vanderbilt dissertation graduate school

Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Submission System

Complete instructions and deadlines for submitting your thesis or dissertation to the Graduate School can be found on the Graduate School's Thesis and Dissertations Guidelines page.

The signed Defense Results should be submitted to the Graduate School by the program or department.

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Department of Anthropology

Degree Requirements

Our students receive a solid general training in anthropological theory and methods based on the broad theoretical orientation of our faculty and their secondary areas of research. We offer intensive graduate training in the archaeology, biology, social analysis, and history of Central America, Mexico, and South America, as well as scholarship in Caribbean and North American anthropology. More specialized courses include training in Mayan languages, pre-Columbian iconography, GIS, archival research methods, specialized artifact analysis, skeletal analysis, stable isotope analysis, and genetic research.

Overview | Language Requirements | Degree Requirements | Guidelines | Essay | Exam | Essay Defense

The Ph.D. requires 72 hours of graduate credits, at least 45 of which should be in formal course work beyond the bachelor’s degree. Candidates entering with a master’s degree or previous graduate coursework may transfer up to 18 hours of credit, which would then reduce the number of semesters of funding accordingly.

The Ph.D. also requires proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese or another relevant language (such as French in the Caribbean), a comprehensive examination, successful defense of a dissertation proposal (Qualifying Exam) to advance to Ph.D. candidacy, and a dissertation based on original field, laboratory, or archival research.

Language Requirements

To obtain the M.A. and advance in the program, the language requirement must be completed by the fourth semester. This may include one foreign language passed at a high level of proficiency in a test that involves:

• an oral interview, and
• a written translation test.

The oral interview will be conducted by either an anthropology or CLACX faculty member (or a faculty member with the requisite language experience to evaluate the student). The written test consists of translating three to four pages of written work from the non-English language to English.

Alternatively, a student may pass one of certain 2000-level Spanish, Portuguese, French, or other relevant language courses with a grade of B+ or better. The DGS and adviser will determine which courses qualify. For students who are native speakers of a language relevant to their research, that is persons who have spoken the language in question from childhood, the student’s adviser or when available, a native speaker of that language, will certify their language ability and report the findings to the DGS. The student’s advisory committee will determine whether any other further language requirements are appropriate.

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The four subfields in anthropology are archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology/ethnography, and linguistics. All students must complete the following:

• 6 credits: Anth 8000: History of Anthropological Theory I (3 credits) and Anth 8001: History of Anthropological Theory II (3 credits), to be taken in the student’s first or second year.
• 6 credits: Primary subfield
• 6 credits: Secondary subfield
• 3 credits: Tertiary subfield
• 6 credits: Two electives in anthropology or two Independent Study courses in anthropology (or one of each). These two courses are meant to form the basis of the two comprehensive exam essays (see description of the comprehensive exam below).
• 3 credits: Anth 9000: Research Design Graduate Seminar. This class should be taken in the student’s third or fifth semester (it is typically offered in the fall). If it is taken in the fifth semester, another graduate seminar can be taken in the third semester to ensure that the student earns 36 credits total by the end of the second year.
• 6 credits: Two electives (e.g., anthropology courses in any subfield; courses outside the department for the CLACX certificate; courses in other departments deemed appropriate for the student’s training; quantitative methods in another department, etc.)

Total after two years: 36 credits (i.e., three courses per semester for two years) These 36 credits must be completed by the end of the fourth semester of enrollment. They are part of the requirement to earn a master’s degree in passing and advance in the program.

Students must also pass a Comprehensive Exam, which entails writing two substantial essays (written primarily in the two elective/independent study courses). These must be submitted by the last day of class (i.e., before the exam period starts) in the fourth semester of enrollment.

In the fifth semester, the student must complete nine more credits of coursework. These can be Independent Study courses or other courses that the student and committee deem appropriate for their training. This will bring the student up to the required 45 credits of coursework for the Ph.D.

Students who did not take ANTH 9000: Research Design in their third semester should take it in their fifth semester.

Students choose their primary and secondary subfields in consultation with their advisory committee. Depending on a student’s background and research interests, committees may require specific additional course work, including more preparation in other sub-fields, languages, and research methods.

