A local braniac is on a mission to win the title of the biggest nerd in the country. He's an eccentric Phd. student at Vanderbilt University on a national tv show called "King of the Nerds". There was a time when the term "nerd" was considered an insult, but now it seems pop culture is embracing nerds. Brandon Moore is hoping to be the nerdiest of them all. TBS' "King of the Nerds" is something you have to see to believe, but this guy stands out among the best of them. He's studying neuroscience, and when he's not analyzing data or competing in a nationally televised nerd-off, you might find him rapping at a Nashville karaoke bar. Moore's latest research revolves around understanding how the human eye turns light into images in the brain, but he has a history of less than orthodox projects.

"I tried setting up a camera with a computer to see if it could identify the gender of a person walking into my room with me," says Moore.

The idea was if he walked in with a male, it would do nothing, but if joined by a female, the system would dim the lights and play romantic music. Of course experiments don't always go as planned.

"So, often times when some of my guy buddies would come in it would dim the lights," says Moore. "So, that wasn't exactly expected, so that was very short lived."

The last few years have seen nerdiness skyrocket in pop culture. From hit shows like "The Big Bang Theory" to pro athletes like Lebron James even giving press conferences in full nerd attire. The once maligned moniker is now a popular pronoun, but Moore says being a real nerd takes more than just wearing the uniform.

"You may lose sleep, forget to bathe or something while conducting data analysis or something like that, but you do it because you love it," says Moore. "That's really at the core of what being a nerd is."

Moore says aside from winning the competition, he hopes his research will lay the foundation to someday help cure blindness. "King of the Nerds" airs Thursday nights on TBS.
In the Nerd Herd, This Vandy Student Hopes to be Leader of the Pack