WashU Experts

Periodical cicadas are above ground for only a handful of days every 17 years. Human-induced rapid environmental change is altering the world they will briefly encounter, according to Brett Seymoure, a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposed ban on menthol flavored cigarettes and all flavored cigars could be particularly beneficial for Black and young people, says an expert on tobacco control at Washington University in St. Louis.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted April 20 for his killing of George Floyd. Collectively, people across the country breathed a sigh of relief because far too often, the story has been police killing people of color with impunity, says an expert on race and the law at Washington University in St. Louis.

As China prepares for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, thousands of theaters have been instructed to screen at least two propaganda films each week. But political jargon and ideological mandates may not sit well with 21st-century moviegoers, argues Zhao Ma, associate professor of modern Chinese history and culture in Arts & Sciences.

Like other modern presidents, executive orders may be the only path forward for Biden to deliver on his policy agenda, however these powers come at a great cost, according to Andrew Reeves, associate professor of political science iat Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University’s Ariela Schachter and Linling Gao-Miles share their perspectives on the recent killing of eight people — including six women of Asian decent — in Atlanta and the history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.

At the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, the situation and the fallout that followed — the rolling or lasting blackouts, national attention, the termination of the energy group’s CEO — prompted Richard Axelbaum, Stifel & & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, and Phillip Irace, PhD candidate and NSF Graduate Student Fellow, to take a closer look.

The American Rescue Plan is a remarkable effort to jump-start the U.S. economy — unprecedented in scale outside of major wars — and will lead to very fast growth of the U.S. economy over the next year, according to Steven Fazzari, director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy.

As we mark the one-year anniversary today of the World Health Organization first declaring a global COVID-19 pandemic, Washington University in St. Louis experts, including from its School of Medicine, look both back and ahead.

Rebecca Lester, professor of sociocultural anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, offers advice for coping with the emotions brought on by COVID-19 anniversaries and moving forward.