Life, Earth And Space

Hunting for black holes sounds like the premise of a new Hollywood blockbuster, but at Vanderbilt University, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karan Jani works with students in a lab to do exactly that. Last year, Jani’s group at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, along with the university’s Data Science Institute, jointly launched the AI for New Messengers postdoctoral fellowship. The fellowship, one of the first of its kind in the U.S., seeks to apply AI techniques to analyze data from cosmic events (such as black hole collisions) using information from the Nobel Prize–winning Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment. Read More

Taylor is one of only six scientists nationwide appointed to the LISA team, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA. LISA is a space-based gravitational wave detector constructed of three spacecraft separated by millions of miles in a triangle shape as big as the sun. Read More

Professor Steven Wernke's groundbreaking archaeological mapping project has secured its most substantial funding yet: a $625,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Using satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, Wernke and his team are mapping archaeological sites across the Andes Mountain Range to build a detailed inventory that will improve our understanding of Andean settlement systems and human-modified landscapes. Read More

New research led by recent Vanderbilt Ph.D. alumna Maria Luísa Jabbur from the Johnson Lab and BBSRC Discovery Fellow at the John Innes Centre, in the UK has uncovered that even cyanobacteria—tiny organisms with a generation time of just five to six hours—can sense and respond to changes in light availability, or photoperiod, to gear up for winter. Read More

Embarking on a new research project often brings unexpected discoveries—some intriguing, some novel, but rarely a find of a lifetime. Such a remarkable discovery occurred when university archivist and associate director Kathy Smith stumbled upon a pile of plaster, hidden away for 60 years in a dim, cluttered closet of the Branscomb Quad basement. This plaster turned out to be the long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s, missing for nearly six decades. Read More

Research projects investigating the history of evolution at Vanderbilt University led to the rediscovery of a long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s. Read More

Vanderbilt professor Alex Lupsasca plans to extend Earth's largest telescope network beyond the atmosphere with a space-based dish. It could spot part of a black hole we've never seen before – and perhaps discover new physics. Read More

The Creanza Lab, along with alumnus Matt Wilkins, BA’06, created a birdsong identification lesson plan for middle and high school students. The game show lets participants identify which birds they can hear in various pop culture media, such as movies, music, or video games. Read More

Jonathan Gilligan was awarded admittance to the American Geophysical Union’s 2024-2025 Voices for Science program to hone their communication and advocacy skills to increase understanding and support of science. The program trains scientists to communicate the value of Earth and space science to key decision makers, journalists, and the public, with the hope of solving some of the most critical climate-related challenges facing society. Read More

A Vanderbilt scientific team has succeeded in adjusting the daily biological clock of cyanobacteria, making the blue-green algae a more prolific producer of renewable fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, like insulin. Read More

A mere decade ago, decoding the genome of every organism in a major branch of the tree of life and deciphering their diets was a pipe dream. In a groundbreaking study, a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other institutions worldwide have done just that for the first time ever. Led by Abigail LaBella, a postdoctoral researcher in the Rokas Lab, an international research team used the genomes and diets of nearly all known species from an ancient lineage of yeasts to understand the evolution of generalists and specialists.  Read More

With a prestigious new grant, archaeologist Ari Caramanica will explore what ancient people can teach us about dealing with the most pressing environmental issue of our time. Read More

Beckman Scholar Charu Balamurugan, an undergraduate researcher in the Rokas lab at Vanderbilt University, has shed light on the intricate evolutionary patterns governing secondary metabolite biosynthesis in fungi. Balamurugan delved deep into the genomes of Penicillium species, uncovering fascinating insights into the conservation and evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and associated resistance genes. Read More

Justin Critchlow, a recent Ph.D. student in Ann Tate’s lab, just published a paper with the labmates Arun Prakash, Katherine Zhong, and Tate, uncovering the intricacies of beetle immune dynamics. This paper sheds light on the dynamics of survival, resilience, and the profound complexities inherent in evolutionary adaptations. Read More

Vanderbilt University will harness its global expertise in scientific discovery, technological innovation, public policy, law and education to launch the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate (VSEC). The multimillion-dollar investment follows a recommendation by an interdisciplinary working group to address the crucial societal challenge of ensuring a sustainable world. Read More

John A. McLean, Stevenson Professor of Chemistry and dean of graduate education and research in the College of Arts and Science, has been named the winner of this year’s Charles H. Herty Medal by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding work and service by a chemist in the Southeast. Read More

Kyle David, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Rokas lab, and co-authors published a new paper, “Saccharomycotina yeasts defy longstanding macroecological patterns” in the high-impact journal PNAS. This paper, which looks at the ecology of 186 species of yeast, provides evidence that not all life-forms follow the rules. Read More

Kyle David, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Rokas lab, and co-authors published a new paper, 'Saccharomycotina yeasts defy longstanding macroecological patterns' in the high-impact journal PNAS. This paper, which looks at the ecology of 186 species of yeast, provides evidence that not all life-forms follow the rules. Read More

Vanderbilt graduate student Shaniya Jarrett created a community outreach project that introduces Black girls to astronomy by incorporating music. AstroBeats: Sounds of the Cosmos brings together local middle-school Black girls to translate NASA data into unique musical compositions, teaching the importance of thinking creatively about how to interpret scientific data. Read More

Working across multiple disciplines, Vanderbilt researchers found that a relatively small proportion of funds from two recent significant pieces of environmental law – the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 – could lead to an outsized reduction in emissions. Read More