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‘Natural Sciences’

Poetry Exhibit, Town Hall Promote Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Sciences and Humanities

Feb. 24, 2020—On February 3, an unusual sight greeted visitors to Buttrick Hall. Tall, brightly colored banners lined the Buttrick lobby. Each banner bore a large graphic and a poem. As students, faculty, and staff made their way past the banners, they noticed something unusual: every poem in the collection was about science. The banners were part...

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Alfredo Gurrola Wins NSF CAREER Grant to Search for Source of Dark Matter

Jan. 27, 2020—Assistant Professor of Physics Alfredo Gurrola has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to further his search for the particles that make up dark matter and are responsible for dark matter interactions. The grant is part of the NSF’s prestigious CAREER program, which supports early-career faculty who have the potential to lead their fields...

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Professor, Chemist, Mentor: Steve Townsend, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Oct. 28, 2019—Steve Townsend’s office has a lot of the hallmarks you would expect to find in a chemistry professor’s office: models of chemical bonds sitting on the desk, academic and industry awards lining the bookshelf, and published papers pinned to the corkboard outside. But these ordinary items also hint at Townsend’s professional success. This year alone,...

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Puxin Xuanyuan: Chemistry major says creativity is key

Jul. 22, 2019—Chemistry major Puxin Xuanyuan says creativity is key to her passion for scientific discovery. She put her creativity to good use this summer while splitting time between an immersion experience at a medical biotech startup in Toronto and conducting cancer-fighting research on the Vanderbilt campus. “Scientific inquiry, scientific discovery and research are some of the...

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Andrew Grant: Pushing boundaries to impact the Earth, and people in it

Jan. 30, 2019—What is more daring—camping in a remote part of Antarctica for a month doing field research, or directing and performing in a musical revue about the environment? For Earth and Environmental Sciences major Andrew Grant, pushing boundaries to positively impact the Earth, and the people who call it home, are equally thrilling.

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