Winter 2013

PHOTO: Richard Danielpour, standing, rehearses with Blair School of Music Dean Mark Wait at the piano prior to the debut of Danielpour’s Dec. 4 premiere of 12 new piano études. PHOTO BY JOHN RUSSELL   What are the odds a conversation about 12 new piano études will veer off to… Read More

The Rev. Mark Forrester, MDiv’83, has been named university chaplain and director of the Office of Religious Life. Forrester has been a United Methodist chaplain affiliated with Vanderbilt’s Office of Religious Life since 1994. He assumed the new role Sept. 1 at a critical point in… Read More

BY KATHY WHITNEY HEART PHOTO BY ROBERT CLARK / INSTITUTE   A 53-year-old patient arrives at Vanderbilt University Hospital early one morning for a procedure to open up a blockage in his left anterior descending artery by placing a single stent to his heart via the radial artery in his… Read More

Marc Panu (JOHN RUSSELL)   Four years ago Marc Panu walked on to Vanderbilt’s football team. He sweated through the sweltering summer training camp. He spent grueling hours lifting weights. He studied game plans and watched endless film. His reward was slow in coming. In 2009 he didn’t play… Read More

Most people think of printmaking as a means to multiples, but Nicole Pietrantoni, BS’03, uses the techniques of printmaking—specifically screen printing—as a means to an end. Pietrantoni, who won Vanderbilt’s prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award in 2003, screen-prints on acrylic plates, stacks the plates in… Read More

In May 2012 Vanderbilt broke ground on College Halls at Kissam, two residential colleges that together will house about 660 upperclassmen starting in 2014. Tony Fort considers the project to be among the most ambitious during his 27 years at the university. “This is the single… Read More

Mia Bransford, a nurse in the pediatric emergency department at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, was one of the few trained health care workers on the scene last July when a mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., left 12 dead and 58 injured. Bransford, in Colorado for a… Read More

ILLUSTRATION BY EDEL RODRIGUEZ   A tradition among first-year students to read and discuss a common text has inspired an effort to foster dialogue about gender and sexuality across the Vanderbilt community. Themes explored in the 2012 Commons Reading, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, is being… Read More

EDITOR’S LETTER By GayNelle Doll   Let’s say you’ve lived for quite some time in a custom-built home you really like and a neighborhood you love. Through the years this house has become a beloved gathering place with great memories in every room. Sure, the place could use a facelift—trim back… Read More

James Patterson, MA’70, breathes rare air. His books line the walls in airport shops. They’re tucked into beach bags amid the towels and sunscreen. They’re on sidewalk kiosks and bedside tables around the world. In 2010 he sold more books than John Grisham, Stephen King and Danielle Steele combined. Read More

BY ROB HAMMOND, BA’71 ABOVE PHOTO: President John F. Kennedy reads the program for Vanderbilt's 90th anniversary convocation in 1963. (Photo by Cecil Stoughton) When I was in sixth grade, John F. Kennedy became one of my boyhood heroes. During his 1960 campaign he came to my hometown of LaGrange, Ga.,… Read More

Professional golfer and Vanderbilt alumnus Brandt Snedeker, BA’03, climbed into the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time in his career last fall. The Nashville native jumped eight spots to No. 10 after winning the Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club… Read More

ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID PLUNKERT   Take a millionth of a human brain, and squeeze it into a chamber the size of a mustard seed. Next, link it to a second chamber filled with cerebral spinal fluid, and thread both of them with artificial blood vessels to create a microenvironment that… Read More

Archaeological sites that take years to map will be completed in minutes if tests of a new system being developed at Vanderbilt go well. The Skate SUAS (Small Unmanned Aerial System), created by Aurora Flight Sciences, will be integrated into a larger system that combines a flying device that can… Read More

Roy looked like he was 15 at most. He looked like a water boy for a varsity sports team. But without him, my platoon was culturally blind and deaf. Read More

Section #8 of “Nights and Days of 2007: Autumn” is from A Map of the Lost World by Rick Hilles, Read More

As my friend and I walked back from an open-air market in the St. Germain district, we stumbled upon a professional bubble-blower. (Who knew they existed?) Mesmerized by the sheer size and magical quality of his work, I tried to capture the moment before it burst into the Parisian air. Read More

International Trial Tests Hybrid Stroke Therapy | Playmates Can Help Sedentary Kids Become More Active | Water for a Small Planet Read More

In the final 52 seconds of the Nov. 10 contest against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt took the lead for the first time in the game, winning 27–26. Read More

John H. “Jack” Venable Jr., professor of biological sciences, emeritus, and dean of the College of Arts and Science, emeritus, of Nashville died July 16, 2012. During his time at Vanderbilt, he also served as associate provost for faculty affairs. Read More