Arts & Sciences

A powerful WashU-built device can squeeze and twist rocks with 100 tons of force. Geologist Philip Skemer in Arts & Sciences explains how his group is using the apparatus to better understand processes that affect the evolution of planets.

The Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, established in 2005 by Yale University and Howard University to recognize outstanding scholarly achievement, recently inducted four doctoral candidates from Washington University.

Data and running. That’s what Joseph Silagi, a senior majoring in political science and in mathematics and computer science in Arts & Sciences, is passionate about. This fall, Silagi will start work as a consultant for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis.

Arts & Sciences recently recognized five alumni for their achievements, service and commitment to the liberal arts during its Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner.

Ursula W. Goodenough, a professor emerita of biology, and William B. McKinnon, a professor of earth and planetary sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Election to the academy, announced May 2, is considered one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a U.S. scientist or engineer.

A longtime member of the Writers Guild of America, Arts & Sciences’ Richard Chapman has written more than 200 hours of network television. But as the WGA settles into its fourth strike in as many decades, Chapman wonders, will this time be the charm?

Blake Comeaux is a varsity football player, Ervin Scholar, Gephardt Institute Goldman Fellow and a self-proclaimed philosophy nerd. After graduation, Comeaux will continue his education at the Washington University School of Law.

Senior Kai Radford started serving St. Louis’ children when she, herself, was a child — reading at story times, helping at camps, supporting victims of violence. A decade later, she is poised to continue that work as a foster care case manager, building strong families and advocating for some of the 4,500 local children in the foster care system. 

Ian Dobbins, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, has been named a 2023 fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

Sowande M. Mustakeem discusses her seminar “Medicine, Healing and Experimentation in the Contours of Black History” and the importance of grappling with traumatic history.