Five faculty members have received Southeastern Conference Visiting Faculty Travel grants. The program is designed to enhance faculty collaboration between SEC member universities by providing faculty from one SEC institution the opportunity to travel to another SEC campus to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals and conduct research. Patrick Abbot, associate professor of biological sciences, will travel to Texas A&M University’s Department of Entomology. Julie Adams, associate professor of computer science and computer engineering, will travel to Texas A&M’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Ravindra Duddu, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will travel to the University of Florida’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Amy Needham, professor of psychology and human development and associate chair of the department, will travel to the University of Georgia’s Department of Psychology. And Graham Reside, assistant professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt Divinity School, will travel to the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute.
James P. Byrd, associate professor of American religious history and associate dean for graduate education and research, has written Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution, named “one of the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought and culture in 2014” by Christianity Today. The book, published by Oxford University Press, examines how scripture has played a pivotal role in shaping the United States’ justification for going to war from the nation’s beginnings.
Vanderbilt faculty played a prominent role in the 13th edition of Wintrobe’s Clinical Hematology. Nineteen faculty members contributed to chapters, including Adult Hematology/Oncology’s Utpal Davé, John Greer, Ken Hande, Madan Jagasia, Adetola Kassim, David Morgan, Nishitha Reddy, Bipin Savani and Steve Strickland; Pediatric Hematology/Oncology’s Haydar Frangoul and Debra Friedman; Pathology’s Annette Kim, Tom McCurley, Claudio Mosse, Luc Van Kaer and Mary Ann Thompson; and Dermatology’s Laura McGirt, John Zic and Jeff Zwerner. Pamela Johnson coordinated manuscript production with Greer, who served as chief editor. The first edition of Wintrobe’s Clinical Hematology was written solely by Max Wintrobe in 1942. Vanderbilt faculty have been involved with the textbook since 1981, when John Lukens, former head of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, served as an editor for the eighth edition.
Rodney Deaton, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, writes a blog, Paving the Road Back, that was selected an Editor’s Pick for 2013 by WordPress.com.
Vesna Pavlović, assistant professor of art, has photographs currently on view at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Three photographs from her “Hotels” series are in the museum’s permanent collection, donated by the contemporary art collector Tony Podesta. “Hotels” (2000-02) depicts the interiors of Yugoslav hotels that are representative of local 1960s socialist modern design, evoking the “golden age” of Yugoslav socialism and the psychology of the era in the country’s history.
Kevin M. Stack, professor of law and associate dean for research at Vanderbilt Law School, has received the American Bar Association’s 2013 Annual Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law for his article “Interpreting Regulations,” published in Michigan Law Review. Past recipients of this award include U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, as well as Edward Rubin, professor of law and political science and dean of Vanderbilt Law School from 2005 to 2009. With Stack’s award, Vanderbilt joins Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Michigan and NYU among law schools with more than one recipient of the award on faculty.
Leslie Wilkes, a health systems analyst at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, won first place in the professional category of the “Nashville’s Sky Through My Eye” photo contest sponsored by Mayor Karl Dean. The contest challenged professional photographers and hobbyists in the area to get the best shot of the Nashville skyline. Wilkes, a professional photographer for more than 20 years focusing on family portraits and teaching beginner photography classes, will receive a cash prize and the honor of producing the city’s official skyline photograph.
