Year: 2011

After more than 15 years of treating movement disorders with deep brain stimulation, Vanderbilt is offering the procedure to patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). “In movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, there is an imbalance in the brain’s motor system. The cognitive circuit is a mirror of the motor circuit, and… Read More

Physicist James Dickerson (left) is one of the first scientists to probe graphene’s interaction with water. Pictured with him is graduate student Saad Hasan. Windshields that shed water so effectively they don’t need wipers. Ship hulls so slippery that they glide through water more efficiently than ordinary hulls. These are… Read More

Vanderbilt’s squash team, a club sport, won its division and a national title at the 2011 Men’s National Team Championships in February, with a 5–4 victory over MIT. All other teams in their division were varsity squads. The team was led this year by captains Tyler Kopp (left) and Austin… Read More

Marina Alex started the 2011 spring season ranked No. 10 in individual rankings. On a soggy afternoon at the Vanderbilt Legends Club, a dozen or so men bundled in sweaters and rain gear lined the driving range. The ground had long been rain-soaked, and forecasters called for snow to begin… Read More

Babies Learn Best from Parents Troseth Research from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia finds that infants learn little to nothing from popular educational videos and learn most from face-to-face interactions with their parents and other familiar figures. The research is in press at the journal Psychological Science. “After… Read More

“To point the finger at teachers and say it’s all your fault is something you won’t see me doing. There are places where we want to engage and we will disagree, but it won’t be about saying that teachers are at fault.” —Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, speaking Jan. 26… Read More

Vanderbilt participants in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are, from left: David Weintraub, Leslie Hebb, Andreas Berlind, Trey Mack, Keivan Stassun and Kelly Holley-Bockelmann. Imagine a picture of the sky so big that it would take 500,000 high-definition TVs to view it at full resolution. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey… Read More

Dr. Jeffrey Sosman, Dr. William Pao and Dr. Cindy Vnencak-Jones gather in the Molecular Genetics Lab for the launch of the new Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative.Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has become the first cancer center in the Southeast and one of the first in the nation to offer… Read More

ClintonThe top three priorities for Tennessee’s elected officials should be the economy, education and health care, according to a new poll launched by Vanderbilt. A majority of respondents rated the state’s economic condition as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions undertook its first… Read More

A surgeon at Vanderbilt holds his index finger against a fetus’ hand in utero during surgery With the conclusion of a landmark seven-year study showing clear benefits for babies who undergo fetal surgery to treat spina bifida, Vanderbilt has begun offering the delicate procedure, which repairs a baby’s spine while… Read More

Jean Heard was a graduate of the Juilliard School and an active studio musician in Nashville. During the past few days as I was thinking about these words to honor Jean Heard, a still, small voice in the back of my mind kept repeating something the fifth chancellor of Vanderbilt… Read More

“Nobody writes letters much anymore,” goes a common lament among alumni magazine editors. Who doesn’t like to receive letters? And who doesn’t enjoy reading a fat, juicy letters section? It’s often the first thing I turn to when I open a magazine, especially when I’m reading a publication I’ve never… Read More

Lifting lives with song! See how Vanderbilt was spotlighted at the ACM Awards. Plus, a new label to put consumers in the “green,” and are menthol cigarettes more dangerous than regular smokes? It’s all in this week’s VUCast newscast. [vucastblurb]… Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a laboratory for health care reform. Increasingly, Vanderbilt researchers are applying their expertise in informatics, genomics, drug discovery, basic science and clinical medicine to the solution of critical problems in patient care. Bedside checklists and electronic “dashboards” developed at Vanderbilt, for example, enable doctors and… Read More

Antioxidant compounds may counteract the neurotoxic effects of methylmercury, new research suggests. Read More

I’ve always been fascinated, and occasionally frustrated, by the tendency of string, yarn, rope and wire – any thing that is long, thin and flexible – to knot and tangle. Fields Medal winner Vaughan F.R. Jones Clearly, I’m not the only one. Mathematicians have been studying knots… Read More

Illegal immigrants are finding it increasingly harder to find work, pay taxes and submit tax returns because of tighter immigration restrictions. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers from the Department of Pediatrics, Peabody College and the Divinity School joined with parent advocates for a panel discussion on the ethical considerations of "curing" disabilities. Read More

David Lowe, an expert in Russian literature who taught at Vanderbilt for three decades, died April 9. He was 63. Read More

SAVY provides a dynamic learning experience to gifted children in kindergarten through grade six. Read More