Arts & Sciences

In the Jan. 24 edition of the journal Science, Ray Arvidson, PhD, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and deputy principal investigator of the MER mission to Mars, writes in detail about the discoveries made by the Opportunity rover and how these discoveries have shaped our knowledge of the planet.

Kim Norwood, JD, professor of law and of African and African-American Studies, in Arts & Sciences, will lead a panel discussion of her new book, “Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Postracial America,” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, in Olin Library’s Gingko Room. Joining Norwood will be two contributors to the book, Vetta S. Thompson, PhD, an associate professor in the Brown School, and Richard Harvey, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Saint Louis University. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

Jane Comfort and Company has been described by The New York Times as “a postmodernist pioneer in the use of verbal material in dance.” From Jan. 26-30, company member — and WUSTL alumna — Elinor Harrison will return to campus as the 2014 Marcus Residency Dance Artist.

William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and vice provost for graduate education. He will succeed Richard Smith, PhD, who steps down July 1.

Ruthe Foster sings like a force of nature. Eric Bibb, with his warm baritone and sparkling, effortless guitar, can seem like the happiest bluesman around. On Saturday, Feb. 15, these two Grammy-nominated blues artists will say “Thanks for the Joy” as part of the Edison Ovations Series.

Virginia Terpening was an accomplished painter and an important regional artist. Yet by the time of her death, in 2007, Terpening’s work had been largely forgotten; hundreds of paintings languished in a rusty trailer in northeastern Missouri. Yet now a reappraisal is underway, thanks in large part to The Hinge, a nonprofit gallery cofounded by Eileen G’Sell, lecturer in The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.

The 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration at Washington University in St. Louis will include a number of events on campus, all free and open to the public. Michel Martin, host of Tell Me More, National Public Radio’s one-hour daily news and talk show, will deliver the School of Medicine’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture Monday, Jan. 20.

All WUSTL faculty, staff and students are invited to sing with the WUSTL Chamber Choir and WUSTL Concert Choir as part of the annual Chancellor’s Concert, to be held April 13. Auditions will be held through Friday, Jan. 24. 

Women are underrepresented in the important fields of science, technology, engineering and math — minority women even more so. To help close the gender gap, Washington University will sponsor an innovate new charter school: the Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, the first single-sex STEM charter school in St. Louis.

Faculty and graduate students from St. Louis-area universities with an interest in labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are invited to take part in the continuing series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars held biweekly on the Danforth Campus beginning through April 14. The series begins Monday, Feb. 3, with Sean H. Williams, JD, professor at the University of Texas School of Law. His topic is “Dead Children: Tort Law and Parental Investments in Child Safety.”