Month: November 2011

Have you ever wanted to ask the world’s leading physicians and medical researchers about their work and how it affects you? My Health Chat is your chance. Join Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dr. Jim Jirjis, as he discusses the latest advancements in genomic medicine and heart care innovations with Dr. Read More

Larry Van Horn (Vanderbilt University) Larry Van Horn, executive director of health affairs at Owen Graduate School of Management, will discuss “Our Health Care Crisis: A Mathematical Examination” from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in 214 Light Hall. It is the latest installment in the School of Medicine’s Dean’s Lecture… Read More

Businessman Herman Cain is the favorite of Tennessee voters for the state’s March 6 presidential Republican primary election, but female voters are far less likely to support him. That pattern is unlikely to change in light of allegations of sexual harassment against him, according to a new poll by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University. Read More

Gary Jaeger could probably improve the writing in this magazine standing on his head. A philosopher, writing coach and yogi, Jaeger serves as the assistant director of the Writing Studio and senior lecturer in the philosophy department, as well as a yoga instructor at 12 South Yoga in Nashville. After… Read More

I didn’t finish the race. Forty hours into the Death Race and a mere five hours from the end, I quit. In my four years as a Vanderbilt athlete, I had never failed to make it to the finish line. I had faced disappointment, failed to meet goals, even finished… Read More

Çağlar Oskay is an expert in failure and that makes him—and his work—a success. Oskay, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 2006, has focused much of his research on the failure of structures and predicting the lifespan of heterogeneous materials through multiscale computational mechanics. “People… Read More

Some of the biggest businesses started out as ideas dreamed up in student apartments and dorm rooms. Two Stanford students started Google as Ph.D. projects. When he was at Yale, Fred Smith turned in a term paper outlining his idea for an overnight delivery service—FedEx. Vanderbilt’s Cam Chalmers, BS’98, created… Read More

When Julie Fraser arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, in January 2002, it was clear that the mission at hand would be unlike any she’d had before. The Kabul airport had been one of the primary targets of the U.S. invasion three months earlier, and the widespread destruction was evident as soon… Read More

Clark Bosslet and Blake Knight are both MBA candidates for 2012 and bloggers for OwenBloggers.com, a website that offers an uncensored student perspective on life at the Owen School. The Owen Podcast Series, which Bosslet and Knight film and produce for the site, features interviews with faculty, fellow students,… Read More

Arun Majumdar is the first director of the Department of Energy's ARPA-E (Zach Goodyear / Vanderbilt University) “Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It’s time to start thinking.” This quote, attributed to the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, summarizes the main point of the presentation that… Read More

Providing increased mentorship, research opportunities and a nurturing, intellectual environment during fellowship training may help reduce a projected shortage of academic hematologists and oncologists. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified an antigen important to balancing the immune response to bacteria in the gut. Read More

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded Vanderbilt researchers a two-year, $1 million grant to Vanderbilt to develop a model for applying genomic testing to drug prescribing in “real-world” settings. Read More

Watch video of the Harrod Lecture with Norman T. Gottwald. Norman T. Gottwald, a pioneer in the social critical study of the Hebrew Bible, delivered the Harrod Lecture Nov. 10. His groundbreaking book “The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 BEC” argues for the… Read More

A rendering of the renovated Alumni Hall's west elevation. (image courtesy of Bruner/Cott) The Vanderbilt Board of Trust’s Executive Committee voted Nov. 10 to begin significant renovations to Alumni Hall in order to create flexible spaces to support a wide range of activities – such as tutoring,… Read More

Watch video of Alondra Nelson, associate professor of sociology at Columbia University, speaking Nov. 8. Typically associated with the revolutionary rhetoric and militant action of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Panther Party  did significant and lesser-known work pursuing equality in the… Read More

Watch video of Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), delivering a lecture titled “ARPA-E: Catalyzing Energy Breakthroughs for a Secure American Future” Nov. 9 in Featheringill Hall. Majumdar became the first director of ARPA-E, the country’s only agency devoted to transformational energy research and development,… Read More

The outstanding academic achievements of 11 faculty members who have been named to endowed chairs were praised during a celebration at the Student Life Center. Read More

November can be one of the busiest months for tornadoes in Tennessee as cold air clashes with the remnants of summer’s warm temperatures in the South. To be notified about a tornado warning or other emergency incident at Vanderbilt, sign up for AlertVU, the university’s emergency notification system. Read More

Assistant Professor of Art Amelia Winger-Bearskin's design is one of 10 finalists in the State Your Plate contest. Tennesseans for the Arts, the statewide advocacy group that supports the Tennessee Arts Commission, has announced the 10 finalists selected for State Your Plate, the… Read More