The Koch Family
Robert S. Brookings Award
Paul Koch, BSBA ’61, JD ’64, MBA ’68, and Elke Koch
Roger Koch, BSBA ’64, MBA ’66, and Fran Koch
Over the past four decades, the Koch family’s generosity has transformed the way that successful family business is taught and understood, not only at WashU but across the St. Louis region. Brothers Paul and Roger Koch are co-chairs of the Koch Development Co. of St. Louis, a third-generation, family-owned business formed in 1970 that develops, owns, and manages real estate and entertainment properties. The brothers’ experience running this company would inspire their transformative gift to establish the Koch Center for Family Enterprise at Olin Business School.
Paul started his career as a Judge Advocate trial attorney for the United States Air Force at Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas. In 1976, he was a candidate for Missouri U.S. Congress 3rd District. Following that experience, he served as a municipal circuit judge in Crestwood, Missouri. Around that time, he married Elke, who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the mid-1970s, having previously served as a NATO and U.S. Air Force interpreter at what was then Wiesbaden Air Base in Germany.
Fluent in four languages, Elke initially worked as an account executive for Faulkner and Associates Advertising in Little Rock, Arkansas, and then joined Mercantile Bank in St. Louis as its retail vice president. She and Paul would go on to develop residential subdivisions and apartments throughout the city while raising two children: Scott Koch, now a real-estate appraiser in St. Louis, and Christin Stanton, a real-estate manager in Portland, Oregon.
Roger and Fran attended grade school together and became high school sweethearts, marrying in 1964 after their college graduations. Roger served as a captain in the United States Air Force and a logistics auditor at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, where Fran taught elementary school. During the Vietnam War, he wrote and managed a worldwide audit examining the distribution of critical aircraft parts. After returning to civilian life, along with his brother Paul, they developed and acquired various types of real estate, including residential homes and multifamily apartments; retail, industrial, and office buildings; self-storage and cable television facilities; mobile-home parks; and amusement attractions. Fran was an integral part of the family business and was the first woman in St. Louis to achieve the status of Certified Property Manager from the international Institute of Real Estate Management. She and Roger raised two children, David Koch, and Laurel Koch, and have two grandchildren, Robert and Grace. They have housed many graduate students attending WashU and have ongoing close relationships with many including Kun Chang, MSW ’90, his wife Mei, and their two sons, Josh Chang, BSBA ’12; and Michael Chang, who all are beloved members of the Koch family.
The two couples established the Koch Center for Family Enterprise in collaboration with former Olin Dean Mahendra Gupta in 2019. The center addresses the distinct concerns of family-owned businesses through programming and public scholarship designed to improve business practices, raise awareness about unique complexities and opportunities, and engage students in understanding the rich career potential within family enterprise. Through their philanthropy to the center, including endowed gifts to establish a directorship and a professorship of practice that attracts top-notch talent, the Koch family has helped to solidify Olin’s place as a recognized leader in family-enterprise scholarship.
The Koch family’s generous philanthropic support also includes contributions to WashU Medicine, Siteman Cancer Center, and Washington University School of Law. For example, in 2021, Paul and Elke Koch established the Kim and Tim Eberlein Distinguished Professorship to honor the outstanding contributions of Siteman’s director, Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Surgery. In 2020, the family created the Koch Family Distinguished Professor of Law to support a law faculty member whose teaching and research focus on the intersection of medicine, policy, and law.
The family’s outstanding service to WashU has been widely celebrated at the university. In 2024, Paul, Elke, Roger, and Fran collectively received the Olin Dean’s Medal in recognition of their steadfast and long-standing support of the school. The brothers are both recipients of Olin Distinguished Alumni Awards as well as previous Founders Day Distinguished Alumni Awards. In 2018, Paul also earned a Distinguished Alumni Award from WashU Law.
Beyond WashU, the family generously gives to and serves charitable organizations at the local and national level. Roger and Fran currently volunteer and provide financial support to various food pantries in the St. Louis area and to the nonprofit Home Sweet Home, which helps connect community partners with donated furniture and household items. They are also active volunteers with the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America and hold leadership positions at their church. Paul and Elke share a similarly long track record of service. Elke currently volunteers with the American Cancer Society and was the past initial organizer of Stripping for the Cure, a fly-fishing tournament benefiting child cancer care in Jackson, Wyoming. Paul has previously served on the boards of the American Cancer Society, the BJC Foundation, and Webster University. He is also past president of the Home Builders Association of Eastern Missouri.
