Arts And Science Research

Amanda Lea, assistant professor of biological sciences, has been named a 2022 Searle Scholar, an honor bestowed on 15 exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry. Lea will receive $300,000 in flexible funding to support her work over the next three years. Read More

Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, is a co-author of the study “Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in the Leadership of Competed Space Missions.” The report will be published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on May 18. Read More

Graduate student measures the coevolution of genes in genomes; method may fundamentally change how we identify genes with similar functions. Read More

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded a $3.4 million grant to professor Thilo Womelsdorf to study the underlying mechanisms of action for potential drugs to regulate cognitive function and brain network activity affected in schizophrenia without debilitating side effects. Read More

Lucie Kalousová, assistant professor of medicine, health and society and of sociology, has received a two-year New to the Field Award of $114,000 from the Alzheimer’s Association. Corey Bolton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, has been awarded a two-year, $140,000 Alzheimer’s Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship. Read More

Evelyn J. Patterson By: Celeste Malone The effects of racism and sexism lead to higher maternal mortality rates among Black women in the U.S. than previously realized, according to new research from Associate Professor of Sociology and Law Evelyn J. Patterson at Vanderbilt University. Read More

A new index designed by researchers at Vanderbilt University shows a steady erosion of trust in American political institutions over the past 40 years, with it hitting its lowest point in 2017 after racial unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia. Read More

Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in The Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to receive this honor. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt and Arizona State University recently won a two-year, $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts research grant to support a mixed-methods study on the prevalence of arts internships and their role in students’ transition from college to careers. Read More

Vanderbilt and Chalmers University of Technology are teaming up to build a self-driving biological laboratory that uses microfluidics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a third-generation robot scientist that designs and conducts the massive number of experiments needed to fully characterize cellular signals and pathways and optimize biotechnologies. Read More

A team of astronomers has made the discovery of a lifetime that will help answer burning questions on the evolution of stars. The group is led by Keivan Stassun, Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy. Read More

Over the past decade, Larisa DeSantis, paleontologist and associate professor of biological sciences, has worked with a team of former Vanderbilt undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and experts from across the globe to show how species can be both generalized at the species level and specialized individually—a probable key to their success. Read More

Vanderbilt University is one of 14 institutions awarded the 2022 Beckman Scholars Program from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, receiving $146,000 to renew Vanderbilt’s program through 2025. The award will support a total of six Beckman Scholars over the next three years, with two scholars named each year. Read More

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Maulik Patel and his lab have received a Pilot Research Grant from the Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study reproduction and aging. Read More

New research from Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry and professor of pharmacology and chemical and biomolecular engineering, suggests that the rate of change in solar insolation—that is, the amount of solar radiation that reaches the ground over a specified time in a given location—has a greater impact on these depressive disorders than routine seasonal changes in sunlight. Read More

Vanderbilt, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Virginia and international collaborators merge breakthrough experiments and theory of nanomaterial behavior to usher in the next wave of technology. Est. reading time: 3.5 mins. Read More

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver joins six others at Vanderbilt as 2021 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Read More

Students in the Glacial Geology class took their research to new levels of immersion, collecting soil and rock samples at an elevation of 9,000 feet in the Sawatch Mountain Range of Colorado. Their research helps show the movement of glaciers, ultimately giving clues about the impact of climate change. Read More

Robert O’Dell, Distinguished Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a 2022 fellow of the American Astronomical Society for extraordinary achievement and service to the field of astronomy. He is among 23 fellows being inducted into the AAS this year. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers from the departments of physics and astronomy, math, electrical engineering, and history have received a $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Award to establish a graduate certificate program in the emerging field of multimessenger astronomy. Read More