earth and environmental sciences
Vanderbilt University honors 28 as emeriti faculty
May. 8, 2015—Twenty-eight retiring faculty members were recognized during Vanderbilt’s Commencement ceremony May 8, when the university honored their years of service and bestowed on them the title of emeritus or emerita faculty.
Evolutionary history of whales, dolphins and sea turtles
Apr. 17, 2015—The evolutionary history of whales, sea turtles and other land animals that have returned to the sea details the radical changes to their life style, body shape, physiology that they made to survive in an aquatic environment.
This Easter weekend, hunt for fossils, not colored eggs
Mar. 24, 2015—Vanderbilt students will give visitors a glimpse of Tennessee’s ancient past April 4 by guiding fossil hunts, identifying fossils and giving presentations and guided tours.
Time when climate was topsy-turvy in Western U.S. aids climate prediction efforts
Feb. 23, 2015—Researchers have reconstructed the climate in the Western United States 21,000 years ago and are using the data to improve climate models that forecast future precipitation patterns.
Flood control efforts in Bangladesh exacerbate flooding, threaten millions
Jan. 5, 2015—A low-lying island in Southwest Bangladesh provides a dramatic foretaste of the impact facing 10 percent of the world's population in terms of global sea level rise due to unforeseen consequences of last century's flood control efforts, according to a new Vanderbilt interdisciplinary study.
The most popular research news stories of 2014
Dec. 26, 2014—Electricity, learning, marijuana, outer space and planet Earth were the hot topics of 2014.
Early Earth Less Hostile than Previously Thought
Dec. 23, 2014—Conditions on Earth for the first 500 million years after it formed may have been surprisingly similar to the present day, complete with oceans, continents and active crustal plates.
VU paleontologist appears on Nat Geo Wild’s ‘Future Cat’ Nov. 30
Nov. 28, 2014—Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences, is a featured expert on Nat Geo Wild’s Future Cat, part of the network’s Big Cat week.
Two from Vanderbilt will partner with Brazilian researchers
Nov. 10, 2014—Last spring, Vanderbilt entered into a partnership to foster collaborations between its faculty and researchers affiliated with universities in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. In the first year of this partnership, two proposals have been selected for funding.
Overcoming challenges to scientific innovation topic of (Lunch) Box talk
Nov. 4, 2014—Environmental scientist Chris Vanags will discuss overcoming obstacles to scientific innovation at the Nov. 5 Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box talk at the Nashville Public Library.
Learn about fossils at Fort Negley ‘Day of the Dead’ event
Oct. 27, 2014—Vanderbilt’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is partnering with Fort Negley for “Day of the Dead: Ancient Animals and Historic Peoples Among Us” on Saturday, Nov. 1.
Calvin Miller: Eyewitnessing an Icelandic eruption
Oct. 7, 2014—Last month volcano expert Calvin Miller had the good fortune to witness the major volcanic eruption taking place in Iceland.