A faculty member, Edmund Engler earned the first Ph.D. at Washington University in 1892. He would later become the dean of the School of Engineering.  The first student to earn a Ph.D. at Washington University was a woman, Anna Isabel Mulford, in 1895. She was a graduate student in the botany program. Dr. Mulford's handwritten dissertation examined Agaves in the United States and is located in the University Archives.  She subsequently discovered several species of which some, including Mulford's milkvetch, were named for her.

The School of Graduate Studies was established in 1922, and was renamed the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in 1947. The present organization of the Graduate School dates from 1964, when the faculties of the Graduate School of the College coalesced into a single Faculty of Arts & Sciences. The Graduate School, the College, and the Faculty are each headed by a full dean. The School’s 1964 constitution is still in effect today; among its clauses is the stipulation that the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences will confer all Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at Washington University.

Graduate Deans in Arts & Sciences