Hashini Gonagala

Vanderbilt has a $5.3 billion endowment and a yearly operating budget of $4 billion, which is why the university can spend such substantial resources on its projects. In 2013, it invested $573.1 into research, while its hospital spent $843.6 million.

Vanderbilt advances science through many first-class institutes such as the Center for Medicine Health and Society, the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, and the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics.