News

Sankaran Mahadevan, John R. Murray Sr. Professor of Engineering and civil and environmental engineering professor, is the winner of the 2022 IASSAR Distinguished Research Award. The award is presented every four years to two eminent senior researchers by the International Association on Structural Safety and Reliability at its quadrennial meeting. IASSAR promotes the study, research... Read More

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common—and lethal—forms of childhood cancer, accounting for 15 percent of pediatric cancer deaths each year. (Despite the name, neuroblastoma is not a form of brain cancer; it typically consists of tumors found in the abdomen, chest, neck, pelvis and bones.) Currently, children with neuroblastoma are treated with aggressive forms... Read More

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common—and lethal—forms of childhood cancer, accounting for 15 percent of pediatric cancer deaths each year. (Despite the name, neuroblastoma is not a form of brain cancer; it typically consists of tumors found in the abdomen, chest, neck, pelvis and bones.) Currently, children with neuroblastoma are treated with aggressive forms... Read More

As the population of older adults continues to boom across the U.S., Vanderbilt researcher Nilanjan Sarkar is partnering with Lorraine Mion of the Ohio State University and two Middle Tennessee long-term care (LTC) facilities to investigate how augmented reality technologies can ease loneliness among residents. Sarkar, the David K. Wilson Professor of Engineering and a... Read More

John Wilson, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Vanderbilt University, has received a $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop technology that seeks to boost a person’s immune system to better fight cancer. Wilson is the Principal Investigator of the five-year grant. He specializes in the study of cancer immunotherapy... Read More

A new study by Vanderbilt researchers demonstrates the ability to initiate chemical reactions by cooling materials instead of heating them— a counterintuitive process that could open new vistas for applications ranging from monitoring shipping conditions to developing smart clothing that guards against dangerously low temperatures. The paper, published in August by the journal RSC Advances,... Read More

Robert Webster, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at Vanderbilt University, is part of a collaborative team that has received a more than $2.3 million grant to further develop technology that seeks to prevent patients from having invasive colectomies by using steerable robot-like instruments. Under his second startup... Read More

A professor and undergraduate student in Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering are both recipients of esteemed 2022-2023 Fulbright awards that allow scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Ravindra Duddu is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and Kristi Maisha is a civil engineering major. Duddu will use his Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to... Read More

by Bill Snyder The growth of epithelial ovarian cancer, one of the most lethal malignancies, is associated with the presence of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), white blood cells that can block the anti-cancer activity of the immune system and immunotherapy. Fortunately, TAMs can be “repolarized,” converted from immunosuppressive tumor-promoters to inflammatory tumor-fighters. Now, Associate Professor of Pharmacology Fiona Yull,... Read More

Megan Harkema, a third-year graduate student studying nuclear environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, has been awarded a prize in the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Fuel and Supply Chain. Read More

Two leading energy companies that used a Vanderbilt-pioneered process to develop safer nuclear reactors received a prestigious technology award from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in June. A team led by Steve Krahn, professor of the practice of nuclear environmental engineering, worked in collaboration with EPRI to develop a “safety-in-design” methodology that was adopted... Read More

The American Academy of Nursing has selected four Vanderbilt School of Nursing faculty for its 2022 cohort of fellows. Read More

  A team of Vanderbilt computer scientists, working in collaboration with Google Research and a global aid organization, HelpMum, received top honors in the “social good” category for a paper describing a new tool designed to optimize childhood health and wellness in Nigeria at the 2022 International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization (IJCAI). Institute... Read More

Janey Camp has been named the director of the Vanderbilt Engineering Center for Transportation and Operational Resiliency (VECTOR) where interdisciplinary groups work on a variety of transportation and infrastructure resilience projects using groundbreaking applications and risk management practices. “It is an absolute honor to move into this leadership role for VECTOR at such an exciting time... Read More

Janey Camp has been named the director of the Vanderbilt Engineering Center for Transportation and Operational Resiliency (VECTOR) where interdisciplinary groups work on a variety of transportation and infrastructure resilience projects using groundbreaking applications and risk management practices. “It is an absolute honor to move into this leadership role for VECTOR at such an exciting time... Read More

Vanderbilt computer science professor Jonathan Sprinkle is among seven principal investigators using a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore a new way to engineer cyber-physical systems. Examples of CPSs include smart power grids, implantable medical devices and transportation technology such as self-driving cars, which are the focus of the five-year, multi-institutional project. Read More

Vanderbilt Independence Foundation Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Clinical Scholarship Ruth Kleinpell, PhD, FAAN, FAANP, MCCM, received a 2022 Fellow of American Association of Nurse Practitioners’ Legacy Award at the 2022 American Association of Nurse Practitioner annual conference in June and the 2022 Rebecca Clark Culpepper Education and Mentorship Award, given jointly by... Read More

Cynthia Reinhart-King, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and professor of biomedical engineering, has been named senior associate dean for research in the Vanderbilt School of Engineering. Read More

Cynthia Reinhart-King, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering, has accepted the position of Senior Associate Dean for Research. Her appointment comes as Associate Dean for Research and John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering Peter Cummings steps down and has announced his retirement. Reinhart-King is a cellular bioengineer who is a leader... Read More

Three engineering faculty members have received grants to support the early stages of pioneering research projects identified as likely candidates for further funding from federal, foundation and industry sponsors. Spring 2022 Seeding Success Grants were awarded to 14 faculty and are the second cycle of the internal early investment funding initiative. The grants, awarded to faculty spanning the... Read More