Year: 2011

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s weekly newscast  highlighting  research, experts, students, sports and everything Vanderbilt: A Vanderbilt doctor’s amazing surgery lands on “Grey’s Anatomy” Scientists create a breakthrough bug repellant A Vandy minister’s actions honored by the White House   [vucastblurb]  … Read More

Fall 2011 finds Vanderbilt’s Peabody College deeply engaged with critical issues confronting both educators and schools of education. On questions of policy, educational neuroscience, or learning and instruction, the Peabody faculty is making valuable contributions to discovery, dissemination and public discourse. We are similarly involved with questions about the role,… Read More

Watch video of Dr. Kara Cooney speaking Nov. 3 on “Egyptian Burial Practices.” The host of the Discovery Channel series “Out of Egypt” and an assistant professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California-Los Angeles examines the mummy as evidence of adaptations made in reaction to the… Read More

Since he can remember, Hani Bleibel, M.D., a nephrology fellow at VUMC, has always wanted to be a physician. What he didn’t know was that one of the lives he would save would be his father’s. When Bleibel first entered school at Kursk State Medical University in his native Russia,… Read More

Watch video from the November 2 Thinking Out of the Lunchbox event. Vicki Greene, professor of Physics and Astronomy, spoke on “Newton’s Unfinished Business.” What is the universe really made of? From Newton onward, the concept of mass, or inertia, has been central to our understanding of the nature of… Read More

Talk to people who know David Merryman best, and one adjective is heard frequently: passionate. Talk to Merryman yourself and it is easy to see why. Discussing his research, the assistant professor of biomedical engineering seems ready to leap out of his chair at any moment, perhaps to tweak the… Read More

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications do not increase the risk for heart disease or heart attack in children and young adults, according to a Vanderbilt study of 1.2 million patients taking drugs including Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta and Strattera between 1998 and 2005. Read More

Sarah Barr, senior Child Studies major, Spanish minor On campus activities: AXO, Vice President of Vanderbilt Performing Arts Council, member of Green Dots committee, Reformed University Fellowship music team, VUcept Claim to fame: Singer/songwriter    … Read More

The long list of Republican presidential candidates continue to duke it out in the debates. Soon they will be heading to the earlier than usual primaries in January 2012.  Professor of Political Science Bruce Oppenheimer says things are still looking good for Mitt Romney. View 2012 election expertise information… Read More

What makes some members of Congress better than others at moving bills through the legislative process? Alan Wiseman, co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, has taken an in depth look at Congress’ last 35 years and tells us why women may have the upper hand. Read More

Pioneering efforts by the Black Panther Party to pursue equality in health care will be discussed Nov. 8 during a lecture at Vanderbilt University. Read More

A network of scientists who study how the brain acquires visual expertise has received a five-year renewal of support from the National Science Foundation. Read More

Dean Camilla P. Benbow camilla.benbow@vanderbilt.edu Editor Kurt Brobeck, Director of Communications
 kurt.brobeck@vanderbilt.edu Contributors Camilla P. Benbow, Melanie Moran , Jim Patterson, Courtney Taylor, Jennifer Wetzel Photography Mary Donaldson, Daniel Dubois, Steve Green, Wolf Hoffmann, Lauren Owens, John Russell, Adam Waterson Illustration… Read More

Matthew Springer Teacher salaries are largely set by schedules which are neither performance related nor market-driven and have significant consequences on school staffing and workforce quality, new research from the National Center on Performance Incentives at Peabody College finds. “We know the way in which we currently compensate K-12 public school teachers… Read More

An analysis of the amount, timing and causes of infant mortality among newborns with Down syndrome is the focus of new research by Vanderbilt Kennedy Center investigators Robert Hodapp and Richard Urbano and recent Peabody graduate and Kennedy Center trainee, Samantha Goldman. The findings, reported in the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, conclude infants with Down… Read More

Who will be our next President?  A lot depends on what happens to our ailing economy between now and election day. But, presidential historian Thomas Schwartz says another factor will depend on which candidate has the clearest vision for success. View 2012 election expertise information for Thomas Schwartz >>… Read More

Thomas Smith Fort Worth Independent School District is the latest partner in a national center at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College that aims to identify programs, practices, processes and policies that make some high schools more effective at reaching low-performing students.

 Fort Worth Independent School District, or FWISD, officially joined the… Read More

If you think campaign spending during the last presidential election was a lot, you haven’t seen anything yet. Distinguished Professor of Political Science John Geer says this will be the first presidential race since the landmark “Citizens United” 2010 Supreme Court ruling, which ended most restrictions on donations by… Read More

Attack ads are already hitting the airwaves during this presidential election. John Geer, who wrote the book In Defense of Negativity which analyzes negative ads during the 1960-2004 presidential campaigns, discusses the media’s role in the attack ad wars. View 2012 election expertise information for John Geer… Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s weekly newscast highlighting research, experts, students, sports and everything Vanderbilt: Occupy Wall Street: A historical look at the new protest movement A cool way to learn how your brain really works with “Brain Matters” See the best of Memorial Madness! [vucastblurb]… Read More