In the News

Mark Kamimura-Jiménez has been instrumental in Washington University’s efforts to center diversity and inclusion for the entire student body and university community, fostering a learning environment that enriches and supports students from all backgrounds.

The Great Rivers Biennial, an arts collaboration between the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) and the Gateway Foundation that spotlights and challenges local artists, will open at CAM on September 6. Three St. Louis artists have been chosen to display new work including Ronald Young, a WashU alum who is known for his use of mixed-media and sculptural assemblage. Young uses found materials (for instance, ropes, bricks, and nails) to create works that speak to his environment and the resilient history of Black Americans.

A new cancer center, under construction for three years, will open to patients at the end of September. Siteman Cancer Center’s new nine-story, 657,250-square-foot building, located at 4500 Forest Park Ave. on Washington University’s medical school campus, is slated to open Sept. 30. Siteman, a collaboration of BJC Health Care’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said the building will be dedicated exclusively to outpatient cancer care.

A 2019 Washington University Environmental Racism report found Black and low-income residents bear the brunt of the region’s unhealthy air quality. The report was a breath of fresh air to those affected by the region’s poor air quality. It was also a wake-up call for churches within the report’s most at-risk communities, many of which stepped up to work toward drastically increasing the area’s air quality monitoring capability.

When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faceoff in a presidential debate Tuesday in Philadelphia, the atmosphere will be much different than what’s taken place at Washington University for more than 30 years.

Missouri Botanical Garden has named Lúcia Lohmann as its next president, effective Jan. 2. Lohmann, who will also serve as director and George Engelmann professor of botany at Washington University in St. Louis, is the eighth president in MoBot’s history and its first woman president, officials said.

Washington University and BioSTL are hoping to transform St. Louis into a global neuroscience leader through its NEURO360 initiative. BioSTL’s CEO Donn Rubin tells Anthony Morabith that big things are in store for the future of St. Louis.

St. Louis Inno is highlighting eight people, all under 25, all entrepreneurs, most of them connected in some way to Washington University, St. Louis’ magnet for the talented and driven, who have created a business that will likely be neither their last nor only venture of their lifetimes.

Neuro360, a coalition of post-secondary institutions, local and state institutions, businesses, health care and trade groups led by Washington University and nonprofit innovation hub BioSTL, is bidding for up to $160 million in funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The coalition is aimed at advancing neuroscience research and commercialization in the St. Louis region

The City of St. Louis is prone to an urban heat island effect, a phenomenon caused by dense areas of pavement, flat roofs, brick buildings and other surfaces that absorb heat from the sun, radiating it back into the surrounding air. Research published by Climate Central shows that some urban areas see temperatures as much as 10 degrees hotter than rural areas that enjoy more widespread vegetation and shade. In St. Louis, the Midwest Climate Collaborative at Washington University works to study heat islands and their effects on quality of life in the region. The university’s Tyson Research Center has been actively gathering data and studying the impacts of heat islands, too.