Arts & Sciences

In just six months of collaboration, a Department of Energy grand challenge led by Washington University in St. Louis has resulted in the sequencing and annotation of a cyanobacterium that could yield clues to how environmental conditions influence key carbon fixation processes at the gene-mRNA-protein levels in an organism.

The recent revolution in the life sciences- the sequencing of the human genome, and development of “high throughput” technologies- has created new opportunities for investigation, and created new challenges for educators. Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., professor of biology; biochemistry and molecular biophysics; and education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been a proponent and creator of partnerships locally and nationwide to improve the life science education both in K-12 schools and at the undergraduate level.

Nationally there has been considerable recent debate and discussion about how to ascertain the effectiveness of any given school curriculum. Under the auspices of the National Research Council, a committee, chaired by Jere Confrey, Ph.D., professor of education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has written the report “On Evaluating Curriculum Effectiveness.” “This discussion of how to establish curricular effectiveness in mathematics is particularly relevant in light of President Bush’s State of the Union address and budget, which includes significant expenditures on improving mathematics and science education in this country,” Confrey said. “If the funds are to make a difference, thorough, valid and fair evaluations of materials will be critical.”

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present a symposium and concert dedicated to the work of Viennese composer Arnold Schönberg. The symposium will focus on Schönberg’s relationship with Kandinsky and the Expressionist movement, while the concert will feature a rare performance of his famously demanding Herzgewächse (Foliage of the Heart) by music students and faculty.

TiVo or tape the Academy Awards and step out to hear a unique performance of brilliant music that marked the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. St. Louis’ own Kingsbury Ensemble will perform Music Fit for a King: Theatre Music and Cantatas from the French Baroque in Washington University’s Holmes Lounge at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 5.

Courtesy photoSand N. DaltonSand N. Dalton, described by CBC Radio as “one of the leading Baroque oboists in North America,” will speak on the Baroque oboe and its relationship to the mean-tone tuning systems of the 17th and 18th centuries at 4 p.m. Friday, March 3, for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences.

Harriet Stone, Ph.D., professor of romance languages & comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, will speak on “Objects for the Table: Descartes, La Bruyère and Dutch Golden Age Painters” at 4:10 p.m., Thursday, March 2. The talk, part of the Center for the Humanities’ Faculty Fellows Lecture and Workshop Series, will address the status of objects in science, literature and art as part of an inquiry into forms of knowledge that ground 17th-century European culture.

The St. Louis region aims to become a great biotechnology hub, attracting new businesses and industry from all over the country. If that dream is to become a reality, we need people highly skilled in mathematics and science. A research project by the Center for Inquiry in Science Teaching and Learning (CISTL) at Washington University in St. Louis suggests human resources in science may not be coming from local school districts unless significant investment is forthcoming.

More than 30 Washington University faculty, administrators and staff will participate in science and technology presentations when the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific organization, holds its annual meeting Feb. 16-20 at both the America’s Center and Renaissance Grand Hotel in downtown St. Louis.

Poet Linda Gregerson, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will present a pair of events Feb. 23 and March 2. Gregerson is the author of three collections of poetry: Fire in the Conservatory (1982), The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep (1996) and Waterborne (2002).