Arts & Sciences

Studying stars has never been so easy, thanks to Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences. To recognize Zinner’s important contributions to the earth and space sciences, a scientific symposium will be held Feb. 3-4 in Crow Hall, Room 201.

KWUR (90.3 FM), Washington University’s student-run radio station, will launch KWUR WEEK, a series of on-campus events, with a free concert by four of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra’s newest—and youngest—players. The program will include string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms.

The great novelist, Nurrudin Farah, will be on the Washington University campus Feb. 13 and 14 to speak on “Political Islam and Clan in Present-day Somalia” for the Assembly Series, and to present a reading/discussion of his works for the Department of English in Arts & Sciences. Both events are free and open to the public.

Diana MichenerDeborah EisenbergAcclaimed fiction writer Deborah Eisenberg, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature, will read from her work Feb. 8 and host a Q&A session Feb. 15. Eisenberg is the author of five short story collections, most recently Twilight of the Super Heroes: Stories (2006).

Studying stars has never been so easy, thanks to Ernst K. Zinner, Ph.D., research professor of physics and of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University. For the past 30-plus years, Zinner has helped develop and fine-tune increasingly sophisticated instruments that allow researchers to get detailed information about circumstellar and interstellar dust — actual stardust — right in their own labs. These precision instruments use a measurement technique called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). To recognize Zinner’s important contributions to the development of SIMS and its many applications in the earth and space sciences, a scientific symposium will be held Feb. 3-4 in Crow Hall, Room 201.

Harvard physicist Lisa Randall explains how our visible world of four dimensions could be embedded in a higher-dimensional universe at the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7 in Graham Chapel.

Poet Martha Collins will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Collins is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Blue Front (2006). The book-length poem is based on a November 1909 lynching that was witnessed by her father, then a five-year-old boy who sold fruit in front of the Blue Front Restaurant in Cairo, IL.

Paul LairdPaul Laird, Ph.D., director of the Division of Musicology at the University of Kansas, will speak on “What Was — And Is — the Baroque Cello?” at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. Laird is the author of Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico (1997), Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research (2002) and The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History (2004).

Steven SmithPresident George W. Bush’s State of the Union address on Jan. 23 may be remembered as one of the least consequential State of the Union addresses in a generation, but its presentation could open the door on a period of real legislative compromise as both parties struggle to boster reputations in advance of the 2008 elections, suggests Steven Smith, an expert on congressional politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Video Available

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php