Spring 2021

Vanderbilt’s partnership with the recently opened National Museum of African American Music promises the potential of community-building discussions involving music, race, history and storytelling. Read More

A poem by Carlina Duan, MFA'19, the author of 'I Wore My Blackest Hair' (Little A, 2017) and the upcoming 'Alien Miss' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021). Read More

As alumni, we can help graduating Commodores prepare for the new chapter in their lives by encouraging and supporting them with mentorship and internship and job opportunities. Let’s show the Class of 2021 what it means to be Vanderbilt for Life. Read More

Melvyn Ivan Semmel of Santa Barbara, Calif., a researcher, educator and 2007 Peabody Distinguished Alumnus, who helped shape the nation’s understanding and policies relating to students with disabilities, died Feb. 25. Read More

Patricia Gail “Trish” Champion Frist, BA’61, of Nashville, who had a great impact as a philanthropist and business advocate, died Jan. 5. Read More

Abby and Jon became involved in the Parents Leadership Committee, later serving as co-chairs for the 2011–2012 Vanderbilt Parents Campaign. Jon, now a Vanderbilt trustee who is co-CEO of TPG Capital and the former co-president of Goldman Sachs, joined the Board of Trust in 2012. Read More

Last November, alumnus Gene Back’s growing list of accomplishments caught the attention of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The organization, which promotes the art of motion pictures on both sides of the Atlantic, selected him as a Breakthrough Talent. Read More

Alumnus Christopher Tuff, author of bestseller 'The Millennial Whisperer,' says this generation wants to matter to their employers, and they want their work to matter too. Understanding this dynamic results in business tactics that cost zero dollars and provide big paybacks. Read More

It started as a Yorkshireman’s attempt to bring something of home to Nashville. More than 50 years later, the Vanderbilt University Rugby Football Club has roots of its own. Read More

Thomas Peterffy of Interactive Brokers, whose philanthropic support endowed the Financial Markets Research Center in 2003, recently renamed it the Hans Stoll Financial Markets Research Center in memory of its founder. Stoll, a pioneer in the field and longtime director of the center who passed away in 2020, was emeritus professor of finance and former holder of the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Jr. Chair of Finance at Owen. Read More

After 75 years, an unofficial Vanderbilt institution has vanished. Rotier’s, originally opened in 1945 and famous for its cheeseburger served on french bread (not to mention its cold beer), closed in March after struggling as a result of the pandemic. Read More

A profile of Graduate School alumnus Thomas G. Burton, whose book 'The Serpent and the Spirit' was the basis for the recent HBO documentary 'Alabama Snake.' Read More

Vandy Voodoos, a team that included three former Commodore student-athletes, swept through the Open Division of the 2020 World TeamTennis National Tournament last fall to claim the championship at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. Read More

As I retire from my position as dean of Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing in July, with plans to return to the faculty, I am eager to use the painful lessons of the past year to help train a new generation of nurses who will reshape the health care profession for the better. Read More

A compilation of recent awards, events and research in Vanderbilt's arts community. Read More

Sharaff is the owner of HydroHouse Farms, a commercial hydroponics business in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, that supplies leafy greens to many restaurants and businesses in Nashville—including Vanderbilt Campus Dining. Read More

'Pressed for Time: Five Centuries of Prints from the May Collection,' on view online and from January through the end of March at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery, was curated by Professor David Price and students in his History of Prints class. Meeting weekly throughout the summer and fall of 2020, the students often were joined by Jack May, a longtime Nashville businessman and print collector, who inspired a new generation of collectors and connoisseurs of print art. Read More

The remarkable success of the COVID-19 vaccines began in a Vanderbilt lab decades ago, with the groundbreaking research of alumnus Dr. Barney Graham. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Faculty Fellowship Challenge, launched in September 2018 to create fellowships and directorships to fuel research discoveries and expand teaching opportunities, successfully concluded in December 2020 with 36 positions created, supported by 31 unique endowments from alumni and other donors. The university backed the challenge with a matching investment. Read More

Betsega Bekele, MEd'14, helps lead American Portrait, a multiplatform, national storytelling project tied to PBS’ 50th anniversary celebration. The digital-first initiative that launched online in January 2020 is centered on this question: What does it really mean to be an American today? Read More