A Transformative Decade: Convergence, Creativity, Community, Year 1 Progress Report

September 2023

A Transformative Decade: Convergence, Creativity, Community Year 1 Progress Report

In December 2021, Dean Feng Sheng Hu announced a strategic vision for elevating Arts & Sciences over the next 10 years. Arising from scores of conversations, hundreds of voices, and ideas from across the university, the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan ­— A Transformative Decade: Convergence, Creativity, Community — presents a roadmap for advancing our scholarship, educational opportunities, and impact within the university and beyond its bounds.

As we look toward 2030, we envision a transformed school that will rise in prominence to serve as a global model for a school of arts and sciences. We will lead innovative developments, advance foundational knowledge and convergent breakthroughs, create solutions for pressing global challenges, and educate a new generation of leaders to shape the future.

In short, the decade of Arts & Sciences has begun.

A record-breaking year for research Our scholars reached new funding heights in fiscal year 2023, bringing in more grant money than ever before — over $55 million. Support from a wide variety of government agencies, private foundations, corporate partnerships, and other sponsors fueled a year of unprecedented discovery across disciplines.

Faculty Achievements • Carl Phillips wins Pulitzer Prize in Poetry • Ursula W. Goodenough and William B. McKinnon elected to the National Academy of Sciences

• Edward McPherson wins Guggenheim Fellowship

• Jean Allman and Tristram R. Kidder elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

• Erik Henriksen and Kater Murch selected as 2022 Moore Experimental Physics Investigators

• WashU installs seven Arts & Sciences faculty as distinguished professors

• Ray Arvidson wins Outstanding Public Leadership Medal from NASA

• Barbara A. Schaal elected member of the American Philosophical Society

• The National Science Foundation invests $3 million in Arts & Sciences-led training program to boost regional quantum workforce

• Adia Harvey Wingfield elected president of the American Sociological Association • Denise Head and Lori Markson named Association for Psychological Science fellows • Kia Lilly Caldwell elected president of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora • David Lawton receives lifetime achievement award from the British Academy

• Rachel Penczykowski and Sheng Ran win NSF CAREER awards. They join 12 current CAREER award recipients • Deanna Barch wins Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry • Ian Dobbins named Society of Experimental Psychologists fellow

ACADEMIC DISTINCTION

Launching a new department of Statistics and Data Science With the launch of the new Department of Statistics and Data Science, Arts & Sciences aims to work with other WashU schools to position the university as a powerhouse of big data. The department — chaired by Xuming He, a renowned leader in the fields — will provide a foundation for ambitious and innovative digital transformation and spur advanced research that confronts pressing societal challenges.

Hiring exceptional new faculty An unprecedented year of recruitment resulted in an impressive roster of 31 new faculty members joining Arts & Sciences in 2022, including a cluster hire in quantum science that will supercharge research in multiple WashU schools. A total of 19 scholars have joined Arts & Sciences as part of the Digital Transformation Initiative since its launch.

Achieving operational excellence Arts & Sciences leadership made significant administrative changes to enhance research and scholarship. The new Grants Administration Integrated Network (GAIN) strengthened connections among grant administrators and increased support for Arts & Sciences researchers, leading to a record-breaking year of external funding. A reorganization of the College of Arts & Sciences has strengthened operations and enabled strategic initiatives in undergraduate academic affairs.

Fueling convergent breakthroughs with strategic funding Three signature initiatives launched seed funding programs to support transdisciplinary scholarship: The Center for the Literary Arts named its first Creative Practice Workshop Fellows. Flora Cassen and Ji-Eun Lee will spend fall 2023 pursuing interdisciplinary creative work in residence at CLA; Edward McPherson received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures funded nine multiyear clusters and five programmatic grants, sparking faculty collaborations that will explore novel research ideas and encourage unprecedented student learning opportunities.

The Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences awarded its inaugural seed grants to 10 transdisciplinary teams of WashU faculty. Each project will tackle society’s biggest problems with big data. TRIADS will support these teams with additional resources such as software and research development.