Paul and Roger both earned multiple degrees at WashU. Paul completed a bachelor’s degree in business at the university, followed by a juris doctor and a master’s degree in business. Roger earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business. Elke is a graduate of Mainz University in Germany, and Fran holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Harris Teachers College in St. Louis.
Special thanks to:
Michael Mazzeo, PhD
Dean and Knight Family Professor
Olin Business School
Nan Jiang, MA ’89, PhD ’91
Distinguished Alumni Award
Senior Vice President of Operations
BioLegend
Nan Jiang is a highly accomplished researcher, entrepreneur, and biomedical scientist. As senior vice president of operations for BioLegend Inc., a biomedical research company she co-founded in 2002, she oversees the development and production of antibodies, proteins, and other research and diagnostic tools that accelerate breakthroughs in immunology, neuroscience, cell biology, and other fields. She also serves as director of the Laygend Foundation, which funds initiatives at universities and other research centers in alignment with BioLegend’s work involving cellular immunity, inflammation, cancer, and stem cells.
Jiang has served in her current role at BioLegend since 2018, having held multiple leadership positions across the company’s manufacturing and operations departments. She now guides the company’s collaboration with the international scientific community to produce and commercialize specialized tools for research processes such as cell analysis, cell separation, and protein study. Under her leadership, BioLegend has expanded its reach across the globe, establishing research and development facilities in Taiwan and Japan as well as subsidiaries in China, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France. At the same time, it has become known for its sense of responsibility toward community and the environment, its generous financial support within the science sector, and its value placed on teamwork.
Prior to founding BioLegend, Jiang was manager of reagent development and production at eBioscience later acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., where she produced reagents for scientific, diagnostic, and industrial uses. Prior to that, she served as manager of process development at Pharmingen, what is now BD Biosciences, where she led the design and development of new antibody reagents.
At WashU, Jiang conducted graduate research under Professor John-Stephen Taylor in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, where she fostered her passion to use chemistry to support biomedical research and solve real-world problems. She completed her postdoctoral training with Professor Carl Frieden in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her unique vantage point as a graduate student on the Danforth Campus and a doctoral candidate at the medical school exemplified WashU’s deep commitment to collaboration and interdisciplinary study — values that Jiang continues to embody today.
Since graduating, Jiang has been a loyal WashU donor for more than 30 years, supporting WashU Medicine and graduate fellowships in Arts & Sciences. She has maintained personal connections with both Frieden and Taylor, recognizing them both with endowed, named gifts, including the John Taylor Scholarship, the Frieden and Jiang Endowed Fund for the Arts, the Frieden Endowed Fund for Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, and the Carl Frieden Distinguished Professorship — the latter through support from the Laygend Foundation. Jiang spoke at Taylor’s 70th birthday symposium on campus in 2024 and returned again to celebrate the announcement of the Carl Freiden Distinguished Professorship in 2025.
Jiang earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fudan University in Shanghai and completed her master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in bio-organic chemistry at WashU.
Special thanks to:
Feng Sheng Hu, PhD
Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Biology and of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences
Arts & Sciences
Carl Frieden, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Carl E. Josehart, AB ’84, MSW ’87
Distinguished Alumni Award
CEO
Joan and Stanford Alexander Jewish Family Service
Carl Josehart is an exemplary public-health leader who works tirelessly to improve quality of life for all people. After starting his career as a crisis-intervention therapist at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, he has become a passionate advocate for social justice, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to health equity for historically underserved, disadvantaged, and marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ+ community. Today, he is a sought-after speaker nationwide on health-care ethics, leadership, inclusion, and health disparities.
As CEO of the Joan and Stanford Alexander Jewish Family Service (Alexander JFS), a social-service agency based in Houston, Josehart helps empower individuals and families of all faiths by connecting them with the resources and services needed to improve their health and well-being, addressing systemic issues like poverty and health disparities. In this leadership role, Josehart has overseen a period of transformational growth, including securing major private philanthropic gifts, growing the agency’s endowment, and expanding clients’ access to critical services, such as mental-health assistance and crisis care.
