Arts And Science Research

Tiffiny Tung, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Social and Natural Sciences, professor of anthropology and vice provost for undergraduate education, has been named a senior fellow in the Pre-Columbian Studies program at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks. The fellowship underscores Tung’s notable contributions to anthropology and Andean archaeology. Read More

A recent study conducted by Vanderbilt chemistry professors Sandy Rosenthal and Oleg Kovtun found that people experiencing depressed states had lower daytime activity, and people’s daytime activity increased with longer days and more sun exposure. Read More

For John Jumper, BS’07, the road to winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry began with an interdisciplinary education at Vanderbilt.  Read More

Carlos Taboada, assistant professor of biological sciences, was among the 2024 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering announced on Tuesday, Oct. 15. At the Taboada Lab, he and his team investigate the chemical, physiological and physical mechanisms that create different colors in frogs and the remarkable transparency of glassfrogs. Read More

Vanderbilt University secured four National Endowment for the Humanities grants totaling $330,696 to support projects ranging from Yiddish literature to the preservation of Special Collections. The grants highlight Vanderbilt’s leadership in humanities research and were facilitated by the university’s Research Development and Support team. Read More

John M. Jumper, BS’07, is one of three scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Oct. 9. Jumper currently is a senior staff research scientist for DeepMind, a London-based company that made a huge leap forward in solving the protein folding problem using artificial intelligence. He is the third Vanderbilt alumnus to win a Nobel Prize. Read More

A new study led by Andre Bastos, assistant professor of psychology, found that animal subjects under general anesthesia were unable to detect moderate and complex surprises. This discovery deepens the understanding about the nature of consciousness and how it arises. Read More

In today’s world, collaboration is essential in solving problems, bridging the gaps between science, engineering, medicine and the humanities. By prioritizing cross-disciplinary collaborations, Vanderbilt walks the walk—not only across departments—but across schools and cultures. Read More

Stassun, who is also a founding co-director the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, was among the 2024 MacArthur fellows announced on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The fellowship, which is awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, aims to identify extraordinarily creative individuals with a track record of excellence in a field of scholarship or area of practice. Recipients also demonstrate the ability to affect society in significant and beneficial ways through their pioneering work or the rigor of their contributions, according to the foundation. Read More

In a groundbreaking study led by Sarah Worthan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Behringer Lab at Vanderbilt University, scientists have successfully evolved microbial cultures that possess the ability to sense pH changes, enabling rapid responses to environmental fluctuations. Read More

New research shows that warming and aging act as a one-two punch, lowering mosquito lifespans and fanning the flames of bacterial infections. These findings highlight how climate change could alter the risks of disease spread by mosquitoes. Read More

Kirsty Clark, assistant professor of medicine, health, and society, studies mental health disparities impacting LGBTQ+ populations through her lab. Clark recently published research that explores the effects of negative news and media coverage on the intensity of suicidal thoughts in LGBTQ+ young adults. 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

Since 2020, Vanderbilt archaeologist Michelle Young has directed the Cinnabar Roads Project, which explores ancient exchange routes used to transport cinnabar, a powdery mineral made of mercury and sulfur that was extracted and processed for pigment. Young’s two major research initiatives approach mapping ancient networks of interaction and mobility between the highland region and the coast, employing a variety of methods at different scales. Under her leadership, the Cinnabar Roads Project has registered more than 100 archaeological sites in the Huancavelica region. Read More

See how students in a special Immersion Vanderbilt project are partnering with a new national security institute to prevent cybersecurity attacks. 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

Thirteen innovative projects across seven colleges and schools have been selected for the spring 2024 round of Seeding Success internal grants. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation announced the recipient list on May 31. Read More