Arts & Sciences

KristolConservative political analyst and popular neoconservative thinker William Kristol will present “The 2004 Election: What’s at Stake?” as part of the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. Oct. 7. Widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading political analysts and commentators, Kristol appears regularly as a political commentator on Fox News Sunday and the Fox News Channel.

Detail of the 1899 plan for Washington University’s Hilltop Campus.One hundred years ago, the eyes and ears of the world turned to St. Louis — and the newly built campus of Washington University — for the 1904 World’s Fair. On Oct. 17, Washington University will honor that centenary with a performance by the Saint Louis Wind Symphony. A Grand Concert of Band Music Performed at the 1904 World’s Fair will feature a representative sampling of music heard at the fair, including works by Philip Sousa, Peter I. Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss, Jr., and Carl Maria von Weber.

Mezzo soprano Mary Ann Hart and pianist Dennis Helmrich will present Washington University’s annual Liederabend at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10. Literally translated as “evening of song,” Liederabend is a German term referring to a recital given by a singer and pianist, particularly of works by 19th-century Austrian or German composers. The program will include lieder by Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvorák, Edvard Grieg, Charles Ives, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf.

Tom CaravagliaGus Solomons jrGus Solomons jr, a distinguished visiting professor in Washington University’s Dance Program in Arts & Sciences, will discuss his career as a dancer, choreographer and critic during an informal lecture/demonstration titled Gus Solomons jr Tells All at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30.

Himadri Pakrasi is the principal investigator of a $5 million project from the NSF’s Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research program.

Poet and translator Heather McHugh, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, will speak on the craft of poetry at 8 p.m. Sept. 28. In addition, McHugh will read from her poetry at 8 p.m. Sept. 30. Both events, part of the Writing Program Reading […]

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform a free concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, in Graham Chapel. Graham Chapel is located just north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-4841.

KaramustafaSince Sept. 11, 2001, a leading scholar of Islam at Washington University in St. Louis has sought to help an inquiring American public separate stereotype from complex reality and Islamic extremists from the many-sided moderate majority. Ahmet Karamustafa, Ph.D., chair of the Religious Studies program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is trying to help Americans see that although Islam has its radical factions, these factions are small in number and the majority of the world’s Muslims are peaceful people.

A biomedical engineer at WUSTL has determined love taps are better than love jolts in addressing defibrillation.When it comes to affairs of the heart, love taps are preferred over love jolts. That is the result of a team of heart researchers including Igor Efimov, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, trying to effect a better implantable heart defibrillator. Efimov and his colleagues have modeled a system where an implantable heart defibrillator focuses in on rogue electrical waves created during heart arrhythmia and busts up the disturbance, dissipating it and preventing cardiac arrest.

Image courtesy USGSA team of geologists from China and the United States, including two from WUSTL, report evidence of at least three ice ages occurring between 750 and 600 million years ago.Glaciers reached Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the most recent ice age about 20,000 years ago. But much harsher ice ages hit the Earth in an ancient geological interval known as “the Cryogenian Period” between 750 and 600 million years ago. A team of geologists from China and the United States, including two from Washington University in St. Louis, now report evidence of at least three ice ages during that ancient time.