After completing 45 credits, the student should enroll in ANTH 8999: Non-candidate Research credit hours. After the student achieves doctoral candidacy, they must enroll in ANTH 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research for credit hours every semester. When the student reaches 72 credit hours, they must enroll in zero hours of ANTH 9999: Ph.D. Dissertation Research to stay enrolled in the program. It is the student’s responsibility to register for courses in a timely manner. Stipends and TA-ships cannot be allocated for students who have not registered for courses at least one month before the semester begins.

Graduate Program Guidelines

Seventy-two (72) hours of graduate credits are required, at least 45 of which should be in formal course work: graduate seminars (8000-level and above) and independent study. On occasion, undergraduate courses with extra work for graduate students (3000-level and above) will be accepted as graduate course work.

At least 21 hours of course work must be in 5000-level and above graduate seminars. During the first 36 hours of course work, students should be concerned with completing requirements and filling gaps in their knowledge. After completing 45 hours of course work, the remainder will consist of either pre-dissertation research hours or dissertation research hours, depending on the status of the student.

Full-time students are expected to enroll in the Graduate School during each fall and spring semester. After completion of the required 72 hours for the Ph.D. degree, full-time students register for zero hours of dissertation research. Candidates for the Ph.D. degree who are away from the university must continue to register for zero hours of dissertation research to remain in good standing. In addition, all students must have Vanderbilt University health insurance every semester that they are enrolled, unless they file a waiver showing that they have health insurance from another source. This other source of insurance must be approved before the deadline in August every year.

It is the responsibility of graduate students to register for courses (including zero credit hours of dissertation research) each semester, to track their status to ensure that they have met all of the course requirements, and to maintain their health insurance coverage according to university rules.

Students Entering With a Master’s Degree

For new students holding M.A. degrees, transfer credit may apply to the hourly requirements for up to a maximum of 18 hours (~1 year) of course work. During the student’s first year in residence, their advisory committee will coordinate with the Director of Graduate Studies to determine how many and which courses will be approved for transfer credit. However, the number of course hours approved for transfer will be subtracted from a student’s total stipend award. That is, if two semesters (18 hours) of coursework are approved for transfer credit, two semesters of stipend support will be subtracted from the five-year fellowship award.

Dissertation Proposal Essay

The Dissertation Proposal Essay is a comprehensive bibliographic review of the literature relevant to the dissertation topic. The student, in close consultation with their adviser and dissertation committee, will prepare and submit a DPE. The DPE should include a summary and critical analysis of that particular theme and associated debates. It should also present the proposed dissertation research to be conducted by the student. Parts of this document may follow an expanded version of the National Science Foundation-Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. Please consult the relevant NSF-DDRIG website for more details (e.g., Archaeology , Biological Anthropology , Cultural Anthropology , or Linguistics ).

The proposal should clearly state the theoretical issues to be addressed, theoretical framing of the study, context of the research,  methodologies to be employed, relevant preliminary findings, types of data to be collected, and expected results and how those results will address the central questions of the study. Throughout the proposal, the student should clearly demonstrate their command of the relevant literature. These guidelines are not comprehensive, and an advisory committee may require additional content. It is the student’s responsibility to consult with their advisor and advisory committee on the format and expectations for this document.

Other items to append to the dissertation proposal essay:

• An outline of the dissertation thesis, including preliminary chapter titles and brief summaries
• A realistic schedule for research and writing

Comprehensive Exam

The student must complete the Comprehensive Exam by the end of the fourth semester. The purpose of the Comprehensive Exam is to establish the student’s knowledge of anthropology in general and of their specific fields of specialization. To pass, the student must write two substantive essays. These are synthetic literature review essays in specialized domains of scholarship. Each essay is a summary and critical analysis of that particular theme and associated debates. It should reflect the current state of the field, based on a comprehensive understanding of the literature. Students must work closely with their faculty adviser and committee to develop the topics and bibliographies. These essays should build on coursework that was aimed at developing each manuscript (students may take Independent Study courses in semesters 3 and/or 4 to develop the essays). Students should start planning for these essays in their first semester of enrollment. The two essay themes should not be identical to the dissertation topic. The Comprehensive Exam essays will be graded by the student’s advisory committee.

Comprehensive Exam essay examples include Anthropology of the Body; Anthropology of Food; Anthropology of Violence; Social Bioarchaeology; Historical Archaeology; and Political Economy, among others. This list is not exhaustive, and we expect that students will think creatively and critically as they develop their two major essay topics.

The grade options for Comprehensive Exam essays are:

• High Pass and continue in the program (both essays must receive a High Pass if the student is to continue in the program)
• Pass, which qualifies the student to receive a terminal M.A. and depart the program
• Fail and depart the program with no M.A.

Even with a score of “High Pass,” the committee may decide that the student demonstrated a need for improvement in a particular study area. In this case, the committee can require that the student rewrite sections of the comps essays.

Oral Defense of the Dissertation Proposal Essay

The public proposal presentation will start with a 20-minute presentation by the student followed by questions from the general audience. The closed examination by the Ph.D. committee members will commence immediately afterward. The student should be prepared to answer questions regarding all aspects of their proposed research. The Ph.D. committee will vote on the proposal and will inform the student of their decision within 24 hours.

The Ph.D. committee will vote on the Qualifying Exam (the Dissertation Proposal Essay and the oral defense of it) and select one of the following options:

• Pass and advance to doctoral candidacy
• Fail. If a student fails the Qualifying Exam, there are two possible outcomes:
• The student will have the opportunity to do substantial revisions and schedule a re-take of the Qualifying Exam within one semester; or
• The student will be dismissed from the program.

The student will advance to Ph.D. candidacy as soon as the Graduate School receives the paperwork communicating a positive evaluation.

The student should work closely with their Ph.D. committee in developing the DPE and the dissertation proposal. A final version of the dissertation proposal must be accepted by a student’s full Ph.D. committee before the oral defense can be scheduled. Any date set before the proposal is accepted by the full committee is simply a target date.

Paperwork: The student must submit the Request to Schedule the Qualifying Exam form at least two weeks before the proposal defense date.

After the oral exam, additional paperwork must be filed indicating whether the student passed or failed the Qualifying Exam. Please coordinate with the department administrative assistant on submitting both of those forms.

After a student successfully defends the dissertation proposal, the student advances to Ph.D. candidacy. From this point, according to Graduate School requirements, the student has four years to submit an approved final dissertation to the Graduate School. Extensions can be requested for extenuating circumstances.

Vanderbilt University honors Class of 2024 Founder’s Medalists

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May 9, 2024, 12:39 PM

In a time-honored tradition, Vanderbilt celebrated its Founder’s Medalists for the Class of 2024 at the Graduates Day event on May 9.

Since 1877, the university has awarded a gold medal to the student graduating with top honors from each of the university’s 10 schools and colleges . The award is named after the university’s founder, Cornelius Vanderbilt , who endowed the award in its first year.

Charles Dylan Hanson College of Arts and Science

Charles Dylan Hanson, from Boston, Massachusetts, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the College of Arts and Science . He is graduating with a bachelor of arts with two majors, history and computer science.

A highlight of his academic experience was conducting research in the Media and Inequality Lab, where he used big data technology to investigate social inequality through the lens of political science and media studies. One of his projects began with the question, “How did COVID affect people’s opinions of Chinese food?” He analyzed millions of Yelp reviews to find the answer.

On campus, he was president of Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations , a club that provides strategy consulting services to nonprofits and social impact organizations in the Southeast. He created Vandy.Link , a community management platform for student clubs. He was also director of technology in Vanderbilt Student Government, for which he was awarded the Nora C. Chaffin Scholarship for service to the university.

He expressed gratitude to his mother, who raised him as a single parent after his father died when Dylan was 14. Dylan completed his degree in December 2023 and has joined Bloomberg Financial Services as a software engineer. In the future, he plans to earn a J.D./MBA and launch a technology incubator for social good.

