Arts & Sciences

Ashley Wilson, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad award to continue her research on long-term conjugal cohabitation relationships that are a common alternative to formal marriage among poor residents of the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

Washington University in St. Louis mathematician Blake Thornton, PhD, came in first in the paddleboard division of the MR340, an endurance race on the Missouri River. Before signing up for next year’s race, you might want to read this article as well as watch the video.

The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at Washington University in St. Louis has announced the inaugural recipients of its Achievement in Community Engagement Awards. They are Brian D. Carpenter, PhD (right), associate professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis; Leroy D. Nunery II, EdD, educational leader and founder of PlūsUltré LLC; and the United Way of Greater St. Louis.

Isabel Trautwein, violinist for the Cleveland Orchestra, will launch the Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series at Washington University in St. Louis with a free concert Sept. 21. Also featured this fall will be early music ensemble The Newberry Consort; a world premier by Washington University composer Christopher Stark; and the Songs of Africa Ensemble.

A  bacterial infection turns non-farming social amoebae into farmers, Washington University evolutionary biologists report in the Aug. 24 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Shannon Wood, principal timpani for the St. Louis Symphony, will debut a new work Sept. 13 in the 560 Music Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Written largely during Wood’s month-long stay in Sicily, the piece seeks to capture the rhythms and flavors of life on the Mediterranean island. The premiere will come as part of “Symphony in Your College,” a free concert presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and the St. Louis Symphony.

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 8:15 a.m. St. Louis time, NASA TV will begin broadcasting the launch of a cargo container at the Tanegashima Space Center off the southern coast of Japan. In addition to water and spare parts, the cargo container will carry CALET, an astrophysical observatory designed to study the high-energy cosmos.​

William F. Tate, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2015 Distinguished Contributions to Social Contexts in Education Research-Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Educational Research Association-Division G for his research on social and science policy.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis has identified a novel learning and memory brain network that processes incoming information based on whether it’s something we’ve experienced previously or is deemed to be altogether new and unknown, helping us recognize, for instance, whether the face before us is that of a familiar friend or a complete stranger.

Ernst K. Zinner, PhD, research professor emeritus of physics and earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Thursday, July 30, of medical complications of mantle cell lymphoma. Among many other accomplishments, in 1987 Zinner identified for the first time material in the laboratory that predated the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.