Research Blog

Sen. Lamar Alexander (Courtesy of Congress) Imagine a world where American research universities lag behind those in other nations, can no longer be counted upon to make major new scientific discoveries and, as a consequence, money flows to businesses in Bangalore or Beijing that capitalize on their… Read More

Vanderbilt chemist John McLean served as one of the 14 members of the NRC expert committee that prepared a report in September that recommends the potential of new methods for monitoring the process of destroying the remainder of the nation’s aging stockpile of chemical warfare munitions that could reduce the time and expense involved by almost two thirds. Read More

Electrical engineering professor Alan Peters has posted the lecture notes to his popular introductory image processing course online. Read More

Jessica Mazerik is a graduate student in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. As scientists, our ability to obtain funding, publish papers, and generate interest in our research is dependent upon our ability to successfully “sell” our scientific data and ideas – that is, to convince… Read More

An amputee using a prosthetic leg designed at Vanderbilt made history by climbing 103 flights of stairs to the top of a Chicago skyscraper. Read More

Faculty members of Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management conduct research across a broad range of disciplines, from finance and economics to consumer behavior and negotiation strategies. Their work has a solid footing in traditional academic theory, but much of it also seeks to make an impact on… Read More

Dean Camilla Benbow (John Russell / Vanderbilt) In her bimonthly column for The Tennessean, Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, writes about the challenges of educating gifted children. In many schools and classrooms, we ask gifted students to adjust to the… Read More

Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, continues to share her expertise with in the midstate and highlight Peabody research in her bimonthly Tennessean column. See what she has to say about why algebra matters, how quality pre-K benefits… Read More

If you drop by the American Museum of Natural History the next time you visit New York, there is a good chance that you will see an exhibit highlighting Vanderbilt chemist Brian Bachmann’s "caving for drugs" research. Read More

Eight scientists, including four Nobel laureates, received the first Golden Goose Awards on Thursday, Sept. 13 at an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill. The award was established to highlight the importance of federally funded basic research that, on the surface, seemed particularly odd or obscure, but which ended up having a large impact on society. Read More

After more than a decade spent successfully decoding the malaria mosquito’s sense of smell, the Zwiebel Lab has added ant olfaction to its research repertoire and has just received a major grant to pursue this new avenue for the next four years. Read More

Vanderbilt University professor Billy Hudson, Ph.D., and his lab have achieved a scientific “bleacher burner” -- their paper is published, discussed in an editorial and featured on the cover of this month’s Nature Chemical Biology, a high profile journal. Read More

Doug Schmidt, professor of computer science, discusses the priorities, challenges, drivers and progress being made in the Department of Defense where open architecture is concerned. Read More

According to economic studies, somewhere between 30 to 50 percent of the United States’ current gross national product is based on products and technologies that have their origin in the nation’s research laboratories. Read More

David Merryman, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is among 78 of the nation's brightest young engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering's 18th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium. Read More

The Dyer Observatory is calling all science sleuths to help identify an unknown object spotted on June 5. Read More

Policy will increasingly involve complex scientific concepts, but this does not mean that the available technical input will automatically match those needs. Read More

NSF Deputy Director Cora Marrett, left, chatting with Vanderbilt grad student Jenna Gorlewicz. (Christina West / Vanderbilt) Each May for the past 18 years, the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) has held an exhibition and advocacy day on Capitol Hill designed to illustrate how society… Read More

The "Extractionator" is a sophisticated little device that automates the diagnostic sample collection and preparation process so it can be operated by individuals in remote environments with minimal training. Read More

A new award, called the Golden Goose Award, has been established in order to highlight the often unexpected or serendipitous nature of basic scientific research by honoring federally funded researchers whose work may once have been viewed as unusual, odd or obscure but which has produced important discoveries that have benefited society in significant ways. Read More