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Jon Kaas honored for graduate student teaching, mentoring
Jon Kaas was honored for his contributions to graduate education in the college’s faculty assembly Dec. 9 in Wilson Hall.
Kaas, Centennial Professor of Psychology, was honored with the 2008 Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring. Two of Kaas’ former post-doctoral students, Leah Krubitzer and Kenneth Catania, have gone on to win MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Awards.
“He takes an open door policy to a new level,” Hetherington said. “As one of his mentees wrote, ‘If a problem or question arises, he is permanently on-call to lend help.’”
Hetherington shared additional words from another Kaas mentee. “Jon Kaas is simply one of the very best graduate mentors that you could wish for, and his recognition in this role is overdue. He has an infectious enthusiasm for research that is encouraging and energizing to everyone in his lab.”
Full Story
December 10, 2008 |
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The Gemstone Foundation
Former VVRC investigator Maureen Powers has been involved in a vision-related nonprofit enterprise called The Gemstone Foundation. The mission of the organization is to help people attain visual efficiency -- the ability to move the two eyes together rapidly and accurately while playing sports, reading, using the computer, or performing any visual task.
The Gemstone Foundation has two main goals: To support schools with students whose academic performance may be hindered by poor visual skills, and to contribute to the research base that explores the relationship between visual skills and performance in school, sports, and career.
Gemstone’s mission is not only to help children in school learn to use their eyes in the most efficient manner, but to help anyone who faces challenges that demand active, dynamic visual system response: college students whose eyes feel fatigued at the end of the day, pilots who have to constantly scan the skies, ball players whose livelihoods depend on seeing the ball, computer users, lawyers, anyone who spends long hours in visually demanding work falls under our mission.
Please visit The Gemstone Foundation's newly remodeled website for more information on the many projects they are involved in. There is also a newsletter you can subscribe to for further information about this wonderful organization.
www.gemstonefoundation.org
December 9, 2008 |
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2008 Fine Science Tool Travel Award
Congratulations to Peiyan Wong and Lisa de la Mothe for being selected to receive the 2008 Fine Science Tool Travel Award. This award provides $500 towards the cost of attending the Society for Neuroscience meeting.
October 24, 2008 |
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Sights set on easing congenital glaucoma
Parents of newborns often are told that their baby has big, beautiful eyes.
It's a common compliment, but it's one that a Vanderbilt ophthalmologist cautions could be a warning sign for congenital glaucoma.
“When the pressure in the eye is high, the eyes enlarge,” said Karen Joos, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Ophthalmology at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. “A child may also show signs of light sensitivity and a cloudiness of the cornea. Sometimes these are subtle changes that can easily be missed.”
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October 6, 2008 |
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Laser shines bright in study of macular edema treatments
The first study to compare the long-term effects of two macular edema treatments — a conventional laser procedure and a newer drug therapy — showed surprising results.
Investigators found that the newer drug therapy, the steroid triamcinolone, was less effective than the conventional laser treatment.
Also, after two years, the two main side effects — the need for cataract surgery and the incidence of an increased risk of glaucoma — were significantly higher in eyes treated with the steroid, while visual acuity was better in eyes treated with the laser.
Franco Recchia, M.D., associate professor and chief of the retina division at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute was among the principal investigators involved in what he calls “the most significant trial concerning diabetic retinopathy in 20 years.”
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September 16, 2008 |
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VVRC Faculty Honored at 2008 Fall Faculty Assembly
Congratulations to VVRC investigators Doug McMahon, Frank Tong and Randolph Blake who all received honors at the 2008 Fall Faculty Assembly. Doug McMahon received a Chancellor's Award for his ground-breaking research on the role of dopamine neurons in vision. Frank Tong also received a Chancellor's Award for his ground-breaking research on neural decoding. And, Randolph Blake won the Jefferson Award for his distinguished and numerous contributions to the government and counsels of the University. Congrats to all three for these wonderful achievements!
