By Elizabeth Cook Jenkins, BS鈥�99
Photos by Harrison McClary听
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鈥檝e 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鈥攂y 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.听
Gianni M. Castiglione
Arts and Science
When Gianni M. Castiglione was hired in 2022, he was given a teaching release鈥攁 year to focus solely on his lab. 鈥淭hat was incredibly helpful,鈥� 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鈥檚 research focuses on protein evolution, using the genomes of whales, horses and birds to better understand blindness, metabolism and cancer in humans. 鈥淲e are borrowing from nature to treat human disease,鈥� he explains.听
An assistant professor of biological sciences and of ophthalmology and visual sciences, Castiglione now teaches two classes鈥擝iochemistry and Molecular Evolution and Disease鈥攚hile 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. 鈥淭hey hone your ideas and take work off your plate,鈥� explains Castiglione, who also obtained additional funding from Vanderbilt鈥檚 Seeding Success Grant. 鈥淭hey fund promising but risky work,鈥� he says gratefully.听
Mark Chin
Peabody College
Mark Chin believes there is no better place to work in education policy than Peabody. 鈥淭o be a faculty member in the department I am in is a dream job,鈥� 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.听
Chin is grateful that tenured professors observe his classes鈥擨ntroduction to Data Science and Doctoral Research Practicum鈥攁nd provide feedback. 鈥淗aving that built in helps me,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 know I am on the right track and am improving as a teacher.鈥� He also thinks that his department鈥檚 second-year review of junior faculty is a huge asset, since many others wait until year four. 鈥淧eabody has always framed the review as, 鈥榃hat can we do to better support you?鈥欌�� Chin says.听
Neil Dani
Basic Sciences
After doing his postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Neil Dani, PhD鈥�14, returned to Vanderbilt partly because of its proximity to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.听听
鈥淚 work on a part of the brain that is very poorly understood, so we need the clinical relevance,鈥� he explains. 鈥淧lus, the university has an eye on innovation and supports the development and adoption of new technologies, such as cutting-edge microscopy.鈥�听
Dani trains the three Ph.D. candidates who work in his lab. Together, they study the choroid plexus, a tissue that produces cerebrospinal fluid. 鈥淭his tissue has been a black box in neuroscience for a long time,鈥� 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. 鈥淵ou need to rub shoulders and make a case for your research,鈥� Dani says.听听
J. Andr茅s Gannon听
Arts and Science听
J. Andr茅s Gannon earned his doctorate at University of California鈥揝an 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. 鈥淟ittle 25-year-old Andr茅s was reading their books, and now they are my colleagues,鈥� he says proudly of the political science department.
Gannon鈥檚 data-driven research is focused on the conduct of modern military conflict鈥攈ow 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. 鈥淚 have 29 to 35 research assistants each semester through ROCCA,鈥� Gannon explains. 鈥淚 am teaching them how research works, and they are helping me too. That鈥檚 my favorite part of the job.鈥�听
Xiaoguang Dong
School of Engineering听
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. 鈥淎t Vanderbilt, I can develop new devices and collaborate with medical doctors,鈥� Dong says. 鈥淚 can visit the clinic at the hospital, and the doctors can come to my lab.鈥�听
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鈥檚 airway to help them breathe. 鈥淚t鈥檚 high risk, high reward and high impact,鈥� 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.听
Support that leads to success
鈥淭he 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,鈥� says Duane Watson, vice provost for faculty affairs. 鈥淔rom startup packages and grant-writing support to mentorship, teaching development and early career reviews, we鈥檙e intentional about creating a scholarly environment where faculty feel secure and empowered from day one to pursue bold, high-impact research and teaching.鈥澨�听
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