Vanderbilt Magazine

Among best national universities, tied with Emory and Rice Vanderbilt University had its best-ever overall ranking in the history of the U.S. News & World Report survey in rankings released in August. Vanderbilt is ranked No. 17 in the list of best national universities, tied with Emory and Rice universities. Read More

Some of Vanderbilt’s finest athletes of all time were recognized this year as inductees into the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2009. The nine inductees returned to campus the weekend of Sept. 4–5, where they were feted at an induction ceremony at the Vanderbilt Marriott on Friday evening… Read More

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law in February has significantly boosted scientific and medical research at Vanderbilt. As of Sept. 30, Vanderbilt researchers had received 180 grants totaling more than $74 million in first-year funding. Of those, 165 grants were awarded by the National Institutes… Read More

Eligible veterans can attend Vanderbilt at a significantly reduced cost thanks to the university’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon GI Educational Enhancement Program. Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, a part of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, colleges and universities can work with the federal government to offer… Read More

Balcomb: “I want my players to enjoy their time at Vanderbilt. They’re kids. They should be having fun.” Melanie Balcomb can stand the heat. I discovered this firsthand the day I met her in the spring of 2002. At the time Vanderbilt was in the throes of finding a new… Read More

Australian A.J. Ogilvy returned down home with the Commodores in August. Men’s Basketball: Commodores Down Under Commodore basketball players got a personal look at the home turf of Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy during a 10-day, five-game tour of Australia in August. Vanderbilt played professional teams in Melbourne, Canberra, Townsville, and… Read More

Deodorant: It’s a Good Thing What were you thinking? It’s one thing to praise Luke Boehne for his environmental efforts [Summer 2009, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet”] and, perhaps, for his frugality—but do we need to know that he eschews deodorant? I teach two-year college students who all… Read More

Editor GayNelle Doll Art Director and Designer Donna DeVore Pritchett Editorial Associate Editor and Advertising Manager Phillip B. Tucker Arts & Culture Editor Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81 Class Notes and Sports Editor Nelson Bryan, BA’73 Photography and Imaging Assistant Director,… Read More

Marshall Chapman Marshall Chapman, BA’71, is a rocker, songwriter, author, and contributing editor of Garden & Gun magazine. Her first book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, was a 2004 SEBA bestseller. She’s recorded 11 critically acclaimed albums. In 1994 she endowed the first basketball scholarship at Vanderbilt. “It was important… Read More

A recent survey commissioned by the Vanderbilt Office of Alumni Relations and the Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Directors ranks this magazine as one of the university’s most effective communication vehicles—you can read more about the survey here. Also in shameless self-promotion news, for the past two years… Read More

Sarah Pohlmann Johnson, BS’97 SARAH POHLMANN JOHNSON, BS’97 When a woman leaves an abusive relationship for the protection of a domestic violence shelter, she has already made a courageous and often difficult first step. But how does she regain the power and control over her life that’s been stripped away… Read More

Gene Cook, BA'94 GENE COOK, BA’94 In little more than a decade, eBay has grown into the world’s largest online marketplace, with more than 88 million users worldwide. As the company’s director of buyer experience, Gene Cook has the task of ensuring that users have a good experience when searching… Read More

It’s 1952. Across America, families crowd around their boxy TV sets, staring at the snowy black-and-white screen as Dinah Shore strolls onstage in a shimmering Hollywood gown, while a harp trills through a few introductory arpeggios. At the age of 36, the beautiful and talented brunette-turned-blonde is already a household name. She floats past a giant photo of a 1953 Chevy Bel Air and launches into song. Read More

Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World (2009, Sterling Publishing) edited by Mike Evans and Paul Kingsbury, BA’80 Filled with photos from the event itself as well as visual exploration of the social context in which Woodstock happened, this well-researched coffee-table tome provides new information, including complete set lists… Read More

Robert Walton, BE'68 ROBERT WALTON, BE’68 Bob Walton and his wife, Ann Petry Walton, MA’65, have a bat hospital in their dining room. They’ve had as many as 140 patients at one time—all with names. “You can tell them apart from their personalities,” says the retired electrical engineer. “Naming them… Read More

In September, nine VUMC nurses starred in Hey, Florence!, a musical about the day-to-day lives of nurses. Hey, Florence!, a musical reflecting the day-to-day life of nurses at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, premiered in September in Langford Auditorium. Directed by renowned Australian playwright Craig Christie, the 60-minute show starred nine… Read More

Duncan Jones (left) and actor Sam Rockwell on the set of Moon Speaking by phone from Liberty Studios in London, 38-year-old former Vanderbilt student Duncan Jones seems unaffected by the flurry of media attention he’s receiving for his directorial debut, the science-fiction film Moon. Produced for $5 million (a… Read More

Designed by the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White, Cohen Memorial on the Peabody campus has always been dedicated to the arts. Nashville art collector George Etta Brinkley Cohen gave the hall to Peabody College in 1926 and occupied an apartment on the second floor until… Read More

Born with the 20th century in the American South, jazz has been called the only music entirely original to the United States. Yet no less a figure than Duke Ellington once said, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley… Read More

Adrienne Outlaw This fall scholars from Vanderbilt debated the ethics of healthy people taking prescription drugs to enhance creativity as part of the yearlong Art Makes Place program. With a focus on contemporary artists who are making community-oriented, temporary and performance-based art for public spaces, the Vanderbilt panelists discussed… Read More