Alasdair Leslie Norman Payten Blair School of Music

Alasdair Leslie Norman Payten, from San Francisco, California, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for Blair School of Music . He is graduating with a bachelor of musical arts and double-majored in voice performance and economics. Payten is a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar, under the Sartain Lanier Leadership Program, and a member of the Eta Iota chapter of national music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda.

He has made many contributions to the university’s performing arts as a member of Vanderbilt Opera Theatre , Vanderbilt Chorale and The Original Cast . A longtime advocate of music education, Payten has been a music theory tutor for Blair’s undergraduate and pre-college students, as well as a teaching assistant for the Vanderbilt Youth Choirs.

This past summer, he traveled to the United Kingdom as a Vanderbilt Choral Scholar to explore musical repertoire from the Renaissance period and to learn from England’s rich tradition of sacred choral music. He also participated in the InterHarmony International Music Festival, where he studied piano in the hills of Italy’s Piedmont region.

After graduation, Payten plans to work toward expanding access to classical music and music education, a cause that has guided him in his time at Vanderbilt.

Madison Marie Albert School of Engineering

Madison Marie Albert, from North Yarmouth, Maine, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the School of Engineering . She is graduating with a bachelor of engineering. Albert, who double-majored in biomedical engineering and mathematics, began looking for research opportunities as a first-year student. She was selected for the highly competitive Research Experiences for Undergraduates program , created by the National Science Foundation. Her REU project in applied mathematics modeled bone cells.

During her sophomore year, her academic adviser, William Grissom, associate professor of biomedical engineering, reached out with an opportunity to join his MRI lab. Albert found that MRI research provided the perfect combination of clinical relevance and computational work for her. She has learned more about MRI, and the potential to never stop learning drives her desire to pursue research as a career.

Her honors include the Case School of Engineering Swanger Graduate Fellowship and a Goldwater Scholarship.

Albert’s most meaningful service experience during college was being the rector for the University Catholic Awakening Retreat in 2023, with about 150 college students from across Davidson County attending. She says her faith has grown significantly through involvement with University Catholic.

After graduation, she will pursue a doctorate in biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. And she will continue her research with Professor Grissom to develop pulse optimization tools for MRI.

Morgan Anne Heath-Powers Peabody College of Education and Human Development

Morgan Anne Heath-Powers, from Reno, Nevada, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for Peabody College of Education and Human Development . She is graduating with a bachelor of science and majored in human and organizational development, with an emphasis in health and human services and a minor in Spanish for the professions. She was a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar, a Peabody Honors Scholar, and a Pugh-Hernández Scholar, receiving support for a Maymester trip across Spain through the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

While she initially intended to pursue a career in business, her heart was captured by courses in neuroscience, medical anthropology and health care service delivery to diverse populations. Through a course at Vanderbilt, she trained as a Spanish medical interpreter, and dedicated much of her time to volunteering and refining her skills with organizations such as Siloam Health, a Nashville nonprofit bringing comprehensive, whole-person health care to the uninsured and culturally marginalized.

She was co-president of the Vanderbilt Pre-Nursing Society , empowering fellow students along the same path. She thanks the deans of Undergraduate Student Affairs, Vanderbilt’s multiple student care organizations, the Title IX Office and her incredible professors for their instrumental support, care and belief in her the past four years. She is also grateful for family and friends who surround her with love, encouragement and hope.

After graduation, Heath-Powers looks forward to continuing her education to become a clinician who serves individuals and communities through primary care focused on prevention and whole-person wellness.

Sarah Moore Divinity School

Sarah Moore, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the Divinity School . She is graduating with a master of divinity with a concentration in chaplaincy. Moore earned a bachelor of science in biology and global health at Georgetown University.

Through her field education placement at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, she developed a deep love for pediatric chaplaincy, supporting children and their families with the unique emotional and spiritual needs that arise in the hospital. She was recognized by the pediatric medicine nursing staff for her dedication to quality care for patients and families.

Courses in bioethics and in death and dying influenced how she approaches her work in the hospital and in caring for families. She received honors for her degree project, “This Woman’s Work: Accounts of Bearing Witness, Spiritual Care and Special Space on the NICU.” Moore is grateful to the spiritual care team at Children’s Hospital, who mentored her for the past two years while she served as a student chaplain.

