On Senior Day, May 8, Vanderbilt hosted Study Breaks for students and their families. These learning sessions were conducted by Vanderbilt faculty members Benoit Dawant, Colin Dayan, John Geer, Roy Neel, Claire Smrekar and Sten Vermund.
“Computer-assisted Placement of Deep Brain Stimulators for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease”
Benoit M. Dawant is a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Vanderbilt. His main research interests include medical image processing and analysis. He directs a team of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are developing imageguided systems to assist in the placement of deep brain stimulators used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Dawant has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific papers in the area of medical image analysis, and he is the recipient of the “most often cited paper” award in the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, one of the leading scientific journals in this area. Watch with Windows Media Player or with Real Player.
“Public Schools at the Workplace: the New American Neighborhood”
Claire E. Smrekar is an associate professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. Currently involved in a study of public housing reform and neighborhood schools; Smrekar’s research focuses upon the social context of education and education policy including the influence of work structures, social networks and neighborhoods on family-schoolcommunity relationships. She is the author of two books: The Impact of School Choice and Community: In the Interest of Families and Schools and School Choice in Urban America: Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Equity. Her research has been featured in multiple national newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. In 2002, she was featured on “60 Minutes” in a segment that highlighted her research related to student achievement in Department of Defense-managed schools. Watch with Windows Media Player or with Real Player.
“Words Behind Bars”
Colin Dayan is the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities. Few scholars today bring together varied fields as intricately and firmly as Dayan. Her research encompasses Caribbean literature, religion and history, American literature, anthropology, and the law. The recipient of numerous awards, including Danforth, NEH, and Guggenheim fellowships, her major fields include Caribbean social history and literature (especially Haiti and Jamaica); early American religious and legal history; nineteenth century American, French, and English literary history; African-American studies and American studies. Her latest book, The Story of Cruel and Unusual, is a searing indictment of the American penal system. Watch with Windows Media Player or with Real Player.
“Vanderbilt in Rural Africa”
Sten H.Vermund, M.D. is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist, Amos Christie Chair in Global Health; and director of the Institute for Global Health at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine. He is primary investigator for several current projects including: care/treatment of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique; the Vanderbilt-UAB AIDS International Training Research Program: cervical cancer screening in HIV-infected women in India; the Vanderbilt-Meharry Framework Program in Global Health, and the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center. Dr. Vermund received the Superior Service Award, the highest civilian recognition in the U.S. Public Health Service, for this work in preparing HIV vaccine trials infrastructures when he worked in the NISD/NIH. He founded both the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia and Friends in Global Health, LLC, a non-governmental organization in Mozambique. Watch with Windows Media Player or with Real Player.
Media contact: Jim Patterson (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu