Lipscomb Research

Every day in our classrooms and labs, faculty and students collaborate to shape our world for the better.

From the earliest documentation of the Stroop effect to changing how doctors treat congestive heart failure, Lipscomb University’s professors and students are daily discovering, analyzing and changing our world through research.

Lipscomb professors are helping to identify the remains of Tennessee’s volunteers in the Mexican War, writing novels and biographies, and pioneering interprofessional health care. Students spend their days fighting cancer on numerous biological fronts or analyzing best practices in business, public service, sustainability, and education.

In classrooms and laboratories every day, the future is being discovered and crafted by Lipscomb Bisons.

Online Research News

Lipscomb Now: Discovery Magazine 2024

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A pile of books with one book lying open

Faculty Reading Room

Each year, Lipscomb faculty put pen to paper to author numerous Christian living, fiction, academic and theological books, ranging from practical guides for Christians to public policy or American history, from memoirs to travel guides.

Faith and Research

Each year, faculty from various colleges take on questions of spirituality through the scientific method, working to discover ways to apply faith-based living in business, science, higher education, in congregations and within the Academy.

Pharmaceutical research on the front lines of industry

Lipscomb-Inotiv partnership and new master’s program promise to fill a gap in the scientific research community.

Summer Research Programs

Summer at Lipscomb means time for discovery, with abundant opportunities to carry out research at the graduate, undergraduate and faculty levels. The Pharmacy Summer Research Program, undergraduate fellowships such as the Langford Yates Fellowship and research projects by Lipscomb faculty all take place during the summer months, with several subsidized by stipends, grants and awards.

The Office of Research and Grants

The Office of Research and Grants, within the Office of the Provost, exists to support a culture of Christian-based intellectual curiosity and scholarly activity on the Lipscomb campus. It encourages and supports scholarship by promoting access to research funding through competitive grants designed to help faculty members launch research projects.

Student Research Highlighted at the 2024 Symposium

The annual Student Scholars Symposium is a celebration of the creative and scholarly works of Lipscomb students, both undergraduate and graduate. This interdisciplinary event represents the diversity of academia at Lipscomb with presentations of empirical research of all types, readings and performances, as well as exhibitions of artistic and scientific work.

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Reid Murdock presenting poster at symposium

First engineering graduate with missions minor

Reid Murdock (BS ’23) presented the background and outcomes of his practicum project completed with two professional engineers to learn the EPA standards for emissions and the best ways to test a prototype biomedical waste incinerator that engineering students designed, constructed and installed at the Beersheba Springs Medical Clinic in Beersheba Springs, Tennessee.

Items from the Dolly Parton exhibit on display

Dolly Parton & the Makers

Eight students from graphic design, fashion, hospitality, film and studio art majors participated in a panel discussion at the symposium, highlighting what they learned and accomplished by developing and managing the “Dolly Parton and the Makers: My Life in Rhinestones” exhibit, which drew 8,000 visitors from across the globe to campus.

Chemical analysis using mass spectrometry

One group of four undergraduate students headed to the symposium’s winners’ podium twice for their presentations on two types of chemical analysis: one to develop a method to determine trace amounts of artificial sweetener (a marker for urine) and illicit drugs in river water by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS), and a second to develop a way to use LCMS to measure the amount of illicit drugs in a finger prick of blood, as a potential future tool for law enforcement at traffic stops.

Nursing students presenting at the symposium

Evidence-based practice and nursing theory

Every Lipscomb nursing student is required to take a nursing research and theory course to learn how to search for current literature by nurse scientists or other disciplines to answer questions about nursing care issues and to translate that knowledge into practice. In 2024, 51 students presented nine scholarly review research posters on topics of interest including how forensic nurses can promote healthy recovery for victims of trauma and how virtual reality strategies can help children cope with pain.