Prior to joining Alexander JFS, Josehart served as CEO of TIRR Memorial Hermann, a national leader in rehabilitation care, where he elevated the hospital’s U.S. News & World Report ranking to No. 2 nationally. Over the years, he has been tapped to consult on hospital design and rehabilitation-program development in China.
Josehart and his husband, Sam Jacobson, are also dedicated supporters of WashU. In 2017, the couple established the Carl E. Josehart and Samuel M. Jacobson Endowed Scholarship, which is awarded to social-work students at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis who are committed to working with populations with physical, emotional, or cognitive disabilities, or with groups that have been historically marginalized based on sexual orientation or gender identity. He has been a member of the Brown School National Council since 2020 and frequently contributes his time to speak with undergraduate and graduate students interested in health care. Additionally, he has personally mentored several Brown School students.
Josehart also dedicates his time to a variety of civic and service organizations. He was recently appointed by Houston Mayor John Whitmire to the city’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board and is an active supporter of ReelAbilities: Houston Film & Arts Festival. He is past board chair of the Holocaust Museum Houston, served on the board of the Anti-Defamation League, Southwest Region, and is past president of Congregation Or Chadash in Chicago.
In 2003, Josehart was named Fellow of the Trust by the Health Ethics Trust, which recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to health-care ethics and compliance. In 2021, he received the Extraordinary Professional Leadership Award from the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies. He was honored with the 2018 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship-Houston Galveston and was named a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum in 2016. He also holds a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Brown School.
Josehart earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arts & Sciences at WashU and a master’s degree in social work from the Brown School.
Special thanks to:
Dorian E. Traube, PhD
Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean and Professor
Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis
Jonathan S. Kanter, JD ’98
Distinguished Alumni Award
Former Assistant Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
Jonathan Kanter has been ranked as one of the most effective, innovative, and successful antitrust lawyers by numerous industry observers. He became one of the highest-ranking public servants to graduate from Washington University with his appointment in 2021 as assistant attorney general for the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under former President Joe Biden.
Today, he is frequently featured as an antitrust expert in the national media, including in his current role as a contributor to CNBC. This fall, he was named a distinguished teaching professor at WashU Law, where he is instructing a class alongside his former antitrust mentor John Drobak, the George Alexander Madill Professor of Real Property & Equity Jurisprudence and a professor of economics. He also recently joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University as a distinguished service professor.
During his time at the DOJ from 2021-24, Kanter oversaw more than 750 professionals in antitrust enforcement. He also spearheaded some of the most significant antitrust cases in decades. For example, he led a team of DOJ lawyers in a lawsuit to breakup Ticketmaster/Live Nation. His landmark trial victories against Google have transformed the antitrust landscape and cemented his reputation as one of the generation’s leading advocates for strong antitrust enforcement.
In 2023, he served as the architect of the successful merger guidelines, and his office blocked a record number of mergers on antitrust grounds. He secured the first conviction in a criminal monopolization suit in four decades; intensified scrutiny of individual board membership involving competing companies, known as “anticompetitive interlocking directorates;” and investigated anticompetitive practices in the AI market. His work also focused on lesser-known legal disputes affecting the daily lives of Americans, such as the ongoing United States v. Agri Stats Inc. case, which seeks to end alleged price-fixing in the meat-packing industry — a case that could have significant implications for how data analytics companies operate and how other industries enforce competition.
Kanter attributes his interest in antitrust law to Professor Drobak and has frequently returned as a guest lecturer in Drobak’s classes. He is an active WashU alumnus, often engaging with the law school community, including during a recent fireside chat with alumni and parents in Washington, D.C.
Before his time at the DOJ, Kanter founded The Kanter Law Group, a boutique antitrust law firm. Prior to that, he served as partner and co-chair of the antitrust practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and was previously partner at another leading international firm. After graduating from WashU law in 1998, Kanter began his early career as an antitrust lawyer at the FTC.
Born in Queens, New York, Kanter earned his bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany and his juris doctor from WashU Law. He was awarded the Global Competition Review’s Outstanding Career Achievement Award in 2025.
Special thanks to:
Stefanie Lindquist, PhD
Nickerson Dean
Professor of Law and Political Science
Washington University School of Law
Michael F. Konzen, MArch ’86
Distinguished Alumni Award
Principal and Chairman
PGAV Destinations
For almost 40 years, Michael Konzen has championed creativity, civic progress, and education in St. Louis and beyond. As chairman and principal at PGAV and managing principal of PGAV Destinations, a global leader in the development of cultural, entertainment, and marketing destinations, he is frequently praised for building a supportive and collaborative workplace culture that invests in its employees and their growth.
At PGAV, Konzen has helped create award-winning experiences such as Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Theme Park. Additionally, he has managed ground-up and expansion projects for more than 40 zoos and aquariums, including the Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Park.
Konzen’s sustained commitment to WashU includes generous philanthropy and volunteer leadership. His ability to envision possibilities that strengthen both WashU and the greater St. Louis region has made him an invaluable partner to the university. For example, he has overseen PGAV’s multiyear leadership commitment to the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Alberti Program: Architecture for Young People, an award-winning educational outreach initiative that gives St. Louis students ages 8-15 hands-on opportunities to explore architecture and design. Under his watch, PGAV also funds an annual CityStudioSTL Fellowship for architecture students, in which urban design students work with local firms to address social challenges in St. Louis, often resulting in job offers.
Personally, Konzen has served as a member of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts National Council since 2016, and he chaired the school’s 2022-32 strategic planning committee. In 2015, he and his wife, Ann, generously founded the Konzen Family Scholarship, awarded annually to a graduate student in architecture. In 2017, the couple established the PGAV Destinations Scholarship in memory of late PGAV leaders Steve Zeilstra and Jim Wible.
Konzen also dedicates his time to various local and national civic organizations. He is a founding member of Greater Saint Louis Inc.’s executive committee and has served on its downtown advisory board since 2020. He is a commissioner at Tower Grove Park and chair of the park’s capital campaign. Moreover, he is a board member for the Saint Louis Sports Commission. He previously held board positions with the Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District, Neighborhood Housing Services (now Beyond Housing), and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, among others. Konzen also serves as an advisory board member and guest lecturer at the Jonathan Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism at New York University and is a member of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.
Throughout his career, Konzen has been recognized by Forbes, USA Today, St. Louis Magazine, the St. Louis Business Journal, and other prominent news outlets. He has earned numerous design recognitions, including 11 Thea Awards. In 2018, he was honored with the Sam Fox School’s Award for Distinction.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental design and fine arts from Miami University and his master’s degree in architecture from WashU. He is a licensed architect in 30 states and Washington, D.C. Konzen and Ann will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year.
Special thanks to:
Carmon Colangelo
Ralph J. Nagel Dean
E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Audrey Rostov, MD ’88
Distinguished Alumni Award
Cornea, Cataract, and Refractive Surgeon
Founder and Owner
Bellevue Precision Vision, Bellevue Washington
Affiliate Surgeon and Global Partner
Cure Blindness Project
Audrey Rostov’s career is distinguished by her substantial contributions to vision care, both locally and globally. In addition to being a full-time ophthalmologist based in Seattle, she is committed to advancing eye care on an international scale through her role as an affiliate surgeon with the Cure Blindness Project — a nonprofit founded in 1995 that helps people retain or regain their eyesight with surgeries, screenings, and treatments. Meanwhile, she provides continuing education as a visiting cornea faculty member at Shroff Charity Eye Hospital in New Delhi and LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India. She is also an active supporter of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in educating future ophthalmologists.
Rostov has led many efforts to improve vision care in under-resourced countries. This includes developing and piloting the Village Eyecare Worker program in Nepal and India, which trains women health-care workers in the early diagnosis and treatment of corneal eye injuries. With the Cure Blindness Project, now spread to 30 countries, her advocacy work continues as she helps the organization expand cornea care into Ghana, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Previously, Rostov served as global medical director of SightLife, an international health organization that strives to eliminate corneal blindness. There, she established a curriculum for training cornea surgeons in lower- and middle-income countries. She has trained hundreds of fellows and faculty in corneal-transplant techniques at eye hospitals in India, Nepal, and Sub-Saharan Africa and has assisted in eye-bank development for sustainable cornea tissue procurement, evaluation, and distribution.
Rostov is a steadfast advocate for WashU Medicine and the school’s Gateway Curriculum. She recognizes the importance of strong partnerships in advancing WashU’s mission and champions efforts to develop a physician workforce equipped with the varied perspectives and skills needed to meet the needs of a complex patient population. In 2022, she and her husband, David, established the Dr. Audrey Rostov and David Rostov Scholarship, which provides one full-tuition scholarship annually to WashU Medicine students. She provides ongoing mentorship and guidance to scholarship recipients throughout their careers and connects them with resources to help navigate their medical education and future careers in ophthalmology.
Rostov continues her support of the medical school through the Vision Ophthalmology Mentoring program within the American Academy of Ophthalmology, where she actively encourages prospective medical students and residents to consider WashU. She also mentors medical students through the Cedars/Aspens program for early-career ophthalmologists, supporting clinical research and providing pathways to professional opportunities.
Among decades of accolades, Rostov has been named one of the Top 100 Global Ophthalmologists and Top 100 Women Ophthalmologists by industry publication The Ophthalmologist, and was recognized in 2023 with the WashU Medicine Alumni Achievement Award. She received the 2019 Cedars/Aspens Society’s Founder Award for individual achievement, community engagement, and contributions to innovation, collaboration, and education. That same year, she received the Diane Sabin Mission Impact Award from SightLife. Rostov was also named a 2018 International Hero by the Women Ophthalmologists Society in recognition of her support for professional development, surgical training, and education.
Rostov completed her medical degree and residency in ophthalmology at WashU Medicine.
Special thanks to:
Eva Aagaard, MD
Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education
Senior Associate Dean for Education
Vice Chancellor for Medical Education
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
David M. Holtzman, MD
Distinguished Faculty Award
Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor
Director, Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center
Scientific Director, Hope Center for Neurological Disorders
Department of Neurology
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Praised for his outstanding leadership, research, and commitment to education, David Holtzman, MD, is a nationally recognized leader in the field of neuroscience and in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. His lab, which focuses on the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, has played a crucial role in the scientific understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
His many notable breakthroughs include identifying effects and mechanisms underlying why APOE is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease portending new treatment strategies; demonstration that neural activity and sleep affect amyloid and tau levels, two key molecules involved in Alzheimer’s disease; identifying major effects and mechanisms as to how APOE influences the immune response to amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration – portending future treatment strategies; and development of blood and CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer’ disease. In addition, in 2007, he co-founded the startup C2N Diagnostics with Randall Bateman, MD. Following initial discoveries made at Washington University in the Bateman lab collaborating with the Holtzman lab, the company developed the first accurate, commercially available Alzheimer’s blood test in 2020.
As scientific director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, Holtzman seeks to improve the lives of people with neurological disorders by bringing together world-renowned scientists to conduct collaborative research that seeks to discover the fundamental mechanisms of neurodegeneration and repair. He fosters broad, collaborative research as director of the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, where he has been instrumental in accelerating the commercialization of new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including playing a leading role in WashU’s research collaboration with Eisai Co., Ltd., a Japanese pharmaceutical development company. As a founding member of WashU’s Philip and Sima Needleman Center for Autophagy Therapeutics and Research, he is integral to the medical school’s efforts to more broadly address diseases of aging through innovative drug development.
In addition to his work in the lab, Holtzman is a devoted educator with a deep commitment to preparing the next generation of scientists and medical professionals. Throughout his career, he has mentored over 70 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and physician-scientists, many of whom have pursued successful careers in academia and the health-care industry. As chair of the Department of Neurology from 2003-21, he elevated the unit by implementing state-of-the-art facilities and research initiatives. As he completed his time as chair of Neurology, the Department was ranked number one in the United States in regard to NIH funding.
Holtzman has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Jeffrey L. Morby Prize from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and the American Academy of Neurology Potamkin Prize. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the 2021 President’s Achievement Award from Barnes-Jewish Hospital for his accomplishments in advancing medicine, ensuring the delivery of world-class patient care, and educating the next generation of clinicians. At WashU, he was the recipient of the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award at Founders Day in 2015 and was a co-recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2013.
