Vanderbilt is known for its robust academic environment and interdisciplinary research collaborations that tackle society's most pressing issues. At the heart of this are the university's 1,800+ faculty members, 94 percent of whom hold the highest degrees available in their field.
The university welcomed 83 new faculty to our 12 schools and colleges for the 2026-27 academic year. Meet some of these inspiring new faculty and hear the reasons they wanted to join the Vanderbilt community.
Ruogu Fang
Associate professor of biomedical engineering
School of Engineering
Research focus: AI for neuroscience and brain healthcare
Ruogu Fang develops artificial intelligence methods that integrate neuro and retinal imaging, electronic health records, genomics and other biomedical data to help doctors detect and treat brain illnesses.
"My lab develops trustworthy AI to better understand the brain, improve diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, and improve personalized healthcare," she said. "I'm also excited by the reverse question, 'What can the human brain teach us about building better AI?' Because AI is helping us uncover new insights into how the brain works, while the brain continues to inspire more intelligent and human-centered AI."
By bridging neuroscience and artificial intelligence, Fang's research seeks to create AI systems that deepen human understanding of intelligence itself, which is part of the reason she came to Vanderbilt.
"Vanderbilt is one of the few places where engineering, medicine, neuroscience and AI come together so naturally. I was drawn by the collaborative culture, outstanding colleagues and the opportunity to help build the Center for Intelligent Imaging. It's an environment where ambitious ideas can become reality," she said.
Grant Ruan
Assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering
School of Engineering
Research focus: New strategies for AI energy sustainability
Grant Ruan is in the interdisciplinary area he refers to as "AI for energy and energy for AI." He researches AI data centers, sustainable computing, smart grid, learning for control and generative AI.
"AI is hungry for energy, and the current infrastructure should be redesigned to match the next era of super intelligence," Ruan said. "My research can hopefully provide a fundamental understanding of the infrastructural limits and inspire new solutions that advance system reliability, cost efficiency and long-term sustainability."
Ruan was drawn to Vanderbilt because of its reputation and its recent investments in energy and sustainability.
"The newly announced interdisciplinary energy cluster hooked me at first glance," he said. "There are also a number of exciting opportunities at the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate, and I am thrilled to join these strategic initiatives and engage in addressing the grand challenges of our time."
Payson Johnston
Assistant professor of the practice of business studies
College of Arts and Science
Research focus: entrepreneurship, business planning and business ethics
Payson Johnston is an academic and business leader who teaches entrepreneurship and business planning. Johnston co-founded and serves as entrepreneur-in-residence at the NOVA Entrepreneur Center, which supports rural Tennessee entrepreneurship. The center was established through a Launch Tennessee grant.
"What inspires and excites me most about entrepreneurship is the practical challenge of discovering and scaling solutions that actually work," he said. "I am deeply driven by the concept of business as a calling-seeing entrepreneurship as a vocational avenue to build ethically grounded organizations that solve real-world problems."
Johnston teaches classes that help students master practical business planning and modeling while also exploring how commerce can contribute in positive ways.
"I chose Vanderbilt because of its incredible academic reach across disciplines, combined with its commitment to driving excellence in entrepreneurship, management and the intersection of technology," he said. "Additionally, I am deeply aligned with Vanderbilt's genuine passion for community engagement and its mission to make a tangible, positive impact on the world that surrounds us."
Cynthia Rayner
Assistant professor of human and organizational development
Peabody College of education and human development
Research focus: collective approaches to social change
Cynthia Rayner explores how organizations, governments, businesses and communities work together in innovative ways to shape social systems.
"Societal challenges are rarely solved by single individuals or organizations, and in an increasingly polarized world, aligning diverse stakeholders is growing more challenging," she said. "I am excited to learn from organizations that are developing new ways to convene stakeholders across sectors, geographies and perspectives."
The first part of Rayner's career had her deeply rooted in social change organizations in the U.S. and South Africa.
"I was immediately drawn to Vanderbilt Peabody's focus on social innovation as an interdisciplinary practice that strengthens communities and contributes to collective betterment and vibrancy. I am honored to join a faculty and student body that is shaping this work in research and practice," she said.
Rachael Jack
Professor and area lead of computational social science
College of Connected Computing
Research focus: human nonverbal communication to make AI more effective
Rachael Jack's research tracks how humans communicate using nonverbal cues-facial expressions and behavior-then builds 3D dynamics computational models of these social signals to advance understanding of communication to create more effective AI.
