Arts & Sciences

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out the orientation of a protein in the antenna complex to its neighboring membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium, a key find in the process of energy transfer in photosynthesis. Robert Blankenship, Ph.D., Markey Distinguished Professor of Biology and Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, led a team that for the first time combined chemical labeling with mass spectroscopy to verify the orientation. The team also included Michael Gross, Ph.D., WUSTL Professor of Chemistry, Immunology and Medicine, and Chemistry graduate students Jianzhong Wen and Hao Zhang. A paper describing this work appeared recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Acting on a strong commitment to social justice forged while students here in the late 1960s, Washington University graduates are giving back to their campus community through the “Birds of Passage” fellowship, which will strengthen University ties with the St. Louis region while providing field experience for socially conscious graduate students.

SawyerEven as the United States faces the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, businesses are spending more money on innovation, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of education and psychology in Arts & Sciences and one of the country’s leading experts on the science of creativity, says that investing in innovation is one of the best ways to beat the recession.

“Financing University Education” is the focus of a free public conference to be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the Bryan Cave Moot Court Room of Anheuser Busch Hall.

As America considers major healthcare reforms, it may have lessons to learn from Seguro Popular, Mexico’s ambitious plan to improve healthcare for its estimated 50 million uninsured citizens, suggests Ryan Moore, co-author of a new evaluation of the program. Conducted through a partnership of Mexican health officials and researchers from leading American universities, the study offers a model U.S. policymakers might use to scientifically explore solutions to America’s own looming healthcare crisis.

P. James E. Peebles, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost theoretical cosmologists who played a central role in understanding the evolution and structure of the universe, will deliver two talks April 15 and 16 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by the University’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

Acting on a strong commitment to social justice forged while students here in the late 1960s, three WUSTL graduates are giving back to their campus community through the “Birds of Passage” fellowship providing field experience for socially conscious graduate students.

Author and St. Louis native Nick Reding will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, for The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. The talk — part of The Writing Program Reading Series — is free and open to the public and takes place in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge. A […]

Washington University’s Eliot Trio will perform music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in the 560 Music Center’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall. Named for Washington University founder William Greenleaf Eliot, the trio consists of Seth Carlin, professor of music and director of the piano program in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences; violinist David Halen, concertmaster for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; and cellist Bjorn Ranheim, also with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Beginning April 17, the Performing Arts Department presents “Mother Courage and Her Children,” an epic tale of a protective yet all-too pragmatic matriarch as its spring Mainstage production.