After graduation, she will move to the Pacific Northwest to practice her vocation in pediatric chaplaincy.

Lucy Magill Alsip Vollbrecht Graduate School

Lucy Magill Alsip Vollbrecht, from Flagstaff, Arizona, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the Graduate School . She is graduating with a doctor of philosophy in philosophy. Vollbrecht is a specialist in social epistemology, which is the study of how knowledge is produced and transmitted in group and social contexts. She earned a bachelor of arts in philosophy at Whitman College. Her interests include ancient philosophy, argumentation theory and feminist theories of knowledge.

Vollbrecht has a forthcoming article, “Can Feminists be Skeptics?” being published by Southwest Philosophy Review . Associate Professor of Philosophy Scott Aikin, Vollbrecht’s adviser, says that “her research, beyond the dissertation, has carried her to the question of the relevance of the ancients to contemporary philosophical and social questions.”

Her honors include the Dean’s Fellowship Award, the Publication Excellence Prize and the Ethics Dissertation Prospectus Prize. She also received high marks for her teaching. Vollbrecht was a member of the Philosophy Graduate Student Association Teaching Committee and helped organize the Philosophy Graduate Student Colloquium. She also was co-chair of Vanderbilt Minorities and Philosophy.

After graduation, she begins a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, where she will focus on political argument, policy and civility.

Robert Christian Dunn Law School

Robert Christian Dunn, of Columbus, Ohio, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the Law School . He is graduating with a doctor of jurisprudence. Dunn is a Double ’Dore, having earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in 2018.

He has fond memories of two undergraduate classes on author James Joyce taught by English Professor Roy Gottfried. Dunn credits those courses with how he reads and analyzes texts.

During law school, Dunn was executive editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review . He was honored with many Scholastic Excellence awards: Constitutional Law I and II, Civil Procedure, Corporations and Business Entities, Securities Regulation, and Mergers and Acquisitions.

One of his favorite spring and summer activities in Nashville has been floating the Harpeth River, and he became involved with the Harpeth Conservancy, doing volunteer pro bono legal work for them. His first foray into environmental law was a deeply meaningful experience. Not only has he been able to work on behalf of some of Nashville’s best natural assets, but he also discovered a real enjoyment for environmental legal work.

After graduation, Dunn will move to New York City to begin practice as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Sachin Kumar Aggarwal School of Medicine

Sachin Kumar Aggarwal, from Houston, Texas, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the School of Medicine . He is graduating with a doctor of medicine. Aggarwal earned a bachelor of science at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied biomedical engineering.

His path to medicine was shaped by multiple influences, including his mother’s completion of medical school in India and physician friends in Houston who exemplified values of caring, compassion and respect. This combination of influences remains at the core of Aggarwal’s passion for medicine and health care.

At Vanderbilt, Aggarwal held multiple volunteer and leadership positions at the student-run Shade Tree Clinic , which provides free, high-quality care to uninsured and underinsured individuals in the Nashville area. Aggarwal directed the clinic operations to maintain high-quality care while working on projects to expand offerings and enhance the clinic’s sustainability.

He also created health education videos and presentations for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work led him to receive the 2021 Robert F. Miller Award for Community Service and Engagement.

He has matched into residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Aggarwal hopes to continue addressing health equity through direct patient care and innovation at different levels of health care interactions.

Teresa J. Cagle School of Nursing

Teresa J. Cagle, from Fayetteville, Georgia, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for the School of Nursing . She is graduating with a doctor of nursing practice. Cagle, a psychiatric–mental health nurse practitioner, earned a master of science and bachelor of science in nursing at Georgia College & State University. She worked as a registered nurse in surgical and emergency department services, the latter during COVID-19.

As a doctoral-prepared nurse practitioner, she is the strong voice for those affected by mental health disorders, which have risen sharply among young people. Her doctoral studies instilled a passionate desire to advocate for mental health curriculum in Georgia school systems.

