Vanderbilt Magazine – Featured
Shot in the Arm: Groundbreaking COVID-19 vaccine research by alumnus Dr. Barney Graham began at Vanderbilt decades ago
Mar. 17, 2021—The remarkable success of the COVID-19 vaccines began in a Vanderbilt lab decades ago, with the groundbreaking research of alumnus Dr. Barney Graham.
Portrait of a Statesman: Retired U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander leaves legacy of education reform and job creation
Feb. 23, 2021—By Lisa Robbins and GayNelle Doll The following is adapted from the story “Deep Roots, Strong Tree,” which originally appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Vanderbilt Magazine. Like the red-and-black plaid shirts that became his trademark, Lamar Alexander, BA’62, is a study in contrasts. He is an ambitious former Tennessee governor who twice ran...
Musical Arrangements: Vanderbilt Blair School of Music adapts practices and performances to navigate COVID-19
Feb. 23, 2021—The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the entire Vanderbilt community to change its routines. But because of the live-performance nature of music schools, the Blair School has implemented numerous precautions to ensure that faculty and students remain safe—all while maintaining a semblance of the highly personalized instruction for which Blair is known.
Pulling Through: For alumni working in VUMC’s COVID-19 unit, the pandemic has offered lessons in heartbreak and resiliency
Feb. 16, 2021—In January 2020, the accelerating spread of SARS-CoV-2 made it apparent that VUMC’s two-bed Contagious Disease Response Unit, created for the rare victim of Ebola or other more-isolated emerging pathogen, would not suffice if Nashville were to be hit hard. So administrators began planning for a major outbreak.
Head of the Class: Vanderbilt welcomes a new cohort of educators and researchers to its distinguished faculty
Oct. 29, 2020—In 2020–21, Vanderbilt is welcoming an impressive group of educators and researchers to its faculty, including 26 full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty members across nine of the schools and colleges.
Steady Hand: Gov. Andy Beshear, BA’00, seeks the ‘why’ in governing as he guides Kentucky through the pandemic and political divide
Oct. 27, 2020—Beshear, the first-term Democratic governor of Kentucky, was elected last November by a margin as thin as a surgical mask, just in time to steer his largely Republican state through a runaway pandemic, the resulting economic damage, and America’s most consequential reckoning with racial injustice since the 1960s.
Washington Insiders: Vanderbilt alumni in CNN’s Washington Bureau are playing key roles in the network’s around-the-clock political coverage
Oct. 22, 2020—This election night, Sam Feist, BA’91, will perform one of his more unusual duties as head of CNN’s Washington Bureau. Assuming the results are clear-cut, he will—in consultation with CNN’s statisticians and political scientists—call the winner of the presidential race for the network. It is a responsibility he has held since 2004, and one that he does not take lightly.
Words in Common: Mother-daughter duo and writers-in-residence Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams share a deep creative calling
Oct. 2, 2020—Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams are both writers-in-residence at Vanderbilt—Randall in the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies and Williams in the Department of Medicine, Health and Society. And neither is afraid to shine a light on complicated questions around race.
Turning Heads: The Vanderbilt Brain Institute has emerged as a hub of discovery as neuroscience’s influence expands
Aug. 5, 2020—The VBI recently marked its 20th anniversary, a span that has seen the institute’s wide-ranging missions—including administering the university’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, as well as postdoctoral training and community outreach—steadily coalesce under a single umbrella.
Mental Notes: Music Cognition Lab is dedicated to the scientific study of how music affects the brain and behavior
Aug. 5, 2020—The past decade in particular has been marked by a dramatic increase in music cognition inquiry, as about 100 laboratory groups around the world, including at Vanderbilt, are working across disciplines to understand music’s relationship to the brain, behavior and health, and to develop effective intervention strategies.
Trials and Errors: Research network explores promise, limitations of using neuroscience to inform criminal justice
Aug. 5, 2020—As the combination of neuroscience and law—or “neurolaw” as some call it—has been gaining traction in courtrooms in recent years, Professor Owen Jones and his colleagues have used the burgeoning field to ask deeper questions about the criminal justice system itself.
Committed to Memory: VU319 may hold the key to improving memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients
Jul. 23, 2020—VU319, an investigational drug product developed by Vanderbilt researchers, targets one of medicine’s most bedeviling challenges: improving memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s disease.