WashU leads a nationwide project probing threats to human health
One degree. Many destinations.
Graduate students highlight the real-world power of a PhD
Fire & Ice
New research offers a deeper look at our changing planet
A MAJOR BOOST FOR BIOLOGY
This fall, students, faculty, and staff were among the first to use brand-new teaching labs for biology — WashU’s largest undergraduate major. The nine instructional spaces in Jolley Hall will reduce class sizes, provide state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, and facilitate collaborative learning. Expanding the biology department’s campus footprint also allows Arts & Sciences to transform the old teaching spaces into world-class research facilities for faculty.
On the cover: Min Hee Seo, PhD '20, is now a senior health data scientist at U.S. News & World Report, where she is responsible for the publication’s popular “Best Hospitals” rankings. She was a political science graduate student. Read more on p. 20.
The Ampersand magazine shares stories of incredible people, research, and ideas in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. It is published semiannually and distributed to alumni, faculty, students, staff, and friends of Arts & Sciences.
EMAIL ampersand@wustl.edu
WEBSITE ampersand.wustl.edu
DEAN
Feng Sheng Hu
PUBLISHER
Ebba Segerberg
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Marcia Sullivan
EDITOR
Sarah Hutchins
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Sudon Choe
PUBLICATION COORDINATORS
Simone Becque, Sarah Lu England
DIGITAL EDITORS
Gennie Avellino
LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER
Sean Garcia
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
James Byard, Thomas Malkowicz, Danny Reise
DESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS
Keren Guo, Kristen Wang, Carmen Xia
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Jenny Bird, Maddy Frank, Jeremy Goldmeier, Diane Toroian Keaggy, Talia Ogliore, Liam Otten, Sara Savat, Leah Shaffer, Chris Woolston
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
William Acree, Deanna Barch, Andrew Brown, Thomas Eschen, Sophia Hayes, Peter Kastor, Erin McGlothlin
From the Dean's Desk
The arrival of cooler temperatures and vibrant yellow foliage in Ginkgo Allée is one of the surest signs that fall is here. For me, this season is always one of reflection and gratitude, a time to appreciate everything we have accomplished this year as a community of scholars.
This issue of Ampersand magazine is a testament to the profound impact our faculty, students, and supporters have on WashU and the world when they share their time, resources, and talents.
As an ecologist, I am grateful for the cutting-edge research being done by our faculty to help us better understand our changing planet (p. 30). These efforts, and many more, are part of our university-wide commitment to understanding and protecting global biodiversity. Another exciting project getting underway in our campus labs is a new multi-omics production center led by Professor Gary Patti (p. 12). Funded by the National Institutes of Health, this nationwide project headquartered at WashU will help us better understand the roots of human diseases — insights that could lead to improved health outcomes for all.
This year, our faculty, students, and alumni have been helping us navigate a turbulent period in American politics. In October, Professor Diana Z. O’Brien provided a thought-provoking Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on the causes and consequences of women’s political representation. Associate Professor Taylor Carlson published a new book on the ways political messages can become distorted (p. 40). And, last semester, our students had a chance to visit with Carlos Felipe Uriarte, an Arts & Sciences alum with a front-row seat to some of the most important political moments in recent history (p. 28).
This issue also includes a deeper look at our diverse Arts & Sciences community. You’ll meet four current and former graduate students using their degrees to launch successful careers across a range of industries (p. 20). The chair of our new Department of Statistics and Data Science writes about the important role statisticians play in shaping the future of artificial intelligence (p. 42). We also honor the legacy of Professor Stan Braude (p. 26) and longtime donors John and Penelope Biggs (p. 38).
Sharing these stories brings me great pride, and I hope you will feel the same after finishing this issue. I am thankful for your continued investment in Arts & Sciences and wish you a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday season. I hope to see you on campus in the new year.
Feng Sheng Hu
Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences
Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor Washington University in St. Louis
Table of Contents
Untangling the roots of disease
Gary Patti takes a leading role in a $50 million project to study environmental chemicals and other threats to human health.
Four current and former graduate students share how their Arts & Sciences education opened doors to new possibilities and diverse career paths.
Fire & Ice
From the icy ends of the Earth to the tropics, scientists across disciplines are using radar, big data, and other tools to help us better understand our changing planet.
The many dimensions of G'Ra Asim
The assistant professor of English discusses writing, performing, teaching, and why he’s not afraid to make things uncomfortable.
Makenna Fluegel pays it forward
The first-generation college student from rural Missouri plans to use her science skills to heal her community.
Remembering Stan Braude
Students and faculty share memories of Braude, a professor of practice who died in June after a short illness.
Making space in hallowed halls
Carlos Felipe Uriarte, AB’ 02, takes a frontrow seat for some of the most important political and legal moments in recent history.
Around the Quad
News, milestones, and spotlights from across Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
(Illustration: Keren Guo)
Arts & Sciences
Pandemic course success story
A survey of nearly 1,000 people found that Arts & Sciences’ three-week course “The Pandemic: Science and Society” led to more accurate risk perception and stronger protective behaviors. Respondents ranked the 2020 course among their top sources of COVID-19 information, a list that also included family, friends, news media, and health organizations. The course and resulting study offer a powerful example of how a university can design a curriculum that positively influences personal behaviors and improves compliance with recommended safety measures.
I hope this course can serve as a model for other universities seeking to improve public health knowledge on campus.
Feng Sheng Hu Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences
Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan
Can we build a better bot?
A team of researchers funded by the Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan, uncovered an unexpected psychological phenomenon when they asked participants to negotiate small cash payouts with human players or a computer. The players who were told their decisions would be used to train an AI bot consistently sought a fairer share of the payout, even if it cost them a few bucks. The findings are likely to aid real-world AI developers, who must account for human behavior and biases when developing new tools.
Departments of History and of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Humanities in Asia
Assistant professors Jiayi Chen and Uluğ Kuzuoğlu recently received coveted fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Chen and Kuzuoğlu are among the eight early-career scholars to receive a long-term fellowship for research on China’s history, culture, geopolitics, art, and global impact. They build on WashU’s strong track record of ACLS honors, including Assistant Professor Jianqing Chen, who received an early-career fellowship in 2022 for her research on the cultural impact of touchscreen technology in China.
(Left to right: Jiayi Chen, Uluğ Kuzuoğlu, and Jianqing Chen)
Department of Education
Teaching from the heart
Rowhea Elmesky, associate professor of education, received the 2024 William H. Danforth St. Louis Confluence Award for her work with teachers and students at University City High School. For more than a decade, Elmesky has helped create a culture of trust, respect, and shared responsibility at the school. Her efforts have led to a positive learning environment, where suspensions are down, attendance and engagement are up, and students report feeling heard and valued.
Department of Anthropology
Rediscovered cities of the Silk Road
Michael Frachetti, professor of archaeology, and his team used drone-based lidar to map two recently discovered high-elevation sites in Uzbekistan. As reported in Nature and covered in The New York Times, the medieval cities are among the largest ever documented in the mountainous parts of the Silk Road trade routes that connected Europe and Asia. Lidar provided highly detailed views of the communities, which bustled from the sixth through 11th centuries. Sitting at 2,000 to 2,200 meters above sea level, the cities are unusual examples of thriving mountain urbanism.
(Photo: M. Frachetti)
The College
Forbes honors first-year student
In her first year at WashU, Naina Muvva found herself joining an elite group: Forbes’ “30 Under 30” honorees. The undergraduate was recognized in the education category for her innovative financial literacy software, Intertwined. The platform offers AI-driven finance lessons and reached more than 2,800 users in two years. Now a medical anthropology major, Muvva is taking advantage of WashU’s many entrepreneurial resources to grow the business.