Holtzman earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Northwestern University. He completed his residency in neurology followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California San Francisco.
Special thanks to:
David H. Perlmutter, MD
Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor
George and Carol Bauer Dean
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Peter J. Kastor, PhD
Distinguished Faculty Award
Samuel K. Eddy Endowed Professor
Associate Vice Dean of Research
Professor of History and American Studies
Department of History
Arts & Sciences
Peter Kastor is an esteemed historian, educator, and nationally recognized expert in politics, policymaking, and culture in the United States. As the author or editor of eight books and numerous articles on American history, his scholarship on the American presidency and early U.S. history has significantly shaped both scholarly and public understanding of the country’s past and how to use those lessons to move forward.
He has reimagined the interpretation of major historical events such as the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Kastor’s digital project Creating a Federal Government uses technology to explore and bring to life the origin story of the U.S. government. Such creative use of technology to explain history in accessible ways has captured the interest of national audiences through various media outlets.
A committed public scholar, Kastor has written about politics and history in places like The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Fortune. Kastor has also recorded two courses for C-SPAN’s Lectures in History series. He has conducted educational programming and professional development for the St. Louis Public Schools, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Air War College. Earlier this semester he taught federal judges about how to work with difficult historical evidence.
Meanwhile, Kastor has made valuable contributions to WashU for more than 25 years. Known for his engaging teaching and dedicated mentorship, he has shaped the careers of countless students and has developed many highly sought courses, including “1984: One Weird Year,” recognized for its innovative use of politics, movies, music, and books to examine that critical year in U.S. history.
Having previously chaired the Department of History, he now supports the research mission of Arts & Sciences in the humanities, humanistic social sciences, and creative practice as the school’s inaugural associate vice dean of research. Under his leadership, fellowship and grant submissions from humanities faculty have markedly increased. He also leads the university’s Naming Review Board, which examines issues around institutional names to ensure that formally named spaces, professorships, and scholarships align with the university’s values.
Beyond the classroom, Kastor contributes his expertise to major St. Louis cultural institutions, including the Missouri Historical Society, where he is chair of the board of trustees. He has also volunteered his time with the Saint Louis Art Museum and the St. Louis Mercantile Library, where he previously served as board vice chair.
Kastor’s scholarly talents have been formally recognized on numerous occasions. He has received grants and fellowships from institutions including the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscripts Library at Yale, and the Newberry Library in Chicago. Kastor recently received a grant from the Taylor Geospatial Institute for his ongoing research in historic research analyzing and visualizing historic borders and borderlands in North America. His teaching has been recognized with the David Hadas Teaching Award and the Arts & Sciences’ Freshman Advisor of the Year at WashU and by the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators throughout the St. Louis Region.
Kastor earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Franklin & Marshall College and his master’s degree and doctorate in history from the University of Virginia.
Special thanks to:
Stephanie Kirk, PhD
Director of the Center for the Humanities
Professor of Spanish, Comparative Literature, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Arts & Sciences
Jonathan B. Losos, PhD
Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award
William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor
Director, Living Earth Collaborative
Department of Biology
Arts & Sciences
Jonathan Losos is an internationally renowned biologist whose visionary leadership in advancing the study of biodiversity has changed the course of evolutionary science. With deep roots and longstanding ties to WashU, his research on the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards has taken him around the world and firmly established his status as a global expert on the biodiversity of species.
Since 2018, Losos has served as co-director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a joint venture between WashU, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo that seeks to help ensure the future of Earth’s many different species through collaborative, interdisciplinary research among leading plant and animal biologists as well as other scholars. This unprecedented local partnership has a global impact: To date, the collaborative has supported 199 biodiversity fellows, 20 organizations, and 32 research projects in 19 countries.
Meanwhile, Losos is also the inaugural William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Biology, an honor established in 2016 to mark the occasion of former chancellor Danforth’s 90th birthday. As an educator, he is highly regarded by both colleagues and students for his kindness and humility, and he is known for nurturing curiosity and encouraging imaginative ideas. Throughout his career, he has helped launch the careers of dozens of graduate students and postdocs from a range of backgrounds.
Losos and his research team focus largely on the ecology of lizards, studying how lizards interact with their environment using experimental approaches to ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary questions. The Losos Laboratory has advanced theories about the nature of evolutionary processes — e.g., illustrating that evolution may take place faster than once believed — and has generated insights into the evolutionary adaptation of wild species to urban habitats. More recently, they have focused on the evolution of cats, reinforcing prior breakthrough findings about convergent evolution: the idea that common environmental factors drive evolutionary change and are most pronounced when species adapt similarly to the same environmental circumstances.
Losos began his academic career at WashU, serving as a member of the faculty from 1992-2006. He then returned to his alma mater, Harvard University, where he spent many years as the Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, and curator in herpetology (a subset of zoology focused on amphibians and reptiles) at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Thanks to his trailblazing work as both a researcher and educator, Losos has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, the latter of which awarded him the prestigious Elliott Medal. He has two books about cats to his credit: The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa, released in 2023, and more recently, Feline: Photographs, which pairs his essays about cats’ evolution alongside photographs by the renowned animal portraitist Tim Flach. He is also the author of Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution, an in-depth look at how rapid and predictable evolution can be.
Losos earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University and his doctorate in zoology from the University of California Berkley.
Special thanks to:
Crickette Sanz, MA ’01, PhD ’04
James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Chair and Professor of Biological Anthropology
Co-Director of the Living Earth Collaborative
Arts & Sciences
Charles F. Zorumski, MD
Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award
Samuel B. Guze Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Taylor Family Institute for Innovative Psychiatric Research
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Charles Zorumski, MD, enhances scientific understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders and helps improve mental health for patients as a dedicated researcher, clinician, and departmental leader at WashU Medicine. He has held extensive leadership roles and pioneered innovative therapeutic developments that advance the fields of psychiatry and neuroscience, including the development of neurosteroids as treatments for postpartum depression and other neuropsychiatric illnesses.
Zorumski has served as the Samuel B. Guze Professor of Psychiatry at WashU Medicine since 1998. In 2012, he founded the Taylor Family Institute for Innovative Psychiatric Research, a collaborative initiative focused on exploring and developing new treatments for psychiatric disorders. Current studies at the institute examine treatment-resistant major depression, brain circuits related to psychiatric dysfunction, and the neuroscience of various treatments. Zorumski also serves as co-director of the Silvio O. Conte Neuroscience Center at WashU Medicine, which conducts basic neuroscience research to explore the efficacy of novel therapies for treatment-resistant mood disorders. As part of the center’s expert team, Zorumski helps build a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the psychotropic effects of neuroactive steroids.
Well regarded as an administrator, mentor, and educator, Zorumski was named head of the WashU Department of Psychiatry in 1997, a position he held until 2022. During that time, he made significant connections across university schools and departments, including the neurobiology department at WashU Medicine, psychology in Arts & Sciences and the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. He served on the steering committee for the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, and as director of the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, he helped award grants to fund a wide variety of activities in research, education, and outreach that promote the scope and vibrancy of the WashU neuroscience community. He also chaired the Center for Brain Research in Mood Disorders, leading its mission to understand the biology underlying bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorders to develop more effective treatments for these illnesses.
Zorumski has served on the editorial boards of several prestigious industry publications, including JAMA Psychiatry and Neurobiology of Disease, and he is current deputy editor for Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews. Previously, he served on the board of scientific counselors for the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health, which seeks to better diagnose, treat, and prevent psychiatric disorders through cutting-edge scholarship. He is a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the American Psychopathological Association. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Medicine in 2012, where he served on the academy’s Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders.
Zorumski, whose work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1987, holds five patents and has published more than 400 scientific papers and five books, including Demystifying Psychiatry — A Resource for Patients and Families and Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience: A Primer. Co-authored with WashU psychiatry Professor Gene Rubin, MD/PhD, the former was recognized with the Distinguished Book Award in the health-care consumer category by the American Medical Writers Association.
Zorumski earned both his bachelor’s degree and medical degree from Saint Louis University and completed his residency in psychiatry at WashU Medicine.
Special thanks to:
Andrew C. Taylor
Washington University Honorary Emeritus Trustee
Executive Chairman
Enterprise Holdings