Arts & Sciences

A widespread pattern of human-caused environmental degradation and related flood-mitigation efforts began changing the natural flow of China’s Yellow River nearly 3,000 years ago, setting the stage for massive floods that toppled the Western Han Dynasty, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

In “Economic Realities of the American Dream,” professors Steven Fazzari and Mark Rank examine the ­American Dream’s historical meaning, the ­traditional pathways to reach it, the current obstacles to achieving it and its viability in the future.

Washington University alumni thrive in the compelling and competitive art auction business.

Breaking into the competitive auction world isn’t for the fainthearted, but students can take steps to prepare themselves academically.

In November 2013, Joshua Aiken, AB ’14, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in England. He intends to earn two master’s degrees there, one in U.S. history and one in forced migration studies.

One year after walking across the Commencement stage, these three alumni are charting their own path to success.

Albert Baernstein, professor emeritus of mathematics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Tuesday, June 10, 2014.  He was 73.

Washington University in St. Louis postdoctoral research associate Aubreya Adams went to Antarctica in January and February 2014 to help with routine maintenance of seismic stations on the West Antarctic ice shelf. But nothing in the southern continent is ever routine. In her short stay, she experienced extreme weather, saw a rare mirage, visited bizarre ice vents on the volcanic Mount Erebes and saw first hand the effects of the warming that recently made front page news in The New York Times.

Faculty members Darren Dochuk, PhD, and Nancy Reynolds, PhD, will delve into new experiences thanks to awards they received this spring. Dochuk received a residency in China, and Reynolds won a New Directions Fellowship, which allows faculty to train outside their own area of interest.

In preparation for an upcoming summit on working families, Robert Pollak, PhD, an expert on family economics, recently attended a meeting at the White House with other academic leaders and senior administration officials. They gathered to discuss the implications of demographic and other changes for 21st-century workplaces.