Arts & Sciences

Love and death: the most primal of motivations. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, Washington University’s Eliot Trio — which consists of pianist Seth Carlin, violinist David Halen and cellist Bjorn Ranheim — will perform a pair of works by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) — works composed, respectively, to honor a doomed romance and a departed friend.

The insult-laden screaming matches that often mark today’s political and religious disagreements don’t have to dominate the national dialogue, suggest two former St. Louis clergymen. A panel discussion on the future of interfaith cooperation, featuring Rabbi Steve Gutow, JD, and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, PhD, is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus.

The Concert Choir of Washington University will perform King David, the dramatic oratorio by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2, in Graham Chapel. Described by Honegger as a “symphonic psalm,” King David is divided in 27 brief sections that together revisit a series of familiar Biblical stories. These range from David’s early life as a shepherd and his relationship with Saul, the first king of Israel, to the famous battle with Goliath, David’s own rise to power and his lust for the married Bathsheba.

University College, the continuing education and professional studies division in Arts & Sciences at WUSTL, will host a panel discussion titled “Journalism in the Digital Age: Anything Goes?” at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in the Danforth University Center, Room 234. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

Tom Bernatowicz, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, began at WUSTL studying stardust, tiny crystals of material that formed around dying red giant stars or in exploding supernovae. While he remains interested in these tiny grains, lately he has been devoting much of his time to creating an introductory physics course that is so lively and engaging the students leave understanding why physicists are so passionate about their work.

In Counting from Zero a computer security expert named Mick O’Malley must track down and thwart an enormous botnet, or network of zombie computers organized to receive commands over the Internet and perform the hacker’s bidding. The novel, by Alan B. Johnston, who teaches engineering courses at Washington University in St. Louis, is both a fast read and a chilling tutorial on the the increasingly serious threats to computer security.

Amidst the chaos of the most recent Liberian Civil War, four women are kidnapped and forced to serve as “wives” to a rebel warlord. It is perhaps the unlikeliest community imaginable, and daunting territory for any dramatist. Yet Eclipsed, a recent work by acclaimed actress and playwright Danai Gurira, is at once sharp-edged, humanizing and surprisingly funny — a portrait of resilience in even the most difficult of circumstances. In April, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present Eclipsed for six performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

The premise behind Tom Bernatowicz’s innovative introductory physics course is that students should understand — even if they sometimes can’t fully share — the enthusiasm physicists feel their work. “We love physics, and we want our students to love it, too,” says Bernatowicz, PhD. “We’re not saying we’ll make it easy just so that they’ll love it, but we do want them to understand because it’s something we ourselves cherish and we want them to see how great it is.”

Edward W. Kolb, PhD, a cosmologist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor at the University of Chicago, will deliver two talks April 15 and 16 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis’ McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

Charles L. Leven, 82, PhD, emeritus professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, died Tuesday, March 15, 2011 in Chicago. Leven spent nearly 30 years in the department until his retirement in 1991. He was an expert in urban economics.