Arts & Sciences

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) has awarded 11 faculty members — university professors undertaking innovative and collaborative research in the broad areas of bioenergy and sustainability — grants totaling nearly $300,000.

Sally Elgin wins award for her commitment to finding new, more powerful ways to teach science and to support teachers in the biological sciences.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are seeking older volunteers to learn how physical and mental exercise influences brain function and performance of daily activities. For the exercise-training component of the study, researchers will compare aerobic exercise on treadmills or exercise bikes to flexibility training. In the cognitive portion of the study, a specialized brain-training regimen will be compared with a more general health-education program. 

There’s not much Jerome Levy, MD, 75, who graduates May 21 with a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Arts & Sciences, isn’t interested in knowing — and doing. That’s why Levy, emeritus professor of surgery, has been chosen by the Record as an Outstanding Graduate in University College.

The decoding  of the Neandertal genome, which suggested modern humans interbred with Neandertals, followed hard on the heals of a WUSTL professor’s critique on mathematical and logical grounds of a gene analysis that suggested no interbreeding.

Two prominent economists made headlines last week in visits to the Olin Business School when they shared their views on the economy and its recovery from the “Great Recession.” Former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president and CEO James Bullard, PhD, offered different perspectives on jobs, financial reform and the global economy. One dared to suggest the need for increased taxes in the near future; one said the current crisis in Greece could slow the U.S. recovery.

Jack Duncan grew up in Virginia learning never to waste anything, especially those two most precious human and natural treasures — time and resources. Duncan, who will graduate May 21 with a degree in environmental studies, has been chosen by the Record as an Outstanding Graduate in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Jo Schnellmann (left), a Lifelong Learning Institute member, talks with writing partner Olivia Mozzi, a senior in Arts & Sciences, at the Skipped Generation Writers reading and reception April 30. The Skipped Generation Writers Project paired 11 undergraduate students with 11 senior Lifelong Learning Institute members on a nine-week collaborative nonfiction writing project.

The Washington University Opera will thread together nine famous musical endings for a concert titled Final Moments at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 7 and 8. “The idea is to perform a variety of pieces that all have something to do with conclusions and final moments,” says director Jolly Stewart, who is retiring at the end of the semester.

Two Washington University doctoral students were inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at the annual Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education this spring at Yale University. The 2010 Bouchet Fellows are Kelly Diggs-Andrews in the Molecular Cell Biology Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and Christie T. Spence in the Clinical Psychology Program in the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences.