Publications

They say everyone loves a winner, so musicians, like athletes and entrepreneurs, spend an inordinate amount of time preparing to outperform the competition. There’s no scoreboard or balance sheet. Musicians leave their progress lingering in the air to hear every time they perform. “There’s no way of avoiding competition,” says… Read More

Sometimes the best measure of success for a leader is what happens on his or her watch. Upon first meeting Bonnie Miller, M.D., the diminutive, soft-spoken senior associate dean for Health Sciences Education, you might not suspect the key role she played in bringing about the most significant curriculum change… Read More

Although clichés are passé, omnia vincit amor – love conquers all – is highly appropriate in describing the longtime relationship between third-year Vanderbilt medical student Sarah Proffitt and her boyfriend, Amos Clark. Proffitt and Clark grew up in the small town of Athens in East Tennessee where almost everyone knows… Read More

Dogs experience the world through their noses. With an average of 200 million scent receptors (compared to a measly 5 million in humans), dogs can pick up a scent from a mere handshake and follow trails that are years old. That was good news for the family of Johnny Hahn,… Read More

Two Peabody College graduate student researchers partnered with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to shine a light on the scourge of human sex trafficking, resulting in changes to Tennessee law. Read More

Nine-year-old Stevie Wintz stares down the pitches that sail over home plate and is rewarded with a walk to first base. Once safely on the bag, with the sound of “Party Rock Anthem” blaring from another field, he breaks into his signature dance moves – like his whole body is… Read More

Every day, Vanderbilt students head into the university’s libraries to conduct research toward their degrees. For some of these students, the chance to do research in the library opens doors for their careers. That doesn’t surprise Carolyn Dever, dean of the College of Arts and Science. “Students benefit from their… Read More

An athlete may weigh 250 pounds, but all that bulk is controlled by a mere three-pound brain. Those three pounds control the other 247 pounds, the muscles and bones and heart and lungs that enable athletes to perform their feats of strength and agility. And Nashville’s professional athletes entrust their… Read More

Mario Ramos has a hard time containing his excitement about the freshly unveiled Americas MBA for Executives program at Vanderbilt. To hear him talk, you’d think that he’s among the inaugural class of 12 Owen students who’ll be traveling to Brazil, Canada and Mexico in the coming months to learn… Read More

America has a drug problem. But it’s not what you think; in fact this drug problem is probably happening in your community – even in your own home. The problem is the accumulation of prescription drugs with no good plan for disposing of them. As the number of prescriptions continues… Read More

Since he can remember, Hani Bleibel, M.D., a nephrology fellow at VUMC, has always wanted to be a physician. What he didn’t know was that one of the lives he would save would be his father’s. When Bleibel first entered school at Kursk State Medical University in his native Russia,… Read More

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications do not increase the risk for heart disease or heart attack in children and young adults, according to a Vanderbilt study of 1.2 million patients taking drugs including Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta and Strattera between 1998 and 2005. Read More

Sarah Barr, senior Child Studies major, Spanish minor On campus activities: AXO, Vice President of Vanderbilt Performing Arts Council, member of Green Dots committee, Reformed University Fellowship music team, VUcept Claim to fame: Singer/songwriter    … Read More

Not many teenagers would attempt to write a two-act chamber opera based on Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale. But that’s exactly what 16-year-old Amy Thompson has been doing for more than a year. “It’s been a long, drawn-out project, but I hope to finish it by the end of the… Read More

Engineers work unobtrusively across the street from the Rhinestone Wedding Chapel, Bobby’s Idle Hour bar and recording studios in Nashville, breaking out of the traditional boundaries of computer research at Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) right in the heart of the city’s Music Row. “In a way it’s… Read More

As a veteran meteorologist for WKRN Channel 2 in Nashville, Davis Nolan is an expert at diagnosing weather patterns that can create violent winds and thunderous storms. But he had no hints about the potentially deadly storms that were brewing inside his own body until a routine visit to his… Read More

In college, Ashley Rowatt Karpinos, M.D., was an elite athlete, one of the best NCAA swimmers in the country. She says the dedication and work ethic she brought to the pool continues to serve her as she seeks an unorthodox combination of specialties in her medical career. Sure, the uniforms… Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have made substantial progress in developing potential new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and fragile X syndrome, the most common genetic form of autism. Read More

Aaron Moscow, Senior, Theater major, Pre-Medicine Claim to fame: Original Cast director On majoring in Theater and Pre-Med: It’s tough, because in the theater department you have to have this “work with each other, you want everyone to succeed” mindset, and then you step into Organic Chemistry lab and you… Read More

Within the conducting profession, the word “maestro” is sometimes used to describe the person wielding the baton and coaxing joyous sounds from voice, instrument or both. Blair School of Music’s community of maestros—gaining influence both at home and abroad—is venturing into the world of orchestral conducting with an energy and… Read More