Arts And Science Research

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding two Vanderbilt early-career nuclear physicists’ exploration of the universe’s properties and composition. Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli and Jean-François Paquet, assistant professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and members of the multidisciplinary Vanderbilt Initiative for Gravity, Waves and Fluids, have been identified as among the nation’s most exceptional researchers. Read More

The fellowship program is intended to serve as a pathway and source of mentorship for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars across the Southeastern Conference to prepare them for tenured faculty positions.  This cohort of Vanderbilt scholars will attend the upcoming 2023-24 SEC Emerging Scholars conference Oct. 1–4 at the University of Arkansas.   Read More

Vanderbilt’s LAPOP Lab is the premier academic institution carrying out surveys of public opinion in the Americas. Read More

Neuroscientist Mark Wallace is spearheading a research consortium focused on childhood multisensory perception development. The international team includes researchers from Yale University, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and Italian Institute of Technology. Read More

Aging stars expand and eventually destroy planets in their inner systems. Or do they? A team of researchers that includes Keivan Stassun finds evidence of a planet that survived its star’s transformation, and that is reshaping our understanding of planetary and stellar evolution. Read More

Nicole Creanza and Yakov Pichkar explore whether subtle cultural differences within a language mirror genetic structure within a population. The answer: Even small cultural differences like dialect can influence the spread of people and genes. Read More

Led by Stephen Taylor, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, a collaborative effort across 88 institutions has identified evidence of slowly undulating gravitational waves passing through our galaxy. Read More

Vanderbilt astrophysicist Karan Jani helped prove Einstein's theory of relativity as it relates to black holes and gravitational waves. Learn how he's using his expertise to teach undergrads with diverse majors who are eager to learn about space. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists Nicole Creanza and Kerri-Ann Anderson have developed a new mathematical model, rooted in cultural evolution, that represents vaccine hesitancy as a belief that can influence, but not perfectly predict, whether parents will decide to vaccinate their children. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers Amanda Lea and Wenhan Zhu have been named 2023 Pew Biomedical Scholars. The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. Read More

The National Science Foundation has selected 28 Vanderbilt students for its 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Read More

Vanderbilt University has created the Future of Learning and Generative AI Initiative and appointed members of an advisory board. Both will center their efforts around scholarship and opportunities connected to the growing use of nascent artificial intelligence technologies.  Read More

Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2023 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. The group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.   Read More

Vanderbilt's Assistant Professor of History, Meng Zhang, has been awarded a stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her intriguing research into the historical and societal implications of the edible bird's nest trade between China and maritime Asia. Read More

A National Endowment for the Humanities grant awarded to Vanderbilt’s Angela Sutton, assistant dean for graduate education and strategic initiatives in the College of Arts and Science, will help fund the excavation of a historic Nashville neighborhood and a collection of the oral histories of the neighborhood’s descendants. Read More

Jefferson Cowie, a celebrated U.S. politics and culture historian, has won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for his book that “radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America.” Read More

The cultural evolution of a population depends not only on size but also on the degree of specialization within a population, according to a new study published last month by a team of scientists including Nicole Creanza. The study found that populations can increase their cultural repertoire by subdividing knowledge into smaller groups, but the total group must be sufficiently large for specialization to be advantageous. Read More

A new study led by members of Ann Tate’s lab found evidence that pleiotropy may slow down evolution of genes involved in immunity. Read More

Tennessee’s open COVID testing policy reduced actual COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Costs of expanded testing were so low that essentially any reduction in the number of deaths due to the policy would justify its cost. Read More

Graduate student Reese Martin and his doctoral advisor, Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, used theoretical modeling to identify a potential relationship between genetic pleiotropy and the evolution of immune responses. Read More