She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She completed a quality improvement project that addressed analyzing the effectiveness and utility of a pharmacogenomic-guided approach to personalized medication management for depressive disorders. She has been instrumental in proposing the addition of a specialty pharmacy within her outpatient clinic to better serve her community’s vulnerable population.

Cagle has a focus on nursing education and has incorporated precepting students in the outpatient clinic, understanding that the shortage of mental health professionals is at a critical level. She volunteers in her hometown with the Trilith Foundation, which strives to enrich lives mentally, physically, spiritually and relationally. Her involvement there puts her in a position to influence key stakeholders invested in her community’s mental health.

Cagle believes her academic journey, combined with her calling, has led to greater opportunities for mental health awareness, patient safety, nursing education, medical missions, patient advocacy and innovative change.

Branson Thomas Horn Owen Graduate School of Management

Branson Thomas Horn, from Birmingham, Alabama, is this year’s Founder’s Medalist for Owen Graduate School of Management . He is graduating with a master of business administration with concentrations in strategy and health care. Horn earned a bachelor of science at the University of Alabama, where he double-majored in finance and economics, with a minor in social innovation and leadership.

At Vanderbilt, he was honored as a Dean’s Scholar, a Bruce D. Henderson Scholar and an Ingram Scholar.

Two influential courses for Horn were Healthcare Immersion, taught by Professor Emeritus of Economics and Strategy Larry Van Horn, and Launching the Venture, taught by Professor of the Practice of Management Michael Burcham. Healthcare Immersion exposed Horn to many leaders at the cutting edge of their fields in health care business. Launching the Venture solidified his interest in entrepreneurship and working with growth-stage companies.

Horn was president of the Venture and Entrepreneurship Club , where he worked to foster a better understanding of Nashville’s entrepreneurship scene in the Owen community. He also enjoyed being a teaching assistant for an intensive learning module for first-year MBA students. It was especially rewarding to help those with no business background gain confidence in their accounting and finance skill sets and continue their momentum at Owen.

He is grateful for the support of his wife, Kelly Severino Horn, and he follows in the footsteps of her many family members who are Vanderbilt alumni. After graduation, Horn will participate in Nashville’s thriving entrepreneurship community.

• See more stories from the Class of 2024.
• Check out a list of past Founder’s Medalists .
• Share your Commencement photos by tagging #VU2024.
• Find all the latest celebration details on the Vanderbilt Commencement website .

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• Branson Thomas Horn
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• Madison Marie Albert
• Morgan Anne Heath-Powers
• Robert Christian Dunn
• Sachin Kumar Aggarwal
• Sarah Moore
• Teresa J. Cagle

Chao Li – 2024 May Student Spotlight

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Congratulations Chao!

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BRET Career Development ASPIRE Program

National institutes of health (nih) – ruth kirschstein national research service award (nrsa) f31 – predoctoral fellowships.

Posted by hagansa2 on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 in Announcements .

August 8, 2024

December 8, 2024

April 8, 2025

URL:  Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award | Research Training (nih.gov)

Description:

NIH-NRSA/Kirschstein fellowships support promising graduate students who are pursuing training and research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of participating NIH institutes. Most research-oriented fields in the biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences are eligible. The fellowships provide up to five years of support.

Participating Institutes & Centers

National Eye Institute ( NEI ) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ( NHLBI ) National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI ) National Institute on Aging ( NIA ) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ( NIAAA ) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ( NIAID ) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases ( NIAMS ) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( NICHD ) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders ( NIDCD ) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research ( NIDCR ) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases ( NIDDK ) National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA ) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ( NIEHS ) National Institute of Mental Health ( NIMH ) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke ( NINDS ) National Institute of Nursing Research ( NINR ) National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities ( NIMHD ) National Library of Medicine ( NLM ) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health ( NCCIH ) National Cancer Institute ( NCI )

Eligibility:

