Releases

Three years ago, when the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status, the unpopular decision was based on personal opinions and professional politics, not on rigorous scientific criteria that can clearly differentiate planets from lesser bodies, points out Vanderbilt astronomer David Weintraub. In the next decade, however, the amount of knowledge that we have about Pluto and another dwarf planet, Ceres, will change dramatically and this new information may affect our views of these objects and their status in the solar system as asteroids, dwarf planets or planets. Read More

One of the best things the world can do to promote peace and stability in the coming century is to expand commercial nuclear power based on the extraction of uranium from the ocean. That is the proposition which Frank Parker, an internationally recognized expert in remediation of radioactively contaminated soil and water and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, advanced at an exclusive meeting held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican last month. Read More

Professor of Special Education Carolyn Hughes has won a $30,000 grant from the Organization for Autism Research to fund a pilot project that will help high school students with autism become more included and involved in their schools and with their peers. Read More

The Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO) along with Vanderbilt Athletics will offer recycling at all Vanderbilt men's and women's home basketball games, beginning Saturday, Jan. 2, with the game against Southern Mississippi. Read More

Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Kelly Holley-Bockelmann has been awarded the National Science Foundation's largest ever Faculty Early Career Development grant in the field of astronomy. She will use the prestigious award to continue her studies of black holes while supporting the university's innovative program designed to make the university the top producer of underrepresented minorities with Ph.D.s in physics and astronomy. Read More

A workshop on transformational leadership will be held Jan. 16 at Vanderbilt University. The public is invited to the 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. event in the reading room of Vanderbilt Divinity School, 411 21st Ave. S. Read More

They’re on the frontline of the workday world – filling our coffee cups, trimming our hair, holding Sunday open houses – but workers in some service jobs in Tennessee are at a higher risk of not having access to health care coverage through their employers, according to a study conducted… Read More

Christina West, director of federal relations for Vanderbilt University, has been named assistant vice chancellor for federal relations. West will continue to run the university's Washington office and will direct all federal government relations activities for Vanderbilt. Read More

Vanderbilt and Peabody faculty are available to offer perspective on education issues and other current topics for the year 2010. Read More

Vanderbilt University faculty are available to offer perspective on business issues and other current topics for the year 2010. Read More

As you consider year-in-review stories and look ahead to the trends of 2010, Vanderbilt University faculty are available to offer perspective on these and other topics. mailto:bruce.barry@vanderbilt.edu Read More

Vanderbilt University has named Michael Brown associate director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Life. Read More

Vanderbilt University is already gearing up for spring with the launch of its new Web site on all things Commencement at www.vanderbilt.edu/commencement. Read More

Randall Kenan, an acclaimed author of novels, short stories, memoir and commentary, will read from his work at Vanderbilt University on Jan. 28. Read More

A large national study of economic behavior led by a Vanderbilt researcher has found that effective recycling laws encourage reluctant recyclers to become committed recyclers. Read More

As the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit continues, two Vanderbilt researchers suggest that regardless of whether or not the meeting is successful in bringing public governance measures to bear, significant carbon reductions can be achieved by creating private incentives to reduce carbon emissions. Read More

A team of MBA students from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management took second place in a prestigious MBA case competition, the University of Texas at Austin National Real Estate Challenge. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Police Department has earned accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., whose programs are open to law enforcement agencies around the world. Read More

Luke Froeb, a Vanderbilt University business professor and former Chief Economist at the FTC said he sees very little horizontal overlap in the NBC/Comcast merger. But that wouldn't necessarily stop the Federal Communications Commission from asking for relief to assuage competitive and diversity concerns, said Froeb. Read More

Walburga von Raffler-Engel, a widely published linguistics expert who taught at Vanderbilt University for two decades, died on Nov. 28 in San Antonio. She was 89. Read More