Research Investment: Vanderbilt finds ways to set up new faculty for success

By Elizabeth Cook Jenkins, BS'99
Photos by Harrison McClary

Finding a place to live, designing a course and hiring research assistants are just a few of the tasks that new faculty face when they arrive in Nashville. Not long after they've set up their office or lab, they begin applying for more funding and navigating the tenure track. Vanderbilt helps them every step of the way-by connecting them with senior faculty who serve as mentors, observe their classes and provide valuable feedback, and proofread their grant proposals to make them stronger. These professors who joined Vanderbilt in the past few years shed light on how the university has helped them succeed.

Gianni M. Castiglione
Arts and Science

Gianni Castiglione was recently awarded a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation.

When Gianni M. Castiglione was hired in 2022, he was given a teaching release-a year to focus solely on his lab. "That was incredibly helpful," says Castiglione, who joined Vanderbilt after earning his Ph.D. at University of Toronto and completing a postdoc at Johns Hopkins. He used the startup money he received to buy equipment and hire a lab manager and several Ph.D. students. His lab's research focuses on protein evolution, using the genomes of whales, horses and birds to better understand blindness, metabolism and cancer in humans. "We are borrowing from nature to treat human disease," he explains.

An assistant professor of biological sciences and of ophthalmology and visual sciences, Castiglione now teaches two classes-Biochemistry and Molecular Evolution and Disease-while continuing to write grant proposals and apply for additional funding. He credits the Vanderbilt Research Development and Support team for helping him win an award from the W.M. Keck Foundation. "They hone your ideas and take work off your plate," explains Castiglione, who also obtained additional funding from Vanderbilt's Seeding Success Grant. "They fund promising but risky work," he says gratefully.

Mark Chin was recently named a National Academy of Education and Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.

Mark Chin
Peabody College
Mark Chin believes there is no better place to work in education policy than Peabody. "To be a faculty member in the department I am in is a dream job," says Chin, who joined Vanderbilt in 2022 after earning his Ph.D. at Harvard. Chin is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations and studies school integration, racial bias in education and prosocial behaviors.

Chin is grateful that tenured professors observe his classes-Introduction to Data Science and Doctoral Research Practicum-and provide feedback. "Having that built in helps me," he says. "I know I am on the right track and am improving as a teacher." He also thinks that his department's second-year review of junior faculty is a huge asset, since many others wait until year four. "Peabody has always framed the review as, 'What can we do to better support you?'" Chin says.

Neil Dani was named a Rita Allen Scholar in 2023.

Neil Dani
Basic Sciences
After doing his postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Neil Dani, PhD'14, returned to Vanderbilt partly because of its proximity to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"I work on a part of the brain that is very poorly understood, so we need the clinical relevance," he explains. "Plus, the university has an eye on innovation and supports the development and adoption of new technologies, such as cutting-edge microscopy."

Dani trains the three Ph.D. candidates who work in his lab. Together, they study the choroid plexus, a tissue that produces cerebrospinal fluid. "This tissue has been a black box in neuroscience for a long time," says Dani, who in 2023 was the first Vanderbilt researcher to be named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar. That award provides funding for five years to cover personnel hires, consumables and core services, and it allows Dani to attend conferences. "You need to rub shoulders and make a case for your research," Dani says.

J. Andrés Gannon
Arts and Science

J. Andrés Gannon came to Vanderbilt after a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations.

J. Andrés Gannon earned his doctorate at University of California-San Diego and did a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations before becoming an assistant professor of political science and a faculty affiliate at the Data Science Institute. He now works alongside many of the experts he cited in his dissertation. "Little 25-year-old Andrés was reading their books, and now they are my colleagues," he says proudly of the political science department.

Gannon's data-driven research is focused on the conduct of modern military conflict-how people fight and why. He teaches two classes in the fall and one in the spring, which he says gives him more time to write than his peers at other universities. He also appreciates that political science majors are available to him at no cost through the Laboratory for Research on Conflict and Collective Action. "I have 29 to 35 research assistants each semester through ROCCA," Gannon explains. "I am teaching them how research works, and they are helping me too. That's my favorite part of the job."

Xiaoguang Dong
School of Engineering

Xiaoguang Dong won the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Trailblazer Award.

Building robots for medical applications has always been the dream of Xiaoguang Dong, a native of China who earned his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon. Dong is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering whose research is focused on developing miniature soft robots that can function in minimally invasive ways. "At Vanderbilt, I can develop new devices and collaborate with medical doctors," Dong says. "I can visit the clinic at the hospital, and the doctors can come to my lab."

The funding Dong received in 2022 allowed him to hire two Ph.D. students and buy equipment. In 2024 he won the National Institute of Biomedical Engineering Trailblazer Award, which gave him three more years of funding to keep designing a miniature soft robot that can be implanted into a patient's airway to help them breathe. "It's high risk, high reward and high impact," says Dong, who is grateful for the mentorship he has received from senior faculty and for the opportunity to design and teach a course so closely tied to his research.

Support that leads to success
"The average tenure of a Vanderbilt faculty member is 25 years, which is a testament to our dual commitments of providing strong, individualized support to new faculty while building an ecosystem of success that sustains an entire career," says Duane Watson, vice provost for faculty affairs. "From startup packages and grant-writing support to mentorship, teaching development and early career reviews, we're intentional about creating a scholarly environment where faculty feel secure and empowered from day one to pursue bold, high-impact research and teaching."

Read more faculty research stories.