Full Story
August 27, 2008 |
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Support bolsters research in fight against blinding diseases
Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has awarded a grant of $110,000 to the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding diseases.
The research will be directed by Paul Sternberg Jr., M.D., chair of the department and director of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, and John Penn, Ph.D., vice chair and director of Research for the department.
RPB is the world's leading voluntary organization supporting eye research, and the Department of Ophthalmology has received continuous funding since the organization's inception in 1960.
To date, support has totaled almost $1.6 million.
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August 11, 2008 |
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NSF Career Award
Congratulations to Emily Grossman former Blake Lab member. She has recently received a National Science Foundation Career Award which includes five years of support for work on perception of biological motion. Emmy currently is at the University of California Irvine campus. Congratulations to her for her achievement!
August 5, 2008 |
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Mind's eye' influences visual perception
Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery – what we see with the “mind’s eye” – directly impacts our visual perception.
“We found that imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can bias future perception,” Joel Pearson, research associate in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychology, and lead author of the study, said. “This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on.”
Full Story
July 10, 2008 |
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Mark Wallace named director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute
Mark Wallace, Ph.D., associate professor of hearing and speech sciences and psychology, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.
Wallace succeeds Elaine Sanders-Bush, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and psychiatry and director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
The Brain Institute was established in 2001 to foster and facilitate neuroscience research, training and public outreach at Vanderbilt.
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June 25, 2008 |
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Studies track pressure’s role in optic nerve degeneration
Researchers at Vanderbilt Medical Center have discovered that glaucoma, which slowly robs a person of eyesight, might actually begin with damage in the brain.
With the aid of recent grants totaling $2.2 million, David Calkins, Ph.D., and colleagues are studying how pressure in the eye translates to optic nerve degeneration and loss of communication in the brain.
Calkins hopes the most recent discovery will serve as a helpful tool for tracking the disease and testing future therapies.
Full Story
June 25, 2008 |
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Macular Degeneration, Age-Related Vision Disorder Linked to Cell’s ‘Power Plant’
The study is the first to examine the mitochondrial genome for changes associated with AMD, the leading cause of blindness in Caucasians over age 50.
“Most people don’t realize that we have two genomes,” said lead author Jeff Canter, M.D., M.P.H., an investigator in the Center for Human Genetics Research. “We have the nuclear genome – the “human genome” – that makes the cover of all the magazines, and then we also have this tiny genome in mitochondria in every cell.”
Canter teamed with Jonathan Haines, Ph.D., and Paul Sternberg, M.D., experts in AMD genetics and treatment, to examine whether a particular variation in the mitochondrial genome is associated with the disease. The genetic change occurs in about 10 percent of Caucasians, referred to as mitochondrial haplogroup T.
Full Story
May 15, 2008 |
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VU Web Cast: The Gift of Site
The gift of sight, juggling for all it’s worth and do you still want to see Vanderbilt’s boys of summer? Watch the latest VU WebCast with a clip featuring VVRC investigator Jeff Sonsino regarding macular degenertion.
Webcast Link
April 8, 2008 |
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Eye Institute’s Sternberg keeps focus on the future
As Paul Sternberg Jr., M.D., strolls through the 50,000 square foot building that will soon house the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, he examines everything thoroughly. He can't help it, it's who he is. Focused.
He likens the daily walk-through to building a home, and his involvement can be seen and felt in every part of the new facility, from the high-tech optical equipment to the tile and upholstery.
It was all in the plan. Long before Sternberg ever came to Vanderbilt as chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, his destination was certain. The route was the unknown.
Full Story
March 13, 2008 |
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Congratulations to Min-Suk Kang and Yetta Wong who are winners of the 2008 Elsevier Vision Research Travel Award
The Elsevier Vision Research Travel Award is an extremely competitive award, which consists of a $500 prize to assist with expenses for the 2008 Annual VSS Meeting. The Elsevier Vision Research Travel Award had nearly 300 applicants expressing interest this year. The Awards Committee makes recommendations based on a wide range of factors, including the applicant's statement, letters of recommendation, scientific merit of the research, as well as the potential impact of the work. The award will be presented to both Min-Suk and Yetta at the Keynote Address, Saturday, May 10th at 7 pm. Congratulations!
