Arts & Sciences

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.”

The husband-and-wife team of Roger Kaza, principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony, and pianist Patti Wolf will launch the Danforth University Center’s spring Chamber Music Series with a free performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31. Sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and the Danforth University Center, the performance is the first of five scheduled for the spring semester.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service is accepting nominations for the Civic Scholars program, which recognizes Washington University in St. Louis undergraduate students who exemplify future potential for civic leadership. Nominate a current sophomore by Friday, Feb. 3, by filling out a brief form on https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CivicScholarsNominationForm.

A sedentary lifestyle is associated with greater cerebral amyloid deposition, which is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), among cognitively normal individuals with the ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Dancer Melinda Myers, praised for her “emphatic muscularity” by The Village Voice, will present an informal lecture/performance Jan. 30. Myers, a former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, will be on campus as the 2013 Marcus Residency Dance Artist in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences.

Ralph J. Cicerone, PhD, president of the National Academy of Sciences and chair of the National Research Council, will present a seminar on climate change at Washington University in St. Louis at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, in Room 300, Laboratory Sciences Building on the Danforth Campus.

Maurice Ravel’s Trio in A minor is among the most technically difficult works in the piano trio repertoire, demanding virtuosity on the part of all three players. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat major, opus 97 — the “Archduke Trio” — is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of the form. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan 22, Washington University’s Eliot Trio will present both works, along with Alexander Zemlinsky Trio in D minor, opus 3, for an intimate concert in Holmes Lounge.