earth and environmental sciences
Bangladesh collaboration offers lessons for facing rapid environmental changes
Feb. 24, 2020—With a population of roughly 150 million people, the delta country of Bangladesh holds about half the population of the entire United States in an area the size of Louisiana, and exists under a near-constant risk of sea level rise and other dynamic climate changes. Now, as the world faces a future chock-full of increasing...
Where are the quokkas? New study explains what happened to the “happiest animal in the world”
Feb. 21, 2020—The quokka, a small marsupial native to Australia, is an example of a species vulnerable to extinction in the country’s harsh surroundings. In a new study, researchers at Vanderbilt University demonstrate evidence for the dramatic decline of quokkas over the past century.
New thalattosaur species discovered in Southeast Alaska
Feb. 4, 2020—Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Vanderbilt University have identified a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago.
From Antarctica to The Ingram Commons
Oct. 22, 2019—Dan Morgan, faculty head of Memorial House and principal senior lecturer of earth and environmental sciences, leads with optimism.
Ediacaran dinner party featured plenty to eat, adequate sanitation, computer model shows
Jun. 19, 2019—“They are behaving like animals, and that’s a link between them and what we recognize as animals," says paleontologist Simon A.F. Darroch.
Childhood meeting with Bush inspired Vanderbilt’s DeSantis to be role model for others
Dec. 6, 2018—When Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Larisa DeSantis was 9 years old, she had the opportunity to meet with then-President George H.W. Bush in the Oval Office. The interaction with the 41st president would have a profound effect on her life.
Earth Horizons partnership to boost minority representation in geosciences
Sep. 24, 2018—Vanderbilt and Tennessee State universities are joining forces to significantly increase the number of underrepresented minorities studying the geosciences.
Earth’s oldest animals formed complex ecological communities
Sep. 17, 2018—Ediacara biota were forming complex communities tens of millions of years before the Cambrian explosion.
Gould awarded $10K prize for achievement in research
Aug. 24, 2018—Vanderbilt’s most prestigious faculty prize for accomplishments in research, scholarship or creative expression was awarded to Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Kathleen Gould Aug. 23. She was one of 10 award recipients during Fall Faculty Assembly.
Vanderbilt students offer firsthand look at Nashville’s distant past during Fossils at the Fort April 7
Mar. 22, 2018—Kids of all ages can find and take home a 400-million-year-old souvenir and learn all about the hunt for clues to the ancient past at Fort Negley April 7.
Why a VU junior studies squirrels on campus
Dec. 18, 2017—Vanderbilt junior Dara Craig is studying the squirrel population on campus as a project for an earth and environmental sciences class.
Sign up for Vanderbilt’s Osher Lifelong Learning winter term
Nov. 16, 2017—African American pioneers in sports and entertainment, media in a time of fake news, and climate change and human health are among the winter offerings of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt.