Arts & Sciences

The lab of Jospeh Jez, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, crystallizes proteins so that people can see what they look like in three dimensions. But getting proteins to crystallize is difficult and involves an element of luck — so one of Jez’s main jobs is to be the lab’s unreasonable optimist.

A giant experiment is under way at the Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis’ 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies. The experiment, led by Tiffany Knight, PhD, associate professor of biology, will test three different variables in 32 glades with the goal of establishing best practices for restoring not just degraded glade habitats but degraded ecosystems in general. The experiment is expected to draw collaborating scientists locally and around the world.

Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine have come a long way in a short time. Since meeting as high school students in 2002, the two best friends — who perform together as folk-pop duo Dala — have crisscrossed their native Canada, emerging as sharp songwriters and soulful performers in the tradition of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Tom Cochrane. Next month, Dala will present an intimate evening of folk classics and original songs as part of the Edison Ovations series.

Ralph J. Cicerone, PhD, president of the National Academy of Sciences, speaks about climate change at WUSTL Jan. 23, meticulously presenting the most current data on climate change. The talk, the first in a series on climate change, was sponsored by I-CARES and the Tyson Research Center, which plan to continue to enage the WUSTL community in an ongoing conversation about climate change.

The Presolar Grain Workshop that gathers scientists who study tiny bits of stars that were born and died billions of years ago — before the formation of the solar system — is returning to Washington University in St. Louis this year. Sessions begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, and continue through the weekend in Crow and Compton halls. Attendees will include 45 astrophysicists from WUSTL’s Laboratory for Space Sciences and other research institutions in the United States as well as from Australia, Brazil and Italy.

The United States is slowly climbing out of one of the worst economic recessions in its history. As the economy slowly begins to turn a corner, Stephen M. Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, will examine how we got here and where we are headed in a series of three lectures beginning Jan. 30.

The McDonnell International Scholars Academy at Washington University in St. Louis welcomed 12 new talented graduate and professional students for the 2011-12 academic year. The new scholars are graduates of one of 27 premier universities from around the world partnered with WUSTL in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

NASA has announced that Raymond E. Arvidson, PhD, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected to be a participating scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory, a mission to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on Mars. Arvidson proposed that he use the rover itself as a terramechanics instrument to learn about Martian soils. He will be using a simulation of the rover and of the Martian terrain to contribute to path planning for the rover and to look for crusted soils created by the modern Martian water cycle.

Described as “a force of nature” by The New York Times, dancer Kirstie Simson is internationally renowned for creating virtuoso improvisational performances. On Tuesday, Feb. 7, Simson — the 2012 Marcus Artist in Arts & Sciences — will present a free, informal concert in WUSTL’s Annelise Mertz Dance Studio. The event will include a performance of Simson’s solo Somewhere and excerpts from the documentary Force of Nature as well as a new improvisational work created in collaboration with dance professor David Marchant.

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 a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held biweekly on the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis beginning Monday, Jan. 23, through Monday, April 16.The series continues Monday, Jan. 23, with a lecture by Kelly Bishop, PhD, assistant professor of economics at WUSTL, on “Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Estimating Marginal Willingness to Pay for Differentiated Products without Instrumental Variables.”