Month: November 2012

The first school system"report card" the Birmingham Education Foundation released Thursday is the product of the two-year-old organization's efforts to qualify and quantify the challenges and opportunities of the Birmingham City Schools system. In the last year, two graduate students from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education have distilled more than 14,000 complaints and suggestions that more than 2,000 residents and parents gave at 125 community meetings and focus groups. Read More

Vanderbilt research looks at how consumers value products based on price and popularity. Read More

Melissa Gresalfi Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations Gary Henry, professor of public policy and education, coming from UNC-Chapel Hill Rachel Robinson, lecturer, coming from Innova8tive Consulting and Hospital Corporation of America Kay Stafford, lecturer, coming from Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Department of Psychology and Human Development Joe Rodgers,… Read More

Nancy Lorenzi, Ph.D., assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs and professor of Biomedical Informatics, has received the Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence, internationally recognized as the capstone award in biomedical informatics. Read More

Dan Roden, M.D., assistant vice chancellor for Personalized Medicine and William Stokes Professor of Experimental Therapeutics, received a 2012 Distinguished Scientist Award at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) last week in Los Angeles. Read More

Mriganka Sur, Ph.D., will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 29. Read More

Under the direction of cardiologist Rebecca Hung, M.D., Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute is offering advanced heart failure services at its Columbia, Tenn., office. Read More

The American Board of Thoracic Surgery has elected two Vanderbilt surgeons to its 17-member board of directors. Read More

Matthew Weinger, M.D., professor of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, has been elected a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in recognition of his achievements and contributions to the society. Read More

(photo by Anne Rayner) Randy Blakely, Ph.D., left, shares a laugh with Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., and Elisabeth Dykens, Ph.D., at the fifth annual Conte Center Symposium, held recently in the Vanderbilt Law School’s Flynn Auditorium. Entitled “The Younger Games: Serotonin Science Comes of Age,” the symposium featured presentations by… Read More

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing honored students, faculty and staff during a special Veterans Day celebration this week. Read More

The International Cardiovascular Scholars Exchange program, sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, is co-hosting the inaugural Advances in Cardiovascular Care Conference, which has adopted the theme “Hearts of Legends: Extending the Heart Beat of Jamaica.” Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have received a $2.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to continue studying ways to improve sedation management for intensive care unit patients who are on mechanical ventilators. Read More

Antioxidants promote cell growth in a mouse model of prostate cancer, Vanderbilt researchers report in the journal PLoS ONE. The findings provide insight into the recent controversy regarding antioxidants and prostate cancer prevention. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nursing conducted its 2012 Bylaws Convention earlier this week. The Nursing Bylaws are reviewed and amended every two years to ensure they are an up-to-date governing guide for VUMC’s nearly 6,000-member nursing workforce. Read More

An inherited lung disease does not appear to have earlier onset and increased severity – a phenomenon called genetic anticipation – in successive generations. Read More

Doug Fisher, associate professor of computer science, participated in a panel discussion at the Ithaka Sustainable Scholarship conference. This year's topic was the impact of digital learning technology on scholarly practices and notions of quality in the academy. Read More

A new academic year finds Vanderbilt’s Peabody College advancing its agenda of intellectual innovation, rigorous research, and translation of our efforts into practice. In particular, this fall we are excited to launch a new doctoral program in educational neuroscience—the nation’s first. Peabody researchers are collaborating with scholars drawn from throughout… Read More

Through a set of experiments, Gordon Logan, Nashville musician Jerry Kimbrough and Matthew Crump (now of Brooklyn College-CUNY) have illustrated that guitarists – and players of other related instruments like mandolin, banjo and bass – tend to acquire their skills differently than most other musicians. Read More

They spent a total of $1 billion on TV ads, but most were instantly forgettable—and none swayed opinion. Next time, writes John G. Geer, make the ads memorable. Read More