Releases

Class of 2023: Grace Locke’s desire to better understand the immigration system and people fleeing their homelands, along with her gift for multiple languages, has uniquely positioned the political science and Spanish double major to make an impact.  Read More

Class of 2023: The day Vanessa Ajeh was born in a Nigerian hospital, both she and her mother almost died due to the hospital’s lack of advanced medical resources and training for its staff. That terrifying start to her life is the touchstone propelling Ajeh, a medicine, health and society and Spanish double major, to be a changemaker in her community and pursue a future career in neonatal medicine. Read More

Class of 2023: Lucy Kim came from South Korea with the goal of earning a Ph.D. in English. Read about the powerful impact she's had while helping hundreds of students find their voice at Vanderbilt’s Writing Studio. Read More

Legendary German ambassador, the first to serve in a united Germany since 1941 and the facilitator of President Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech, has been named Vanderbilt University Distinguished Ambassador in Residence. Read More

From hosting a mobile food pantry to the Empty Bowls studio art project to food drives sponsored by Vanderbilt Student Government or the University Staff Advisory Council, the Vanderbilt community has engaged with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee in myriad ways over the past decade.   Read More

As Vanderbilt University dares to grow while observing its Sesquicentennial this year, the campus welcomes a new tree to mark the occasion. The Bur Oak is the first part of a robust plan to plant more trees in honor of Vanderbilt’s 150th anniversary. Read More

The Department of Energy has renewed its partnership with the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation. Vanderbilt’s Laboratory for Systems Integrity and Reliability is funded by an investment from IACMI. Read More

Layan Ibrahim, Master of Public Health Class of 2023, was named to the 2023–24 class of Luce Scholars. The Luce Scholars Program is a nationally competitive fellowship program launched by the Henry Luce Foundation to enhance the understanding of Asia among potential leaders in American society. Read More

Meet some members of the Class of 2023 who are pursuing unique and impactful paths with enthusiasm, intellect and a strong vision. Read More

The cultural evolution of a population depends not only on size but also on the degree of specialization within a population, according to a new study published last month by a team of scientists including Nicole Creanza. The study found that populations can increase their cultural repertoire by subdividing knowledge into smaller groups, but the total group must be sufficiently large for specialization to be advantageous. Read More

A new study led by members of Ann Tate’s lab found evidence that pleiotropy may slow down evolution of genes involved in immunity. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers detail the landscape of RNA editing — a form of RNA modification — in primary effusion lymphoma cells during Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and identify an edited viral microRNA that is critical for infection. Read More

Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries announced a grant of $350,000 from the NEH that is enabling Vanderbilt to partner with Texas A&M and Marquette universities to continue preserving the history of Syriac culture, a medieval dialect once spoken widely by Middle Eastern Christian communities.  Read More

A team of engineering seniors has designed an embedded thermoelectric generator to convert that wavy shimmer of heat that rises from hot asphalt—waste heat radiation—into electrical energy. To protect soldiers’ hands from heat burns while rappelling from helicopters, another team has created ‘fast rope’ insertion gloves. These design projects and 52 more will be on display at the Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s Design Day 2023, Monday, April 24. Read More

Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Tiffiny Tung announced new roles designed to streamline collaboration and communication across teams. Read More

Kevin Leach, assistant professor of computer science, has won an Amazon Research Award in the fall 2022 awards cycle. The Amazon funds will allow him to advance the state of the art in robust document understanding by developing new iterative methods for collecting and labeling training data. Read More

Tennessee’s open COVID testing policy reduced actual COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Costs of expanded testing were so low that essentially any reduction in the number of deaths due to the policy would justify its cost. Read More

Justitia, an independent and nonpartisan think tank based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has opened its first U.S. location at Vanderbilt University. The expansion of the "The Future of Free Speech" project, led by Justitia CEO Jacob Mchangama, aims to advance the global culture of free speech. Read More

Meet some members of the Class of 2023 whose inspired collaborations—within Vanderbilt, across the Nashville community and beyond—are making the world better.  Read More

Graduate student Reese Martin and his doctoral advisor, Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, used theoretical modeling to identify a potential relationship between genetic pleiotropy and the evolution of immune responses. Read More