Prof. J.H. Hamilton (left) with Y. Oganessian viewing Berkelium-249 prepared at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In early 2010, physicists successfully synthesized a new element with atomic number 117.

In the embryonic epithelia shown above, Vanderbilt biophysicists use laser-microsurgery to probe the sub-cellular mechanics of living tissues.

The KELT-South observatory (left) searches for giant planets eclipsing bright stars. Located in South Africa, it was designed and built by astronomers at Vanderbilt and the University of Cape Town.

In the Center for Molecular and Atomic Studies at Surfaces, graduate student Heungman Park uses the versatile and powerful TITAN laser system to study the interactions of light and matter.

The Vanderbilt Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education (ACCRE) is a powerful resource for department faculty who use computation as a tool for scientific exploration.

Vanderbilt is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which images the luminous red galaxies shown above. The clustering of these galaxies will probe the nature of dark energy in the universe.

The nuclear theory group studies fusion reactions of exotic neutron-rich nuclei such as 132Sn + 96Zr, using quantum many body theory (time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculation on 3-D grid).