Arts & Sciences

Researchers led by physicist Henric Krawczynski in Arts & Sciences completed initial construction on XL-Calibur, a new balloon-borne telescope designed to measure the polarization of high-energy X-rays from black holes, neutron stars and other exotic celestial objects.

Abram Van Engen, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, has co-edited a new collection of essays about religious feeling in early American history and literature. 

Henry “Roddy” Roediger and James Wertsch, both in Arts & Sciences, will use a grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to encourage the interdisciplinary study of collective memory.

In “Kent Styles,” junior Zachary Stern explores questions of family, trust and the ghosts we can’t escape. This weekend, the play will receive its world-premiere staged reading as part of WashU’s annual A.E. Hotchner New Play Festival.

William B. Tolman has been appointed vice dean of research and entrepreneurship in Arts & Sciences, Dean Feng Sheng Hu announced. Tolman is the William Greenleaf Eliot Professor of Chemistry. 

Scientists in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences will continue to archive and distribute digital data related to the study of the surfaces and interiors of terrestrial planetary bodies under a five-year cooperative agreement with NASA.

Forest Park will host “Requiem of Light: Memorial for Saint Louisans Lost to COVID-19″ on Oct. 2. Conceived and organized by Rebecca Messbarger in Arts & Sciences, the memorial will feature music, community testimonials and words of condolence from interfaith leaders, culminating with the lighting of 1,500 lanterns around the Grand Basin.

Research led by Kun Wang in Arts & Sciences suggests a fundamental reason why Mars has no liquid water on its surface today: it may be just too small.

Sowande’ Mustakeem, associate professor of history and of African and African American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, has been appointed to the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lectureship Program.

Biologist Rachel Penczykowski in Arts & Sciences sizes up an unlikely natural phenomenon: when parasitism actually causes the number of hosts to increase, an effect known as a hydra effect. Her study of common water fleas and their fungal parasites includes laboratory components and an analysis of 13 fungal epidemics in nature.