The 10 most popular Vanderbilt research news stories of 2022

Vanderbilt

This year’s roundup of the most popular news articles highlights the wide reach and positive impact of Vanderbilt’s research and innovation, showing “we are an extraordinary learning and research community—and a destination for world-class scholars,” as Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said in September. 

  1. One of the world’s leading structural biologists, John Kuriyan, is named the next dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, advancing our goal to expand Vanderbilt’s global research impact.
  2. Vanderbilt achieves its best-ever overallU.S. News & World ReportBest Colleges ranking. 
  3. A statewide Vanderbilt Poll shows simmering voter malaise over inflation and other stressors, possibly influencing Tennesseans’ attitudes toward elected leaders. 
  4. Black women’s maternal mortality rate is typically double that of white women, according to a Vanderbilt study, “demonstrating how racism and sexism work together to weaken the likelihood of motherhood not only via infant mortality, but also maternal mortality.” 
  5. A 2022 Sloan Research Fellowship, one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers, is awarded to Richard Sando, assistant professor of pharmacology. 
  6. These two students started out as rock climbing partners, now they’re business partners too. 

    Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Karl Zelik, center, collaborated with soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to develop SABER.
  7. For the first time since 2015, Vanderbilt Poll respondents “are no longer as rosy about Nashville’s future … people think the city is going in the wrong direction.”  
  8. To help meet the national demand for registered nurses, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing launches a master of nursing degree geared toward people with a bachelor’s degree in another field or who are looking for a career change.  
  9. Collaboration focuses on “deeply understanding soldier needs to develop a lightweight, low-profile, nonpowered” exoskeleton in inaugural Pathfinder Project. 
  10. Rather than focusing on climate science, Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science’s new climate studies major integrates natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to give students a comprehensive perspective on climate change, its challenges and its possible solutions.