Graduate Research News

Dark energy makes up roughly 70 percent of the universe, but it remains one of the greatest mysteries of physics that scientists have been trying to answer for decades. From left: Oem Trivedi, Alfredo Gurrola, Robert Scherrer Dark energy is speeding up the expansion of the universe and shaping the… Read More

When physics and astronomy Ph.D. candidate Oem Trivedi was growing up in India, he had big dreams: becoming a wrestler in the World Wrestling Entertainment industry. Trivedi admits that as a kid he was not the best student; his parents were often called to the school for his behavior, as… Read More

William McLaughlin starts his day at 7 a.m. with a cup of coffee. Photo by Liz Chagnon/Vanderbilt University A Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences, he likes to keep his mornings slow and predictable before driving to campus to work in Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Megan Behringer’s… Read More

Yueming Yan A new breakthrough in the field of physics led by doctoral student Yueming Yan could allow for the creation of small, thin, low-power optical devices to be used in both medical imaging and environmental sensing. In a study published in ScienceAdvances, Yan and his colleagues,… Read More

Whether you talk to a graduate or undergraduate student in the Department of Chemistry about why they study the field, their responses all evoke the same sentiment: a curiosity for the world and a desire to discover the unknown. All students can fulfill this desire by attending classes and learning… Read More

From left: John McLean, Pragun Tuladhar, Savannah Bastian, and Sarah Hagaman. Not pictured: Lucia Edafioka. Photo by Liz Chagnon The College of Arts and Science recently recognized four graduate students for exceptional teaching in the 2024-2025 academic year: Savannah Bastian and Lucia Edafioka received the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Assistant… Read More

Biological Sciences Annie recently helped publish a study identifying the differences in virulence among Aspergillus species, a common human-pathogenic genus of fungi that includes A. flavus, which can cause aspergillosis and fungal keratitis infections, a type of eye infection. "It ultimately would benefit the scientific community to have the genomes of species causing each infection available for further study." Read More

Lauren Campbell, executive director of the Bridge Program. In Lauren Campbell’s opinion, getting through graduate school takes a village. It requires financial resources, extraordinary hard work, perseverance, and strong supports. As the executive director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, Campbell is dedicated to making sure students… Read More

By Nick McCoy, Evolutionary Studies undergraduate communications assistant  Reese Martin has always been drawn to biology and exploring the behaviors of different organisms. During his childhood, he dug in anthills, and now he observes the life history traits of flower beetles and other taxa. Martin’s new first-author paper, “Pleiotropy… Read More

  As a child, Shaniya Jarrett was fascinated by space and science fiction, but didn’t believe that pursuing the big scientific questions of the universe was a viable career option. Now a second-year astrophysics graduate student in the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, Shaniya is creating opportunities for young women… Read More

The group recently won the Annie Maunder Medal for outreach or public engagement in astronomy or geophysics from the Royal Astronomical Society KeShawn Ivory, a second-year graduate student working toward a Ph.D. in astrophysics, is co-director of events for Black in Astro, an organization that… Read More

Second-year biological sciences Ph.D. student Lantana Grub has been named to the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG). The incredibly competitive program awarded just 165 of 3,142 applicants this year. The program supports students working toward doctoral degrees in science… Read More

Jacob Steenwyk (Vanderbilt University) It’s no surprise that Jacob Steenwyk became interested in art at a young age. Both his parents are artists: his father served as art director for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and his mother was a recognized art critic who has published in… Read More