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Vanderbilt condemns violent assault on U.S. Capitol and our democracy
Vanderbilt University strongly condemns today’s violent and deeply disturbing assault on the U.S. Capitol and on our democracy. Using violence to undermine and disrupt our democratic institutions and processes simply has no place in our country. Our divisions strain our ability to solve our nation’s most difficult challenges. The United States faces many headwinds threatening to tear at the social fabric of our communities, including a horrific pandemic, but overcoming them will require a commitment to the values and institutions that unite us. As an institution committed to vigorous debate and the exchange of differing ideas in a culture of civility and mutual respect, we firmly believe that the common interests, values, hopes and aspirations we all share are much greater than what divides us. Through intention and effort, we must advance much-needed dialogue and help bridge what keeps us apart. MORE
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Chancellor Diermeier gives update on COVID-19 vaccination efforts
Vanderbilt University is currently not eligible to serve as a distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine because the university is not a health care organization. However, the situation is evolving, and the university remains in close communication with public health agencies and Vanderbilt University Medical Center regarding vaccination efforts, said Chancellor Daniel Diermeier in a message to the Vanderbilt community. MORE
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Team works around the clock to bolster Vanderbilt safety during COVID-19 pandemic
They’ve been working together, side by side—or, rather, screen by screen—seven days a week for months to keep a bustling urban campus with thousands of active students, faculty, researchers and staff open and running in the midst of a pandemic. Andrea George, MS’94, PhD’07, director of environmental health and safety for the university, and Pam Jones, BSN’81, MSN’92, DNP’13, senior associate dean for clinical and community partnerships at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing, are co-commanders of the university’s Public Health Central Command Center. They were instrumental in developing and leading Vanderbilt’s ambitious and successful Return to Campus Plan. MORE
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Learning by doing: How large firms transfer knowledge
Examining the implementation of a new restocking process from a Fortune 100 chain retailer, [ Megan Lawrence, assistant professor of strategic management at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management,] found that managers balance learning from a centralized template with what they draw from their own localized experiences. Thus, superior performance of the template is paramount. When a template offers superior store performance, managers and employees are less likely to draw from their own local practices. Lawrence notes that understanding the components of how firms learn and share knowledge has become even more important in the era of COVID-19. This runs the gamut from training workers on new health and safety protocols to onboarding employees who may never set foot in an office or meet their supervisor face-to-face. MORE
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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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Brunger leads $1.5 million NSF project to develop advanced brain organoids
Vanderbilt engineers have received a $1.49 million National Science Foundation grant to advance the science of organoids with cells that organize themselves and mimic development of human brain structures. Organoids are lab-produced groups of cells that serve as research models for human physiology in development and disease, including design and testing of drugs and other therapies. [R]esearchers can produce miniature organ-like structures. Scientists have successfully developed kidney, pancreas, liver, intestine, lung and brain organoids, among others. But how the different types of cells in an organoid signal to each other, communicating what, when, where and how to do what they must accomplish remains a complex puzzle. This project aims to establish the molecular logic and design rules required to generate cerebral cortical organoids, said Jonathan Brunger, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. MORE
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Vanderbilt civil engineer partners with TDOT to seek ways to mitigate opioid epidemicOne of the largest obstacles for patients seeking effective substance abuse treatment is a lack of transportation to treatment facilities. Vanderbilt University researcher Janey Camp, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is working on a project to help clear those roadblocks. Camp is leading an 18-month, in-depth analysis of transportation investment opportunities that could help stem the opioid epidemic across Tennessee. The project is funded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation [using funds that originate from the U.S. Department of Transportation]. They will use the data to model a variety of scenarios that show how people can get to treatment facilities with improved transit options. From these models and other assessments, the researchers will prioritize the transit options . . . that contribute most to mitigating the opioid epidemic. MORE
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Digital Sky Survey maps the entire sky, providing new data to Vanderbilt astronomersThe fifth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is collecting data about our universe for Vanderbilt University astronomers and other project members to use to explore the formation of distant galaxies and supermassive black holes, and to map the Milky Way. The SDSS-V will make full use of existing satellites, including NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission, to lead to new discoveries. Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is co-investigator of NASA TESS, which enabled the discovery of a newly formed exoplanet in June 2020. That discovery boosted the potential for a joint effort with SDSS data. Further, the latest SDSS-V data will inform the research of Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Physics Jessie Runnoe, whose work primarily focuses on quasars—supermassive black holes that feed on disks of gas and dust in the centers of distant galaxies. Runnoe believes this publicly available data will encourage critical thinking and allow researchers to better communicate their findings to the general public. MORE
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Institute of International Education spotlights Vanderbilt and scholar Issam Eido
Vanderbilt University’s strong commitment to hosting threatened and displaced scholars from around the world is highlighted in a new publication by the Institute of International Education. IIE, founded in 1919, has aided students and scholars who have faced threats to their lives and intellectual freedom during many difficult periods . . . . A Beacon of Hope: IIE’s First 100 Years of Scholar Rescue includes Vanderbilt among 45 institutions that have worked with IIE through its Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars, which offered temporary academic homes in U.S. colleges and universities to European professors and scientists persecuted by the Nazis during World War II, and through the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund. A Beacon of Hope features M. Issam Eido, senior lecturer in Arabic languages and literature in the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science, who fled Syria in early 2012 during a terrible humanitarian crisis and destruction of its higher education system. MORE
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VUbrief summarizes Vanderbilt news items to inform our Congressional community of developments at the university. Visit our website for past issues of VUbrief. Vanderbilt University Office of Federal Relations (202) 216-4361
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