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Happiness may protect against dementia
A sense of well-being can have a profound impact on health, especially when it comes to the aging brain. As part of the annual World Happiness Report, Assistant Professor Emily Willroth explained how behaviors associated with a sense of happiness — such as exercise and participation in social circles — can potentially protect against dementia. Studies that followed participants for years or decades found that the people with the highest levels of well-being early on — usually mid-life or early older adulthood — were less likely to develop dementia at any point in the study and, in many cases, for the rest of their lives, Willroth said.
Department of Sociology
Inclusive immigration policies
improve health
Laws allowing undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s license indirectly improve the health and well-being of immigrant mothers and their babies, according to new research by Margot Moinester. The assistant professor of sociology found that license laws were associated with improvements in birth weight for babies born to Mexican and Central American immigrants. “Our study’s findings underscore how states’ extension of legal rights to immigrants can improve the health of the next generation,” Moinester said.
Tyson Research Center
Access to urban wildlife
A national study with contributions from the St. Louis Wildlife Project found that gentrified areas have more urban wildlife than ungentrified regions of the same city. Researchers analyzed data from motion-detecting wildlife cameras in 23 cities across the United States and found that, on average, gentrified neighborhoods can support one to two more species. The results underscore how gentrification further limits opportunities for marginalized communities to connect with nature.
Department of Chemistry
Chemists develop groundbreaking test
A team of WashU chemists has developed a cutting-edge test that makes it possible to precisely track naturally occurring edits in cells, an advance that could help scientists identify novel targets for cancer therapies. Graduate student Alex Quillin, professor Jennifer Heemstra, and postdoctoral research associate Benoit Arnould collaborated to achieve this scientific breakthrough. “Our lab is really excited by the development,” Quillin said. “We’ve never been able to pinpoint edited RNA in cells until now.”
The College
Next-gen champion of civil rights
Isaac Seiler won the Truman Scholarship, the leading graduate fellowship for students committed to careers in public service. Seiler was one of 62 scholars selected from a field of roughly 800 applicants. The senior studying sociology and political science aspires to run for federal office, and he’s already accomplished more than many Capitol Hill veterans. Before enrolling at WashU as a transfer student in 2023, he was the youngest communications director in congressional history.
(Credit: St. Louis Wildlife Project)
Program in Public Health & Society
A collaborative approach to public health
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, AB ’91, returned to her alma mater in April with an important message: Universities can no longer think about medicine and health policy as distinct fields. The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention challenged universities, medical schools, and public health departments to dismantle barriers to better prepare the next generation for the interdisciplinary challenges ahead. Walensky’s talk was presented in service of Public Health at WashU and supported by Arts & Sciences and the Institute for Public Health.
Department of Biology
A new tool in the battle against brain cancer
A chart study of patients with glioblastoma — an aggressive, incurable brain cancer — found that taking chemotherapy in the morning was associated with a three- to six-month increase in median survival. Following up on this discovery, a team including graduate student Maria F. Gonzalez-Aponte; professors Gary Patti, Erik Herzog, and Joshua Rubin; and staff scientist Kevin Cho found that glioblastoma cells have built-in circadian rhythms that create better times of day for treatment. Their findings could have implications for cancer treatment and diagnosis.
Department of African and African-American Studies
Mellon Foundation honors
Jonathan Fenderson, associate professor of African and African American studies, became WashU’s fourth faculty member to receive a coveted New Directions Fellowship. The Mellon Foundation award helps scholars acquire new skills outside their areas of expertise. It will enable Fenderson to train in ethnomusicology and sound studies for a project exploring hip-hop’s roots in the built environment and its implications for our understanding of race, class, governance, and urban life.
Untangling the roots of disease
Gary Patti takes a leading role in a $50 million project to study environmental chemicals and other threats to human health.
by CHRIS WOOLSTON
(Photos: Sean Garcia)
Gary Patti is quick to warn visitors about the untested, potentially hazardous chemicals in his office in Bryan Hall. He doesn’t have any bubbling beakers or glowing test tubes, but there’s a quart-sized bottle of hand sanitizer on his desk. “We encounter tens of thousands of chemicals every day, even in products like hand sanitizer and shampoo. The overwhelming majority of chemicals have never been tested for safety.”
In the case of hand sanitizer, the benefits of killing viruses and bacteria very likely outweigh the risks of chemical exposure — that’s why his container is half empty. But that pump bottle still underscores a valuable point: Chemicals are everywhere, and what we eat, drink, breathe, or rub on our hands might matter more than we realize.
“People blindly expose themselves to all sorts of substances without a second thought,” Patti said. “Those exposures could be a big reason why some people develop cancer and other diseases.”
Instead of simply worrying about chemical exposure — he does plenty of that in his own time — the Michael and Tana Powell Professor of Chemistry is looking for answers. As a principal investigator of a five-year, $50 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) project, he will collaborate with researchers across the United States to address one of the fundamental mysteries of human health: Why, exactly, do some people develop serious diseases while others stay relatively healthy?
The project, which includes about $20 million for WashU, will convene a consortium of 53 scientists to break down the fundamental causes of disease, including the potential role of environmental chemicals. WashU will serve as the hub for the project, a role that solidifies the university’s status as a leader in multidisciplinary research into human disease. “What we're doing here is relevant to all of health and disease,” Patti said.
Uniting the “omics” of health
Led by researchers at WashU, the consortium will study blood and tissue samples from about 1,800 people representing a range of ages, ethnicities, and regions of the country. Each of the sites collecting patient samples will focus on a specific population and health condition, including diabetes, chronic kidney disease, asthma, preeclampsia, and steatotic liver disease.
Using mass spectrometry and other technologies, researchers will gather data on nearly every vital component of a living cell. The investigation will include genomics (the study of genes), metabolomics (the study of compounds involved in
metabolism), and proteomics (the study of proteins). This “multi-omic” approach allows researchers to make the most of modern technologies.
In a first for an investigation of this size, the NIH project will also include the “omics” of environmental exposure, or exposomics. Patti hopes the study will elevate the science of the exposome and firmly establish the role that environmental chemicals can play in human health.
“Each of the omics captures different types of information,” said Leah Shriver, a research associate professor of chemistry involved in the NIH project. “When you put them all together, you should get a comprehensive picture of what's going on in a disease process.”
The WashU team offers unique expertise in each of the omics. The genomics side is headed by Ting Wang, the Sanford C. and Karen P. Loewentheil Distinguished Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Genetics at the School of Medicine. Wang, a co-leader and principal investigator of the project, is a recognized expert in the study of epigenetics, the factors other than DNA that can affect gene expression. His work continues a decades-long tradition of genomic breakthroughs at WashU.
In the early 2000s, the McDonnell Genome Institute played a key role in developing the first map of the human genome. Less than a decade later, WashU became the first institution in the world to sequence the entire genome of a cancer patient, a pioneering effort to understand the genetic component of a disease. “The combination of our genomic expertise and Gary’s expertise with the other omics makes us second to none,” Wang said.
While genes can play a huge role in triggering disease, DNA is rarely a full explanation for an illness, Patti explained. For example, up to 70% of women who inherit the genetic mutation BRCA1 will develop breast cancer by their 70s. That’s a terrible toll, Patti noted, but it’s well short of 100%. It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that women with that mutation will develop cancer only if they are exposed to high levels of certain chemicals over their lifetimes, he said.
A critical piece of the NIH project involves outreach to populations overlooked in past studies. The six disease centers involved with recruiting study subjects have pledged that at least 75% of participants will come from historically underrepresented populations in genomics research, including Hispanics and African Americans. Such diversity will be crucial for understanding the role genes play in disease, Wang said.
Past genome projects have often focused on small numbers of mostly white people, he said. “It’s no longer one-genomefits-all.”
Supercharged blood panels
Patti’s gleaming, hyper-clean mass spectrometry lab hums with more than 20 high-tech instruments, a concentration of detecting power rarely found outside massive government laboratories. The instruments will allow him to identify and quantify individual molecules in patient samples — something like a supercharged version of a blood panel test at a hospital.
