Arts & Sciences

A small team of chemists, having learned the secrets of light absorption from chlorophylls a and b, can now tune molecules to absorb anywhere in the solar spectrum. They are using this facility to synthesize pigments that fill gaps in the sunlight absorbed by native pigments and to push deeper into the infrared than any native pigment.

Ken Burns, director and producer of some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, has been selected to give the 2015 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Wrighton made the announcement to the Class of 2015 during the annual senior class toast Thursday, April 2, in the Danforth University Center. Commencement is Friday, May 15.

Dancer Samantha Gaitsch is a familiar face to campus audiences. Over the next two weekends, Gaitsch will perform with The Slaughter Project, company-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, and will co-direct “Step, Turn, Leap!,” the 2015 Student Dance Showcase.

Music industry insiders, including Sean Douglas, songwriter and 2005 alum, shared advice with Washington University students during a March 27 panel discussion “Making It in the Music Industry” at the Danforth University Center.

Six researchers at Washington University are being honored as outstanding scientists by the Academy of Science-St. Louis. University recipients are faculty members Ralph Quatrano, Jennifer K. Lodge, Samuel Achilefu, Charles M. Hohenberg, Gautam Dantas and Steven Teitelbaum (right), who received a lifetime achievement award.

In 1972, a group of 20 New York artists founded the A.I.R. Gallery, the first not-for-profit cooperative exhibition space for women artists in the United States. On Tuesday, March 31, former A.I.R. director Kat Griefen will serve as keynote speaker for “A.I.R. Refreshed: Women in the Art World from the 1970s to Today” at Olin Library on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Margaret Garb, PhD, associate professor of history in Arts & Sciences, will be featured on the genealogy program “Who Do You Think You Are” Sunday, March 29. The episode centers on actor Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”) and Irish immigrants in Chicago.

The industrial metal manganese, once scarce, is now ubiquitous in our environment. New work suggests that it addles honey bees, which often act as sentinel species for environmental contaminants, even at levels considered safe for humans.

The outcome of a duel between mathematical models supports the reigning theory of the genetics of altruism. Called inclusive fitness, it says altruism is competitive if it benefits relatives carrying the same gene as the selfless individual. Attacked by a Nature article published in 2010, it is defended by Washington University evolutionary biologist David Queller.

At the forefront of ancient DNA research is evolutionary biologist and MacArthur Fellow Beth Shapiro, DPhil, who will deliver the annual Ferguson Science Lecture at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, in Knight/Bauer Hall’s Emerson Auditorium. The program, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Woman’s Club of Washington University.