Spring 2014

On April 16 more than 100 sixth graders from Wright Middle School—one of the most diverse schools in Nashville—met the Vanderbilt Graduate School student pen pals with whom they have corresponded for the entire school year and got a tour of Vanderbilt University Medical Center facilities. Read More

Vanderbilt’s emergency medicine residency program in Guyana graduated its first resident last November, capping a decade-long effort to establish the country’s very first emergency medicine program and department at Georgetown Public Hospital Corp. Read More

The installation “How to Build a Forest”—built during the course of two days in March in Neely Auditorium by a group of artists, students and anyone who wanted to join in—was a reminder about the world’s interconnectedness. Read More

Blair School alumna Madeline Myers' song “I Could Be a Hero”—from a musical called Legends & Lore that she is writing with librettist Jacob Combs—was recently announced as the winner of the Ken Davenport Songwriting Contest in New York City. Read More

Connection is what playwriting is about for Sheri Wilner, two-time recipient of the prestigious Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville—connection between writer and material, between material and performer, and between play and audience. Read More

A biography of singer–songwriter Sam Cooke will be the fourth book by Peter Guralnick to be declared “a classic in blues literature” by the Blues Hall of Fame. Read More

Christina Foggie, BS’14, was selected in the second round of the WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx. Read More

Vanderbilt psychologists Robert Reinhart and Geoffrey Woodman show that selectively manipulating one’s ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain is possible, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current. Read More

“Doctor shopping,” or going to multiple doctors for narcotic prescriptions, is prevalent among more than 20 percent of orthopedic trauma patients, according to a new Vanderbilt study. Read More

An ultrafast, ultrasmall optical switch could advance the day when photons replace electrons in the innards of consumer products ranging from cellphones to automobiles. Read More

Lone star tick bites are likely the cause of thousands of cases of severe red-meat allergies plaguing patients in Southeastern states and spreading up the Eastern Seaboard. Read More

Marijuana's effects on the brain | Income inequality's impact on Americans' health | Evolutionary mismatch between humans, microbes | Music therapy for premature babies Read More

Vanderbilt football’s SEC home opener against the Ole Miss Rebels will be Sept. 6 at Nashville’s LP Field. Read More

Dr. Robert Mahley recently received a $2.5 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to fast-track a drug that could neutralize the protein researchers believe is the genetic cause of Alzheimer’s disease—the apolipoprotein E4, or ApoE4. Read More

Four of the longest-running fundraisers for Vanderbilt University Medical Center are also local Nashville traditions. Iroquois Steeplechase, the Music City Tennis Invitational (MCTI), Eve of Janus and Christmas Village collectively have contributed more than $20 million to VUMC. Read More

Recently, Amy Christine Ellis was named a master of wine by the Institute of Masters of Wine—one of only 312 people to hold that title worldwide, and one of only 10 women in the United States. Read More

Piper Hendricks is founder and president of p.h. balanced films, a nonprofit organization that makes awareness-raising documentary films. Read More

Five years ago Washington, D.C., alumni began hosting Alternative Spring Break students for a potluck dinner while the students were in town for their projects. The gatherings—simply intended to connect similarly service-minded students and alumni—have spread nationally in popularity, as 13 chapters welcomed students for potlucks or game-watching parties in 2014. Read More

Fourth-generation engineer Wendell G. Anderson of Medford, N.J., died Dec. 22, 2013, at the age of 96. Read More

Roger Richman, a celebrity agent who represented the heirs of Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Mae West, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers and many others, died Oct. 9, 2013, in Los Angeles. Read More