Research
Vanderbilt researchers helping to build a futuristic, sustainable city
Nov. 11, 2015—Read the Vanderbilt Magazine story here. Bouncing along a red-dirt road peppered with a few terrifying embankments, a Vanderbilt delegation arrives at an empty hilltop meadow carpeted with prairie grass and cordoned off by a barbed-wire fence. Other than a few bored cows, the only cue indicating the destination is a lone sign reading “Sterling...
Eight Vanderbilt researchers named ‘Inspiring Women in STEM’
Aug. 17, 2015—Originally published by MyVU. Eight Vanderbilt professors are recipients of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s 100 Inspiring Women in STEM Award. The award honors highly accomplished women working in science, technology, engineering or mathematics who have made a positive impact on the trajectories of other women thinking about or newly embarking on STEM careers. “For many...
Deciphering clues to prehistoric climate changes locked in cave deposits
May. 27, 2015—Watch the VU Inside on Jessica Oster here. Read the Vanderbilt News story here. When the conversation turns to the weather and the climate, most people’s thoughts naturally drift upward toward the clouds, but Jessica Oster’s sink down into the subterranean world of stalactites and stalagmites. That is because the assistant professor of earth and...
Vanderbilt and Pittsburgh to lead new center to identify toxic chemicals
Mar. 30, 2015—Each day we are bathed in thousands of man-made chemicals that never existed in nature. They are in cosmetics and shampoo, food packaging and plastic containers, clothing and building materials, furniture and electronic devices. Although the U.S. now produces more than 500 million tons of synthetic chemicals annually, a major “toxicological information gap” has developed...
Turning cellulose into biofuel: VU prof, grad student search for key on molecular level
Mar. 24, 2015—Originally published by the Vanderbilt School of Engineering found here. Brady, left, and Matt Lang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Vanderbilt University. (Susan Urmy/Vanderbilt University) Nature exquisitely engineered a way to produce fuel from organic matter. The answer to how lies in decaying leaves on the forest floor or a backyard compost pile...
Cheaper wind power possible through “talking” turbines
Mar. 16, 2015—Originally published by Reuters. The measurements taken inside a Vanderbilt University wind tunnel could hold the key to making wind power a viable, cost effective energy source in the future, according to Professor Doug Adams and his team of engineers. Inside a massive 20,000 square foot laboratory, Adams and his team fitted inertial sensors on two...
Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review
Mar. 4, 2015—The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) welcomes Professor William Boyd of the University of Colorado Law School as a part of its annual Nashville conference to discuss the importance of a revitalized and expanded notion of public utility for efforts to decarbonize the U.S. power sector. A panel of experts will join him...
Time when climate was topsy-turvy in Western U.S. aids climate prediction efforts
Mar. 2, 2015—Climate scientists now put the odds that the American Southwest is headed into a 30-year “mega drought” at 50/50. Meanwhile, the forecast for the Pacific Northwest is continued warming with slightly drier summers and even wetter winters. However, 21,000 years ago, at the peak of the last Ice Age, a period known as the Last...
Dr. Randy Blakely’s lab wins 2015 basketball “Greenest Group on Campus” award
Feb. 11, 2015—Read the MyVU story here. Dr. Randy Blakely’s lab group has been named winner of the 2015 Vanderbilt Basketball Sustainability Competition. Dr. Blakely’s lab staff celebrated their title of “greenest group on campus” at the Vanderbilt vs. South Carolina basketball game Feb. 7 with a catered hospitality event, tickets to the game, an autographed basketball...
Family tradition helps expand environmental and sustainability studies
Feb. 3, 2015—Originally published by Vanderbilt News. Read the article here. For Sommers Kline, BA’14, it all began the first semester of her first year when she signed up for an oceanography course. “Within the first two weeks, I learned that coral reefs were unlikely to last beyond the next 30 years,” Kline recalled. “I thought that...