mark wrighton. president wrighton a highly distinguished career academically in chemistry and holds many academic and civic honors. he was the chancellor of washington university in st. louis for 24 years prior to joining us at g.w. in january of 2022. we're delighted to have him as our president and we are delighted to have him here this evening. president wrighton? [applause] >> thank you, amy, and good evening, everyone. amy, thank you for the leadership you are bringing to our university in terms of encouraging civic engagement and service efforts. i appreciate very much your special work. as president of the george washington university, i'm pleased to welcome all of you to this dialogue on finding common ground on guns. this is an issue that has long been very important to me personally. i mentored together with my wife a young woman for about seven years. and she was murdered by gunfire in st. louis. this engaged me very deeply in terms of recognizing that we have a major problem in the unite