Arts & Sciences

Biologist Susanne Renner in Arts & Sciences investigated the oldest known seeds from watermelon relatives. Her research team shared two new genomes of the ancient seeds and described how Neolithic humans in Libya likely used the seeds, not the bitter flesh, from the melons.

William McKinnon in Arts & Sciences received a $164,255 award from NASA and the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to support his work on a project to study Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Denise Head, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and Jeffrey Zacks, associate chair and professor of psychological and brain sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, won a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for work on aging and development.

“Philia,” a short film by rising senior Jack Mayer, has been named Best LGBTQ Film at the 2022 Experimental Forum in Los Angeles.

The Divided City 2022 is currently accepting applications for both Faculty Collaborative Grants and Community Grants. Proposals are due Sept. 7.

Claire Masteller, in Arts & Sciences, won a $313,872 National Science Foundation grant for collaborative research that will help scientists distinguish between climate-driven change and the natural variability of river channels.

Alvitta Ottley, assistant professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering, recently received the Young Researcher and Best Short Paper awards at the EuroVis annual visualization conference. The awards recognize Ottley’s research in creating personalized and adaptive visualization systems.

Arts & Sciences recently released updates about its new building, which will be constructed in the center of the Danforth Campus.

Animals will often put their lives on the line for reproduction, even if it comes at the cost of being the wrong temperature. New research from biologist Michael Moore in Arts & Sciences could help reveal the pathways that organisms might take as they adapt to a warming world.

Jonathan Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, won a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate and expand efficient methods for synthesizing catenane-based polymers and networked materials.