Arts & Sciences

Murray Weidenbaum, PhD, the Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and honorary chairman of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, died Thursday, March 20, 2014, in St. Louis. He was 87.

Cindy Kahn in the Performing Arts Department recommends the St. Louis Actors’ Studio presentation of Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening,” at the Missouri History Museum through March 23.

More than two-dozen WUSTL students have been invited to attend Clinton Global Initiative University in Arizona this weekend. One team’s project would help loved ones connect after disasters. And graduate student DeAndrea Nichols was chosen to help open the meeting. WUSTL hosted last year’s event.

​More than a dozen dancers will debut nine original works by WUSTL student choreographers April 4-6 as part of “Young Choreographers Showcase.” The biennial concert takes place in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio.

What’s a long-awaited threat, born of outer space and a danger to life as we know it? Why, it’s “The Intergalactic Nemesis,” of course. Part old-time radio play and part multimedia graphic novel, this unique science fiction serial returns to St. Louis with the first two parts of a planned “Nemesis” trilogy.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Washington University in St. Louis’ McDonnell scholars earlier this month. During a spring break trip to New York, McDonnell Academy scholars also met a former Federal Reserve chairman and other leaders in media, politics and finance.​

Nothing in Adam Steltzner’s younger years pointed to his becoming NASA’s chief engineer for the highly delicate landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. He flunked high school geometry and dropped out to join a rock band. On March 26, Steltzner will tell how “Curiosity Changed My Life” for the Assembly Series. His presentation, which will begin at 6 p.m. in Graham Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Yehuda Ben-Shahar and his team at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that some mRNAs have a side job unrelated to making the protein they encode. They act as regulatory molecules as well, preventing other genes from making protein by marking their mRNA molecules for destruction.

For decades, neuroscientist Richard Davidson, PhD, has been conducting research on the positive impact of contemplative practices such as meditation on the brain. The work may have important ramifications for treating mental disorders. Davidson was on campus this month to deliver the Witherspoon Memorial Lecture on Religion and Science for the Assembly Series and a talk for the Department of Psychology.​

Albert wanders Europe in a fugue state, across the French countryside to Prague, Vienna and Moscow. In “The Man Who Walked Away,” acclaimed novelist Maud Casey explores both Albert’s journeys and his relationship with the doctor who sought to reassemble his life.