Arts & Sciences

Washington University in St. Louis will host a national conference on “America’s Urban Infrastructure: Confronting Her Challenges, Embracing Her Opportunities” Nov. 19 and 20 in the Danforth University Center. The event, hosted by a consortium of nine WUSTL schools, departments, centers and programs, is free and open to the public.

A. Edward Nussbaum, Ph.D., professor emeritus of mathematics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He was 84.

Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist and literary critic Louis Menand will present the keynote address for “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,” the university’s eighth annual faculty book colloquium, at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Graham Chapel. The event — organized by the Center for the Humanities and University Libraries — also will feature presentations by faculty members William Lowry, Ph.D., professor of political science, and Lori Watt, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and International & Area Studies.

An award for the St. Louis Public Schools’ social studies teacher of the year has been named in honor of David T. Konig, Ph.D., professor of history, of African & African American Studies and director of the Legal Studies Program, all in Arts & Sciences, and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Critic and curator Yve-Alain Bois, Ph.D., a widely recognized expert on 20th century European and American art, will present a lecture titled “Chance Encounters: John Cage, Francois Morellet, Ellsworth Kelly” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.

The architects of the National Research Council’s roadmap for the next decade, “America’s Energy Future: Technology and Transformation,” will meet with top officers of energy companies today to discuss this capstone report that recommends investing in clean energy technologies. The meeting will be held from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, at Washington University’s May Auditorium in Simon Hall.

Critic and curator Yve-Alain Bois, a widely recognized expert on 20th-century European and American art, will present a lecture titled “Chance Encounters: John Cage, François Morellet, Ellsworth Kelly” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. The talk — held in conjunction with the exhibition Chance Aesthetics, on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum through Jan. 4 — is cosponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series and the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences.

America has the potential to solve its energy crisis over the next decade, but doing so will require immediate investment in clean energy technologies, says Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and vice chair of a National Resource Council report on America’s energy challenges. The report will be the topic of a symposium to be held from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, in the May Auditorium in Simon Hall on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Andrew H. Knoll, Ph.D., Fisher Professor of Natural History and professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, will discuss the evidence for life on Mars at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 300, Laboratory Sciences Building, on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Photo by David KilperParticipate in the International Year of Astronomy by making a visit to the observatory on top of Crow Hall. It is open to the WUSTL community on reasonably clear Monday through Thursday evenings from when the sky is dark — now about 7 p.m. — to 10 p.m. during the fall semester. Admission is free.