"I'm fascinated by how people understand one another through faces, voices, language and behavior," she said. "We can use this to uncover the principles of human social intelligence and use it to build technologies that communicate more naturally, support better decisions and ultimately improve people's lives."
Jack said she came to Vanderbilt because it offered a rare opportunity to help build something new.
"The vision for the College of Connected Computing, its commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, and the chance to work alongside outstanding colleagues across psychology, computer science, engineering, medicine and beyond made coming to Vanderbilt an easy decision," she said. "Growth comes from collaboration, learning from different perspectives and having the courage to pursue ambitious ideas that can make a meaningful difference."
Dina Asfaha
Incoming Mellon Assistant Professor in Anthropology
College of Arts and Science
Research focus: social factors in addressing medical emergencies
Dina Asfaha's research examines the social, political, economic and cultural factors that shape how people create infrastructure to address urgent medical needs amid shifting global power dynamics. She teaches courses in medical anthropology and the biology of inequality, including how medical institutions have emerged across the developing world and the complexities of securing healthcare in different areas of the global community.
"Anthropology provides a new lens through which to understand people and the world, and especially how and why social problems come to be. In this way, it has immense potential to build bridges between people, across their differences," she said.
Asfaha said she came to Vanderbilt because of the anthropology department's "dynamic intellectual energy, especially as it pertains to scholars' concern with how people problem solve in disaster and crisis situations."
"I also chose Vanderbilt because of the culture of collaboration across departments," she said. "The internal supports available to supporting faculty interested in providing and designing creative experiential learning opportunities makes it a place where I am excited to teach."
Chunyang Wang
Assistant professor in the practice of double bass
Blair School of Music
Research focus: double bass
Chunyang Wang is an acclaimed double bass performer whose career spans solo, orchestral, chamber and contemporary music. Along with teaching at Vanderbilt, Wang is principal bass with Orchestra Iowa and Arizona Opera.
"I love exploring new possibilities for the instrument through new music, different techniques and creative collaborations," he said. "That sense of exploration keeps me curious and continues to shape me as both a performer and a teacher."
Wang said he's excited to become part of Vanderbilt and Nashville's rich musical communities.
"I was drawn to Vanderbilt by its exceptional students, outstanding faculty and the collaborative environment at the Blair School of Music. The opportunity to build on the strong tradition of the double bass program while helping shape its future was especially exciting to me," Wang said. "As musicians, we are lifelong learners, continually seeking new ways to develop and improve. I hope to encourage my students to approach their musical journeys with confidence in their abilities while maintaining the humility and openness needed for continued growth."
Philippe Schyns
Professor in the College of Connected Computing
Research focus: how the brain translates visual cognition for better machine learning
Philippe Schyns researches the brain algorithms that direct seeing to knowing and knowing to action, to better understand the brain and improve artificial intelligence.
"The broader goal is to understand visual cognition as adaptive intelligence," he said. "This creates a natural bridge between cognitive neuroscience and NeuroAI, with the aim of building models that are not only powerful, but interpretable, flexible and biologically grounded."
Schyns said he chose Vanderbilt because it offers a perfect environment to build an ambitious connected computing program at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, bioengineering, psychology, brain imaging and NeuroAI.
"For my work, the opportunity to help develop a dynamic MEG-MRI-NeuroAI platform is especially exciting. MEG allows us to follow brain computations at millisecond resolution; MRI and fMRI ground them in brain systems and anatomy; generative models give us precise control over the visual world; and AI provides powerful new tools to model the computations that predict human behavior," he said. "Vanderbilt is poised to combine these strengths into a distinctive science."
John Affleck
Writer-in-Residence in Culture, Advocacy and Leadership
College of Arts and Science
Research focus: sports journalism and storytelling
John Affleck is a seasoned sports journalist and academic, teaching in the sports and society minor, with a focus on sports and storytelling.
"Sports inspire as much passion, love and sense of community as any human activity, as sports fans and athletes know. They are the whole human experience distilled, and their impact crosses over into many other aspects of society-making it a fascinating area of study," he said.
Affleck came to Vanderbilt after leading the Department of Journalism at Penn State.
"I'm enormously excited to help Vanderbilt's team build out its recently created sports and society minor, to work with my all-star colleagues and elite-level students," he said. "I'm also excited to be part of the Vanderbilt sports scene at moment when the Commodores are emerging as a sports power."
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