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November 15, 2021

The National Science Foundation has awarded partner institutions $4 million over the next three years to broaden the impact of Engineering for US All (e4usa), an NSF-funded program that makes engineering more accessible to high school students and educators. e4usa provides an educational curriculum for students to learn and demonstrate engineering principles, skills and practices while training educators interested in teaching. Stacy Klein-Gardner, adjunct professor of biomedical engineering, serves as co-director and co-PI for e4usa. The new NSF funding will help extend e4usa’s reach to include approximately 5,000 students and 50 teachers nationwide. Students are recruited from public, independent and parochial schools in rural, suburban and urban settings. e4usa students explore engineering in society, develop professional skills, and engage in community-focused engineering design experiences, all aimed at helping them see themselves as engineers. MORE

Vanderbilt researchers found that ketamine’s rapid antidepressant action is due to specific synaptic effects. This represents a new target for drug development that could fill a major gap in care for depression. Uncovering this pathway is a significant step toward understanding ketamine’s action in the brain and exploring whether a new class of therapeutics targeting this pathway can provide rapid antidepressant treatment. Current pharmacological treatments for depression typically take several weeks to show efficacy and are not effective in approximately half of patients. Individuals whose depression is treatment-resistant are at far higher risk of suicide. [The team's] goal is to find therapeutics that can overcome treatment-resistant depression and reduce depression-related loss of life. This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. MORE

Vanderbilt archaeologist and historical anthropologist [and director of the Vanderbilt Initiative for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Research] Steve Wernke and postdoctoral research fellow Giles Morrow are exploring the remains of a 16th-century church high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. They’ve brought decades of data and research materials to the site and moved an ancient relic found in a nearby town to its original spot in the church. This breakthrough archaeological research is being conducted using virtual reality, artificial intelligence and geospatial technologies. A multi-institutional grant from the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science Engineering division is helping fund this work, which is also highlighted in two Ancient Americas National Geographic specials that recently aired in the U.S. and are scheduled to air throughout Latin America. A key to bringing to life virtual reality excavations is layering the new on the old. Wernke and his team processed photos from a 1930s aerial expedition to Peru into detailed 3D models and map-correct images. The result is a form of time travel—enabling observation of sites that have been radically altered or destroyed in the intervening decades. In VR, these models can also coexist with their modern counterparts derived from drone mapping missions. MORE

Nerve cells in the brain establish connections or synapses to form complex electrical circuits that keep people thinking and moving. Despite the importance of these synapses in mediating the flow of charged particles between neurons, not much is understood about how these connections are created. Research conducted by graduate student Sierra Palumbos and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology David Miller sought to identify the underlying genetic mechanisms that specify the location of the brain’s electrical synapses. Using the nematode C. elegans as a model, the researchers developed new methods to measure function of active electrical synapses called gap junctions, and they deployed live cell imaging techniques—developed in Miller’s lab—to visualize them. This is the first time that these techniques have been used in the intact nervous system of a living organism. A key component of this pathway . . . directs assembly of electrical synapses in the brain, a phenomenon that can be altered by stroke or neurodegenerative disease. [This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.] MORE

Janey Camp, research associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been selected as a contributor to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a quadrennial report on the varied impacts and risks presented by global climate change across the country. The NCA5 is published by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, itself a federally mandated body overseen by 13 member agencies. Camp has expertise in infrastructure resilience and flood mitigation and response strategies, and she will serve as an author of the Southeast chapter. The section of the report will address the risk of climate change in the Southeastern U.S. as well as provide research-backed response strategies for the area. The states included in this chapter are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Her chapter will be published, along with the rest of NCA5, in late 2023. MORE

Kejia Hu, assistant professor of operations management, worked with two researchers investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply and demand in long-term older adult care operations. The comprehensive review is the first study of its kind, including interviews with leaders of care organizations, a review of 10-K financial disclosure reports from public care organizations and an examination of published industry articles and media reports. By looking into what changed and what did not about older adult care as a result of COVID-19, the researchers developed a real-time perspective that can identify new opportunities for long-term older adult care in a post-pandemic world. The use of innovative telehealth and digital communication tools was widely expanded during the pandemic, Hu said, which may open up new possibilities for older adults, industry practitioners and policymakers. Reform to the elder care industry will be crucial as the American population ages and demands improved care and more widely available health services. MORE

Vanderbilt University, which already has taken significant steps in its commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, has joined the Race to Zero—Universities and Colleges coalition. Vanderbilt’s signing on to the Race to Zero campaign was announced while Leah Dundon, director of the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative, and 14 Vanderbilt students are meeting with political leaders, scientists, and industry representatives from around the globe at the 2021 United Nations international climate change negotiations, also known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. Dundon, research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and lecturer in earth and environmental sciences, and her students discussed Vanderbilt’s commitment to Race to Zero during a special event at COP26. By joining the global coalition of more than 1,000 educational institutions, Vanderbilt has pledged not only to attain net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but also to strive to reduce by half its “fair share” of greenhouse gases by 2030. MORE

The Vanderbilt Sports and Society Initiative will host a panel discussion featuring five of the most compelling voices in Native American sports on Friday, Nov. 19, beginning at noon CT. Student-athlete and activist Rosalie Fish, journalist Brent Cahwee, scholar and activist Rhonda LeValdo, scholar and filmmaker Natalie Welch and professional athlete, model and activist Lauren Schad will discuss the activism of Native American athletes, name and mascot controversies, Native American sports stories and athletes to follow, and more. The Zoom webinar is free and open to the public. Please register in advance to attend. MORE

Jon Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Professor of American Presidency at Vanderbilt University, was formally installed as Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral on Nov. 7. Meacham, who is also co-chair of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, will preach and lead public conversations several times a year at the National Cathedral on issues of faith, spirituality and civic life. Meacham is the first person to hold the title of canon historian. MORE

Representing the next step in the Vandy United campaign, Vanderbilt University today unveiled artists’ renderings for multiple cornerstone projects and provided further details and timelines for an effort that will redefine the future of Vanderbilt Athletics. Developed over months of intense collaboration with Populous, master architect for the project, the renderings lay out an ambitious vision for reimagining the athletics footprint on campus. Publicly announced in March, Vandy United is an unprecedented $300 million investment in athletics. The effort commits to enhancing the experience of every Vanderbilt student-athlete and to further strengthening bonds with alumni, fans and the Nashville community. The university and Populous employed those principles as each project’s functional and aesthetic foundation. MORE