President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton convene student leaders to drive action at 2023 CGI University meeting at Vanderbilt March 3–5
Today President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton announced more participants and programming for the Clinton Global Initiative University 2023 annual meeting, scheduled for March 3–5 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. CGI U’s 15th annual meeting’s theme is “Homecoming: Strengthening Community, Leadership and Action,” and its program is lined with aspiring leaders and global experts in business, public service and social impact who will come together to develop innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Featured speakers and participants include Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation; John Cooper, Mayor of Nashville; Melissa Diamond, founder, A Global Voice for Autism; Pashtana Dorani, executive director, LEARN Afghanistan; Allyson Felix, five-time Olympian and co-founder of Saysh, and more. MORE
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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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National Institutes of Health—How a graduate school “midlife crisis” inspired a breakthrough surgical device
When Robert J. Webster III was working on an engineering project for his Ph.D. ..., he was struck with an unnerving thought: The technology he was helping create seemed interesting, but it wouldn’t reach patients for at least 20 years. [In 2018, Webster, the Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology, helped start] EndoTheia Inc., to develop the next generation of medical devices for flexible endoscopy, with the goal of increasing therapeutic efficacy through added flexibility and dexterity. Patents for the technology were initially filed through Vanderbilt, with both companies licensing the devices through the university. Webster says part of the enjoyment of working with his companies is seeing the benefits they provide in academia. [EndoTheia has received millions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health to commercialize products in urology, gastroenterology, and otolaryngology.] MORE
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Department of State—Vanderbilt engineering alumni named Fulbright Scholars
Engineering alumni Kristi Maisha, Claire McGonigle and Arunabh Singh are among 20 Vanderbilt students and alumni who were selected for 2022-2023 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards. Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, offering grants to conduct research and teach English in more than 160 countries overseas. It is among the largest and most diverse exchange programs in the world. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs on Feb. 10 named Vanderbilt University a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Students for its class of 20 Fulbright Scholars. This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected for the 2022–2023 Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Before this year, the largest number of Fulbright Scholars selected from Vanderbilt in one year was 13. MORE
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Vanderbilt announces creation of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation
Vanderbilt University announced today the creation of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation, a $6 million effort to advance research, education and ideas. The Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator is part of Discovery Vanderbilt, a groundbreaking initiative to bolster innovative research and education at Vanderbilt. The policy accelerator will be based in the Law School and led by New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair and Professor of Law Ganesh Sitaraman. Sitaraman brings extensive experience in politics and public policy and will collaborate with peers within Vanderbilt Law School and across the university. The Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator’s first initiative is its Project on Networks, Platforms and Utilities, an effort to revive and reimagine regulation in the transportation, communications, energy, banking and technology sectors. MORE
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Vanderbilt and Deerfield Management celebrate Ancora Innovation, a collaboration for accelerating drug discovery, potential life-changing therapeutics
Vanderbilt University leaders hosted visitors from the health care investment firm Deerfield Management, including its president and managing partner, James Flynn, on Feb. 23 for a series of events celebrating the ongoing collaboration between Vanderbilt and Deerfield to rapidly advance new therapeutics from the research bench to patients. Vanderbilt’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization within the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation hosted the visit. The collaboration between Vanderbilt and Deerfield provides “on-the-job” drug discovery and development training and experience for Vanderbilt staff, postdoctoral scholars and students while increasing the potential for successful outcomes via the Deerfield Discovery and Development (3DC) model. MORE
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Grant helps Vanderbilt-Fisk partnership build first-ever U.S. graduate certificate course in multi-messenger astronomy
A partnership between Vanderbilt University and Fisk University has received a grant of nearly $500,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to increase research capacity and wellness support. The grant will be used to create the first graduate certificate course in multi-messenger astronomy in the nation. The grant application was submitted by [one of the co-directors] of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, a partnership that began more than 20 years ago to create equitable pathways to STEM education. The grant will be used to develop the Multi-messenger Astronomy Postdoc-to-Faculty Program at Fisk, with extensive mentoring and professional development within the Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program model. Sight, hearing and touch give humans diverse types of information about their environment; light, particles and gravity do the same for astronomers studying the universe. Multi-messenger astronomy gathers information about the cosmos from various sources. MORE
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Vanderbilt and Fisk partner again to offer new postdoctoral fellowships
The Graduate School and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs have partnered with Fisk University to create a groundbreaking new postdoctoral fellowship program. These fellowships have been designed to offer opportunities for recent Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduates to build their teaching and scholarship portfolios, receive mentoring from faculty at both institutions and allow time for publishing from their dissertation or preparing other research papers. Fellows will be considered by Fisk for faculty positions, with the goal of leading to tenure-track positions. Vanderbilt and Fisk already partner on the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, which was conceived to improve demographic representation in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Two, 24-month fellowships will be available for the inaugural cohort which will launch this fall. MORE
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Infant seating devices may reduce language exposure
When a parent needs to cook dinner or take a shower, often they will place their baby in a bouncy seat, swing, exersaucer, or similar seating device intended to protect the baby and grant a degree of independence to both the parent and infant. For many parents, these devices represent a helpful extra set of hands; for babies, the freedom to safely explore their immediate surroundings. As useful as these devices are to both parents and infants, they may present trade-offs regarding their effect on infant’s exposure to adult language, which is critical for language development. That’s according to a new study by researchers at the Stress and Early Adversity Lab at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. The researchers found that infants were exposed to fewer words when spending time in seating devices compared to when spending time in other placements. They also found that infants who spent the most time in seating devices heard nearly 40 percent fewer daily words compared to infants who spent the least amount of time in seating devices. MORE
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Memories of ‘The March’: Vanderbilt students relive civil rights history on trip to Alabama
The Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center resumed its annual Black History Immersion Excursion earlier this month with a tour of key civil rights sites in Alabama. Forty-six students and 13 chaperones from the Association of Vanderbilt Black Faculty and Staff participated in the Feb. 10-12 trip, which included stops in Montgomery and Selma. It was the first such trip the BCC has organized since 2020, when they were paused for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to helping students engage with history, the trip provided opportunities for networking and mentorship among faculty, staff and fellow students. As part of the excursion experience, students are required to engage in service projects with local nonprofits. The projects address the themes covered during the trip, such as voting rights, civil rights and criminal justice reform. MORE
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Wond’ry launches Climate Innovation Accelerator to help Nashville small businesses, nonprofits advance climate-ready solutions
The Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Innovation Center, has launched the Climate Innovation Accelerator program, adding to the depth of its climate-focused programming. The accelerator is co-created and led by Jaclyn Mothupi, director of social innovation at the Wond’ry. This free 10-week program engages minority-led/owned nonprofits and small businesses to identify innovative sustainability opportunities within their mission to equip entities to be more future-fit and climate-ready for those they serve. The inaugural cohort includes five local small businesses and six nonprofits with a diverse set of missions, products and services to illustrate how innovation can work in different sectors to advance climate solutions, from reimagining packaging, services, stakeholder education, reporting frameworks and greening supply chains. To help small businesses and nonprofits with limited resources prioritize sustainability and innovation, the accelerator provides in-depth sessions on the topics and strategic frameworks to bring both to life. MORE
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