Dec. 13, 2017
Joan Brasher
Keivan Stassun. (Vanderbilt University)
A Vanderbilt astronomy professor recently was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Million-Dollar Professor for his work to keep more women, underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities in the physical sciences.
Keivan G. Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, proposes to retain these groups from their first year through Ph.D. by early and sustained immersion in research, building on Vanderbilt’s current push toward more immersive experiences for its undergraduates.
“Data show that, as freshmen who are underrepresented minorities are just as likely as their majority peers to express an interest in physical sciences majors, but they’re overwhelmingly more likely to switch by their sophomore or junior years,” he said. “Immersive engagement in research, starting very early, can be a key intervention to help these students develop a ‘science identity,’ which is so crucial to persistence in the field.”
Stassun plans to connect the HHMI grant’s focus on the earliest stages of the pipeline with his recently awarded NSF INCLUDES grant, a program aimed at identifying and sharing successful efforts to keep underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The ultimate vision for the overall effort is what Stassun describes as a “model pipeline from high school to the workforce,” with early and sustained engagement in research as a central feature every step of the way.
As a particular focus of the HHMI grant, Stassun also will work with the new Initiative for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt, where he is director. The new initiative brings together researchers, educators, employers and others to more fully include people on the autism spectrum in the workforce, particularly in STEM areas. The initiative is a novel collaboration of faculty in the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering, the Graduate School, the Owen Graduate School of Management and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. The aim is to:
.develop new measures of uniquely autistic capabilities for scientific discovery;
.invent new devices and technologies to support individuals with autism to succeed in the research environment;
.develop new artificial intelligence approaches inspired by autism-related modes of thinking; and
.develop the organizational science approaches needed for businesses to fully harness the capabilities of their neurodiverse employees.
“A major priority area of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center is to develop evidence-based strategies to advance the opportunities for neurodiverse individuals to engage in meaningful work,” said Vanderbilt Kennedy Center director Jeff Neul. “This HHMI Professor award to VKC member Keivan Stassun is built upon an exciting collaboration that leverages the expertise of multiple VKC members and investigators from across the university. It will have life-changing impact on individuals with autism both at Vanderbilt and in the broader community, and will demonstrate a pipeline to workforce engagement that can serve as a national model.”
For Stassun and his collaborators, this work is also personal. “We have an opportunity to advance discovery and innovation through more meaningful inclusion of neurodiverse individuals, including Vanderbilt undergraduates who are on the autism spectrum,” said Stassun, father to a son with autism.
Patrick Young, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University who is on the autism spectrum, said, “universities and even entire professions such as astronomy have become much more comfortable talking about the benefits of diversity and inclusion, but ironically neurodiversity is too often not included in the equation.”
The HHMI Professors program identifies highly accomplished research scientists who have compelling ideas to advance science education and provides them with flexible support to try out those ideas. The program empowers and raises the visibility of scientists with high research credibility as exemplars of and advocates for excellence in science education.
HHMI awarded 14 new professors $1 million over five years. One-fifth of Stassun’s award is earmarked to support his astrophysics research group, which has become a leading producer of underrepresented minorities and individuals with autism achieving the Ph.D. in physics and astronomy. The remainder of Stassun’s award will be dedicated to building his pipeline model for diverse—including neurodiverse—students.
See the full article here .
Please help promote STEM in your local schools.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was in his 79th year when he decided to make the gift that founded Vanderbilt University in the spring of 1873.
The $1 million that he gave to endow and build the university was the commodore’s only major philanthropy. Methodist Bishop Holland N. McTyeire of Nashville, husband of Amelia Townsend who was a cousin of the commodore’s young second wife Frank Crawford, went to New York for medical treatment early in 1873 and spent time recovering in the Vanderbilt mansion. He won the commodore’s admiration and support for the project of building a university in the South that would “contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country.”
McTyeire chose the site for the campus, supervised the construction of buildings and personally planted many of the trees that today make Vanderbilt a national arboretum. At the outset, the university consisted of one Main Building (now Kirkland Hall), an astronomical observatory and houses for professors. Landon C. Garland was Vanderbilt’s first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893. He advised McTyeire in selecting the faculty, arranged the curriculum and set the policies of the university.
For the first 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt was under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Vanderbilt Board of Trust severed its ties with the church in June 1914 as a result of a dispute with the bishops over who would appoint university trustees.
kirkland hallFrom the outset, Vanderbilt met two definitions of a university: It offered work in the liberal arts and sciences beyond the baccalaureate degree and it embraced several professional schools in addition to its college. James H. Kirkland, the longest serving chancellor in university history (1893-1937), followed Chancellor Garland. He guided Vanderbilt to rebuild after a fire in 1905 that consumed the main building, which was renamed in Kirkland’s honor, and all its contents. He also navigated the university through the separation from the Methodist Church. Notable advances in graduate studies were made under the third chancellor, Oliver Cromwell Carmichael (1937-46). He also created the Joint University Library, brought about by a coalition of Vanderbilt, Peabody College and Scarritt College.
Remarkable continuity has characterized the government of Vanderbilt. The original charter, issued in 1872, was amended in 1873 to make the legal name of the corporation “The Vanderbilt University.” The charter has not been altered since.
The university is self-governing under a Board of Trust that, since the beginning, has elected its own members and officers. The university’s general government is vested in the Board of Trust. The immediate government of the university is committed to the chancellor, who is elected by the Board of Trust.
The original Vanderbilt campus consisted of 75 acres. By 1960, the campus had spread to about 260 acres of land. When George Peabody College for Teachers merged with Vanderbilt in 1979, about 53 acres were added.
wyatt centerVanderbilt’s student enrollment tended to double itself each 25 years during the first century of the university’s history: 307 in the fall of 1875; 754 in 1900; 1,377 in 1925; 3,529 in 1950; 7,034 in 1975. In the fall of 1999 the enrollment was 10,127.
In the planning of Vanderbilt, the assumption seemed to be that it would be an all-male institution. Yet the board never enacted rules prohibiting women. At least one woman attended Vanderbilt classes every year from 1875 on. Most came to classes by courtesy of professors or as special or irregular (non-degree) students. From 1892 to 1901 women at Vanderbilt gained full legal equality except in one respect — access to dorms. In 1894 the faculty and board allowed women to compete for academic prizes. By 1897, four or five women entered with each freshman class. By 1913 the student body contained 78 women, or just more than 20 percent of the academic enrollment.
National recognition of the university’s status came in 1949 with election of Vanderbilt to membership in the select Association of American Universities. In the 1950s Vanderbilt began to outgrow its provincial roots and to measure its achievements by national standards under the leadership of Chancellor Harvie Branscomb. By its 90th anniversary in 1963, Vanderbilt for the first time ranked in the top 20 private universities in the United States.
Vanderbilt continued to excel in research, and the number of university buildings more than doubled under the leadership of Chancellors Alexander Heard (1963-1982) and Joe B. Wyatt (1982-2000), only the fifth and sixth chancellors in Vanderbilt’s long and distinguished history. Heard added three schools (Blair, the Owen Graduate School of Management and Peabody College) to the seven already existing and constructed three dozen buildings. During Wyatt’s tenure, Vanderbilt acquired or built one-third of the campus buildings and made great strides in diversity, volunteerism and technology.
The university grew and changed significantly under its seventh chancellor, Gordon Gee, who served from 2000 to 2007. Vanderbilt led the country in the rate of growth for academic research funding, which increased to more than $450 million and became one of the most selective undergraduate institutions in the country.
On March 1, 2008, Nicholas S. Zeppos was named Vanderbilt’s eighth chancellor after serving as interim chancellor beginning Aug. 1, 2007. Prior to that, he spent 2002-2008 as Vanderbilt’s provost, overseeing undergraduate, graduate and professional education programs as well as development, alumni relations and research efforts in liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education, business, law and divinity. He first came to Vanderbilt in 1987 as an assistant professor in the law school. In his first five years, Zeppos led the university through the most challenging economic times since the Great Depression, while continuing to attract the best students and faculty from across the country and around the world. Vanderbilt got through the economic crisis notably less scathed than many of its peers and began and remained committed to its much-praised enhanced financial aid policy for all undergraduates during the same timespan. The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons for first-year students opened in 2008 and College Halls, the next phase in the residential education system at Vanderbilt, is on track to open in the fall of 2014. During Zeppos’ first five years, Vanderbilt has drawn robust support from federal funding agencies, and the Medical Center entered into agreements with regional hospitals and health care systems in middle and east Tennessee that will bring Vanderbilt care to patients across the state.
studentsToday, Vanderbilt University is a private research university of about 6,500 undergraduates and 5,300 graduate and professional students. The university comprises 10 schools, a public policy center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development as well as a full range of graduate and professional degrees. The university is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top 20 universities by publications such as U.S. News & World Report, with several programs and disciplines ranking in the top 10.
Cutting-edge research and liberal arts, combined with strong ties to a distinguished medical center, creates an invigorating atmosphere where students tailor their education to meet their goals and researchers collaborate to solve complex questions affecting our health, culture and society.
Vanderbilt, an independent, privately supported university, and the separate, non-profit Vanderbilt University Medical Center share a respected name and enjoy close collaboration through education and research. Together, the number of people employed by these two organizations exceeds that of the largest private employer in the Middle Tennessee region.
Related links
sciencesprings 