Vanderbilt Magazine

WILLIE GEIST, BA’97 It’s fitting that one of the shows Willie Geist hosts on MSNBC is called Way Too Early. If there’s one gripe he has about his job, it’s the necessity of waking up in the wee hours of the morning. “When the alarm clock goes off at… Read More

Over the last year and a half, our hard-working volunteers encouraged classmates to come back and give back to Vanderbilt. We welcomed 5,160 Vanderbilt alumni, spouses and friends to campus for the 2009 Reunion/Homecoming weekend. Our volunteers’ hard work also resulted in more than $39 million in gifts and pledges—an… Read More

During the past 40 years, more than 100 graduating Vanderbilt women have had the once-in-a lifetime chance to begin their careers at world-renowned Lloyd’s of London, thanks to the generosity of one man. In 1969, Walter C. Wattles, BA’36, established a fellowship to allow women to live in London for… Read More

Priscilla Craven (left) surprised Suzanne McGee by flying to Dallas and walking with her friend during part of the Avon 60-Mile Walk for Breast Cancer last year. McGee was the top fundraiser for the event. On the surface, Suzanne Perot McGee and Priscilla Call Craven didn’t have much in common… Read More

Aaron Noll, a sophomore biological sciences major from Fort Mitchell, Ky., is a forward on the basketball team and the current recipient of the Martin F. McNamara Jr. Honor Scholarship. After Martin McNamara Jr. died 26 years ago, his family honored him by establishing the Martin F. McNamara Jr. Honor… Read More

The Blakemore Trio   Nearly four years have passed since the Blakemore Trio (violinist Carolyn Huebl, cellist Felix Wang and pianist Amy Dorfman, all three of whom are on the faculty of Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music) first decided to ask New York composer Susan Botti to write a… Read More

Four years after its creation and only a year and a half after granting degrees to its first class, the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program at Vanderbilt University has been named a top 20 program in the country by Poets & Writers magazine. Vanderbilt was ranked… Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Library is remembering one of America’s most beloved writers with the exhibit “Mark Twain: An American Original,” on display in Special Collections through June 30. The exhibit is free and open to the public. “Twain and Twang,” Nashville’s citywide celebration, marks the 175th anniversary this… Read More

Bachmann Wins Tufts Discovery Award Beth Bachmann (right), assistant professor of English, is the 2010 winner of the prestigious Kate Tufts Discovery Award, given to honor a poet’s first book. The award, presented by Claremont Graduate University, includes a $10,000 prize. Bachmann’s Temper, published last year by the University of… Read More

Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports (2010, The Johns Hopkins University Press) by John Eric Goff, BS’92 Using performances by elite athletes such as Greg Louganis, Bob Beamon and Lance Armstrong as starting points, Goff discusses the science behind diving, long jumping, cycling, skating, football, soccer, and a… Read More

Until the late 1950s, Peabody College’s Knapp Farm was known for its herd of prize, purebred Holsteins. George Peabody College for Teachers, which opened on its present-day campus in 1914 after a series of previous incarnations dating from 1785, had two related missions. One was to provide a graduate-level education… Read More

In February, Vanderbilt students and other volunteers completed “Food Fight,” a large mural in Rand Hall that depicts an epic battle between junk and healthy food. Read More

Among business leaders it’s generally accepted that “poaching” or hiring a competitor’s employees violates an unwritten rule of business and may be unethical. But a new research paper concludes that as long as their actions are not deceptive or illegal, companies that intentionally identify, contact and offer employment to a rival… Read More

Greene, Maguire, and Velkovska It’s the hottest temperature ever achieved in a laboratory: 250,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. Three Vanderbilt physicists are members of the scientific team that has reported creating an exotic state of matter with a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius. The new… Read More

About 100 million years ago, the bacterium Wolbachia came up with a trick that has made it one of the most successful parasites in the animal kingdom: It evolved the ability to manipulate the sex lives of its hosts. “When it developed this capability, Wolbachia spread rapidly among the world’s… Read More

When Jason Martin gives a talk about his research, he begins with the story of Mariana Bridi da Costa. The Brazilian supermodel died from severe sepsis after amputation of her hands and feet failed to stop its spread. Martin, a fellow in allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine, is part… Read More

One of the best ways the world can promote peace and stability is to expand commercial nuclear power based on the extraction of uranium from the ocean, contends Frank Parker, an internationally recognized expert in remediation of radioactively contaminated soil and water. At a meeting held at the Pontifical Academy… Read More

“My students may not expect to learn about Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Board of Education, but these things and many others play into musical moments,” says Jim Lovensheimer, shown here with his faithful greyhound, Shoes. Experienced in the context of our day-to-day lives, pop music can seem ephemeral… Read More

Courtesy Metropolitan Transit Authority Vanderbilt is the primary sponsor of a new nonprofit corporation created to promote public transportation in Middle Tennessee. The university has committed $100,000 per year for the next three years to help fund the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee. “Mass transit is already an important part… Read More

A program aimed at improving teaching in urban middle schools will begin enrolling students this summer. The result of a partnership between Peabody College of education and human development and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), it is geared toward students who want to teach in Nashville public schools. Students will… Read More