Interdisciplinary Research

Vanderbilt is a unique community that values collaboration over competition, making it a leader in interdisciplinary research. Faculty form teams that span departments and schools, and students work on varied research projects that contribute to the university culture of teamwork and innovation. Below is a sample of interdisciplinary programs, institutes and research groups.

Interdisciplinary Graduate Program students rotate through four laboratories before selecting a program. As a result, IGP student learn to be creative and analytical thinkers.

Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Materials Science: Students design their own curriculum spanning the fields of  engineering, chemistry, physics, and medicine. 

Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities is a place where faculty and students from the humanities, social sciences and, when appropriate, the natural sciences gather to share ideas and teach one another. The Warren Center also engages in outreach to the community by sponsoring teacher training, lectures and seminars, and publications designed to promote the importance of the humanities in today's world.

The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy supports research and programming that address the five primary sources of cultural policy in the United States: the decisions of individual actors in the arts industries; corporate practice; trade agreements and regulatory agencies; the passions and objectives of private arts patrons and NGOs; and intellectual property law.

The Biomathematics Research Group brings together mathematicians and scientists to conduct research on problems in developmental biology, cancer research, infectious diseases, pharmacology, the clinical sciences, molecular biophysics, genetics, and the neurosciences.

Here is a complete list of Vanderbilt University's  Centers and Institutes.