Helping scholars tell their stories The Program in Public Scholarship forged a partnership with The Conversation, an online news outlet, to promote the research and expertise of Arts & Sciences faculty. Theresa Gildner published the first article to come from this partnership — a look at the health impacts of outdated sewer systems in lower-income communities.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

Creating pathways for undergraduate research To further research opportunities for all undergraduate students, the Office of Undergraduate Research hired two full-time staff members and named its first-ever faculty director: Lori Markson, professor of psychological and brain sciences. The new team will connect students with research opportunities, providing valuable, handson experiences in their fields of studies.

Bolstering undergraduate education Literacies for Life and Career identified 14 provisional literacies that will serve as cornerstones of undergraduate education.

Two dozen Arts & Sciences faculty members volunteered to be early adopters, piloting the implementation of the literacies in their courses beginning in fall 2023.

A committee of 18 faculty members from Arts & Sciences, the Brown School, the School of Medicine, and the Institute for Public Health are developing WashU’s new public health major. The program will educate undergraduate students in transdisciplinary scholarship devoted to improving the health of people and communities.

Preparing for new, state-of-theart facilities By summer 2024, Arts & Sciences plans to have nine cutting-edge biology teaching labs in Jolley Hall. The university is also constructing a new state-of-the-art building for Arts & Sciences. The 120,000-square-foot building will be located west of Olin Library and north of Graham Chapel. New York-based architectural firm Weiss/Manfredi will lead the design.

GRADUATE EDUCATION

Building a community of distinguished graduate fellows The Dean’s Distinguished Graduate Fellowships in Arts & Sciences will support outstanding incoming PhD and MFA students. The program, launched in 2022, aims to help academic departments make compelling offers of admission to their best applicants.

Recognizing outstanding graduate research Benjamin Noble, a fifth-year graduate student in political science, won the inaugural Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence. The award honors outstanding achievements by graduate students in research and creative practice. Noble’s research on the American presidency also won an American Political Science Association award for the best graduate student paper in his subfield.

Overview Departments, Programs, and Centers 24 12 8

Departments Interdisciplinary Programs Centers

Students 4,653 Undergraduates 1,571 Graduate Students 6,224 Total

Arts & Sciences Faculty & Staff 413

Tenured and Tenure Track • 153 Humanities • 131 Natural Sciences & Mathematics • 129 Social Sciences

230 18 125 428

Teaching Faculty (full and part time) Research Faculty Postdoctoral Fellows Staff

Most Popular Majors 645 418 280

Biology and Biomedical Sciences Psychological & Brain Sciences Economics

MA and PhD Students in Arts & Sciences and Affiliated Divisions 301 265 263 31 751

Social Sciences Natural Sciences & Mathematics Humanities Interdisciplinary Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences

First-Year Course Units at University Taught Within Arts & Sciences 82%

Faculty Distinction 18 American Academy of Arts & Sciences members 18 9 25

26

9 77

Guggenheim Fellowship recipients National Academy of Sciences members National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship recipients National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipients Packard Fellowship recipients Named Professors

Leadership Executive Sponsor Feng Sheng Hu

Implementation Co-Chairs Deanna Barch Ebba Segerberg

Project Management Team Sara Carron Lynda Duke Jeremy Goldmeier Julie Rivinus Jennifer Vines

Pillar Champions Douglas Flowe George-Levi Gayle Erik Herzog Rebecca Lester Shanti Parikh Michael E. Wysession

Foundation Team Members Na’Nette Ashford Megan Daschbach Matthew Gabel Marcia Holleran Calvin Lai Tabea Alexa Linhard Zhao Ma Lori Markson Beth Martin Sarah Murphy Younasse Tarbouni

Signature Initiative Directors Center for the Literary Arts Danielle Dutton, Ignacio Infante Center for Quantum Leaps Kater Murch, David W. Piston Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures William Acree, Betsy Sinclair Literacies for Life and Career Brian Carpenter, Erin McGlothlin Living Earth Collaborative 2.0 Jonathan Losos, Crickette Sanz Program in Public Scholarship Ian Bogost, Adia Harvey Wingfield

Learn more about our progress. artsci.wustl.edu/decade

TRIADS Tammy English, Jacob Montgomery Undergraduate Global Health Tristram R. Kidder

We are changing the intellectual landscape of the entire university in profound ways.

- Feng Sheng Hu, Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences