Arts & Sciences

In Green and Gray, his fearlessly experimental second collection, Geoffrey G. O’Brien fashions poetry from neighborhood flyers and political speeches, mixing phrases from Dante, the Patriot Act and Jean Genet. That audacious mingling of personal and political continues to inform People on Sunday, O’Brien’s latest, and most autobiographical, collection. On Oct. 10, O’Brien will read from his work for The Writing Program’s fall Reading Series.

On Saturday, Oct. 19, Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor at Cornell University, will deliver the American Mathematical Society’s 2013 Einstein Public Lecture in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis. Kleinberg will discuss “Bursts, Cascades and Hot Spots: A Glimpse of Some Online Social Phenomena at Global Scales.” The talk, which begins at 5 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The slow rebound of the bedrock as ice melts can be used to weigh the Antarctic ice sheet. Calibrating rebound will make it possible to measure how much mass the has lost since the ice sheets reached their maximum extent more than 20,000 years ago and how much it is currently losing. Two National Science Foundation grants will fund the installation of seismographs to calibrate crucial parts of the Antarctic ice-weighing machine.

George Pepe, PhD, professor of classics in Arts & Sciences, received the David Hadas Teaching Award for his commitment to and excellence in teaching first-year undergraduates. On the WUSTL faculty for nearly 50 years, Pepe received the award Sept. 9 during the annual Arts & Sciences reception, held to celebrate the start of a new academic year, introduce new faculty and recognize the Hadas award winner.

A newly launched digital archive offers a fresh look at the poetry and writing process of Pulitzer Prize winner James Merrill.

Ernest Moniz, PhD, U.S. Secretary of Energy, will speak about President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, at 2:30 pm on Oct. 4 in Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. Moniz’s talk is the 52nd annual Joseph W. Kennedy Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences. A reception will follow.

Just a few days after the Affordable Care Act’s mandatory insurance component becomes law, the principal architect of the Massachusetts health care system and chief advisor to President Obama’s plan will be on campus to explain how it works and how it will benefit society. MIT economist and renowned health care expert Jonathan Gruber will deliver an Assembly Series lecture on “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works” at 6 p.m. Friday, October 4 in Brown Hall Room 100 on the Washington University Danforth Campus.

Scientific discoveries in understanding how body structures change and advance over time are relatively recent and are the result of scientific trailblazers working in the field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). One of those pioneers, Brian K. Hall, will visit Washington University and give an Assembly Series lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, October 7 in McDonnell Hall Room 162.

In Missouri, about a third of the ponds are infected with chytrid, the notorious skin fungus that has sickened and killed amphibians in other parts of the world. Why only a third, Washington University in St. Louis scientists wondered? A comprehensive study of the the ponds suggests there are hidden constraints on the survival of the fungus. One possibility is that invertebrates present in some ponds but not others allow the fungus to persist by acting as alternative hosts or reservoirs.

Among the many principles the late mentor/teacher/administrative leader Jim McLeod espoused were the power of the personal story and the power of a liberal arts education for all. So it is fitting that scholar and academic leader Ruth J. Simmons, who also embraces these values, will deliver the second annual James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture on Higher Education, “The State of Conscience in University Life Today,” at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, in Graham Chapel.