Reagan Villet

As holiday shopping picks up, we often see an increase in online scams targeting our community. To promote safer browsing and purchasing practices, the Office of Cybersecurity has created two quick and easy-to-share resources for students. Read More

The Vanderbilt Graduate Student Council has announced the winners of the 2025 Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards, which honor the hard work and leadership of Vanderbilt graduate students schoolwide. Awards were presented at an awards ceremony in April of this year. The awards recognize outstanding service, mentorship, departmental leadership, student advocacy, research and best overall. Read More

Vanderbilt University served as the convening host for a major World Economic Forum gathering on Monday, Nov. 10, bringing leaders from government, industry, academia and civil society to Nashville for a full day of discussion on how states and regions can navigate a rapidly changing national and global environment. The program, “Regional Leadership in a New Global Context,” explored emerging trends shaping the future of workforce development, energy, health care, technology and national security.   Read More

Some people may worry about being bitten by a snake or spider, but have you ever considered what would happen if a small black hole tried to pass through your body? An article by Professor of Physics Robert Scherrer in the International Journal of Modern Physics D poses and answers that very question. Scherrer set out to find what the gravitational effects would be if a primordial black hole passed through the human body, helping scientists better understand the properties of dark matter. Read More

A new potential treatment for schizophrenia discovered through the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery has entered phase 1 clinical trials, marking the fifth WCNDD therapeutic to advance into human testing. Read More

A new study led by Aditya Kurre, BA’22, and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Guggenheim Fellow Larisa DeSantis has revealed the specific diet of two species of giant ground sloth, uncovering the vital roles they played in their environments. Their findings could help scientists restore ecosystems that once thrived thanks to these massive mammals. Read More

As conversations about the value and nature of higher education continue at colleges and universities nationwide, a new national Vanderbilt Unity Poll finds that Americans are largely united on the fundamental value of higher education—and in their distaste for the influence of politics and the cost of college degrees.  Read More

Vanderbilt Crowdfunding, an initiative in its inaugural year, offers a new level of possibility through student-led philanthropy. Supported by university resources provided by the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, the forward-looking approach to engagement and philanthropy reframes fundraising from a formal transaction to a shared investment in future leaders—to a community coming together for support. Read More

Vanderbilt's Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization had an exceptional 2025 fiscal year, setting all-time records across multiple metrics while expanding the university's innovation impact. CTTC experienced growth in technology disclosures, licensing transactions, industry-sponsored research, and startups launched—demonstrating the university's commitment to expanding the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Read More

Applications are now open for the next cycle of EAT!, a free program that provides international students and scholars a chance to enjoy American food and culture with a local family. Read More

Winners from the latest cycle of the Ignite Tech Development Grant have been announced, showcasing the diverse potential of emerging learning technology innovation. This year’s competition attracted a strong and diverse applicant pool from across Vanderbilt’s schools and all academic levels, from undergraduates to faculty. The winning proposals focus on learning that spans the spectrum from math to empathy to AI ethics. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have partnered with Amazon Web Services to launch the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS. This initiative, the first of AWS’s cloud innovation programs to be housed in an academic library and focused on archival preservation, was celebrated Oct. 27 at a ribbon-cutting event and reception on the Vanderbilt campus. Read More

Vanderbilt University has received a catalytic $30 million gift from John Addison, BE’01, and Shannon Addison, BS’02, to ignite a bold new era of innovation at the School of Engineering. Their visionary contribution serves as the lead commitment for Power the Impossible, a new $300 million fundraising campaign in support of the School of Engineering. Building on the remarkable momentum of the university’s record-breaking Dare to Grow campaign, Power the Impossible will position Vanderbilt Engineering among the world’s most influential, impactful and recognized engineering institutions of this century. Read More

A new PBS Kids series created to help children better understand the impact of weather and climate took instructional cues from Jeremi London, associate provost for academic opportunity and associate professor of mechanical engineering, who played a role in the show’s development. Read More

Schizophrenia has been proven to be heritable, but typical analyses so far haven’t been able to pinpoint what, genetically, is going wrong in the brain. A new paper by Professor Bingshan Li and research instructor Rui Chen outlines how to improve on existing genetic screening for schizophrenia risk by expanding the areas of the chromosome scanned for genetic signals. Their results point to a “tangible biological pathway—and potential treatment target—linking genetic risk to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia,” Chen said. Read More

Shan Meltzer has been awarded a prestigious Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award to advance her pioneering research that seeks to determine how the body’s sensory circuits form and function. Her work seeks to answer a fundamental question in neuroscience: how do the brain and spinal cord organize their intricate networks to perform such a wide range of functions? Read More

As AI usage grows, so too does the energy demand on AI-related infrastructure. Experts in energy and energy policy discussed the environmental ramifications during the 2025 Vanderbilt AI Symposium. Read More

Vanderbilt University hosted more than 5,700 alumni and guests on campus Nov. 6–9 for Reunion and Homecoming 2025. This year’s attendance was the largest in university history—even surpassing 2022’s Triple Reunion. The weekend schedule featured more than 85 events showcasing the university’s latest programs and initiatives, deepening connections among alumni celebrating milestone class years, and welcoming back all alumni for Homecoming.   Read More

Vanderbilt (VU + VUMC, collaboratively) may nominate one candidate for the Mary Kay Foundation Innovative/Translational Cancer Research Grant program for 2026. Read More

International Education Week is an annual celebration of international education and cultural exchange. Created in 2000 through a memorandum issued by President Bill Clinton, IEW recognizes the importance of global exchange—whether it is encouraging students in the U.S. to study abroad or welcoming international students and scholars on U.S. campuses. Colleges and universities throughout the U.S. host IEW in mid-November each year with an array of programming that highlights the broad impact of international education on each campus.  Read More