Blood panel tests typically measure things like cholesterol and blood sugar, but the vast majority of compounds in our blood go untested, Patti said. “Standard panels are much smaller than the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We’re attempting to measure thousands or tens of thousands of molecules at once.”
Mass spectrometers work by using high voltage to create gas ions from whatever sample is being tested. The ionized gas particles then travel inside the instrument, where their masses are measured. The unique mass signature of each molecule makes it possible not only to identify just about any chemical in a sample but also to quantify its relative amount. Patti, who won the Biemann Medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry for his pioneering work in the field of metabolic research, said tracking tiny molecules can be pivotal for getting a big-picture view of a disease.
The technology can be used in multiple ways to answer key questions about disease. To better understand the chemicals that make up the exposome, for example, the team will search for potentially hazardous substances such as PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” Found in everything from nonstick cookware to stain-resistant clothing to tap water, PFAS are suspected to negatively affect the immune system, metabolism, and other aspects of human health. Researchers can also mine the data to find signs of unexpected or unknown compounds that could profoundly impact health.
Measurements gathered by Patti and his team of postdocs and graduate students will create a massive database that should offer unprecedented insights into the roots of disease. Then, other members of the NIH consortium will conduct statistical analysis to determine if certain compounds are associated with a specific health condition. Researchers may not be able to draw a straight line between any one environmental exposure and illness, Patti said, but a closer look at the data should show how chemicals fit into a complicated picture that includes a person’s genes and lifestyle.
A new era in precision health
Downstairs from his lab of top-of-the-line mass spectrometry equipment, Patti keeps another lab featuring relatively lowtech fish tanks teeming with thousands of tiny, stripy zebrafish, another extension of his intense interest in the link between environmental exposures and disease. In his zebrafish lab, fish zip around in dozens of small tanks, where they live on precisely controlled diets. Fish in one tank feast on a high-fat diet while their neighbors in the next tank go lean. Other tanks are labeled “PFAS,” signifying these animals are getting dosed with forever chemicals. Look closely and you can see some fish are swimming around with small, dark tumors, a sign that their assigned diet and chemical exposures aren’t ideal for health.
Those zebrafish aren’t just research animals — they’re a direct connection to Patti's early days at WashU and to his mentor,
Gary Patti aims to uncover the environmental causes of disease, including the chemicals that infuse our daily lives.
Stephen L. Johnson, a professor of genetics and renowned zebrafish geneticist who died in 2017 at the age of 56. To this day, Johnson’s portrait hangs on the door to Patti’s zebrafish lab, a testament to his mentorship and legacy.
Whether he’s studying zebrafish or cancer patients, Patti is focused on finding the factors that really matter to health. Medical care and wellness advice too often follow a one-sizefits-all model, Patti said. Take the instructions on a bottle of aspirin, he said. “It’s the same directions for an adult who’s 350 pounds and my twin sister, who is 100 pounds. Because we’re all unique, we should receive unique care,” he said.
Zeroing in on critical markers will allow for advances in precision medicine, a tailor-made approach to treatment and prevention that aims to give each person their best chance at optimal health. Insights from the NIH project and similar studies could guide treatments and help people make important life decisions, Patti said. “If your genes make you especially susceptible to chemicals that are abundant in one part of the country, perhaps you would decide to live somewhere else,” he said.
The results of the NIH project are still several years away, but Patti doesn’t want to take unnecessary chances. After spending much of his career studying environmental causes of illness, he wants to limit his exposure to everyday chemicals as much as possible. His home is equipped with an anti-radon device, reverse osmosis water filters, and lots of unprocessed organic foods. “It’s a good practice to review the chemical composition of food, cosmetics, cookware, and clothing,” he said. “We should always be thinking about what we’re putting into our bodies.”
Patti recognizes that a lot is riding on this project. Not only is he attempting to give everyone the information they need to stay healthy, but he’s also aiming to prove that massive multi-omics projects have a place in science. “That’s a lot of responsibility,” he said. “I am both professionally and personally committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure we are as successful as possible. The future of multi-omics could depend on it.”
Zebrafish are living proof that diets can drive disease. Just small tweaks in their food supply can greatly increase or lower their odds of developing tumors.
The many dimensions of G’Ra Asim
by JENNY BIRD
Go backstage at one of his concerts and there’s a good chance you’ll find Assistant Professor of English G’Ra Asim grading a stack of student papers before he takes the stage. As a writer, Asim is known for illuminating aspects of the Black experience that elude the mainstream, work that’s probed our cultural fascination with awkwardness. While on the road with his New York City-based punk band Baby Got Back Talk, he sat down with the Ampersand to discuss writing, performing, teaching — and why he’s not afraid to make things uncomfortable.
G’Ra Asim, assistant professor of English, joined WashU in 2021. (Photo: Sean Garcia)
How does your career as a punk artist intersect with your writing?
Energy, irreverence, and imagination are the cornerstones of my practice as a musician and my work as a writer. I’m a restlessly creative person and often exploring an idea in one context opens up dimensions I’ll explore in another sphere. My experience as a performing songwriter is something I frequently draw on as a teacher in the classroom.
Your writing explores America’s preoccupation with awkwardness. Why does this interest you?
Awkwardness had a pop culture moment in the last decade — everything from the MTV show “Awkward” to Issa Rae’s web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” It seemed like there was this stylization of awkwardness as something goofy or charming. But, anecdotally, I noticed people seemed really concerned about doing something awkward. I began thinking about the similarities between awkwardness and
Do you also do this in your music?
Punk is not known for its universally appealing sound.
Baby Got Back Talk is more of a punk band in attitude and philosophy than in a particular sound. The sensibility of our music is about participating in the tradition of punk music, drawing on a collective resolve within our audience to shake things up.
Do you encourage the pursuit of awkwardness with your writing students?
Often, a student will tell me they want to write an essay about a specific topic but, when I read what they wrote, it’s actually about something else. When I give them that feedback, it can be uncomfortable for them. What we often end up figuring out is that the subject they anticipated writing about and the thing they actually wrote about are connected on a subconscious level and that they had to discover that through the writing
We can be a more loving civilization if we are willing to incrementally expose ourselves to awkwardness.
what Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said about anxiety being the “dizziness of freedom.” It’s an awareness that you are ultimately the author of your own destiny. While that might be exciting, it’s also terrifying. Fear of awkwardness functions as a kind of rumble strip: If you step off the paved road and fully embrace your freedom, it’s going to be dangerous and scary.
Are there any upsides to awkwardness?
People tend to experience visceral discomfort when they are in an unfamiliar environment. This could include contact with people of a different class, race, or gender identity. That feeling of unease sometimes guides the choices people make about who they associate with and where they go.
The argument I make in my writing is that we can be a more loving civilization — both in terms of giving and receiving compassion — if we are willing to incrementally expose ourselves to awkwardness. My hunch is that, to create a better world, we have to move through awkwardness and endure the dizziness of our own freedom. Awkwardness can show us where there are gaps or opportunities to move towards that better world.
process. Instead of viewing it as a misstep, I encourage them to anticipate these moments of discomfort.
What we are working towards in an essay is the debureaucratization of the mind. Artists must discover how thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams percolate in different parts of the brain. Through writing and revising, we discover relationships between these elements and present them in a reader-friendly fashion. To do that, you must have patience, persistence, and stamina for awkwardness.
G'Ra Asim (center) is the vocalist and bass player for the New Yorkbased punk band Baby Got Back Talk. (Photo: Gina Tereza)
Makenna Fluegel pays it forward
The first-generation college student from rural Missouri plans to use her science skills to heal her community.
by CHRIS WOOLSTON
Makenna Fluegel is a self-made scholar driven by a genuine desire to help others. After she graduates in May, the biology major hopes to use everything she’s learned in her courses and lab work to improve the lives — and health outcomes — of others.
