Alumni Category
How former Vanderbilt students are powering a new era of space and underwater exploration with nuclear waste
Nov. 15, 2023—by Lucas Johnson In the fall of 2017, a pair of curious Vanderbilt students approached Steve Krahn, professor of the practice of nuclear environmental engineering and a former Department of Energy official, to discuss novel ways of using nuclear energy to power aerospace vehicles. Their hypothesis was that utilizing nuclear powered propulsion would decrease carbon...
Giving Day 2023: Multiple funds, three alumni challenges offered to support the School of Engineering
Apr. 25, 2023—With more than 40 engineering-specific funds and three School of Engineering alumni challenges, students, alumni, faculty, staff and parents have a multitude of ways to support the school during Giving Day 2023: Dare to Grow, a 24-hour event Thursday, April 27. The tradition of Giving Day is in its seventh year. This year, the goal...
Vanderbilt Engineering Professor Emeritus Richard Shiavi dies at age 80
Apr. 5, 2023—Richard Shiavi, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Emeritus and Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, has died at the age of 80. Shiavi passed away on Friday, March 31, surrounded by his family. Shiavi joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1972. For 20 years, he was active in biomedical engineering research at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in...
Vanderbilt engineer and medtech global leader Krista Donaldson to discuss public health inequities, better products and solutions
Mar. 6, 2023—Engineering school’s Chambers Lecture is April 4 at the Wond’ry Vanderbilt engineering alumna, designer, author and entrepreneur Krista Donaldson has addressed global health inequities through the design and scaling of disruptive medical devices that treated more 1.8M patients, mostly children and young people, in 80 countries. Now, she directs Innovation to Impact at Stanford University’s...
7 Questions with Erika Wagner, BE’00, Senior Director of Emerging Space Markets for Blue Origin
Feb. 16, 2023—To watch video footage from one of Blue Origin’s crewed space launches—six have taken place so far, carrying passengers ranging from Alan Shepard’s daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley, to a member of the YouTube sensation Dude Perfect—is like seeing science fiction unfold in real-time. One of the people responsible for getting those passengers, and other payload...
7 Questions with Corey Thomas: President, CEO, Director of Rapid7
Feb. 14, 2023—Infinite possibilities drew Corey Thomas, BE ’98, to technology. Infinite curiosity fueled his interest, obsession even, with organizational behavior and the business side of technology. Rapid7, a cybersecurity tech firm based in Boston, has benefited from the combination of the two since 2008, when the founders hired Corey as SVP of marketing and sales. He...
7 Questions with Bob Higgins, President and CEO of Barge Design Solutions
Aug. 22, 2022—As a child, Bob Higgins, BE’97, says he constantly asked his father the question: Why? While an intern with Barge Design Solutions, Higgins thought about the possibility of one day leading the design firm and pondered: Why not? Today, he is the president and CEO of Barge going on 13 years. He is also a member of...
Benjamin Dysart was a leader in the nation’s conservation community
Jul. 13, 2022—Scientific adviser to federal and international agencies and former president of the National Wildlife Federation, Benjamin C. Dysart III, BE ‘61, MS ’64 in civil engineering, died July 9 in Nashville, Tennessee. Dysart, 82, was a professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University from 1968 to 1990, when he...