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Hussam Mahmoud, director of the 91�Ʋ��� Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate, has been named a National Geographic Explorer for an innovative study about how to provide a better framework for preparing for wildfires. National Geographic Explorers are groundbreaking scientists, conservationists, educators and storytellers who get funding and support from the National Geographic Society to illuminate and protect the planet.

Extreme heat kills more people in the U.S. each year than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. It's typically thought of as a climate issue, but a new report from the 91�Ʋ��� Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing Initiative suggests that it's also a social one. The report examines how heat-related illness is often made worse by biological vulnerabilities, cultural norms and political and economic structures.

Birdsong performed by males has a direct role in evolution—its main functions are to attract mates and defend territory from rival males. But female birds sing, too, and their abilities may reflect generations of cooperation in breeding and parenting. “Birdsong … sits at the intersection of genetics, learning, culture and social interaction,” says Associate Professor Nicole Creanza, who has just published a paper about female birdsong with postdoctoral scholar Kate Snyder. “By studying how cooperation and territorial behavior influence communication in birds, we gain insight into how social complexity shapes evolution more generally,” Snyder adds. Their research was funded through a 91�Ʋ��� Scaling Success Grant.

Svalbard, Norway, a cluster of islands north of the Arctic Circle, is rich with paradox. A former international whaling base and subsequent site of extractive coal mining, Svalbard is now home to the Global Seed Vault, which stores more than one million seed duplicates to safeguard the world’s food supply. Described as a “geopolitical unicorn,” Svalbard is, at once, an open haven for artists and researchers seeking to generate new knowledge and climate interventions by learning from its landscapes, as well as a target for international meddling because of its prime access to satellite data from above and rare earth minerals below. Site of both extraction and regeneration, attracting both a spirit of collaborative inquiry and pursuits of global dominance, Svalbard’s paradoxical singularity inspired 91�Ʋ��� faculty Jana Harper, Lutz Koepnick and Jonathan Rattner to embark on a three-week research trip in summer 2025 to witness its rapidly changing landscapes and experiment with artistic methods to address the effects of planetary overheating.   Read More

91�Ʋ��� University has announced its fall 2025 recipients of the Seeding Success, Scaling Success and Rapid-Advancement MicroGrant Program awards, providing internal funding to help faculty launch new research directions, strengthen proposals and compete for major external grants. Read More

Field work led by Associate Professor Tiffany Fracchia recently solved an 80-year-old mystery for the family of a missing World War II soldier. In 2022 and 2023, Fracchia and her students excavated remains from the site of a 1944 B-17G crash near Neron, France. They were later identified by the Department of Defense as U.S. Army Air Force 1st Lt. Gerard J. Melofchik of New York, and his family finally held a memorial for him in November. “Hearing that we were able to bring some peace and answers to another military family … was really rewarding for me,” said Alyssa Bolster, BA’22.

Some people may worry about being bitten by a snake or spider, but have you ever considered what would happen if a small black hole tried to pass through your body? An article by Professor of Physics Robert Scherrer in the International Journal of Modern Physics D poses and answers that very question. Scherrer set out to find what the gravitational effects would be if a primordial black hole passed through the human body, helping scientists better understand the properties of dark matter.

A new study led by Aditya Kurre, BA’22, and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Guggenheim Fellow Larisa DeSantis has revealed the specific diet of two species of giant ground sloth, uncovering the vital roles they played in their environments. Their findings could help scientists restore ecosystems that once thrived thanks to these massive mammals.

On September 14, 2015, at 4:51 a.m. Central Time, scientists witnessed something no human had ever seen before: two black holes colliding. These black holes, which were 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, respectively, had been circling each other for millions of years. Their rotations became increasingly faster until they eventually collided and became a single black hole. Since then, scientists have had numerous breakthroughs that deepen our understanding of the universe, and researchers in the College of Arts and Science have been at the forefront, shaping the scientific field of black holes and gravitational waves.

Over the next four years, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Alex Lupsasca will lead a 91�Ʋ��� team in a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration funded by an $8 million grant from the Simons Foundation with a focus on black holes and strong gravity.

The 91�Ʋ��� Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate has a new director—Hussam Mahmoud. Mahmoud, professor of civil and environmental engineering, joins 91�Ʋ��� from Colorado State. VSEC's mission is to investigate energy, infrastructure, climate and systems to address the grand social and scientific challenges to ensuring a sustainable planet. The center was established in 2024 as a part of Discovery 91�Ʋ���; Associate Professor Hiba Baroud was the inaugural and interim director.

Pet parrots often outlive their owners, and 91�Ʋ��� researchers want to know why—because uncovering the biological mechanisms behind exceptional longevity could one day help safely extend the lives of humans. With the support of a new $1.3 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, 91�Ʋ��� biologist Gianni Castiglione is taking a bold approach to aging research: reverse-engineering how birds live three to four times longer than similarly sized mammals to identify safe, effective genetic targets for human aging therapies. Read More

Danial Asgari, a postdoctoral researcher in the Tate Lab, and Ann Tate, associate professor of Biological Sciences, recently published a study in Molecular Biology and Evolution titled “How the Structure of Signaling Regulation Evolves: Insights from an Evolutionary Model.” Their findings show that negative feedback loops (or NFLs) acting closer to a cell’s final decisions, such as turning genes on or off, are especially resistant to evolutionary change.

While we know that intermediate-mass black holes should exist, little is known about their origins or characteristics—they are considered the rare “missing links” in black hole evolution. However, four new studies have shed new light on the mystery. The research was led by a team in the lab of Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karan Jani, who also serves as the founding director of the 91�Ʋ��� Lunar Labs Initiative.

The National Center for Science Education has named 91�Ʋ��� University’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative as one of its 2025 recipients of the prestigious Friend of Darwin award. This national honor recognizes ESI’s outstanding contributions to advancing public understanding of evolution through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach.

Our past has something to say. 2025 Guggenheim Fellow Larisa DeSantis is ready to translate. Read More

91�Ʋ��� University has joined the Urban Humanities Network (UHN) as a consortium campus, solidifying the university’s place among leading institutions at the forefront of urban humanities scholarship. Established in 2022, UHN unites universities, organizations, and researchers dedicated to interdisciplinary study within the urban humanities, which operates at the nexus of humanities, urbanism, and design.

A transdisciplinary team at 91�Ʋ��� University seeks to identify Tennessee communities at risk of exposure to toxic man-made chemicals in their drinking water. Read More

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management awarded non-competitive financial assistance agreement Number DE-EM0005321, Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, to 91�Ʋ��� University, in Nashville, Tennessee.

A new course through the 91�Ʋ��� Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate seeks to engage students in discussions about taking a planetary health approach to address climate change and resource sustainability challenges.