Arts & Sciences

“If vaccines or negative COVID-19 tests are required for attendees, 100% attendance is safe,” says the Washington University in St. Louis mathematician who helped derive the model used for fan-attendance risk analysis across many of America’s sports venues. “Without requiring vaccinations or testing, it’s not.”

Global oceans absorb about 25% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. Electricity-eating bacteria known as photoferrotrophs could provide a boost to this essential process, according to new research from biologist Arpita Bose in Arts & Sciences.

Maia Cohen and Ellie Moreland, who graduated in May, each received named prizes in special recognition for their academic achievement.

Maria Piarulli, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, was selected by the Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program for her research program, “From Atomic Nuclei to Infinite Nucleonic Matter within Chiral Dynamics.”

Biologist Bruce Carlson in Arts & Sciences draws parallels between human language and electric communication in fish. His new research published in Current Biology reveals an underlying mechanism for how pauses allow neurons in the midbrain to recover from stimulation.

A new study from the laboratory of Rick Vierstra in Arts & Sciences helps explain how proteins called phytochromes respond to light intensity and temperature, thus enabling land plants to colonize the planet many millions of year ago.

Using ancient DNA and tools from the modern genomic age, Susanne Renner in Arts & Sciences discovered that domesticated watermelons most likely came from wild crop progenitors near Sudan.

Hani Zaher, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, won a four-year $1.2 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Reading Frame Maintenance by the Ribosome during Stalling.”

Miguel Valerio, assistant professor of Spanish in Arts & Sciences, has won a 2021–22 Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.

Laura Escobar Vega, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics in Arts & Sciences, shows students and young professionals new ways to connect with math and see themselves in the field.