Bruce M. Damon, Ph.D.

Bruce Damon, Ph.D., has been named director of Vanderbilt University’s Chemical and Physical Biology (CPB) graduate program, which prepares students for “cutting-edge” research careers at the interface of the chemical sciences, physical sciences and biology.

Damon, associate professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, succeeds Hassane Mchaourab, Ph.D., who founded the program with Albert Beth, Ph.D., in 2007.

“I feel strongly that many of the most important problems in the biomedical sciences require us to use an interdisciplinary approach,” said Damon, who previously served as the program’s director of graduate studies.

“By providing education and scholarly interactions at the intersection of traditionally distinct fields such as chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and computing, the CPB program prepares students well to tackle problems in its four tracks … chemical biology, imaging science, structural biology and molecular biophysics, and systems biology,” he said.