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University statement on violence against Asians and Asian Americans
We condemn racism and expressions of hate, bias and discrimination in all forms. We recognize how recent violent attacks on Asians and Asian Americans, including the horrific shootings in Atlanta overnight, have deeply affected members of our Vanderbilt community. The attacks follow an unfortunate reality that began at the start of the pandemic, when expressions of xenophobia and anti-Asian sentiment began to rise around the country and the world. Please know that Vanderbilt continues to be committed to fostering a safe and welcoming community, and that we are working with campus partners and organizations to bring more awareness to this issue, and on ways to support our Asian and Asian American students, faculty, postdocs and staff. MORE
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Shot in the Arm: Groundbreaking COVID-19 vaccine research by alumnus Dr. Barney Graham began at Vanderbilt decades ago
In early May of last year, soon after the United States reported its 1 millionth case of COVID-19 nationwide, Dr. Barney Graham, PhD’91, picked up his ringing phone with equal parts hope and trepidation. As deputy director of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center, Graham knew the call could mean one of two things: a breakthrough that might spare the lives of millions around the globe, or a discouraging setback that would allow the accelerating pandemic to continue unchecked for the foreseeable future. The story of the development of the coronavirus vaccines started in 1985, when as chief resident at Nashville General Hospital, Graham walked into the lab of infectious disease researcher Dr. Peter Wright, who served as the first head of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt. MORE
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Vanderbilt’s IRIS Center provides educational resources to record number of online visitors during COVID-19 pandemic
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of visitors from 222 countries sought out the wide array of educational resources available online through Vanderbilt University’s IRIS Center. According to the center’s statistics, the IRIS website had more than 4 million visits in 2020, up 41 percent from 2019. The IRIS Center also saw a dramatic increase in the number of professional development certificates issued to educators, growing by 279 percent during the same time span. The IRIS Center, which is located at Peabody College of education and human development, provides educational support for all students—particularly struggling learners and those with disabilities—by developing and disseminating free, online resources about evidence-based instructional and behavioral practices. MORE
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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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Vanderbilt scientists sketch rare star system using more than a century of astronomical observations
Vanderbilt astronomers have painted their best picture yet of an RV Tauri variable—a rare type of stellar binary, in which two stars orbit each other within a sprawling disk of dust. To sketch its characteristics, the scientists mined a 130-year dataset that spans the widest range of light yet collected for one of these systems, from radio waves to X-rays. U Mon is in the constellation Monoceros, about 3,600 light years from Earth. Its two stars circle each other every six and a half years or so. [ Laura Vega is a former graduate student in the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program, and she completed her analysis of the U Mon system as a NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Predoctoral Fellow, a program funded by the NASA Office of STEM Engagement’s Minority University Research and Education Project.] MORE
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Synchro Motion and PredictionHealth: Vanderbilt’s NSF National I-Corps teams are making an impact through innovation
Since the inception of the Vanderbilt I-Corps Site Program just three years ago, more than 20 teams of VU innovators have been accepted into the National Science Foundation’s prestigious National I-Corps Program, turning their STEM ideas and research into novel inventions that improve health care, strengthen cybersecurity, produce clean energy, support people battling drug abuse and mental health disorders and more. The Wond’ry and the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering, guided by the mission of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, collaborated with the NSF to create the Vanderbilt I-Corps Site Program in 2017. Synchro Motion and PredictionHealth are two of the dynamic startups to emerge from the Wond’ry’s entrepreneurship programs, where the teams received micro-grant funding, and the NSF’s National I-Corps experience, from which they received an additional $50,000. MORE
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Highlights from the New 116th Congress Legislative Effectiveness ScoresThe Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL)[, a collaboration between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia,] is pleased to announce the release of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores (LES) for the recently-completed 116th Congress (2019-21). As in all previous releases, the scores are based on the combination of fifteen metrics regarding the bills that each member of Congress sponsors, how far they move through the lawmaking process, and how substantial their policy proposals are. The scores are normalized to an average value of 1.0 in both the House and the Senate. More on our methodology can be found here. Each lawmaker’s LES can be found here. MORE
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Unique transdisciplinary collaboration gives undergrads exposure to research experience in the humanities
Over the course of several weeks in September 2020, second-year student Alice Lillydahl found herself not just embarking on a new school year during a pandemic, but also joining daily Zoom calls and working remotely for about 20 hours per week as a member of a humanities research team at The Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings (GetPreCiSe). More specifically, the team researched various topics on genetic privacy in 21st-century literature, film and TV. Humanities research is often the pursuit of a solitary scholar, making the existence of this research team rare. Jay Clayton, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, led the team’s novel approach to literary studies, calling it “vertical integration” because, much like lab science, the method included undergraduates, graduate students and faculty in all aspects of the research process. MORE
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16 from Vanderbilt receive Fulbright awards; VU among top producers for 2020-21
Sixteen students and recent alumni from Vanderbilt University have been awarded Fulbright awards for the 2020-21 academic year. Vanderbilt is among the U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most Fulbright U.S. students for 2020-21. Each year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top-producing institutions for the Fulbright program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. 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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