Home » Research
Research
- Vanderbilt Research Brightens the Future of Lighting. The accidental discovery of ‘Quantum Dots’ seven years ago in a Vanderbilt Chemistry lab could lead to new lighting solutions for our future.
- EPA awards $90,000 to VU seniors to develop a spinach-powered solar cell. Over Earth Day Weekend, a team of five Vanderbilt seniors won a $90,000 grant at the Annual National Sustainable Design Expo held in Washington, D.C. with their novel, large-scale biohybrid solar panel.
- High school students turn blackberries into solar cells. Students from nine local high schools are participating in field trips to Vanderbilt laboratories to learn about and get hands on experience with nanotechnology by creating berry-powered solar cells.
- Time to anticipate and adapt to climate change. Vanderbilt-hosted leadership summit concludes that despite uncertainties surrounding climate change, effective strategies that will keep the nation’s transportation systems and other critical infrastructure running in the face of the adverse impacts need to be developed.
- Solar Energy Conversion Inspired by Nature’s Engineering. Watch video of G. Kane Jennings, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, speaking at the Commencement 2011 Faculty Seminars.
- Adsorbed in His Work. A leader in the field of adsorption, Doug LeVan, J. Lawrence Wilson Professor of Engineering and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, seeks to improve air quality both on Earth and in space.
- Video: Is Global Warming on the Back Burner? Prospects for Change. Watch video of Mike Vandenbergh, professor of law and director, Climate Change Research Network; Michael Bess, Chancellor’s Professor of History; and Beth Conklin, associate professor of anthropology, speaking at the Dec. 8, 2010, Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box on the future of Climate Change policies and actions.
- Researcher looking into energy powered by the sea. Vanderbilt’s Frank Parker suggests one of the best things the world can do to promote peace and stability in the coming century is to expand commercial nuclear power based on the extraction of uranium from the ocean.
- Private incentives for carbon emissions reductions needed to fill gaps until public measures created. As the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit continues, Mike Vandenbergh and Mark Cohen, two Vanderbilt professors, suggest that regardless of whether or not the meeting is successful in bringing public governance measures to bear, significant carbon reductions can be achieved by creating private incentives to reduce carbon emissions.
- Costly myths: An analysis of idling beliefs and behavior in personal motor vehicles. The average U.S. resident idles their car for 16 minutes a day and wrongly believes that a car should idle 3.6 minutes before it is better to turn it off, finds the Energy Policy study, led by VU psychologist Amanda Carrico.
- The Campaign to End American Idle. Vanderbilt Law professor Mike Vandenbergh wants to change your driving behavior: Stop idling your car.
- Vanderbilt Doctors develop new technology to recycle anesthetic. Recently, doctors at VUMC have developed the Dynamic Gas Scavenging System, a device which collects air containing exhaled
anesthetic, which is then captured, condensed, and recycled. - The Vanderbilt School of Engineering will soon have a new state-of-the-art biodiesel testing facility. Beginning in the fall of 2008, students from various engineering disciplines will use the Vanderbilt Multi-User Biodiesel Engine Test Facility to investigate diesel engine performance parameters and test campus-produced biodiesel fuels.
- Energy Expert Discussess the Future of Solar Power. Watch a video of Lawrence Kazmerski, Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, discussing the prospects of solar-photovoltaic (PV) technologies, arguing that this solar-electricity source is at a tipping point in the very complex realm of worldwide energy.
- The New “Wal-Mart Effect.” A new study by Vanderbilt Professor of Environmental Law Michael Vandenbergh finds that U.S. companies often are pushing for environmental regulations from foreign businesses rather than lobbying national or international governments.
- The Vanderbilt Climate Change Research Project. This project includes a team of faculty and graduate students who are conducting theoretical and applied research on one of the most important and most widely overlooked sources of greenhouse gases: individual and household behavior. Furthermore, the Vanderbilt Law School’s Regulatory Program is engaged in the study of how governmental activities influence public or private behavior for purposes of promoting environmental protection and public health.
- Mobile pollution sensors to be developed at Vanderbilt using Microsoft grant. Vanderbilt engineers have won an award from Microsoft Corp. to develop a real-time, online, detailed and accurate picture of air quality in large metropolitan areas like Nashville.
- Chemists receive award from ‘Popular Mechanics’. A team of Vanderbilt chemists whose work could make the light bulb passé and cut electricity consumption by half are among the recipients of Popular Mechanics magazine’s 2006 Breakthrough Awards.
- Cleaning Up Coal. Scientists and policymakers might debate the existence and causes of “global warming,” but no one debates the need for clean air or the desirability of cleaning up emissions from coal-fired power plants.
- Historian offers overview of environmental issues. The litany of woe has become familiar and seemingly overwhelming: The Earth is running out of fossil fuel and facing chaotic weather due to global warming.
- Nuclear waste issues to be tackled by VU-led team. Nuclear power might be “green power” — but only if nuclear waste can be managed properly.
- Reducing emissions of direct injection goal of VU research. An automobile engine with 30 percent greater fuel efficiency than current models — but that also meets U.S. emission standards — is the goal of an engineering professor.
- Community Development and Ecological Theory. A Vanderbilt Professor writes about how community development is affected by the environment and vice versa.
Connect with SustainVU
© 2013 Vanderbilt University · Vanderbilt's Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO)