Publications

The chancellor was literally thumping the podium. Crusty sportswriters rolled their eyes. The trolls were having a field day on the Internet. Vanderbilt was announcing a new football coach. This had happened before. “We win everywhere at Vanderbilt,” exhorted Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “We win athletically. We win academically. And… Read More

Jeremy Kane’s emergence as a key figure in Nashville’s charter schools movement may well have taken root in seventh grade. That was the year he transferred from a Metro Nashville public school to Montgomery Bell Academy, a private college preparatory school. “It was the beginning of a conversation that continues… Read More

By all accounts, Frank Lorge, a 2010 Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, is the best swimmer ever to compete for Vanderbilt. He was undefeated by opponents in dual meets during his career from 1968-1972, a two-time SEC champion in the 200-yard backstroke, and the first SEC swimmer to break… Read More

The year is winding down, and the holidays are in full swing. For most of us, it is a time of family and feasting, shopping and gift-giving, conviviality and controlled chaos. From the first bite of Thanksgiving turkey until the new year is rung in, we look forward to gathering… Read More

Clinical pharmacologist Nancy Brown, M.D., relaxes in her chair, leans on an elbow and gives each speaker her utmost concentration. A dozen or so biomedical scientists attend Brown’s weekly research meetings, held in a small conference room tucked amid laboratories high in the Robinson Research Building. Five or six young… Read More

Tony N. Brown’s office is in Garland Hall, exactly where one might expect to find a scholar in the College of Arts and Science. But the associate professor of sociology might not be in, as his teaching, research projects and secondary appointments take him all over campus. It’s a good… Read More

Four years ago Christopher Parks found himself facing an all-too-common dilemma. He and his mother, who was in the midst of cancer treatments, were sitting in her living room going through a stack of her medical bills and those of his father, who had died recently. It is a telling… Read More

In 2002, having recently undergone board certification as a neurosurgeon, Robert J. Singer, M.D., sat down at his kitchen table with some butcher paper and a few drafting instruments and began designing electric guitars. Once he had completed a dozen designs, he engaged a factory in Korea to make the… Read More

Vanderbilt Hustler: What have the players been doing in the offseason to prepare for this season? Kevin Stallings: I think there are only so many things you can do. You can work on your shooting, you can work on your strength and conditioning, you can work on… Read More

Conventional wisdom says never to look a gift horse in the mouth, but on a normal day seeing patients in the clinic, John Zic, M.D., found himself staring down at a literal gift horse, not quite sure how to react. His patient Beth McDaniel and her husband, Roger, had just… Read More

Award-winning country music group Rascal Flatts visited the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt last week. The group’s members — Jay DeMarcus, Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney — stayed busy performing for patients and families, making visits to patient rooms and attending the dedication of the newly announced… Read More

The mischievously dark worlds of filmmaker Tim Burton, illustrator Edward Gorey and the humorously twisted “Fractured Fairy Tales” cartoons are influencing this fall’s Vanderbilt Opera Theatre production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. It’s quite a change from the traditional, straightforward approach taken when the opera was performed a decade… Read More

A professor from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering talks with a neurosurgeon in a hallway at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Their discussion fine-tunes ideas that the engineer takes forward in implementation. An education researcher at the Kennedy Center meets with a biomedical engineering professor and they brainstorm ways imaging can… Read More

Gathered around a long dining table in an unassuming turn-of-the-century foursquare on Nashville’s Music Row, Vanderbilt students and former inmates join hands before sitting down to share the evening meal. One by one, each is given the opportunity to say a brief word of prayer or gratitude before a hearty… Read More

The Hustler staff sat down with Carolyn Dever to learn more about her role as dean of the College of Arts and Science. Vanderbilt Hustler: Why did you choose this profession? Carolyn Dever: Because of a commitment to the excellence of the university and a desire to serve. Read More

There’s an old joke that gets passed around teaching hospitals: don’t get sick in July. Why? July 1 is when the new residents arrive on the floors of the hospital, fresh from medical school and with limited patient care experience under their belts. Television medical dramas like to portray residents… Read More

Wearing clothing made to fit a 6- to 9-month-old baby, Becca Hill’s tiny size is deceptive of her real age. The bubbly 2-year-old smiles and laughs as she poses for a photograph. Becca was born nearly three months early with the astoundingly low birth weight of 13 ounces (slightly heavier… Read More

The first thing you notice when stepping into Central Library’s new fourth-floor lobby is a sense of light and space. Gone is the dark, cluttered entryway that more than one student described as “cave-like” on user surveys last year, replaced by more room, new flooring and natural light. “I’ve been… Read More

Amy Ragsdale and Brenda Copeland have a lot in common. Both suffered from polycystic kidney disease, an inherited kidney disorder. Both relied on dialysis for survival, needed kidney transplants and had several folks willing to donate. But neither of them had a compatible match among their donor pool. Luckily the… Read More

For a university that claims just one national championship to its name, Vanderbilt certainly has a national stage when it comes to alumni sports writers. ESPN, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, and the sports website FanHouse all feature writers who honed their craft at Vanderbilt. Buster… Read More