Vanderbilt Magazine

Michael Kurek, associate professor of composition, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Album chart this summer with The Sea Knows, an album that continues his transition to more traditionally melodious music. The Sea Knows, on the Navona label, features a lush, gorgeous sound in the traditional… Read More

Hermann and his BMW on Austria’s Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, leading to Salzburg (Photo courtesy of John Hermann) John E. Hermann isn’t typical European royalty. He’s not even a citizen of the continent. But the retired real estate appraiser from San Diego has achieved titular glory with his 80 motorcycle… Read More

Cal Turner Jr. (photo by Susan Urmy) Low-income entrepreneurs are receiving much-needed legal support thanks to a recent $2 million investment in Vanderbilt Law School by Cal Turner Jr., BA’62, former chairman and CEO of Dollar General Corp. The Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic, which was funded from the… Read More

Last year Tennessee became only the second state to be recognized on the periodic table of chemical elements, and Vanderbilt faculty played a key role. Joseph Hamilton Joseph Hamilton, the Landon C. Garland Distinguished Professor of Physics, captivated alumni with the story of the discovery of superheavy element… Read More

SUPPORT FOR VULNERABILITY With curiosity and gratitude I read about Vanderbilt’s initiatives to offer outreach, dialogue and support for students’ mental health [“Going There,” Campus News, Spring 2017]. In the summer issue, I also read Dr. Paul Berner’s response to this initiative, where he expressed his concerns about… Read More

More than 5,000 alumni returned for Reunion in October, including notables like former Golden State Warriors player Festus Ezeli, BA’12 (top right), and NBC Today host Willie Geist, BA’97 (bottom center). Be sure to save the date for next year’s Reunion, planned for Oct. 11–13. Read More

The Commodores unveiled a new $12 million, 30,000-square-foot baseball facility—fully funded by donors—in October, ahead of the team’s annual Black and Gold Series, a best-of-three intersquad matchup that showcases the team’s talent and gives them some on-field experience. Read More

With all that we have been taught, all that we have learned, just what have we wrought with all that we’ve burned? (oil on canvas, 2015) is featured in Morgan Craig’s solo exhibit With all that we have been taught …, on display through Nov. 30 at Sarratt… Read More

After an onslaught of scathing remarks about busted brackets and a bad attitude, Fisher-Davis has been using the criticism as motivation to train even harder for the upcoming season. Read More

As the chairmen of the first five Impact sym­posia, we are delighted when articles about this important and unique Vanderbilt institution are published, most recently the “Speak Up” article written by Andrew Maraniss in the Spring 2017 issue. Read More

In 2015, King started MACRO, a media company focused on developing content for multicultural audiences. The company’s first major project was the movie Fences, directed by Denzel Washington and nominated for four Oscars last year. Read More

in the latest book by Vanderbilt Professor of French Holly Tucker—City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris (2017, Norton)—she recounts the true-crime saga of a string of murders that plagued Paris in the late 1600s—and how the city’s first police chief stopped them. Read More

By Bryant Palmer, BA’95 JON KRAUSE   It’s 1994, and I’m in the offices of the Vanderbilt Hustler at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I spend as much time here as anywhere else on campus, but not usually this early. I’ve got a phone interview, not with a dean… Read More

Visual artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was named this year’s Peabody College Distinguished Alumnus. (Courtesy Mel Chin) Visionary artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was honored during Commencement May 12 by Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development with the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award. Born in Houston in… Read More

Mark L. Schoenfield, professor of English, is among 173 scholars, artists and scientists in the United States and Canada to be awarded a 2017 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Arts Jonathan Rattner’s film The Interior won the Michael Moore Award for… Read More

When she finally applied her "brain soup" technique to the human brain, Herculano-Houzel discovered we have an average of 86 billion neurons. Surprisingly, though, the neuron density is the same as in other primates, showing a clear evolutionary pattern from monkeys to humans. “We somehow manage to have this large brain with a large number of neurons; but it’s still just a regular primate brain,” says Herculano-Houzel. Read More

Like the rest of Nashville, Vanderbilt was bitten by the hockey bug as the city’s 20-year-old NHL expansion team, the Predators, battled the Pittsburgh Penguins in June for this year’s Stanley Cup. University photographer John Russell, who shot much of the action for the Nashville team (including the photo seen here), even helped enlist Vanderbilt’s mascot, Mr. C., to rally Preds fans in the final days of the championship series. Read More

James Berkenstock (top right) and his wife, Jean, co-founded the Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, dedicated to the chamber repertoire. (Courtesy Midsummer’s Music Festival) Some people believe the life of a musician is nomadic, traveling the world and playing in all kinds of venues. However, James… Read More

The program cover for the Verlaine celebration featured this watercolor illustration by artist László Barta(1902–1961) under the name of Brutus, for a 1936 edition of a collection of Verlaine’s poems titled “Hombres.” Poet Paul Verlaine rocketed between emotional highs and lows, between a life of complete freedom… Read More

Emily Manchester Townes, BA’50, has preserved her brother’s war letters by compiling them into a family history. A portrait of John Manchester hangs behind her. (DANIEL DUBOIS)   When John Speier Manchester left Vanderbilt halfway through his sophomore year in December 1942 to enlist in the U.S. Navy, he… Read More