Fluegel became interested in chronic pain after watching her stepdad struggle with agonizing back problems. Last summer, she started focusing on the pain-relieving power of cannabinoids because she saw the toll of opioids on her community. Then, she embarked on a new project to study endometriosis after observing that women’s pain is often discounted and misunderstood. She credits her longstanding interest in neurodevelopment to her older brother, who is autistic.
“I know what it’s like to be an underdog,” she said. “I want to help other people do whatever they want to do.”
Fluegel grew up outside of Sedalia, Missouri, surrounded by a rotating cast of cats and dogs and a herd of neighboring cows. Her small school district didn’t offer Advanced Placement classes — a normal stepping stone to higher education — but she was driven to be the first person in her family to attend college. “My mom always drilled into me the importance of education,” she said. “Once you have it, no one can take it away from you.”
It wasn’t easy. On top of playing volleyball and juggling other extracurricular activities, Fluegel saved money for college by working at local fast-food restaurants. As a high school junior and a member of the Future Business Leaders of America organization, she opened a clothing consignment store in downtown Sedalia and ran it with help from her mom. While she still dabbles in the family business (the brick-and-mortar store moved online during the pandemic), Fluegel is now more committed to science than sales.
When it came time to pick a university, WashU was the natural choice for a star student who didn’t want to venture too far from home. Fluegel wanted a school that would challenge her academically and expand her worldview. A generous financial aid package sealed the deal.
“I had impostor syndrome when I arrived, but everyone just hammered home the message that I belonged,” she said. She is especially grateful for the support she received through the Deneb STARS (now Taylor STARS) program for first-generation and limited-income undergraduates. “I met other first-year students who were scared, but I also had peer mentors who assured me everything was going to be OK, and that I could get to where I wanted to be.”
Fluegel’s network of mentors and supervisors spans the university. Mary Lambo, a senior lecturer in biology, is her major advisor, and she conducts endometriosis research in the lab of Robert Gereau, director of the Washington University Pain Center.
In April, Fluegel was one of three WashU students to win the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious national award for students who conduct research in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. She also earned a spot in ENDURE, a highly competitive research program designed to bring undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into neuroscience.
“Makenna is among the top 1% of undergraduates that I have known in my 23 years at Washington University,” said Erik Herzog, director of the WUSTL ENDURE program and the Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. “In addition to being academically exceptional, Makenna stands out as independent, motivated, energetic, curious, humble, and outgoing.”
While research and classes would be enough to keep most students busy, Fluegel hasn’t stopped there. She’s a resident advisor, chemistry tutor, Planned Parenthood advocate, and volunteer at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Somehow, she also has time to be a Dungeons & Dragons master and the president of the WashU Curling Club.
She can’t entirely explain how she finds the time or energy for so many activities. She just knows she wants to make the most of her time as a WashU student. “It helps that I enjoy everything I do.”
Makenna Fluegel
Hometown: Sedalia, MO
Year: Senior
Major: Biology
Future plans: Travel and conduct research abroad. Become a biomedical scientist who investigates women’s health conditions.
I want to understand the health problems that women face and be a part of the solution.
(Illustration: Carmen Xia)
One degree. Many destinations.
by JENNY BIRD
Graduate school is often viewed as a stepping stone on a path to the ivory tower. But in Arts & Sciences, graduate education transcends these traditional boundaries, opening doors to new possibilities and diverse career paths.
The Office of Graduate Studies is dedicated to equipping students with the resources and skills they need to turn their degrees into gateways to industry, academia, and the arts, fostering a future where advanced knowledge serves as a bridge to real-world impact.
“Graduate study is exciting because it involves the creation of new knowledge,” said Sophia E. Hayes, vice dean of graduate education. “Our students become the creators, thinkers, and drivers of change. We’re committed to equipping them for their professional journey — whether in government, nonprofits, corporations, start-ups, or the academy.”
Here, four current and former students share glimpses of their graduate school experience.
(Illustrations: Kristen Wang)
Explore graduate student pathways in biology and music, including our signature Dean’s Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. artsci.wustl.edu/GradSchool
The Public Scholar: Heather Aliano
Heather Aliano decided to pursue her doctorate in philosophyneuroscience-psychology (PNP) after a challenging experience showed her the profound impact of the field. When Aliano’s husband suffered a mental health crisis following a difficult tour of duty with the Air Force, the family sought help through a UCLA program offering comprehensive psychological treatment for veterans. The program provided a series of scans and therapies that aided her husband and changed Aliano’s perception of PTSD.
“I now understand that it’s not just an emotional thing,” she said. “There are structural changes that happen, functions in the brain that impact it.”
As her interest in cognitive science grew, she began to dig deeper, taking online classes and earning a graduate certificate in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. When the family moved to the St. Louis area, Aliano was thrilled to discover WashU’s graduate PNP program, a perfect match for her budding interests.
After gaining admittance to WashU, Aliano learned of a new program for graduate students launching this fall. A&S CREATES offers PhD students a chance to participate in a cross-departmental learning community and get first-hand experience translating their scholarly research for new audiences. It was yet another opportunity that seemed custommade for Aliano’s pursuits.
In her prior career, Aliano spent years working in political and advocacy communications, where she translated policy, research, and data into accessible, engaging information. As a member of the inaugural A&S CREATES cohort, Aliano and 21 other PhD students will focus on public scholarship. She hopes her research — and her efforts to make it approachable to those outside academia — will benefit the PTSD-survivor community, including her husband.
“Our research has the potential not just to contribute to academia, but to advocate for others, to change public opinion, and to change policy,” Aliano said. “But this is only possible if we can communicate our findings and ideas to a broad audience.”
Heather Aliano
The Political Scientist in the Newsroom: Min Hee Seo, PhD '20
When Min Hee Seo was wading through arduous statistical research for her political science dissertation in 2020, she couldn’t imagine her current job. As a senior health data scientist at U.S. News & World Report, Seo is responsible for the publication’s popular “Best Hospitals” rankings.
“Studying at WashU was challenging, and the learning curve for doing research was steep,” she said. “But I had really good peers and professors who helped me complete the work.” Seo’s dissertation explored whether local governments differ in the ways they provide fundamental services to residents based on the types of neighborhoods in which they reside. Her work included a field experiment using St. Louis-area potholes.
This opportunity for data-driven social science research drew Seo to WashU. The Department of Political Science has a reputation for teaching graduate students the statistical skills to analyze data, she said. As a doctoral candidate, she learned
how to gather data from local governments and work with “messy” data to generate important insights. “My dissertation work and the education I received at WashU is deeply connected with my current job,” she said. “Even though the subject matter is different, the methods I use for conducting quantitative analysis are quite similar across these two fields.”
Seo is proud her “Best Hospitals” analysis helps people make more informed healthcare decisions. She believes it was the combination of her statistical skills and her dissertation’s focus on equitable outcomes that made her a standout candidate for a job at U.S. News. “Measuring health equity is a growing trend in healthcare research,” she said. “There will be more work on this in the coming years.”
The Research Partner: Asha Larson-Baldwin
The seeds of Asha Larson-Baldwin’s journey to WashU were planted in 2017 when she launched a campaign in her hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, to rename her high
Asha Larson-Baldwin
Min Hee Seo
school, which was named for a slaveholding Confederate general. That experience led her to study advocacy and justice at Furman University, where, as an undergraduate, she worked with scholars from African American studies, poverty studies, sociology, and communications.
Next, she spent a year as a Mitchell Scholar, studying public history in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Much like her hometown of Greenville, Belfast has grappled with how to memorialize and communicate its dark history.
When Larson-Baldwin decided to pursue a PhD, she chose WashU because her interests aligned with those of David Cunningham, professor of sociology. Cunningham has researched conflicts surrounding Confederate monuments and other contested memory sites. To her surprise and delight, their mentoring relationship ultimately evolved into a reciprocal one. “David wanted to work in Belfast on issues of symbolic landscapes and collective memory, and I was able to connect him to my advisors and mentors there,” she said. “We are now building a relationship across the Atlantic, which may turn into a longer-term partnership.” In July, the two traveled to Belfast for a month of field research.
