Anna Banchik
Banchik currently is completing her doctorate at the University of Texas-Austin. Her research interests focus on human rights fact-finding and advocacy, expertise, and visual culture. Her dissertation draws on ethnographic methods to examine the processes and techniques by which human rights …
Becca Lewis
Lewis is a doctoral student in communications at Stanford University and works at Data & Society, a research institute studying the social and cultural issues arising from data-centric technological development.
Specifically, Lewis researches online political subcultures and …
Beth Shapiro
evolutionary molecular biologist, Beth Shapiro delivered the annual Ferguson Science Lecture on “How to Clone a Woolly Mammoth.”
The program was held in Knight/Bauer Hall, Emerson Auditorium.
Christoph Irmscher
In his October 27, 2014 lecture,"Talking About Race in 19th-century American Science: Louis Agassiz and His Contemporaries," Christoph Irmscher discussed the brilliant and controversial Swiss immigrant who became the most famous scientist of his time. Irmscher gave the annual Thomas Hall History of Science Lecture in Rebstock Hall Room 215.
David McBride
Director of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center
David McBride, director of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, spoke on the future of aerospace engineering, including the next generation of NASA X-planes, the Artemis program and the role of government in the age of private space and aircraft flight.
Drew Shindell
Nicholas Professor of Earth Science, Duke University
Drew Shindell discussed the health, labor and agriculture benefits of climate change mitigation in the U.S. An expert on climate science and policy, he has testified on these issues before both houses of Congress, at the request of both parties, and has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed …
Elisabeth Lloyd
Evolutionary biologist and historian of science Elisabeth Lloyd is author of The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution.
Holden Thorp, Gil Eyal, Tess Lanzarotta, Damon Scott Tweedy and Yolonda Y. Wilson
A panel of leading academics discussed “Gatekeeping & the Publishing Landscape for Scholarship on Race, Medicine & Science.” Participants explored how publication trends and directions for race-focused work in areas of science and medical research have been shaped by public …
Humberto Gonzalez, Meredith Malone, Neil Richards: Panel on Drones in Society
Three WashU experts explore how drone technology is changing our world in a discussion that promises to bring intriguing insights. “Technology, Ethics, and Laws” featuring Humberto Gonzalez, Neil Richards, and Meredith Malone, at 5:30 p.m. March 31 in Steinberg Auditorium. At 5 p.m. please join us for a reception and viewing of the exhibition on which the discussion will be based:
“To See Without Being Seen: Contemporary Art and Drone Warfare,” in the Kemper Art Museum.
Jack Kloppenburg
Jack Kloppenburg, professor emeritus in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver the Thomas Hall Lecture in the History of Science.
Jeffrey Bonner
Bonner has been president and CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo since 2002; in 2009 he became the Dana Brown President and Chief Executive Officer.
Noah’s efforts have been on Bonner’s mind as well, as evidenced in the title of his book, “Sailing with Noah.”
Before Bonner became the …
Joel Sartore
Joel Sartore is a man on a mission, and he’s running out of time. Like Noah, he’s obsessed with building an ark – the Photo Ark -- a groundbreaking effort to document species before they disappear, and to get people to care while there’s still time.
For nearly 15 years, the acclaimed …
Jonathan Losos
As founding director of the Living Earth Collaborative, Losos seeks to marshal the might of three world-class organizations – the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Saint Louis Zoo and Washington University, where he is the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in Biology – into a …
Kevin McKeegan
Distinguished Professor of Cosmochemistry and Geochemistry, University of California -Los Angeles
Professor Kevin McKeegan delivered the Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture titled "Sampling the Solar System: A Key in Our Quest to Understand Earth's Origin and Evolution."
Extraterrestrial samples can be studied in the laboratory in exquisite detail, revealing clues about their origins …
Kip S. Thorne
2017 Nobel laureate in Physics; Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology
Nobel laureate Kip S. Thorne delivered the 2019 Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture titled 'Exploring the Warped Side of the Universe with Gravitational Waves: From the Big Bang to Black Holes'.
Michael Barbaro
The proliferation and popularity of podcasts – especially among millennials – have created many new media stars, but few are shining as brightly as Barbaro, the host of The Daily, the New York Times’ entry into the podisphere with millions of devoted listeners. It was the most-downloaded new …
Mike Parker Pearson
British archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson and his research team had unprecedented access to Stonehenge and its surroundings, and his research findings are replacing centuries of speculation with facts. He will share them at an Assembly Series program at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.
Moogega Cooper
Lead planetary protection engineer, NASA
NASA’s Moogega Cooper delivered the keynote address at the 2021 She Leads Symposium, hosted by the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship for Women in Graduate Study at Washington University in St. Louis.Dr. Cooper is the planetary protection lead of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, where her work is …
Robert Sussman
“The anthropological concept of culture is extremely important and often misunderstood because many of the things that are assumed to be biologically determined, like criminality or homosexuality or IQ, are really behaviorally and societally defined.”
This quote from Robert W. Sussman, PhD, professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, forms the basis for his Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture.
“The Importance of the Concept of Culture to Science and Society,” part of the university’s Assembly Series, will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.
Sarah Kliff
The senior policy correspondent at Vox.com is an award-winning journalist and one of the country’s leading health policy experts who has spent several years chronicling Washington’s battle over the Affordable Care Act. She also hosts Vox’s podcast, The Impact, focusing on the real …
William McKinnon
“Planetary science, and especially planetary geology, is never, ever boring. New discoveries roll in endlessly, enriching and ennobling the common heritage of humankind.” -- Bill McKinnon
Gregory Radick
In “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," Darwin showed that humans of every race, throughout the globe, express their emotions identically. For instance, we all cry when we’re sad and smile when we’re happy. Darwin claimed that this identity amounted to a “new argument” for all the races descending from a single, common ancestral stock. In his talk, Darwinian scholar Radick will track the origins of Darwin’s research that led to this conclusion and offer a better understanding of how and why he first began to collect evidence on emotional expression across the human races. It can also help us see exactly how Darwin’s scientific work reflected his lifelong hatred of slavery.
Radiolab
On February 26, 4:30 p.m. in Graham Chapel, Radiolab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich talked about "Celebrating Curiosity - Celebrating Arts & Sciences."
Adam Steltzner
Adam Steltzner, in charge of the Entry, Decent, and Landing of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, outlined the winding journey of his life in his Assembly Series lecture on March 26, 2015: “How Curiosity Changed My Life.” The lecture title was a deliberate play on words meant to emphasize the power of intellectual curiosity and how it can transform a life.
Eric Kandel
On October 28, 2014 at 5 p.m. in Graham Chapel, Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel talked about "The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present."
James Boyle
On February 29, 2012 James Boyle, the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School talked about "Cultural Agoraphobia: Why Most of What You Know About the Internet is Wrong."