Releases

August Washington, whose 30-year law enforcement career has included service at six universities, was named the police chief and an assistant vice chancellor of Vanderbilt University on Monday. He begins work on July 27. Read More

Nationally hailed composer, performer, violinist, bandleader and Vanderbilt alumnus Daniel Bernard Roumain (known professionally as DBR) has been appointed visiting associate professor of composition for the 2009-2010 academic year at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. Read More

Neural "noise" may cause you to miss important changes in your environment when you are concentrating on something else, new research indicates. Read More

Health and social service professionals who care for adults with depression should not only tackle their clients' physical and mental health, but also detect and prevent possible spillover effects on their children, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. Read More

Forget the old folk tales about snakes hypnotizing their prey. The tentacled snake from South East Asia has developed a more effective technique. The small water snake has found a way to startle its prey so that the fish turn toward the snake's head to flee instead of turning away. In addition, the fish's reaction is so predictable that the snake actually aims its strike at the position where the fish's head will be instead of tracking its movement. Read More

Eligible veterans can attend Vanderbilt University at a significantly reduced cost thanks to the school's participation in the Yellow Ribbon GI Educational Enhancement Program. Read More

Our tendency to see people and faces as individuals may explain why we are such experts at recognizing them, new research indicates. This approach can be learned and applied to other objects as well. Read More

When a homegrown politician dies suddenly, local companies show the loss of a valuable connection immediately in their share prices, according to research from the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Read More

Jason Martin, a fellow in allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine, is part of an interdisciplinary team at Vanderbilt University that has come up with a high-tech approach to combat this deadly illness, which is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States and kills more than half a million people worldwide every year. Read More

Nelson C. Andrews, widely regarded as one of Nashville's greatest philanthropists, humanitarians and civic leaders, died June 13 of leukemia at the age of 82. Andrews, a 1949 Vanderbilt graduate, served on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust since 1979. He was elected trustee emeritus in 2003. Read More

Nora Spencer has been named the new director of the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center at Vanderbilt, a year after she joined Vanderbilt as the director of the first full-time office to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community at Vanderbilt University. The appointment is effective July 1. Read More

The Morris K. Udall Foundation has selected Vanderbilt University students Jeremy Doochin and Rebecca S. Maddox among its crop of 2009 Udall Scholars. Read More

Visit Peabody College’s Web site at http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/ Bonnie Arant Ertelt, Editor Donna Pritchett, Art Director Michael Smeltzer, Designer Lew Harris, Assistant Editor Nelson Bryan, Class Notes Editor Lacy Tite, Web Edition Design and Development Contributors: Geordie Brackin, Kurt Brobeck, Xiu Cravens, Jennie Edwards, Jennifer Johnston, Melanie Moran, Ann Marie Deer… Read More

Connie Vinita Dowell, M.L.S.’79, with three decades of experience working in academic libraries, began her new position as the university’s first dean of libraries in March. Dowell previously served as dean of the library and information access at San Diego State University.  Connie Vinita Dowell, MLS’79, is Vanderbilt’s first… Read More

Two new faculty members, both in the Department of Psychology and Human Development, joined Peabody College in January. Professor Amy Needham, whose research emphasizes cognitive, motor and perceptual development in infants, came from Duke University.  Professor Bruce McCandliss conducts studies using fMRI and other technologies that place him on the leading… Read More

Peabody College of education and human development is the best graduate school of its kind in the nation, according to rankings released by U.S. News & World Report. “We are very pleased by this ranking, which speaks to the high quality of the college and especially our faculty, our students… Read More

The Susan Gray School has achieved national reaccreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Susan Gray School is one of the first programs in the nation to achieve reaccreditation under new, more extensive and more stringent NAEYC standards, which were released in the fall of… Read More

For the second year in a row, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recognized the Peabody Reflector in January during its annual District III competition. The magazine won a Special Merit Award in the Alumni Magazines I division. Read More

Vanderbilt will serve as a research partner to the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a nonpartisan initiative established by former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist that seeks education reform in Tennessee. Frist was joined at the announcement by Gov. Phil Bredesen, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Tim Webb, Nashville Mayor Karl… Read More

Tracy Cummings, a graduate student in the Experimental Education Research and Training program, received the NASA Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy Award in Washington, D.C., last September. The Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) is a national program with 22 sites in 17 states. Cummings worked with a team that… Read More