Vanderbilt Magazine

Rana DiOrio, JD’91, wasn’t planning to create a children’s media company when she left her job in 2008. She was working in investment banking at the time, and it was, as she puts it, “not a fun place to be, with the economic recession coming in like a freight train.”… Read More

Lyndsey Goodman, BS’01, is both a captain in the Air Force Reserve and a jazz singer. The cockpit of a half-million-pound aircraft and a nightclub stage certainly seem worlds apart. Yet Lyndsey Goodman, BS’01, is at home in both. During the past decade, Capt. Goodman, an Air Force Reserve pilot… Read More

The Servant of Two Masters, an 18th-century farce by Carlo Goldoni, was presented by VUT in February. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso may not seem the most relatable of characters for college-age theatre. Catch the cultural giants on the verge of breakthrough, however, and modern students suddenly find themselves joining… Read More

In the days before bank failures, stock-market tumbles and worldwide economic malaise, a college diploma—especially one from a top university like Vanderbilt—was a one-way ticket to financial security. These days, however, graduates are faced with less-than-certain job prospects. America’s 50 million Millennials represent the most educated generation ever, but they… Read More

“From a young age I knew what I wanted to do, and I’ve been fortunate enough to find opportunities to do it,” says Michael Goldfarb. When you first meet Michael Goldfarb, his soft-spoken demeanor and infectious enthusiasm immediately impress you. When you ask what it is that motivates him, his… Read More

Do your children think you work too much and don’t spend enough time with them? If so, their perception could lead to bullying behavior, according to research by sociologist Andre Christie-Mizell. “Our behavior is driven by our perception of our world, so if children feel they are not getting enough… Read More

Ciarleglio (left) and McMahon The season in which babies are born can have a dramatic and persistent effect on how their biological clocks function. That is the conclusion of a study offering the first evidence for seasonal imprinting of biological clocks in mammals. The research was conducted by Professor of… Read More

As hedge funds come under tighter scrutiny, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Nicolas Bollen has identified several that could pose a fraud risk similar to the kind undertaken by Bernie Madoff, who bilked investors out of $65 billion. In a study examining the effectiveness of five performance flags… Read More

After more than 15 years of treating movement disorders with deep brain stimulation, Vanderbilt is offering the procedure to patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). “In movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, there is an imbalance in the brain’s motor system. The cognitive circuit is a mirror of the motor circuit, and… Read More

Physicist James Dickerson (left) is one of the first scientists to probe graphene’s interaction with water. Pictured with him is graduate student Saad Hasan. Windshields that shed water so effectively they don’t need wipers. Ship hulls so slippery that they glide through water more efficiently than ordinary hulls. These are… Read More

Vanderbilt’s squash team, a club sport, won its division and a national title at the 2011 Men’s National Team Championships in February, with a 5–4 victory over MIT. All other teams in their division were varsity squads. The team was led this year by captains Tyler Kopp (left) and Austin… Read More

Marina Alex started the 2011 spring season ranked No. 10 in individual rankings. On a soggy afternoon at the Vanderbilt Legends Club, a dozen or so men bundled in sweaters and rain gear lined the driving range. The ground had long been rain-soaked, and forecasters called for snow to begin… Read More

Babies Learn Best from Parents Troseth Research from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia finds that infants learn little to nothing from popular educational videos and learn most from face-to-face interactions with their parents and other familiar figures. The research is in press at the journal Psychological Science. “After… Read More

“To point the finger at teachers and say it’s all your fault is something you won’t see me doing. There are places where we want to engage and we will disagree, but it won’t be about saying that teachers are at fault.” —Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, speaking Jan. 26… Read More

Vanderbilt participants in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are, from left: David Weintraub, Leslie Hebb, Andreas Berlind, Trey Mack, Keivan Stassun and Kelly Holley-Bockelmann. Imagine a picture of the sky so big that it would take 500,000 high-definition TVs to view it at full resolution. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey… Read More

Dr. Jeffrey Sosman, Dr. William Pao and Dr. Cindy Vnencak-Jones gather in the Molecular Genetics Lab for the launch of the new Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative.Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has become the first cancer center in the Southeast and one of the first in the nation to offer… Read More

ClintonThe top three priorities for Tennessee’s elected officials should be the economy, education and health care, according to a new poll launched by Vanderbilt. A majority of respondents rated the state’s economic condition as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions undertook its first… Read More

A surgeon at Vanderbilt holds his index finger against a fetus’ hand in utero during surgery With the conclusion of a landmark seven-year study showing clear benefits for babies who undergo fetal surgery to treat spina bifida, Vanderbilt has begun offering the delicate procedure, which repairs a baby’s spine while… Read More

Jean Heard was a graduate of the Juilliard School and an active studio musician in Nashville. During the past few days as I was thinking about these words to honor Jean Heard, a still, small voice in the back of my mind kept repeating something the fifth chancellor of Vanderbilt… Read More

“Nobody writes letters much anymore,” goes a common lament among alumni magazine editors. Who doesn’t like to receive letters? And who doesn’t enjoy reading a fat, juicy letters section? It’s often the first thing I turn to when I open a magazine, especially when I’m reading a publication I’ve never… Read More