August 30, 2013

Event celebrates 12 Vanderbilt endowed chair holders

Twelve Vanderbilt University faculty members named to endowed chairs were lauded for their extraordinary academic achievements during an Aug. 28 celebration.

Twelve faculty members were recognized with endowed chairs Aug. 28.(John Russell/Vanderbilt)

Twelve Vanderbilt University faculty members named to endowed chairs were lauded for their extraordinary academic achievements during an Aug. 28 celebration.

Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, noted that the generosity of Vanderbilt’s donor community enables the university to honor renowned scientists, scholars, physicians and teachers.

“Some of the gifts that we honor at this ceremony were given to Vanderbilt more than a century ago, and some very recently,” Balser said. “But they all represent the collective vision and foresight of many individuals who have chosen to invest in the power of knowledge, and believe that it transforms the world. That kind of generosity means a great deal not just to Vanderbilt’s future, but to the future of scholarship and new knowledge in this country and around the world.”

Richard McCarty, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, joined Balser in honoring the new chair holders. They are:

  • David P. Bichell, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Surgery and chief of pediatric cardiac surgery;
  • Mark A. Cohen, Justin Potter Chair in American Competitive Enterprise and professor of law;
  • Senta Victoria Greene, Stevenson Chair in Physics and senior associate dean of graduate education;
  • F. Peter Guengerich, Tadashi Inagami, Ph.D. Chair in Biochemistry
  • Ruth Hill, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor of Spanish;
  • Kevin D. Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities, professor of history of art and department chair;
  • Lutz Koepnick, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in German and professor of film studies;
  • Antonis Rokas, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences and associate professor of biological sciences;
  • Charles R. Sanders II, Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair in Cardiovascular Research, professor of biochemistry and professor of medicine;
  • Gary D. Scudder, James A. Spyer Chair in Production Management;
  • Yu Shyr, Harold L. Moses Chair in Cancer Research, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of biostatistics, biomedical informatics, cancer biology and preventive medicine; and
  • Roland W. Stein, Mark Collie Chair in Diabetes Research, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics and professor of cell and developmental biology.

The celebration was the 11th in a series of events to celebrate Vanderbilt’s exceptional scholars who have been named to endowed chairs.

Since the major university initiative to recruit and retain outstanding scholars and teachers was announced by Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos in August 2010, 114 chair holders have been recognized at institution-wide celebrations.