Chair’s Welcome

The Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science integrates strong basic research and applied research traditions. Our faculty is comprised of several award-winning professors who are distinguished scholars in their respective fields and who are dedicated to providing world-class education and training to our undergraduate and graduate students. While our course curriculum encompasses all of the sub-disciplines of psychology, the research of our faculty centers around three major areas: clinical science, cognition and cognitive neuroscience, and neuroscience.

We host an undergraduate major in psychology and a graduate program in psychological sciences in addition to helping serve three other majors—neuroscience, medicine, health, and society, and Peabody College’s cognitive studies. Several of our faculty also train graduate students from the neuroscience graduate program.

The Department of Psychology is closely connected with Peabody College’s Department of Psychology and Human Development, the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, the  Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, and the  Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.

We are proud of our distinguished alumni and appreciate the generous donors supporting our mission to advance our understanding of the human mind and brain.

Vanderbilt University is committed to nurturing scholarly inquiry of the first magnitude in a context that provides teaching of the highest quality. One advantage enjoyed by a private university such as Vanderbilt is that it can pursue scholarly values that transcend the exigencies of the academic marketplace. Psychology at Vanderbilt has done exactly that, creating a scholarly community, in which undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty can pursue excellence in a stimulating, collegial environment.

Research of many of our faculty members is supported by research grants from agencies such as the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Educational Research and Innovation. They chair important committees of professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Sciences, and the Society for Neuroscience, and serve as editors for a wide range of prestigious scientific journals. Many have received awards for their research from organizations including the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Sciences, The Arc, and the National Institutes of Health. Others are association fellows and members of state and national panels and commissions, including the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the American Psychological Society, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Education, and the National Science Foundation.

Thomas Palmeri
Department Chair
Distinguished Professor of Psychology