• Applicant must be a citizen or a non-citizen national of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
• The applicant must be at the dissertation research stage of training at the time of award. Note that this does not mean that the applicant must have been advanced to candidacy. It merely means that the applicant must have already begun work leading toward the dissertation and must propose a comprehensive plan for the dissertation project in the NRSA application.
• Applicant must have a baccalaureate degree and be currently enrolled in a PhD or equivalent research degree program (e.g., EngD, DNSc, Dr PH, DSW, PharmD, PsyD, ScD), a formally combined MD/PhD program, or other combined professional/clinical and research doctoral program (e.g., DDS/PhD) in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences at a domestic or foreign institution.
• Students seeking support for pursuit of a combined degree program (e.g. MD/PhD, DO/PhD, DDS/PhD or DVM/PhD) who seek support for  both  dissertation research training and clinical training are not eligible for this award, but may be eligible to apply for the  Kirschstein NRSA Individual Predoctoral MD/PhD or Other Dual-Doctoral Degree Fellowship (F30) .

Award Amount:

• $27,144 annual stipend.
• Up to $16,000 for tuition.
• Institutional allowance is available for fellowship expenses (health insurance, research supplies, equipment, books, and travel to scientific meetings). See  guidelines .

If this information is out of date, please email [email protected] to let us know. 

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Beyond the Lab: Data Science

Vanderbilt researchers’ novel catheter-based technology to make endovascular procedures more efficient and safe

Lucas Johnson

May 9, 2024, 2:25 PM

With hundreds of thousands of people in the United States having a stroke annually, Vanderbilt researchers are developing technology that could revolutionize the way blood clots are removed by allowing surgeons to complete the process more efficiently and safely.

The research is led by Nabil Simaan , professor of mechanical engineering, with assistance from graduate student Jared Lawson . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke every year. About 87% are ischemic strokes, in which blood flow to the brain is blocked.

The main objective of the surgeon, or interventionalist physician, is to find the clot causing the blockage and remove it. Currently, a thin flexible catheter is put into an artery in the patient’s groin and the surgeon uses X-ray images on a computer screen to move the catheter to where the clot is believed to be. Navigation is particularly challenging in the brain, researchers say, because of curving paths and tortuous vessels the catheter has to go through.

“An X-ray image doesn’t tell you where a blood clot is, it tells you where blood is flowing,” says Lawson. “So, they have to kind of decide, do I think the blood clot is here, or do I think it’s over here? That might add complications to the procedure, or it might just slow the procedure down.”

As a solution, Simaan and Lawson are working on adding sensors to aid navigation by allowing the surgeon to detect when the catheter tip is touching a vessel wall, and when it makes contact with a blood clot. The catheter, which is hollow, will also be equipped with a device that will pass through it and grab the clot or suction it like a vacuum.

“By informing the interventionalist of different contact scenarios, we hope to increase the safety and efficiency of these emergent neurovascular procedures,” says Lawson.

Additionally, he says they’re developing technology to automate steering by tracking the catheters motion under biplane X-ray fluoroscopy, which surgeons use to visualize the vessel anatomy.

“If we successfully automate the steering, the cognitive burden placed on the interventionalist can be significantly reduced,” he says.

Rohan Chitale , MD, is a clinical collaborator and associate professor of neurological surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He says surgeons currently use flimsy, passive catheters that require much trial and error.

“This new technology is revolutionary because it adds steerability, safety, and augmentation of senses that interventionalists do not currently have,” says Chitale, who is affiliated with Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) , along with Simaan and Lawson. “Improving on these will make an interventionalist’s job simpler, safer, and more effective. Being able to have more certainty about where the clot is will mean more frequent and quicker success at restoring blood flow in the brain, thereby improving the outcome for countless stroke patients.”

The researchers say they appreciate the collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center and point to it as another example of the partnerships the university fosters to produce top-notch research.

“To be able to work with a surgeon like Dr. Chitale, who actually performs these procedures, and get his feedback has been invaluable,” says Simaan. “This technology is groundbreaking in the sense that it can be used in any type of endovascular procedure, which means anything in the heart that would be catheter-based.”

Contact: Lucas Johnson,  [email protected]

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Talking with a Vanderbilt senior expelled for role in pro-Palestinian protests

Marianna Bacallao

One of the first schools to expel students related to pro-Palestinian protests was Vanderbilt University. One expelled senior is still hoping he can get his degree.

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