External Story

A national experiment to develop a new generation of college science and engineering faculty, one equipped to excel in the classroom as well as the lab, is about to shift into high gear. The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, of which Vanderbilt University is a member, has received a three-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. CIRTL is partnering with Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching to offer The Blended and Online Learning Design Fellows program. Read More

If Kristen Findley had gotten her wish, she might never have set foot on a track, or at least not to compete. Growing up near the snow-capped mountains of Boise, Idaho, she dreamt of becoming a downhill skier one day. She was so taken with the idea, just about the… Read More

The Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors welcomes seven new members. “Our new members are active alumni who generously donate time, treasure and talents to Vanderbilt and also represent the increasing diversity of our alumni population,” says Patti Early White, BA’76, chair of the Board Nominations Committee. Read More

Efforts by the federal government to control the nation’s spiraling budget deficit, including sequestration that took effect on March 1, have created the potential for significant impact to Medicare’s long-standing support for graduate medical education and could limit the ability of the nation’s academic medical centers to care for patients and train the next generation of physicians, says Donald Brady, senior associate dean of Graduate Medical Education for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Read More

The process of applying to college is memorable for many reasons — filling out pages and pages of applications, nervously waiting to hear back from admissions offices, making difficult decisions — but for freshman Bryan Stromer, there was an added layer: He blogged about his experience for one of the… Read More

We must make sure that standardized tests actually cover what we all agree is important for children to learn, writes Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development. Read More

Professor Jay Clayton of Vanderbilt University is chatting with me over Skype, but he admits that his attention is slightly divided. He's got Lord of the Rings Online running on a second monitor, and countless players are sending him messages to say hello. Read More

With more than 31,000 applications received for the Class of 2017, Vanderbilt is red hot. By representing Vanderbilt at college fairs, interviewing applicants and contacting accepted students, alumni CoRPs volunteers extend the reach of the undergraduate admissions office with a personal touch. Read More

Ensuring patient safety in today's medical environment requires a fundamental shift in today’s health care organizations, says Ranga Ramanujam. Read More

Tiffiny Tung, associate professor of anthropology, is on familiar terms with the dead. She may not know their names, but she can tell you a surprising amount of information about how they lived—and even, on occasion, how they died. Read More

The Aspirnaut program, funded by Billy and Julie Hudson, brings science, technology, engineering and math lessons and labs to rural teachers, students and school districts via video and teleconferencing. Read More

In the foreseeable future, robots will be sticking steerable needles in your brain to remove blood clots; capsule robots will be crawling up your colon as a painless replacement for the colonoscopy; and ultra-miniaturized snake robots will remove tumors from your bladder and other body cavities. Read More

In an effort to explore the financial viability of a possible football stadium renovation, Vanderbilt Athletics has put together a survey for fans that will help to gauge the interest of possible amenities within the stadium. Thousands of Commodore fans received an email from Vice Chancellor David Williams and Head… Read More

Forty years after Atari’s digital table tennis game Pong bleeped onto the scene and made video games mainstream entertainment, we’ve become a nation of video gamers. We’re playing games on phones, tablets, computers, game consoles, social networks, and even TVs connected directly to the Internet. Read More

Although Crystal Finley, BS’13, entered Vanderbilt with a clear plan for success, her life mission would soon change when she became a volunteer mentor with Next Steps at Vanderbilt, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual or other disabilities. Read More

MULTIPLATINUM RECORDING ARTIST AMY GRANT, ’82, HIGH-FIVES CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL PATIENT GIGI PASLEY AFTER RECORDING PASLEY’S SONG “WHAT IS NORMAL” FOR THE EVERYBODY HAS A STORY ALBUM. NOW 15 AND IN REMISSION, PASLEY HAS SPENT HER CHILDHOOD FIGHTING LEUKEMIA AND BONE CANCER. A compilation of songs written in… Read More

Attorney Chris Frohlich, BS’06, has parlayed a lifelong love of fishing into a thriving charter company based in Punta Gorda, Fla. When he’s not catch-and-release tarpon fishing for his own pleasure, he’s taking others out on the water or overseeing his staff of eight fishing guides. Read More

Meghan Bowler, Erica Curtis, Melanie Gault, Samantha Saratt and Chelsea Stowell, biomedical engineering; Kirsten Heikkinen and Richard Hendrick, mechanical engineering; and Thushara Gunda, civil and environmental engineering, have received graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation. Read More

Billy Webb knows every nook and cranny of Vanderbilt. He knows the name of the young woman who sells him a no-whip iced mocha in the Courtyard Café on treatment days, the ladies who check him in at the front desk and the nurse who comes around to check his… Read More

In matters of giving, venture capitalist Robby van Roijen recommends following your heart, the same course he took in establishing Vanderbilt’s first endowed fund in cardiac innovation. “The thing I like about giving to Vanderbilt is that the money is actually going to producing something that will eventually make the… Read More