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CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

The show must go on

A combination of innovative technology and careful use of practice and performance spaces will enable Washington State University musicians to play together virtually this fall.

Troy Bennefield.
Bennefield

“We are going to be a marching band in name only but that doesn’t mean we are going to stop making music,” said Troy Bennefield, associate director of bands and director of athletic bands at WSU. “This is a chance for us to really remind people we are more than just a football band. We are the University’s spirit group, and we are going to keep making music that makes people feel like they are a part of the Cougar community.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced music directors such as Bennefield and Dean Luethi, director of the School of Music and choral activities at WSU, to shift their focus from preparing students for the big live show to helping them work on their musicianship and other fundamental skills individually and in small virtual groups.

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WSU Insider

Nuclear Science Center to acquire high‑resolution X‑ray spectrometer

The Nuclear Science Center, in collaboration with the Department of Chemistry and the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, will acquire a new high-resolution X-ray spectrometer to perform both X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy.

Xiaofeng Guo.
Guo

“Nuclear science and technology has been a flagship program at WSU for decades. Having the advanced lab-based spectrometer focusing on actinides and other nuclear material investigations will greatly expand research and development opportunities while also bringing together researchers from multiple disciplines,” said Xiaofeng Guo, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and lead principal investigator on the instrumentation grant.

The X-ray spectrometer will improve the infrastructure for both research and development and teaching in the WSU nuclear science program. The spectrometer will also accelerate the education and training of the next generation of researchers and students by providing state-of-the-art spectroscopic equipment that will help them prepare to utilize synchrotron user facilities and work in Department of Energy national laboratories.

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WSU Insider

Grants for Washington artists responding to the Black Lives Matter movement made available

Washington artists will have the opportunity to share their creative visions in response to the Black Lives Matter movement with help from a new grant program established by Jordan Schnitzer in partnership with Washington State University’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program will distribute $2,500 grants to 20 artists across the state of Washington who will be asked to use their voices, experiences, and artistic expression to reflect on social justice efforts in response to systemic racism.

A panel is being formed to review the artist submissions which will include: Ryan Hardesty, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU; Io Palmer, associate professor , Department of Fine Arts WSU; Lisa Guerrero, professor, School of Lanuages, Cultures, and Race WSU; Trymaine Gaither, Honors College WSU; and Mikayla Makle, Black Student Union WSU. Grantees will be notified by Oct. 31.

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Union-Bulletin

New WSU book explores Hanford legacies, Manhattan Project

A new book published by WSU Press includes essays about the complex legacies of the Manhattan Project, including work at the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The new book, “Legacies of the Manhattan Project: Reflections on 75 Years of a Nuclear World” covers topics such as newspaper censorship, activism, nuclear testing, environmental cleanup and atomic kitsch.

Michael Mays
Mays

It was edited by Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project at WSU Tri-Cities and CAS faculty member.

“The compositions delve deep into familiar matters, but also illuminate historical crevices left unexplored by earlier generations of scholars,” according to WSU Press.

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Union-bulletin

How tadpoles provide insight into pandemics

A virus affecting wood frog tadpoles throughout the eastern United States is offering scientists a rare opportunity to investigate the role of environmental factors in the spread of infectious disease.

Erica Crespi.
Crespi
Jesse Brunner
Brunner

The study of interactions among agent, host, and environment is best done with a collaborative approach incorporating a range of expertise. Jesse Brunner, a disease ecologist, and Erica Crespi, a physiologist, both in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University, have studied Ranavirus and its effects on individual tadpoles. Brunner specializes in the relationship between Ranavirus and its host, while Crespi is an expert on tadpole health.

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Phys.org