Arts & Sciences

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.

What is it with cheating? Cheaters seem to have an immediate advantage over cooperators, but do they have an evolutionary advantage? A study published in Current Biology suggests the benefits of cheating change with its prevalence,in a population. Cheaters may succeed, for example, only when they are rare, and fail when they become so numerous they push out cooperators.

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A Washington University earthquake seismologist who is teaching a course on natural disasters in movies reviews the newly released film “San Andreas.” The short version: they clearly didn’t have a seismologist consulting on this film. The take home message: Go see it anyway. It’s summer.

​Washington University staff and faculty have one more month to join the 5,000 employees who already have contributed to Our Washington, the faculty and staff component of Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University. Donations support scholarships, strengthen academic and scientific initiatives, advance learning and enhance facilities.