Research

Steven Wernke, professor of anthropology, has received a three-year grant from the Schmidt Sciences Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) to develop an AI framework that will enable archaeologists to identify specific archaeological features from among millions of ancient buildings across the Andes. Wernke will serve as… Read More

By Ann Marie Deer Owens Many have voiced concerns that artificial intelligence will take jobs away from humans. But Assistant Professor of Chemistry Zhongyue (John) Yang, along with his former doctoral student Qianzhen Shao (now a postdoc at Stanford) and other team members, have created an AI… Read More

Brooke Ackerly, professor of political science, has received a Volkswagen Foundation Transatlantic Bridge Professorship at the University of Hamburg for the next three years. She is the first Vanderbilt faculty member to receive this award. The Transatlantic Bridge Professorship program engages internationally renowned U.S. scholars in the humanities and social… Read More

How can one person’s health decision affect an entire community? Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Nicole Creanza is helping middle and high school students answer that question through a free interactive classroom resource based on real-world data. “Community Immunity: A simulation-based exploration of vaccination choices” is a… Read More

By Ann Marie Deer Owens Today’s biggest pressing and complex challenges are most effectively addressed through interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives. The Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Program (CHPP) fully embodies that approach, bringing together early-career scholars to address important contemporary issues through a critical humanities lens. For the past… Read More

On a summer day in Nashville, one person escapes the heat in an air-conditioned office while another delivers packages in a metal truck that absorbs heat or labors outdoors for hours under the sun. Both people experience the same weather, but according to new research from Assistant Professor of Cinema… Read More

Adapted from a press release written by Arizona State University The experiences we face early in life may leave lasting marks on our health that echo across decades—even throughout the body. Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Scholar in Biological Sciences Rachel Petersen A new study published in Science (DOI), “Age… Read More

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

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Alexandre Tiriac has received a 2026 McKnight Scholar Award to expand his research on brain development. Started in 1977 by the McKnight Foundation, the McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to early-career scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience. The highly completive… Read More