Travel Award Winners 2008
February 20, 2008 |
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Congratulations to Tom James the 2008 winner of the Randolph Blake Early Career Award
Tom James was a postdoctoral fellow with Isabel Gauthier from 2001-2004. He is currently on the faculty at Indiana University as an assistant professor. Tom’s research has used a combination of functional brain imaging and behavioral experiments to tackle a number of basic problems in visual cognition, such as visual priming, multimodal and semantic interactions on vision, and classical issues of viewpoint selectivity. Tom has published 22 peer-reviewed articles, most of them first-authored, in top journals such as Neuron, Psychological Science, and Neuropsychologia.
The program in Psychological Sciences established this award to recognize exemplary alumni of our program in the early stages of their career. The nominee must have been an honors student, a graduate student, or a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology or the Department of Psychology and Human Development. Nominees must be within the first five years of appointment in their first faculty position. The winner was decided by a committee of faculty from both departments.
February 15, 2008 |
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Cover Art of Journal of Neurophysiology from Schall Lab
Congratulations to the Schall lab. The cover art of the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology originated from the Schall lab.
Cover Caption: Error-related local field potentials recorded from anterior cingulate cortex of macaque monkeys performing a saccade stop signal task. Circles mark the peak negativity, and triangles mark the peak positivity following the saccade on individual trials. This signal corresponds to the error-related negativity recorded from humans. For details see Emeric EE, Brown JW, Leslie MW, Pouget P, Stuphorn V, and Schall JD. Performance Monitoring Local Field Potentials in the Medial Frontal Cortex of Primates: Anterior Cingulate Cortex. J Neurophysiol 99: 759-772, 2008. First published December 12, 2007; doi:10.1152/jn.00896.2006.
Journal of Neurophysiology Website
Cover Art
February 15, 2008 |
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Congratulations to Hilda Fehd on winning the Lisa M. Quesenberry Award
Graduate student Hilda Fehd in Adriane Seiffert's lab has won the Lisa M. Quesenberry Foundation Award, At The Community Foundation of Louisville. The Lisa M. Quesenberry Foundation was established by Irvin and Mary Ann Quesenberry and Kathryn Quesenberry to memorialize the accomplishments of their daughter and sister, Lisa M. Quesenberry. It is designed to provide research or study awards to motivated graduate students. Preferably, the awards will be made to female graduate students who are studying the field of psychology and who have overcome significant personal challenges to pursue their education.
February 6, 2008 |
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Yin and Yang of color maps in the brain
Congratulations to Anna Roe and Haidong Lu. The journal Cerebral Cortex featured cover art from their article titled Functional Organization of Color Domains in V1 and V2 of Macaque Monkey Revealed by Optical Imaging.
Cover Description: Macaque monkey visual cortex (areas V1 and V2). Yin (right portion): optical image of V1 & V2 activation while monkey is viewing a color stimulus. Yang (left portion): cytochrome-oxidase (CO) stained brain slice of the imaged region. As shown in Lu and Roe 2008, color-activations in V1 (smaller patches) align with CO blobs in V1, while color-activations in V2 (larger patches) align with CO thin stripes in V2.
Cover PDF • Cerebral Cortex Link
January 30, 2008 |
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Vanderbilt psychologist wins prestigious National Academy of Sciences award
Vanderbilt psychologist Isabel Gauthier has been named a 2008 Troland Research Award winner by the National Academy of Sciences.
The annual Troland Research Awards include a prize of $50,000 each and are given to two researchers to recognize unusual achievement and to further their research within the broad spectrum of experimental psychology.
Full Story
January 24, 2008 |
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News Headlines 2007 |
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