Arts & Sciences

Gary Wihl, the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, died July 17 in Clayton, Mo., after battling Parkinson’s disease. He was 72. Wihl served as dean of Arts & Sciences from 2009 to 2012.

A project that could help scientists identify novel ways to fight disease is one of the research efforts that will get a significant boost under a new collaboration agreement that Washington University in St. Louis has signed with science and technology company MilliporeSigma.

Xuehua Zhong in Arts & Sciences has won a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for research aimed at developing more resilient crops that can adapt to changing environmental conditions and support sustainable agriculture.

Rising WashU junior Madison Yue has won a prestigious Peter Roth Internship from the Paley Center for Media in New York.

Scientists have discovered one way that a host plant can keep the peace among residents that might otherwise kill each other. The new research from biologist Susanne S. Renner, in Arts & Sciences, is published in Science.

Sandra Geary, a teacher of applied music and collaborative pianist in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died June 23 following a short illness. She was 59.

St. Louis sits on the Mississippi Flyway — the largest migratory pathway used by birds in North America. In this photo story, learn about a long-term study of migratory birds led by volunteers at WashU’s Tyson Research Center that is yielding new data on bird longevity and migration patterns.

The downstream consequences of religion, politics and war can have far-reaching effects on the environment and on the evolutionary processes affecting urban organisms, according to a new analysis from Washington University in St. Louis.

Frank A. Podosek, a professor emeritus of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died June 8 in Florida. He was 83 years old.

Biologist Keith Hengen in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis says “criticality” is the key to understanding how the brain works — and how to keep it free from Alzheimer’s and other diseases.