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I knew Neil Brake was a remarkably gifted photographer as soon as I saw his portfolio. From the day he came to work at Vanderbilt eight years ago, he dogged the campus like it was his beat and as if he were competing for a front-page hot spot. Years of… Read More

illustration by liz asher/www.lizasher.com Clarksville, Tenn., a city of 125,000 on the Tennessee–Kentucky border, is best known for its proximity to the sprawling Fort Campbell Army Base. The town takes pride in attracting new industry and bills itself as the “Gateway to the New South.” But Clarksville is also a… Read More

The largest open dump in Latin America, La Chureca was named one of the “20 Horrors of the Modern World” in a contest sponsored by the Spanish magazine Interviu. For outright squalor and heartbreak, the city dump of Managua, Nicaragua, where 1,500 people live daily on rotting scraps, could serve… Read More

[Smiley Pool/MCT] It seems every time we turn on the news, a disaster has occurred. With all our knowledge, skill and technology, why can’t we do something to prevent them, or at least keep them from causing such devastation? Watch video of Mark Abkowitz discussing risk management Several years… Read More

“Welcome to the greatest university in the world,” proclaimed Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos to first-year students as they arrived on campus in late August with duffle bags, twin-size bed linens and teary-eyed moms in tow. They are the first entering Vanderbilt class to live and learn in The Commons, in… Read More

In the biggest commitment to financial aid in its 133-year history, Vanderbilt on Oct. 1 announced that it will eliminate all need-based loans and replace them with Vanderbilt grants and scholarships for all eligible undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need. Starting in the 2009–2010 academic year, all undergraduate… Read More

TO: Mick Jagger, Barry Manilow, Joe Namath, Al and Tipper Gore, Tuesday Weld, and the other nearly 3 million Americans turning 65 this year FROM: The Baby Boomers Happy birthday, everyone. (To be frank, the rest of us weren’t sure all of you would make it this far.) Now… Read More

U.S. ARMY PHOTO/STAFF SGT. RUSSELL LEE KLIKA June 28, 2006, Iraq. As the Humvee passed through the streets, Command Sgt. Maj. David Allard spotted the Taliban in their distinctive cloaks. Nothing unusual about that–yet something told Allard to look back. He shifted his weight forward and turned his head… Read More

Photo by Daniel Dubois. Dunkin’ Donuts. Cornell. The American Frozen Food Institute. Georgia Tech. The Snack Food Association. University of Michigan. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute. The University of Texas and University of California systems. The American Peanut Council. University of North Carolina. These are but a few of the… Read More

Shattered Diplomac Think your job is tough? Try working with an angry mob of thousands right outside your office. While James Sasser, BA'58, JD'61, was U.S. ambassador to China, American-led NATO forces bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Chinese citizens reacted by violently protesting outside the U.S. Read More

John Geer Christian Grose Bruce Oppenheimer Mitchell Seligson Neal Tate Photos by John Russell and Steve Green The economy is floundering. The housing industry is in crisis. Gas and energy prices are skyrocketing. The country is faced with immigration issues, burgeoning debt, an unpopular war,… Read More

Elyn Saks feels right at home on the University of Southern California campus. There is something about the leafy-green trees and ivy-covered walls, the slate-roofed buildings, and the perpetual warmth of the California climate that has put her at ease almost from the start. But even here in… Read More

Few people have a greater impact on Vanderbilt than the person who manages the university’s $3.5 billion endowment. Last summer Philadelphia native Matthew Wright, then just 39, left his position as director of investments at Emory University to become vice chancellor for investments at Vanderbilt, succeeding Bill Spitz, who… Read More

Illustrations by Hal Mayforth In 1959 renowned Caltech physicist Richard Feynman pondered the possibilities of just how small technology could get in his seminal lecture, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” He foresaw a world of extremely small machines manufactured at the atomic scale–from the bottom up–by direct… Read More

Call them “the disappeared.” Last year 1.2 million American students dropped out of high school without receiving their diplomas. Only they didn’t really disappear. According to “The Silent Epidemic,” a recent study by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, many of them joined the ranks of the unemployed… Read More

From the moment they step onto campus next August, the 1,550 students in the Class of 2012 will be pioneers in one of the most comprehensive changes in Vanderbilt history. Each incoming student will live in one of 10 residential “houses” led by a faculty head who lives with… Read More

In the City, you don’t stargaze. You don’t dig through wildflower field guides for the name of that brilliant trumpet burst of blue you saw on your morning walk. You don’t hunt for animal tracks in the snow or pause in that same frozen forest, eyes closed, listening for… Read More

Gordon Gee never was one to follow the playbook. Past Vanderbilt chancellors have always pursued a more or less predictable exit strategy: After a couple of decades leading the university to ever-greater heights, they quietly retire to spend their days serving on foundations and advisory boards, growing more silver-haired… Read More