While mentoring has always been an interdisciplinary endeavor for Larson-Baldwin, a new program launching this fall will provide even more opportunities for her and others to receive support from talented scholars across disciplines. “I want to be willing to push my discipline into the future and approach questions using methods from other fields.”
The Peer Mentor: Lukas Daniels-Day
As a third-year PhD student, Lukas Daniels-Day has experienced firsthand how peer support can provide ballast during the challenging moments of graduate education. When he began his anthropology graduate program in 2022, he relied on peer mentors to help him navigate a challenging living situation in his first semester.
“I felt overwhelmed by the new surroundings and burdens,” he said. “Having peer mentors who were a year or two ahead of me in the program provided support I didn’t realize I needed. They also taught me how to advocate for myself with the department and my advisor.”
As one of two designated peer mentors in anthropology — and one of 40 in Arts & Sciences for graduate students — DanielsDay now gets to pay it forward, planning social and professional development events for two dozen first- and second-year graduate students in his department. Many students he advises come to WashU from other countries and need help navigating unfamiliar situations such as health insurance.
“Thinking back, it shocks me that I didn’t think I would need peer mentorship,” he said. “But it was really useful having a person you can ask for help even before you’ve fully built a friendship. The peer mentoring program gave us space to interact.”
Graduate students now have even more opportunities to find and cultivate mentors. A new program matches students to peer mentors in different programs to provide tailored support to students in smaller departments and those from underrepresented backgrounds. “The scaling up of mentoring opportunities will empower even more students to share their stories and connect,” Daniels-Day said.
Lukas Daniels-Day
Scientific balloon takes flight
XL-Calibur lifted off from the Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center on July 9. The telescope is helping to unlock the secrets of astrophysical black holes and neutron stars — some of the most extreme objects in the universe.
The 3,500-pound device was mounted on a gondola carried by a stadium-sized scientific balloon (pictured) that lifted it into the stratosphere at an altitude of 125,000 feet. Henric Krawczynski, the Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics, leads the project, which involves graduate students and scientists from the United States, Japan, and Sweden.
(Photo: SSC / Mattias Forsberg)
A collector of knowledge, stories, and joy
Stan Braude, a professor of practice in biology and environmental studies, died on June 1, 2024, after a short illness. A beloved teacher, colleague, and mentor, Braude was a world expert on naked mole-rat ecology, evolution, and behavior in the wild.
Braude was active in research projects sponsored by the Living Earth Collaborative, the Institute for Public Health, and Tyson Research Center. Certified as an EMT, wilderness medicine educator, and arborist, he was also the first curator of the WashU arboretum.
We asked a few of Braude’s colleagues and students to share their favorite memories.
My favorite memory of Stan is a recent one. Last August, as I was walking through the South 40 after dropping my daughter off for her first day of college, I ran into him. He was posting signs highlighting the campus as an arboretum. Stan could have just waved but, instead, he stopped and asked if I had ever tasted a pawpaw. I had not. He placed a pawpaw, still warm from the sun, in my hand. He told me to smell it — it smelled wonderful — and to try it when I got home. He told me that although pawpaws are tropical in smell and taste, they are native trees. I was so thrilled that I showed my pawpaw to other parents in my daughter’s dorm and told them what Stan had shared. I then went home and shared the story with my family. To me, this encounter embodies Stan as a person and a teacher. Kind-hearted and knowledgeable about topics ranging from pawpaws to naked mole-rats to the genetics of dogs, he used his gifts to help people appreciate the world around them just a little bit more.
Petra Levin, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology
Most of us who knew Stan knew he was a collector of anything and everything that could be useful for his hobbies or those of the people around him. So, when I took up making paper without any of the proper tools, I asked Stan if I could borrow the paper cutter I’d seen stashed in his office. Instead of loaning it to me for the weekend as I’d asked, he said he was giving it to me on a 100-year loan — which he later clarified meant forever. A few days later, he followed up and I was happy to tell him that, thanks to him, I was no longer only producing circular paper. He took additional interest in my search for natural, light-fast pigments and immediately suggested people I should reach out to for ideas. It was a simple act of sharing information but, in that moment, I recognized how much joy he found in the things that those around him enjoyed, and how much he loved to connect people. This short conversation is one of the clearest examples I have that knowing Stan meant being valued and supported by him and by an invisible army of friends and colleagues he was always ready to call upon for your sake.
Alayna Mickles, AB ‘23
Every spring, Stan led a fishing trip for the students who took his “Missouri’s Natural Heritage” course and any graduate students who TA’ed for him. I had agreed to go, but the week leading up to the trip I was very stressed — about what, I can’t remember — and I saw that the weather forecast was supposed to be freezing. I emailed him saying I didn’t have it in me to make the trip and I hoped to join in future years when the weather wasn’t so cold. He responded with an original haiku:
“You’re smarter than me I’m sure I’ll regret it Unless I catch fish”
Stan frequently sent poems to me and other plant enthusiasts. Now, I would like to offer a poem of my own:
I am grateful for Stan, Who for years collected knowledge, stories, and joy. I thank him for sharing that with us, For cooking us food, For giving us clothes and sleeping bags to keep us warm, And for brightening our evenings around the fire.
I can only hope to release that much warmth and light in return.
— Anna Wassel, graduate student
It is difficult to capture in a few sentences how much Stan Braude means to the biology department, WashU, and the St. Louis community. He made so many contributions to our lives, both in and out of the classroom. I am grateful that there are many signs of Stan’s creativity and passion for teaching and sharing around campus. One example I see every day on my way to my office is the outdoor classroom near Bayer Lab. This is where Stan would meet with the students of his “Woody Plants of Missouri” class. This outdoor classroom may have initially come about as a creative (perhaps desperate) solution to allow Stan to teach in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. But even after the health precautions were loosened, this space became the meeting place for his class. More recently, the whiteboard of this classroom has become an informal memorial to Stan. I hope that the outdoor classroom, the arboretum, and all the fun stories and memories about Stan remain with us for a long, long time.
Barbara Kunkel, professor of biology
A whiteboard outside of Bayer Laboratory became an informal memorial to Braude over the summer. The outdoor classroom was a frequent meeting place for Braude's class.
Making space in hallowed halls
by JENNY BIRD
Professor Peter Kastor was flipping through TV channels one night in 2023 when he landed on C-SPAN. Attorney General Merrick Garland was facing a grilling by members of the U.S. House of Representatives, but that wasn’t all that caught Kastor’s eye. Sitting just behind the attorney general, he saw a familiar face: one of his first WashU students, Carlos Felipe Uriarte, AB '02.
“I’d always seen those nameless faces behind cabinet officers, but I’d never known any of them, so I was delighted to see Carlos but not at all surprised,” said Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Professor. “From day one, Carlos was extraordinarily talented.”
As assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legislative Affairs, Uriarte stands between Congress and the nation’s top law enforcement agency and serves as the DOJ’s liaison to Capitol Hill. It’s a position that’s offered the 44-year-old a front-row seat to some of the most important political and legal moments in recent history.
Uriarte spent his early years on the West Coast, the child of Ecuadorian and Salvadoran immigrants. “I grew up without any lawyers in my family,” he said. “I didn’t know what a legal career could look like beyond what I saw on TV.”
Carlos Felipe Uriarte, AB '02, listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies in front of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023. (Illustration: Carmen Xia)
Living in eastern Washington state, Uriarte didn’t see many people who looked like him. “It led to a set of complex feelings, including shame, about my identity,” he said. “At WashU, I found others to relate to through the lens of identity, including many who celebrated it.”
When Uriarte arrived on campus as an undergraduate, he discovered a place where he could imagine new possibilities. He was attracted to WashU’s reputation as a research institution with distinguished faculty, as well as its smaller class sizes and the promise of a more personalized experience. He went on to double major in economics and American culture studies.
