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Giant Ground Sloth Extinction Led to Loss of Ecological Services
Oct. 22, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Giant ground sloths were more than just Ice Age oddities. They were ecosystem engineers whose disappearance reshaped the landscapes they once roamed. A new study from Vanderbilt University’s DREAM Lab reveals just how diverse these megaherbivores’ diets were, highlighting the ecological roles that vanished when they went extinct....
City Lights Are Rewriting the Calendar: Vanderbilt Researchers Show Artificial Light Extends Urban Growing Seasons
Sep. 23, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator City lights are rewriting the calendar. A new global study from Vanderbilt researchers Lin Meng and Huidong Li shows that artificial light at night is more powerful than temperature in extending urban growing seasons — keeping trees greener longer, with consequences for carbon cycling, frost risk, and even...
Vanderbilt Trainees Bring Evolution Education to Classrooms Across Tennessee
Jun. 6, 2025—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator From rural high schools to elementary classrooms, trainees of the Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) are bringing evolutionary science directly to the next generation. On May 9, a team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers visited McGavock Elementary School in Nashville to lead a series of hands-on science activities...
Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative Honored with 2025 Friend of Darwin Award
Jun. 4, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has named Vanderbilt University’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) as one of its 2025 recipients of the prestigious Friend of Darwin award. This national honor recognizes ESI’s outstanding contributions to advancing public understanding of evolution through interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach. Directed...
Pilot Grants: Opening Doors to Fellowships and Beyond
May. 12, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Since its launch, the pilot grant program has supported graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across a wide range of disciplines—including biological sciences, anthropology, Earth and environmental sciences, and biomedical research. Trainees have used this support to jumpstart fieldwork, generate pilot data, and explore new research directions. Several have...
Trainee Travel Grants Share Vanderbilt Research Worldwide
May. 1, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Since the program began in Fall of 2021, 70 trainee travel grants have been awarded across 13 labs in the departments of Biological Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Anthropology. These awards have primarily gone to graduate students (49), though postdoctoral researchers (14) and undergraduates have also benefited...
Big Science, Small Grants: ESI Pilot Funding Powers Research Across Disciplines
Apr. 18, 2025—By: Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator Since launching in 2021, the Evolutionary Studies Initiative’s pilot grant program has helped support more than thirty research teams across the departments of Biological Sciences, Earth and Environmental Science, Anthropology, and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. The premise is simple: a little funding, awarded fast, to help researchers try...
Renowned Expert, Paul Koch, to Discuss Environmental Change Through the Lens of Paleontology for ESI Earth Day Lecture
Mar. 25, 2025—By Nick McCoy, Evolutionary Studies communications assistant Paul Koch, a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will present the Earth Day Lecture at Vanderbilt on April 16th, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Buttrick Hall 102. The lecture is free and open to the public. Koch’s most notable...
Scopes Hotels
Jan. 15, 2025—Hotel Information The link to book in the room block at the Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt is here. There are several hotels in the area in a range of prices and distances from the Carmichael College. Feel free to use the information below to help make an informed decision regarding your hotel: COST Up-scale Loews...
Recap of ESI Seminars (Fall 2024)
Jan. 13, 2025—The Evolutionary Studies Initiative (ESI) Seminars last semester highlighted diverse and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding evolution. The speakers showcased research spanning behavior, genetics, physiology, and ecological systems, presenting evolution’s role in shaping life on Earth. From Anne Yoder’s exploration of speciation and conservation in Madagascar, to Ken Catania’s extraordinary look at predator-prey dynamics in emerald...