Research Blog

Fisk University and Vanderbilt University have begun planning for a novel academic bridge program comprising a three-year accelerated Fisk undergraduate degree, weighted toward courses in natural science, mathematics or computer science, followed by a computer science master’s degree from Fisk, bridging to a Biomedical Informatics Ph.D. from Vanderbilt. Read More

John Penn, Ph.D., vice chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt, has been named to the Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Scientific Advisory Panel. Read More

Richard Carparelli was named the new executive director of the American Judicature Society, which is based at Vanderbilt Law School. Read More

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen has been elected to the Board of Directors of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Her three-year term begins Jan. 1, 2014. Read More

Michael Miga, professor of biomedical engineering, will serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Imaging, a new publication of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Read More

Kathleen Neuzil, M.D., MPH, known internationally for her efforts to expand vaccine access and delivery around the world, credited her Vanderbilt University mentors last week for guiding her to a career path that allowed her to “make a difference.” Read More

The occasional failings of science tend to draw big headlines — findings that can’t be replicated or increasing numbers of papers that are retracted because studies were improperly or even fraudulently conducted. Read More

The Golden Goose Award recognizes significant contributions to scientific understanding through federally funded basic research—research conducted with the goal of increasing scientific understanding rather than providing a solution to a specific problem. Read More

Efforts by the federal government to control the nation’s spiraling budget deficit, including sequestration that took effect on March 1, have created the potential for significant impact to Medicare’s long-standing support for graduate medical education and could limit the ability of the nation’s academic medical centers to care for patients and train the next generation of physicians, says Donald Brady, senior associate dean of Graduate Medical Education for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Read More

Ensuring patient safety in today's medical environment requires a fundamental shift in today’s health care organizations, says Ranga Ramanujam. Read More

The Aspirnaut program, funded by Billy and Julie Hudson, brings science, technology, engineering and math lessons and labs to rural teachers, students and school districts via video and teleconferencing. Read More

More can be done with sun-powered electricity source, writes Dennis Hall, vice provost for research, dean of the Graduate School, professor of physics and professor of electrical engineering. Read More

Vanderbilt-sponsored Golden Goose Award celebrates University of California researcher's discovery that the poisonous venom of the Gila monster can help prevent some of diabetes’ most severe complications. Read More

The strength of Vanderbilt biochemistry, especially in the area of metabolism and diabetes, has a lot to do with a brilliant husband-and-wife research team escaping the rise of Nazism in the early 1920s. Read More

In an era of stagnating government support for academic science, officials at many top research universities are looking to private philanthropy and increased efficiencies to maintain their elite status. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos is quoted. Read More

The annual Southeast Regional meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology, hosted by Vanderbilt for the first time since 2006, broke participant records with 163 investigators registered and 81 posters presented. Read More

The Vanderbilt Aerospace Club has captured first prize in the 2013 NASA Student Launch Initiative. The Vanderbilt team also took home the 2013 Best Payload Design award for the most creative and innovative payload experiment: bio-hybrid ramjet engines that use carbon-neutral, 100-percent-renewable bio-hybrid fuels for combustion. Read More

As part of Vanderbilt’s ongoing federal advocacy efforts in support of federal funding for research and education at the National Science Foundation, Sharon Weiss, associate professor of electrical engineering and physics, traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Coalition for National Science Funding’s (CNSF) advocacy day and Capitol Hill reception on May 7. Read More

Viruses are among the most confounding creatures on the planet. Read More

"Eight weeks and 30,000 students gave me a crash course in the future of digital learning technologies," writes engineering professor Doug Schmidt in this Vanderbilt Magazine column on his experience teaching one of Vanderbilt University's first massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Read More