Inspired by the John B. Ervin Scholars Program, which provides support and mentorship for Black students at WashU, Uriarte pushed for a similar program for Latino students. His efforts helped lead to the creation of the Annika Rodriguez Scholars Program in 1999. “I wanted to make sure Latino students at WashU were provided the same sense of community the Ervin Scholars offered. Through the Rodriguez Program, I could contribute not only in ways that I had benefited from when arriving at WashU but also in ways I wish had existed more when I arrived on campus.”
In 2005, the Rodriguez and Ervin programs changed their admissions criteria, opening the door to any student with a demonstrated commitment to bringing together different cultures. For 25 years, the Rodriguez Scholars program has successfully supported more than 500 students, uniting diverse groups and celebrating cultural identity.
Uriarte said this focus on diversity and inclusion continues to guide him at the DOJ. “Diversity makes our office stronger,” he said. “When people around the table hold different perspectives, we are assured to arrive at the best possible outcome.”
Uriarte’s time at WashU helped him develop other critical skills, too. As his academic advisor, Kastor challenged Uriarte to reach for creative solutions. He credits Kastor’s mentorship and WashU’s interdisciplinary courses with helping him learn how to solve some of the most challenging problems facing the country. “So much of what I am expected to do at the DOJ is to look around corners and see problems before they occur,” he said. “The ability to think about a question in a multidimensional way is probably the most important skill I learned at WashU.”
Still, the path from WashU to assistant attorney general wasn’t straightforward. Before his Senate confirmation in 2022, Uriarte held appointments in the DOJ and the Department of the Interior, and he served as counsel on congressional committees, including the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. He also worked in the private sector as a vice president at Capital One and the technology firm Unite Us.
When he was sworn in as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legislative Affairs, Uriarte leaned on the strength and inspiration he’d gathered working for other trailblazing government officials, including U.S. Reps. Judy Chu and Jim Clyburn, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and former U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings. “When I saw how they were able to chart their paths, it gave me the confidence to chase my ambitions and, as Mr. Cummings put it, ‘Find out what feeds your soul.’”
During a visit to WashU last spring, Uriarte met with a group of current Rodriguez Scholars and shared how he overcame personal and professional obstacles. “There were times when I would question whether I was following the unwritten rules,” he said. “Being the only person of color and LGBTQIA+ person in a particular space, you question yourself.”
Uriarte recalled an early experience at the DOJ when he was invited to a meeting with the attorney general. He entered the room and chose a seat at the back, assuming the front seats were reserved for key people. He was quickly told there would be just six attendees — it would not do to sit in the back. Uriarte found the moment both humbling and instructive, he told the gathered students. “I realized that I should learn from that. I should embrace the opportunity to make space for myself, even in those hallowed halls.”
During a campus visit in February, Uriarte visited with current Rodriguez Scholars (top) and participated in a panel discussion with Professor Peter Kastor (bottom). (Photos: Sean Garcia)
by CHRIS WOOLSTON
&
From the icy ends of the Earth to the tropics, scientists across disciplines are using radar, big data, and other tools to help us better understand our changing planet.
(Photos courtesy of Doug Wiens and Roger Michaelides)
Standing in the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf, a France-sized fortress floating off the coast of Antarctica, the frozen expanse appears locked in time. A closer look, however, reveals the frozen world is far more dynamic and mysterious than it initially appears.
Precise GPS measurements collected by Doug Wiens, the Robert S. Brookings Distinguished Professor, tell the real story: The entire ice shelf lurches forward several inches once or twice a day, a massive shift that’s imperceptible to the human eye.
The movements may be subtle, but, in a warming world where ice is increasingly imperiled, even small “icequakes” could be profound. “We don’t have any evidence that the movements are threatening the ice shelf, but we also don’t fully understand the physics,” said Wiens, who has been studying and visiting ice fields in Antarctica, Patagonia, and elsewhere since the late 1990s. “If the motions become more energetic, it could be a different story.”
Wiens isn’t the only WashU researcher working to uncover our planet’s secrets at this crucial time. Researchers across Arts & Sciences are increasingly setting their sights on the Earth and its climate. Their work spans hemispheres, geologic eras, and nature in all its extremes, from fire to ice.
Frozen but far from still, Antarctica’s massive Ross Ice Shelf towers above the ocean. Measurements by Doug Wiens and others have documented surges, shudders, and “icequakes” that could have implications for the rest of the planet.
A safety blanket for the planet
Fire and ice might seem an odd pairing, but they’re both central to the work of Roger Michaelides, assistant professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences. The recipient of a prestigious NASA fellowship for early-career researchers, Michaelides uses radar images from aircraft and satellites to study the complex relationship between wildfires and frozen tundra in the Arctic, the world’s fastest-warming region.
The cold soils in Alaska and other Arctic regions contain a fragile layer of permafrost, frozen ground that acts like a safety blanket for the planet. “Permafrost represents one of the largest reservoirs of carbon on Earth,” Michaelides said.
If that frozen layer thaws and breaks down, Arctic soils could release enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to further warm the north, leading to more melting and global warming. “We could be looking at a runaway feedback loop,” he said. It’s an unsettling thought, to be sure, but it’s far from inevitable. “There’s a lot we don’t understand about how the system works.”
Michaelides is especially eager to see how permafrost responds to tundra fires ignited by lightning, a phenomenon that’s become increasingly common as the Arctic warms and dries. Using radar measurements to monitor how the ground freezes and thaws, he can determine if some areas of permafrost can withstand the heat. Even if a few patches of our natural safety blanket are lost in fires, they could potentially mend themselves under the right conditions. “We’ve found areas of intact permafrost in areas that have burned previously, which is encouraging.”
A data-driven approach to climate
At WashU, climate concerns cross departments and disciplines. Bo Li, a professor in the new Department of Statistics and Data Science who joined the university in August, is renowned for her work applying statistical tools to environmental topics such as climate change, heat waves, droughts, and floods. “I’ve been interested in the environment since I was a PhD student,” she said. “When I investigate a problem, I have to know that it’s important for society.”
Roger Michaelides, foreground, and Andy Parsekian of the University of Wyoming stand by after a helicopter returns them and their ground-penetrating radar to their research site on the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
The environment is a challenging target for statisticians because conditions tend to change across time and location. “It’s difficult to account for correlations in the data, but correlations provide the opportunity to find new things,” Li said. “I’m looking forward to starting new collaborations and taking on new topics with other researchers at WashU.”
Among her ongoing projects, Li is using precipitation models to study the vulnerability of aging dams across the United States. As extreme rain becomes more frequent, our aging infrastructure will be at risk. Statistical analysis can help identify the dams that need to be repaired, replaced, or removed. “There are more than 90,000 dams in the U.S. and many are more than 50 years old,” Li said. “This is a very pressing issue.”
Li is also looking back in time to study how the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines affected global climate. That cataclysm released enough ash and particulates to temporally block the sun and, by some estimates, lower the average temperature of the planet by about 0.5 degrees Celsius for one to three years. More than 30 years after the event, the research is still relevant. Some scientists have proposed injecting particulates into the atmosphere — simulating a sort of artificial eruption — to slow climate change. Studies of Pinatubo should offer important insights for the implications of such a plan, she said.
A university-wide commitment
WashU’s Center for the Environment and Arts & Sciences’ Living Earth Collaborative are vital hubs for researchers investigating ecology, biodiversity, and other pressing climate issues.
Center for the Environment
Launched in July 2023 as a result of the university’s “Here and Next” strategic initiative, the Center for the Environment supports high-impact interdisciplinary research and brings together more than 90 scholars across WashU. These researchers are pursuing solutions to deep societal challenges including climate change, air pollution, access to clean water, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and infectious diseases.
Living Earth Collaborative
Since 2018, the Living Earth Collaborative (LEC) has united conservation-minded researchers from WashU, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo to promote and protect global plant and animal biodiversity. Now a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan, the LEC has gained additional momentum and resources thanks to the efforts of co-directors Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor, and Crickette Sanz, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts & Sciences.
