MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today unveiled a grant proposal from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) as one of the highest-scoring proposals, designated as the “Top 100,” in its 100&Change competition for a single $100 million grant to help solve one of the world’s most critical societal challenges. Read More

New work by researchers at Vanderbilt University and Harvard University confirms that a specific area of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is crucial to punishment decisions. Read More

The new book 'Law and Neuroscience' is the definitive reference book on the use of neuroscientific evidence in courtrooms. Read More

A new brain study has identified the brain mechanisms that underlie our judgment of how severely a person who has harmed another should be punished. Read More

Groundbreaking new legal research from a team of Vanderbilt University and other researchers suggests that juror confusion over how to apply the Model Penal Code in criminal trials could cause major, unnoticed and life-altering sentencing errors. Read More

Applications are being accepted for the second class of Vanderbilt University’s innovative Ph.D/J.D. program combining the study of law and neuroscience. Vanderbilt launched the first such program in the country in 2010 when it enrolled Bowdoin College alumnus Matthew Ginther to be the first to take on the challenging curriculum that alternates classes at Vanderbilt Law School and the university’s graduate program in neuroscience. Read More

Vanderbilt leads the nation in a breakthrough drug study that may prevent type-1 diabetes! Plus, how studying the brain could impact criminal law. And a special tribute on the anniversary of 9/11. [vucastblurb]… Read More

Vanderbilt University professor Owen Jones, who is one of the nation’s few professors of both law and biology, has been named director of the national Law and Neuroscience Project, which will now be headquartered at Vanderbilt. Read More