instruments to fly on a mission to Europa. Washington University’s William McKinnon, on the science team for two of the instruments, talks about the mission.

Lecture-based learning can be challenging for students who have difficulties building mental models for the organization of new information, but providing them with diagrams and other supporting material in advance of the lecture can help them overcome these hurdles, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has some news to trumpet. Christopher Stark, assistant professor of music and composer of contemporary classical music, has two notable performances coming up this summer, and student Kelly Stathis was accepted into the Atlantic Music Festival Composition Program.

James “Ely” Shrauner, PhD, a theoretical particle physicist and professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease Monday, June 1, 2015, in Chesterfield, Mo. He was 82.

Gary Patti, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been recognized with a 2015 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award for his contributions to metabolomics at the bench and in the classroom.