Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, has announced a group of 15 faculty members who have been designated as the inaugural group of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group of faculty members will hold the title of Chancellor Faculty Fellows for two years and receive $40,000 per year to support their research or creative activities.
Nicholas S. Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, said that “the strong commitment to education, discovery and care demonstrated by these faculty members is having an enormous impact on Vanderbilt and its mission of serving society. Already proven leaders and innovators in their fields, we have chosen to further invest in them at this critical point in their careers to ensure they have ample resources and opportunities to build their own body of work and to serve as outstanding mentors to postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates.”
Here are brief profiles of three of the 15 new Chancellor Faculty Fellows:
Muktar Aliyu is an associate professor of health policy and medicine and an associate director for research at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Dr. Aliyu is a graduate of the medical school at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. He holds a master of public health degree from George Washington University and a doctorate in public health from the University of Alabama Birmingham.
Bunmi O. Olatunji is an associate professor of psychology and an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt. His research is focused on cognitive behavioral theory, assessment, and therapy for anxiety disorders. Dr. Olatunji earned a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas.
Sean B. Seymore is a professor of law and a professor of chemistry at the university. His research focuses on how patent law should evolve in response to scientific advances. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2010 after teaching at the law school of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Dr. Seymore earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds a law degree and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame.