Science Advocacy
This Week in Science and Medicine History – February 2025
Feb. 26, 2025—by Leigh Ann Gardner (MSTP Senior Grants Manager) In February, we will recognize contributions to science and medicine made by African Americans. You can learn more about Black History Month here. Week 1 (February 8): America’s first female African American doctor, Rebecca Lee Crumpler, was born on February 8, 1831, in Delaware. Crumpler developed...
This Month in Science and Medicine History: January 2025
Jan. 30, 2025—by Leigh Ann Gardner (MSTP Senior Grants Manager) January 1: Pioneering computer programmer and mathematician Grace Brewster Hopper died on January 1, 1992. Born in 1906 in New York City, she received her undergraduate degree from Vassar College and received a PhD in Mathematics from Yale University in 1934. Hopper began her career as a...
This Month in Science and Medicine History: November 2024
Nov. 25, 2024—by Leigh Ann Gardner (MSTP Senior Grants Manager) November 7: Born on November 7, 1937, in Winchester, Kentucky, John E. Fryer was a notable psychiatrist and advocate for LGBT equality thanks to his work to have homosexuality removed as a classified mental illness in the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Fryer...
This Month in Science and Medicine History: October 2024
Oct. 30, 2024—by Leigh Ann Gardner (MSTP Senior Grants Manager) October 4: On October 4, 2018, Expedition 57 to the International Space Station launched, and included in its flight crew Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor, the first Hispanic physician to travel to space. Born in 1976, Auñón-Chancellor is a Cuban American (her father is a Cuban exile) who received...
This Month in Science History: September 2024
Sep. 27, 2024—By Leigh Ann Gardner (MSTP Grants Manager) Each month Leigh Ann Gardner, Vanderbilt MSTP Grants Manager and Historian by training, puts together a series looking back at the month in science history often highlighting groups historically underrepresented in science and medicine. See what happened in September! September 1: Born on September 1, 1854, in New...
MSTP Seminar Spotlight: Dr. Francis Collins Shares Insights on Career and Science
Sep. 27, 2024—By Yash Pershad (G2) The MSTP’s weekly seminar recently featured an extraordinary guest: Dr. Francis Collins, renowned physician-geneticist, former NIH director, and leader of the Human Genome Project. In the lobby of Langford Auditorium — a few hundred yards away from the hustle and bustle of Flulapalooza — MSTP students, PSTP-affiliates, and faculty were treated...
MSTP Summer Undergraduate Research Program Symposium
Aug. 29, 2024— Our 8 students in the MSTP Summer Undergraduate Research Program closed out their time with us by presenting their summer research at the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy Poster Session and completed oral presetations for our MSTP Summer Research Symposium. For the first time this year, we invited the summer students’ families to campus...
ADI Highlights: MSTP Health and Research Equity Summer Course
Jul. 31, 2024—by Jeewoo Kim (G3) Last month we had two more sessions of our MSTP Health and Research Equity Summer Course that is planned by members of our Anti-racism, Diversity, and Inclusion Council. The course goal is to provide knowledge and skills on health and research equity that are relevant to the future careers of physician-scientists. The sessions included one by...
Mini MSTP
May. 30, 2024—by Ericka Randazzo (G2) On May 7th and 14th, the MSTP Outreach Committee coordinated the annual Mini-MSTP. Over the course of two days, more than 80 children from across Dickson County elementary schools and West End Middle School in Nashville participated in the event highlighting physician-scientist experiences. Stations were led by MSTP students and covered five different...
ADI Highlights
May. 30, 2024—Physician Scientist Speaker Series with Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD, PhD Last month the MSTP hosted Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble for our spring Physician-Scientist Speaker Series. Her Discovery Lecture was highlighted in this article from VUMC News “Discovery lecturer examines race and racism in health care” by Bill Snyder.