2019

VINSE Director Sandra Rosenthal (Vanderbilt University) By Jane Hirtle Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry, will step down as director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) on June 30 following 12 years of service. “I am so grateful to Sandy for… Read More

Robert W. Pitz, professor of mechanical engineering, has been named a fellow of The Combustion Institute, an international educational and scientific society. He will attend the 38th International Symposium on Combustion in July 2020 in Adelaide, Australia, where he will be recognized along with 36 other fellow honorees from around… Read More

A new biomaterial-based bone graft extender created by Vanderbilt and U.S. Army researchers has the potential to improve treatment of critical orthopedic conditions. While a graft using a patient’s own bone  – typically from the pelvis or femur – for re-implantation is considered the standard technique to repair, replace or… Read More

Members of Women of VISE, including Professor Catie Chang and Sarah Goodale, a BME graduate student, take lessons on the brain, optics, ultrasound and cancer treatments in a STEM outreach day at Whitsitt Elementary School in Nashville. Gummy bears, laser pointers, slinky toys and gooey, stretchy hands illustrated basics in… Read More

Ben Scheer jumps imagination-first into big projects, and he’s not afraid of a lot of trial and error. The Vanderbilt human and organizational development and economics double major has worked on dozens of entrepreneurial endeavors ranging from coding to music to virtual reality to photography, with his biggest focus being on connecting… Read More

A well-known, four-year study found popular arthritis drug Celebrex no more dangerous for the heart than older drugs in its same classification – commonly called NSAIDs. Now, a big-data analysis of patient records at Vanderbilt University has found a link specifically between Celebrex and heart valve calcification. W. David… Read More

Connor Morency, ME senior, will study space programs in Asia as a 2019-20 Luce Scholar. Connor Morency, a senior from Wheaton, Illinois, studying mechanical engineering, has been named to the 2019-20 class of Luce Scholars. A nationally competitive fellowship, the Luce Scholars Program was created by the Henry Luce Foundation… Read More

Vanderbilt University engineering researchers took a major step toward building a “brain in a dish:” They cultured induced pluripotent stem cells into a successful three-dimensional blood-brain barrier model. The future of drug testing and disease research lies in creating organoids, or models of human organs, to determine efficacy and potency… Read More

Rob Barrick (BE’74) has been named board chairman and senior principal of Smith Seckman Reid  Inc., an employee-owned engineering design and facility consulting firm with 12 offices nationwide. Rob Barrick His new post comes after serving 29 years as SSR’s president and CEO. The Nashville-based firm provides design and consulting… Read More

Ronald Schrimpf has been named president of the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, one of the technical societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, effective Jan. 1, 2019. The NPSS is composed of nine technical committees, and a Transnational Committee, with a common interest in advancing… Read More