Nadine Strossen, author of the Common Reading Program selection “Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship,” will deliver the keynote address at “Reflections: Unity, Social Justice, and Peace,” an annual event celebrating the start of the academic year at Washington University. The event begins at 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26, in Graham Chapel. 

Investigators at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been awarded a $15 million grant to better understand the genetic changes that drive acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a deadly blood cancer, and predict patients’ responses to therapy. The findings also may enable investigators to develop more effective therapies tailored to patients, based on the genetic characteristics of their cancer cells.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch its fall Public Lecture Series Sept. 19 with Swiss architect Patrick Gmür. Other events will include a Q&A with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and the symposium “Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital.”

Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered that an initial urinary tract infection (UTI) triggers changes to immune and other cells in the bladder that can prime the bladder to overreact to bacteria, worsening subsequent UTIs.

Investigative journalist Carey Gillam will deliver the first talk of the fall 2019 Agri-Food Workshop lecture series, “Monsanto Trials and Monsanto Papers,” casting a critical eye on industry influence and pesticide science, Aug. 30.

Holden Thorp, the Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor at Washington University, has been named editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals. He will assume his new role Oct. 28 and will remain on the Washington University faculty. He will be on leave while serving as editor-in-chief.

The 1,736 members of the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2023 arrived Aug. 17. They hail from 19 countries and 47 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Eight percent are from St. Louis, 15 percent are Pell grant-eligible and 9 percent are first in their families to attend college. Twenty percent of the class is Asian, 11 percent is black and 10 percent is Hispanic.

A new study from the School of Medicine finds that African American children with mild asthma can take their steroid inhalers as needed, based on symptoms, rather than at set times daily regardless of symptoms.

Arts & Sciences researcher Kun Wang studies the melted rock that cools into tektites after a meteorite strikes Earth to gain insights into the giant impact event that formed the moon. His latest research was published Aug. 15 in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

In a survey of adults from the countries that comprised the World War II alliances known as the Allies and the Axis, respondents overestimate the importance of their country to the war effort. A new Arts & Sciences study shows how.