Grand Challenge Initiative – Past Projects
Climate and Society
Climate change affects everyone in the world and will do so with increasing severity for generations to come. It also cuts to the core of concerns about global justice because the industrial activities of wealthy nations are harming less-developed nations. Failure to address climate change within the next several decades will have lasting impacts on future generations for millennia. Successfully addressing climate change, however, requires deeply integrated interdisciplinary research. By leveraging ongoing environmental and climate-related projects throughout Tennessee, this initiative will identify useful connections and opportunities for collaboration across disciplines. The goal is to advance fundamental knowledge of climate change and develop practical responses to climatic threats and hazards.
Lead researcher: Jonathan Gilligan, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Representative collaborators: Teresa Goddu (English), Steven Goodbred (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Patrick Greiner (Sociology), David Hess (Sociology), George Hornberger (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Claire Sisco King (Communication Studies), Lutz Koepnick ( German, Russian and East European Studies ), Ole Molvig (History), Jessica Oster (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Betsey Robinson (History of Art), Paul Stob (Communication Studies)
Evolutionary Studies
Evolution, the study of the historical and contemporary patterns and processes of biological diversity, is the central organizing principle of the life sciences. By informing our understanding of how organisms respond to drugs, climate change, pathogens, and each other, evolution is a formidable asset to treating disease, understanding environmental change, and protecting world food security. This project will focus on the creation of a cohesive, scholarly community on evolutionary studies at Vanderbilt, leading to the establishment of a world-class Center for Evolutionary Studies that innovates on research, pedagogy, and outreach by engaging scholars, students, our community, and the world.
Lead researcher: Antonis Rokas, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences
Representative collaborators: Jada Benn Torres (Anthropology), Kenneth C. Catania (Biological Sciences), Jay Clayton (English), Nicole Creanza (Biological Sciences), Simon A. F. Darroch (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Larisa R. G. DeSantis (Biological Sciences), Suzana Herculano-Houzel (Psychology), Steven Hollon (Psychology), Jon Kaas (Psychology), Jennifer Larson (Political Science), Keivan Stassun (Physics and Astronomy), Tiffiny Tung (Anthropology), John Weymark (Economics)
Global Ecology and Health (ASCEND)
Human activity has disrupted the Earth’s environment and ecology to the point where we now face catastrophic and compounding threats to biodiversity and food security; increased spread of infectious diseases; broad environmental pollution; and extreme weather events leading to desertification, crop failures, wildfires, and sea level rise. Microorganisms play a central role in ecological health and climate change biology because they can help remove carbon from the atmosphere, increase crop resiliency, limit the spread of invasive species, detoxify environmental pollutants, and contribute to new and sustainable antimicrobials to protect us against infectious diseases. This project, Advancing Solutions to Climate and Ecological Needs and Discoveries (ASCEND), brings together experts from many fields to build resources and tools, conduct transdisciplinary microbial research, and, ultimately, contribute to solutions to these challenges.
Lead researcher: John McLean, Stevenson Professor of Chemistry
Representative collaborators: Brooke Ackerly (Political Science), Seth Bordenstein (Biological Sciences), Jonathan Gilligan (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Steven Goodbred (Earth and Environmental Sciences), David Hess (Sociology), Maria Luisa Jorge (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Antonis Rokas (Biological Sciences), Steven Townsend (Chemistry), Glenn Webb (Mathematics)
Parsing the Pandemic: Finding Solutions to COVID-19
With millions infected and hundreds of thousands dead globally, COVID-19 has changed the way we live in almost every way. Scientists, public health experts, economists, and government officials have spent months collecting and analyzing data to better understand the virus and combat its physiological, social, psychological, and economic impacts. This group of projects will provide insights about the COVID-19 pandemic from a wide range of angles and academic fields. Projects include predicting the virus’s spread; analyzing its socio-economic impacts; highlighting its effects on the public’s trust in institutions, experts, and scientific knowledge; and assessing the effectiveness of various interventions. This research will produce insights and findings that will ultimately help to treat and stem the virus.
Lead researchers: William Caferro, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History; Jennifer Trueblood, Associate Professor of Psychology; David Wright, Stevenson Professor of Chemistry
Representative collaborators: Joshua Clinton (Political Science), T.S. Harvey (Anthropology), Cindy Kam (Political Science), Eunji Kim (Political Science), Tara McKay (Medicine, Health, and Society), Jonathan Metzl (Medicine, Health, and Society), Gabriela Oré Menéndez (Anthropology Ph.D. student), Sohee Park (Psychology), Natalie Robbins (Vanderbilt Initiative for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Research), Tom Scherr (Laboratories for Innovations in Global Health), John Sides (Political Science), Michael Shepherd (Political Science Ph.D. student), Lijun Song (Sociology), Steven Wernke (Anthropology)