Vanderbilt’s national champion bowling team joined 46 other NCAA championship teams Monday in the first ever “College Athlete Day”, hosted by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Douglas Emhoff and Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts and new president of the NCAA. It was certainly an unforgettable day for the Vanderbilt program and team. Time was given the teams to roam those grounds, getting keepsake photographs with the White House and other iconic views in the background. Monday’s program capped a whirlwind two days for the Commodores, who toured the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Sunday afternoon, enjoyed a multi-course dinner at one of Washington’s fine waterfront restaurants and later enjoyed and marveled at the famous monuments on a walking tour, lit up beautifully on this ideal June evening. MORE

Zeno Power, a startup initiated through the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Innovation Center, has received a total of $30 million from the U.S. Department of Defense and private investors to develop and build a flight-ready radioisotope-powered satellite by 2025. It is expected to be the first launch of a commercially developed space nuclear system in history. Led by alumni Tyler Bernstein, Jonathan Segal, BS’19, and Jake Matthews, MS’18, Zeno Power’s mission is to provide clean, plug-and-play power, anywhere in the universe. The $30 million, provided through a U.S. Air Force Strategic Funding Increase agreement, will be used to develop a radioisotope power system–enabled satellite for the U.S. Space Force. MORE

The National Science Foundation has selected 28 Vanderbilt students for its 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The NSF GRFP supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, STEM education and NSF-backed social science disciplines. Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 along with a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees, as well as access to opportunities for professional development available to NSF-supported graduate students. MORE

Antentor Hinton Jr., assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, has co-authored the cover story of the June issue of Cell along with 51 Black scientists. The article, “Juneteenth in STEMM and the barriers to equitable science,” establishes the context of Juneteenth in STEMM and discusses the barriers Black scientists face, the struggles they endure and the lack of recognition they receive. The article outlines racism’s history in science and includes institutional-level solutions to reduce the myriad burdens Black scientists encounter in academia today. The authors, including Andrea Marshall, a staff scientist in the Hinton lab, offer steps that institutions and wider bodies can take to reduce the impact of racism in science. MORE

Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, is one of eight Burroughs Wellcome Fund 2023 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH). The highly competitive PATH program provides $500,000 over five years to early-career investigators. The program intends to give recipients “the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry, stimulating higher-risk research projects,” according to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. For the PATH program, Byndloss will study the impact of dietary changes on host susceptibility to gut pathogens such as Salmonella bacteria—major cause of food poisoning in humans. MORE

Amanda Lea, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Wenhan Zhu, assistant professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology, have been named 2023 Pew Biomedical Scholars. The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of early-career assistant professors. Lea and Zhu will receive four years of funding to spearhead their studies exploring human health and medicine. At Vanderbilt, Lea and her lab study the intersection of evolutionary biology, genomics and human health. With her Pew funding, Lea will explore how early exposure to an urban lifestyle affects long-term cardiovascular and metabolic health. MORE