Eleven outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2025 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.
“Spanning disciplines from across the university, the ambitious projects of these Vanderbilt professors are outstanding examples of what can be achieved by applying rigor and creativity to some of the greatest research challenges,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. “By supporting their work, we strengthen collaboration and innovation at Vanderbilt while providing greater opportunities for their efforts to make a measurable difference. Vanderbilt is incredibly proud to have them here, and we are excited to see the impact they make in the years ahead.”
Each fellow holds the title of Chancellor Faculty Fellow and receives $80,000 over a multi-year period to support their work. They also meet with their cohort to exchange ideas on teaching and research, build a broader intellectual community that advances collaborative scholarship, and engage in academic leadership development to increase their leadership capacity.
“These exceptional faculty members embody the bold vision and intellectual ambition that define Vanderbilt’s academic community,” Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver said. “Through pioneering research—from astrophysics to health equity, climate science to AI-powered medicine—they are driving discovery and delivering solutions to some of the world’s most complex challenges. I am proud to recognize their achievements and invest in their continued impact through the Chancellor Faculty Fellows program.”
The 2025 Chancellor Faculty Fellows are:
Cassy Dorff is an associate professor of political science. Dorff is a scholar of political violence and collective action, with 20 peer-reviewed publications to date. Dorff has investigated how social networks illuminate the origins of political conflict and cooperation and has developed new methodological approaches for studying political networks. Additionally, Dorff’s research has won awards from the American Political Science Association and the Library of Congress.
Ravindra Duddu is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, earth and environmental sciences, and mechanical engineering. His pioneering work on developing and extending nonlocal continuum damage mechanics to simulate hydrofracturing in glaciers and ice shelves addresses critical questions about the effects of atmospheric warming and climate change. He has served as the faculty head of Rothschild College since 2022.
Emily Hodges is an associate professor of biochemistry in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. Her research seeks to understand the balance between nature and nurture as it relates to heritable traits, and she develops new techniques to find those answers. The quality and quantity of her publications prove her research prowess—and each year they grow greater.
Bin Li is an associate professor of accounting. His research sits at the intersection of information economics and finance, and it focuses on how accounting policies and disclosures shape firm behavior, market efficiency and regulatory oversight. Published in many top-tier journals, his work not only has advanced academic discourse, but also has influenced practice and policy.
Justus Ndukaife is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and assistant professor of mechanical engineering. His work on electrical engineering has been published in 21 journal papers as a corresponding author and has been cited nearly 450 times since he joined Vanderbilt in 2017. Ndukaife has garnered international recognition within the optical nanotweezers and nanophotonics research communities, as evidenced by the more than 20 invited presentations he has given at conferences and universities.
Ipek Oguz is an associate professor of computer science and of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and an assistant professor of biomedical, electrical and computer engineering. Her work bridges artificial intelligence research with its application in medical imaging, advancing the state of the art of medical image analysis. Oguz has been recognized at top-tier conferences with honors that include a Best Paper received at the 2023 Engineering & Urology Society Annual Meeting.
Lars Plate is an associate professor of chemistry and biological sciences and an assistant professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology. He is the first faculty member to hold a dual primary appointment in the departments of biological sciences and chemistry. His research is focused on understanding protein folding and trafficking—the quality control mechanisms used inside cells to maintain a healthy population of proteins. Plate has developed a national reputation as a rising star and future leader in protein cellular homeostasis.
Stephen Taylor is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. He is an astrophysicist who uses gravitational waves to study highly dynamic astrophysical phenomena. Taylor’s works have laid the foundations for data analysis from Pulsar Timing Arrays—he built the Bayesian analysis and search strategy for detecting and interpreting nanoHz GW. His research is expanding into new territory—from nanoHz gravitational waves to multi-messenger astronomy, to space-based gravitational wave detection with LISA.
The following are the recommended VUMC-employed faculty, whose research grants would be funded by VUMC:
Alexander Bick is an associate professor of medicine. He is a distinguished physician-scientist and an international leader in human genetics and genomic medicine renowned for his groundbreaking work on large-scale genomics translation and clinical practice. His scientific observations have advanced understanding of the causes and consequences of cancer, cardiovascular disease and aging.
Ashley Shoemaker is an associate professor of pediatrics. Since beginning her career at Vanderbilt, Shoemaker has developed a robust clinical and translational research program with a focus on the pathophysiology and treatment of obesity disorders. She is a globally recognized leader in early-onset obesity in children and has contributed significantly to foundational understanding and therapeutic advances. Notably, she is one of the few physician-scientists nationally in pediatric endocrinology.
Eric Tkaczyk is an associate professor in dermatology and biomedical informatics and an assistant professor of biomedical, electrical and computer engineering. His innovative research combines state-of-the-art technology and AI to develop cutaneous biomarkers that guide diagnosis and therapy of severe systemic diseases, including cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune conditions. Leveraging his unique training and collaborations, Tkaczyk has creatively combined AI, imaging and other advanced technologies to make remarkable progress in GVHD diagnosis and combating diseases such as mpox and systemic sclerosis.
The Chancellor Faculty Fellows program was launched in September 2014 under the Trans-Institutional Programs initiative to support outstanding faculty who have recently received tenure.
Tracey George, vice provost for faculty affairs and professional education, Jennifer Pietenpol, chief scientific and strategy officer for VUMC, and Duane Watson, vice provost for strategic initiatives, reviewed all the nominations and made recommendations to both Raver and Jeffrey Balser, dean of the school of medicine and president of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The chancellor made the final selections.
