EBRL’s Dr. Sarah Hughes-Berheim was selected to attend Vanderbilt University’s Federal Stem Policy & Advocacy Workshop: An Inside the Beltway Look. This trip provided Vanderbilt graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) an opportunity to learn how federal STEM policy is made and the role of advocacy by various stakeholders in achieving policy goals. Participants heard from officials – including some VU alumni – who work in the Executive and Legislative branches of government as well as scientific societies, associations and coalitions who are actively engaged in influencing and promoting federal investments in science and engineering. Sarah learned more about how policy affects scientific research as well as how scientific research affects policy in regard to educational instruction. Find out more here.
EBRL at FLUX 2024
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EBRL sends a hearty hello from the scientific conference FLUX! This years conference was held in Baltimore on September 28-30th. Post-docs and PhD students from our lab got a chance to both connect with and present data from our lab to fellow scientists in the field and across disciplines. Scientific conferences like FLUX allow us to make connections with fellow researchers and learn from each other. Members of EBRL go to a variety of different conferences throughout the year and just like always we had a blast!
If you’re curious about the Flux Society, please visit their website here. An excerpt from their website about the purpose of the conference:
“The Flux Society’s purpose is to advance the understanding of human brain development by serving as a forum for professional and student scientists, physicians, and educators to: exchange information and educate the next generation of developmental cognitive neuroscience researchers; make widely available scientific research findings on brain development; encourage translational research to clinical populations; promote public information by discussing implications on the fields of education, health, juvenile law, parenting, and mental health, and encourage further progress in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience.”
Emily Harriott Awarded Lacy-Fischer Interdisciplinary Research Grant
At Vanderbilt, collaboration between the different colleges is a top priority. The university recognizes that some of the world’s most pressing problems won’t have a solution unless we pool our knowledge together. To that end, the graduate school offers the prestigious Lacy-Fischer Interdisciplinary Research Grants. These grants enable teams across fields to bridge the gap between the disciplines and add to their respective fields. EBRL’s own Emily Harriott has been awarded one of the grants for her and her collaborator Harrison Parent combining the fields of neuroscience and pharmacology to further examine children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1.
If you’d like to find out more about Vanderbilt’s push for interdisciplinary research, learn more here:
https://gradschool.vanderbilt.edu/funding/internal-funding-opportunities/
EBRL at Brain Blast 2024
It goes without saying, but EBRL had a blast at Brain Blast this year! Every year the Vanderbilt Brain institute organizes a free event at the Nashville Public Library for children and parents to learn about brains and the science behind studying them! This year we taught people about the reading brain, neuroimaging, giving out bookmarks, the importance of reading, and even what real brains look like! We had a wonderful time meeting you all and we can’t wait to see you again next year!
Brain Blast happens every year in March so we hope to see you next time!
If you’d like to learn more about the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and Brain Blast, click here!
Enjoy some photos from this year’s brain blast:
Dr. Laurie Cutting Appointed Associate Provost
Effective August 1st, Dr. Laurie Cutting received an appointment of Associate Provost in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. No stranger to appointments and accolades, Dr. Cutting is happy to be given the chance to drive innovative research forward and strengthen ties with Vanderbilt’s many research partners.
“Laurie is a recognized leader in her field with a strong track record of collaborating with VUMC researchers through her work with the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center,” said Padma Raghavan, vice provost for research and innovation. “As associate provost, she will leverage her areas of expertise and broad network of colleagues to spearhead the development of interdisciplinary translational research and innovation proposals to ARPA-H.”
Although we at EBRL aren’t losing Dr. Cutting in any sense, we are ecstatic to see what may lie in store for the future of research at Vanderbilt.
Read more about her new appointment at Vanderbilt’s press release on the appointment.
EBRL Goes Down Under!
A scientific conference on reading hosted in Australia? Sign us up! Each year the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading hosts a scientific conference to gather minds from across the globe that each have one thing in common: the study of reading. This year, members of EBRL were lucky enough to go and even present! EBRL’s own Emily Harriott and Caden Carter were able to present posters and Andrea Burgess gave a talk. We always enjoy chances to meet other scientists in research and expand our knowledge. (And being able to do it in such a beautiful location isn’t bad either!)
If you would like to find out more about the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, please visit their website here.
EBRL Says Goodbye (for now) to Julie and Laura
Long-time lab members say their goodbyes this month as they continue on their separate journeys in life. We’ve spent many a time reminiscing over the past month and can’t tell you just how much a pleasure they’ve been in the lab over these years. Although we hate to see them go, they both know we’ll never be more than a phone call or text away.
Words are seldom enough to describe what they’ve meant to us, but we all know they’ll always be with us even as the lab continues on without them. Farewell (for now) Julie and Laura, we’ll see you again soon!
If you’ve used Julie in the past to contact and communicate with the lab, please reach out via the lab email at educationbrain@vanderbilt.edu. It’ll be a period of transition in the oncoming weeks, but someone will always be at the helm of that email to help facilitate contact with the lab.
Congratulations to Doctors Tin and Sage!
A BIG congrats to EBRL’s own Dr. Sage Pickren and Dr. Tin Nguyen on the successful completion of their PhD program! Here pictured are the brand new doctors with their foam swords in lieu of the traditional PhD swords. (It’s a thing I swear) EBRL couldn’t be prouder of them and we’re all wishing them the best as they continue on their journeys.
Congrats to Dr. Tin Nguyen on a Successful Thesis Defense!
As you may or may not know, the presentation of a doctoral thesis is a massive milestone for individuals seeking to acquire a doctoral degree. It’s the final great stepping stone before becoming a doctor and we are extraordinarily pleased to announce that EBRL’s own Tin Nguyen officially defended his! Tin is now officially Dr. Nguyen and we couldn’t be happier for him. All of us here at the lab can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
You can learn a little about Dr. Nguyen’s thesis from his flyer here: (You can also send him an email. If there’s one thing we love talking about is research!)
Andrea Burgess Wins 2022 VKC Science Day Poster Competition
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Science Day
— Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Each year, hundreds of students and academics from across Vanderbilt pull together and present their research during a sweeping day of science and research. This year’s VKC Science Day held the distinction of being the first time the event was held in person since 2019. More than 100 presenters demonstrated their work across two consecutive poster sessions while judges roamed and assessed their presentations.
During VKC Science Day EBRL’s own Andrea Burgess won the Poster Competition under the Systems Neuroscience category with her poster: “Executive function-related neural activity and connectivity during word reading predict later reading ability”
Find out more at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s news covering the event here.
Find out more about VKC Science Day here.