Another major player in WashU’s climate research is Bronwen Konecky, assistant professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences. Using clues from hydrogen isotopes, carbon isotopes, and other atomic signatures, she investigates how global climate shifts have shaped tropical rainfall patterns over the last 25,000 years.
In April, Konecky and colleagues reported on an investigation that tracked the last 800 years of the Pacific Walker Circulation, an atmospheric circulation pattern that plays a significant role in rainfall extremes across the globe. The team found that major volcanic eruptions weakened the PWC, but they saw little evidence that the Industrial Revolution or any other human activity had any sustained impact on the strength of the circulation pattern, a relatively rare sign of stability in a changing world.
Preparing the next generation
Michael Wysession, professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, specializes in the internal workings of the Earth — particularly the boundary between the core and the mantle — but he has become a leading voice on climate change in the national and international press. When a reporter contacts him for a story about a heat wave or a new model
Solar-powered seismographs — sensitive instruments that can track subtle motions in the ice — wait for duty at Yesterday Field Camp, an Antarctic research outpost one kilometer from the International Date Line on the Ross Ice Shelf.
WashU senior research scientist Patrick Shore prepares a solarpowered seismograph on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf while geophysicist Rick Aster from Colorado State University looks on.
predicting a rise in global temperatures, he’s eager to share his expertise. “Nothing I can spend my time on is more important than getting people familiar with the ideas of climate change,” he said.
Wysession is working to ensure future generations will have a basic understanding of the science behind our planet’s biggest challenges. “The students who come to WashU already have an awareness and a desire to learn,” he said. “In my courses, we focus on solutions and building resiliency for the climate. I’m confident they’re going to get out there and do the job.”
As the lead geoscience author of the Next Generation Science Standards that guide K-12 education in almost every state, he’s spreading that awareness and sense of urgency to millions of young people across the country. Those students will be poised to eventually turn their education into climate-friendly actions and policies that make a positive difference. “The question is whether the planet has enough time to wait for them to be in charge,” he said. “I’m inherently an optimist, so hopefully yes.”
As he ponders the future of the Ross Ice Shelf, Wiens too is watching the clock. For now, it appears the massive daily movements of ice he’s detected don’t pose a threat. Under current conditions, the shelf should be able to lurch forward
without much risk of crumbling into the sea. But that’s the thing about climate: The conditions are always changing. If the Southern Ocean warms enough to weaken the shelf, Wiens suspects sudden movements and associated ice quakes could make the shelf more unstable, potentially leading to more fractures.
Because the Ross Ice Shelf floats like a colossal iceberg, any loss of ice won’t directly raise sea levels. (If that’s surprising, put some ice cubes in a glass of water. As the ice melts, the water level stays the same.) But the shelf does act as a buffer between the ocean and the massive reserves of ice that cover the continent. Without the protective shelf, glaciers and ice fields from the interior could slide into the ocean and raise sea levels. When, if, and how that might happen is unclear, a future as opaque as the thick, white ice.
For anyone trying to understand the planet and its future, many questions remain. WashU researchers will continue looking for answers everywhere their science takes them. Icequakes, floods, droughts, and wildfires — if it matters to the Earth and its inhabitants, they’ll be watching.
WashU wordplay
by CHRIS WOOLSTON
Crossword aficionados who tackled the Thursday, Oct. 3, New York Times puzzle were in for a challenge — and a treat. That puzzle marked The New York Times debut of Rena Cohen, a first-year Arts & Sciences student and Annika Rodriguez Scholar who brought a fresh voice to the world’s most-read crossword section.
For Cohen, breaking into The New York Times was a goal years in the making. (She submitted her first puzzle to the Times when she was 10.) She talked with the Ampersand about the ups, downs, and acrosses of wordplay.
First-year student Rena Cohen brings a new voice — and challenging answers — to the world’s most popular crossword puzzle.
Rena Cohen poses with a framed version of her first New York Times crossword puzzle. (Photo: Sean Garcia)
Bear With Me | Rena Cohen for The Ampersand
How did you get interested in crosswords?
I’ve always loved word games and puzzles. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and my childhood was full of passionate Boggle and Scrabble games with my family. I started solving crosswords with my dad when I was young, so crosswords have just been a part of my life.
When did you publish your first crossword puzzle?
After years of submissions and rejections, I had a breakthrough in my junior year of high school, when the Los Angeles Times and USA TODAY published a couple of my puzzles. That was very exciting, but getting into The New York Times was still my dream. It’s the gold standard for crossword puzzles.
How did you make it to the Times?
The Times created the Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship to give new puzzle makers from a variety of backgrounds a chance to work directly with the paper’s crossword editors. The editors, including Will Shortz and Christina Iverson, gave me great advice and mentorship to help me build grids and develop themes. It wasn’t guaranteed that any of my puzzles would be published, but I was hopeful.
How much work goes into a puzzle?
It takes a lot of effort and many hours to make a grid that’s accessible and exciting. My Oct. 3 puzzle was the most challenging one I’ve ever completed, but it was also the most rewarding. It included eight answers that had never before appeared in a Times crossword.
How did you end up at WashU?
I decided WashU was my first choice during my junior year of high school. I wanted to stay somewhat close to my family, and I fell in love with the campus during a visit. Beyond that, I appreciated the collaborative environment and the opportunities to follow my interests. I plan to double major in psychological & brain sciences and Spanish.
ACROSS
1 ___ Bradley
5 Whistledown or Gaga
9 Nash or Neruda work
10 Lotion ingredient
11 Insta competitor
12 Refuses to
13 Head of 16-Across
15 “Talks” to, as Bear or Brookie would
16 Largest academic division at WashU, familiarly
17 “Very funny...”
18 Balloon ___ (annual Forest Park event)
22 Macro or micro subj.
23 Longtime Daily Show host 24 Fix
25 Agile
DOWN
1 Harris and Pence, for short
2 Long stretch
3 Library-sponsored competition, maybe
4 Symbol of an interdisciplinary WashU education
5 Outdoor decorations that may say “Congrats Graduate!” or “For Sale”
6 Maui greeting
7 Glazed or powdered treat
8 The “Y” of FANBOYS
14 “For the Love of All Things Dog” org.
15 Ankle support
16 [Is anyone paying attention to me?!]
19 Chop (off)
20 Row a boat
21 Question that may be answered “Because I said so!”
Dear John,
I want to thank you for what you, your wife Penelope, and your family have given to our department over the decades.
As the John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics, I have a special reason to be grateful: Your family’s generosity allowed me to join my wonderful colleagues and students here at WashU and to get to know your family. But I am certainly not alone. Everyone in our department — faculty, staff, and students — has benefited from your generosity and participation in our community.
Indeed, you and Penelope have both been valued members of the classics community, participating in social and academic events, visiting our classes, and joining our group readings of Greek and Latin poetry. I have especially enjoyed our weekly meetings over the last two years in which you and I, along with students, faculty, friends, and alumni, have discussed ancient Greek drama. In all this, you and Penelope have offered us models of what a degree in classics can mean for one’s life. We have learned from you how the study of classics not only furthered your remarkable career in business and academic administration but also cultivated a lifelong passion. Penelope provided a model of the professional classicist with her important contributions to classical scholarship and her successful career teaching Latin and classics at the university and secondary levels.
Thirty-five years ago, you and Penelope created the Biggs Family Residency in Classics, which brings a leading scholar to WashU each year for a week of lectures, conversation, and conviviality. The residency has been the greatest possible boon for our department and community, a high point of each year and an incomparable opportunity for students and faculty to interact with scholars around the world. A welcome feature of these residencies has been the participation of you and Penelope at the lectures and receptions, as well as the dinners you host for undergraduates, faculty, and others.
Last year, after the passing of Penelope, you and your family joined the department and friends in celebrating her work with a colloquium featuring papers by leading scholars on three areas dear to Penelope’s heart: the Greek tragedian Sophocles, the Latin poet Ovid, and the teaching of Latin. You also aptly recognized Penelope and her career through two generous gifts.
First, you endowed the Penelope Biggs Travel Award, which supports the study of the ancient Mediterranean world — not just in our department, but throughout WashU — by funding faculty and student travel related to classical antiquity. In its first year, the award supported the travel of 19 faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates across four departments with projects ranging from archaeological excavations to seminars in papyrus conservation and Byzantine Greek to intensive programs in oral Latin. I have enjoyed sharing with you and your family the glowing reports recipients provided about their travel.
Top: John Biggs is a frequent participant in group readings of Greek and Latin poetry hosted by Tim Moore, chair of the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics.
Bottom: Penelope and John Biggs
Second, you established an endowment that funds the Penelope Biggs Fellowship, which allows us to increase substantially the stipends for many of our graduate students. That endowment also funds the Penelope Biggs Scholarship for undergraduate students studying classics. Your support helps students meet their living expenses and enables us to recruit stronger scholars to our programs. I look forward to sharing with you the impact of these extraordinary awards on our students.
John, you have stated your intention to make the Department of Classics one of the premier programs in the country and to make the study of classics the liveliest and most conspicuous presence it can be on our campus, in our community, and beyond. In honor of this extraordinary gift, we carry the name “John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics” with great pride. I pledge on behalf of the entire department that we will do everything in our power to fulfill the mission to which you have inspired us.
With deepest thanks, Tim Moore
John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics, Department Chair
Left: John Biggs (center) with Dean Hu (right) and members of the Classics department, whom he considers his second family. Right: Undergraduate Heidi Tamm was one of the first recipients of the Penelope Biggs Travel Award, visiting Athens, Greece.
Talking politics
Anyone who has played a game of telephone knows how easily messages can change when they pass from person to person. But what happens when these distorted messages spread misinformation?
by SARA SAVAT
In her new book, “Through the Grapevine: Socially Transmitted Information and Distorted Democracy,” Associate Professor Taylor Carlson explores how political information changes as it flows from the news media to individual people.
The scenario is more common than you might think. Roughly one-third of Americans learn about politics from their peers, both online and in face-to-face conversations. Carlson’s research shows that when people participate in this telephonestyle exchange, the information they pass becomes sparse, biased, less accurate, and mobilizing.
“Learning about politics through the proverbial grapevine fuels distorted democracy,” Carlson said. “Individuals could learn less, believe more misinformation, develop more polarized policy preferences — but ultimately engage more in politics.”
So, why do people learn about politics from their peers instead of the media? Prior research assumed people viewed this path as a useful shortcut — a timesaver for those who couldn’t keep up with the news. But Carlson’s research offers another explanation.
“One of the most interesting and surprising findings that I uncovered in my research was the role trust plays in this equation,” she said.
Research showed that people who relied on the news for political information trusted the media to give them accurate, objective information. But “trust” was also the top reason people gave for relying on word-of-mouth information about politics.
"It’s simple to blame ‘the media’ or ‘partisan media’ for the problems in American politics like polarization,” Carlson said. “And the media surely deserves some credit for contributing to polarization. But the results of this research are provocative because it puts some of the blame on us. We, collectively, share some responsibility in contributing to polarization.”
While it’s tempting to focus on who’s to blame, Carlson takes a balanced approach to assessing the role of political conversations in a democracy. “Some researchers suggest that polarization can be good for democratic functioning” by making it easier for voters to identify candidates and parties who support their policy preferences.
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Department of Political Science Counter-Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Gender and LGBTQ Equality
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Department of Philosophy The Epistemology of Desire and the Problem of Nihilism
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Department of Anthropology The Boundaries of Ancient Trade
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Department of Education COVID-19, the Great Recession and Young Adult Identity Development
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Statisticians play an essential role in AI
The Department of Statistics and Data Science is preparing to leverage the insights of scholars across WashU to make artificial intelligence more trustworthy.
by XUMING HE
(Illustration: Carmen Xia)
We’ve all seen the power of artificial intelligence, and not just when we’re interacting with a customer service chatbot or looking for help with a writing project. Tech companies are already mapping out a future where AI becomes an inescapable part of our daily lives, and governments are embracing the technology with both urgency and caution. In just a few short years, AI has transformed fields as diverse as economics, medicine, and climatology.
To appreciate how statistics and AI intersect, consider one of the key challenges for data scientists: subgroup analysis. This approach — a focus of my own research — examines how different groups of people respond to a particular intervention. Take the world of medicine: In clinical trials, subgroup analysis can help determine if a treatment is effective for certain groups of patients. As the data dimensions increase (think about all the intersections of age, gender, race, medical history, and more), so does the number of potential subgroups
It's my job to work with WashU faculty and students to make AI more ethical, accurate, fair, and, yes, intelligent.
In short, AI is here to stay. As the inaugural chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Science, it’s my job to work with WashU faculty and students to make AI more ethical, accurate, fair, and, yes, intelligent.
At this pivotal point in history, we should take a step back and consider the true nature of AI. At its core, the technology is built on statistical ideas and algorithms. Every choice made by AI — selecting words for an essay, generating pixels for an image, directing turns for a self-driving car — starts with data. Algorithms churn through huge data sets to make informed decisions. But it’s statisticians who are the experts, investigating and understanding the underlying process and its inherent uncertainties.
to consider. Computer-powered AI could theoretically find the metaphorical needle in a haystack — a group of patients who could benefit from a specific treatment. But before we celebrate, a question must be asked: Did we find a real needle or merely an artificial one?
Misuse of subgroup analysis can have serious consequences. Consider the 2002 case of a biotech firm that announced that an FDA-approved immunosuppressant could reduce mortality from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). That would have been a breakthrough, but a federal jury later found that the firm’s CEO had cherry-picked trial data to find a significant result. AI advancements make it easier than ever to find seemingly impressive results, amplifying the risk of selective reporting.
That’s where statisticians come in. We’re tasked with understanding how the data are collected and how subgroups are selected so that we can honestly evaluate the findings. This takes more than just computing power.
Without proper input from statisticians, AI could be seriously biased. To be clear, AI itself is not biased by design, but it does reflect the underlying data. If the data aren’t fair and representative, and if analysts lack the statistical sophistication to interpret their findings, the results could be extremely off-base. Here’s another example: In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union tested Amazon’s AI-based facial recognition technology by having it compare photos of federal lawmakers against a database of publicly available mug shots. The AI falsely matched 28 members of Congress with people who had been arrested, and a disproportionate percentage of those bad matches were people of color.
As statisticians and data scientists, we work to mitigate these biases to help AI reach the right conclusions. Through thoughtful experimental designs, informative model building, and careful control of spurious correlations, we can help ensure that AI works for everyone.
Indeed, this is an exciting time for statisticians. Academic departments like ours can’t rival Google or Apple for building new AI products, but we do have an important role. We recognize that a smart, safe future for AI will require cross-disciplinary collaboration between industry, government, and academia.
The Department of Statistics and Data Science is preparing to build closer ties with researchers in public health, environmental sciences, business, economics, bioscience, and social science to ensure we have the AI tools to address the complex questions in those fields.
While the future is indeed brighter with AI, the future of AI depends on us.
Xuming He is the Kotzubei-Beckmann Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Science. He is president of the International Statistical Institute and a renowned leader in the fields of robust statistics, quantile regression, Bayesian inference, and post-selection inference.
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Arts & Sciences welcomed nearly 1,200 undergraduate students to campus during August orientation.
Activities included visits to academic departments and programs, an opportunity to write postcards to their future selves, and more than 1,000 ampersand-shaped pretzels.
An additional 300 incoming graduate students enjoyed lunch from local food trucks and a “gradventure” activity to learn about campus.
