MAY 2011
Chancellor, Nobel Peace Prize winner address graduates
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai addressed the graduating Class of 2011 during Commencement and Senior Day activities May 12–13. A total of 3,638 degrees were awarded this year: 1,734 to undergraduates and 1,904 to graduate and professional students. Full story »
Board of Trust renames The Commons for Martha Ingram
The Vanderbilt Board of Trust voted April 29 to rename The Commons for Martha R. Ingram, who will step down as chairman of the board this summer. The university’s living-learning community for first-year students will now be known as The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt. Full story »
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt launches expansion
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt officially launched its $30 million expansion project April 7 with a festive beam-signing celebration. The 14-foot, bright yellow beam will become part of the permanent structure for the hospital’s 33-bed, 30,000-square-foot, first-phase addition. Full story »
Vanderbilt moves forward with College Halls
Vanderbilt is set to begin construction in May 2012 on the next phase of its residential college system—Kissam College Halls, two colleges that will each house about 330 upperclass students and be led by faculty directors in residence. Full story »
Labruto selected as young alumni trustee
Leslie Labruto, a senior in the School of Engineering, has been selected as the next young alumna to serve on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust. For more information about Labruto and the nomination process, visit the young alumni trustees page.
Alumni Association board approves seven members
The Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Directors approved seven alumni as new members of the board April 15. Also, Tom Conner, BA’88, and Alice Ji, BS’06, were appointed to carry out the term of board members who stepped down, and will serve through June 2012. For more information about the new members, visit the board of directors page.
Tsakirgis receives alumni education award
Barbara Tsakirgis, chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Classical Studies, was presented the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Alumni Education Award in her classroom April 5. For more about Tsakirgis’ contributions to alumni education, visit the Alumni Association page.
Support the Sustaining Alumni program
A great hallmark of Vanderbilt is the sense of community the university fosters—it begins early in the first year and only grows stronger as time passes. In honor of Commencement 2011 and in recognition of your Vanderbilt experience, please consider a gift to the Vanderbilt Alumni Association’s Sustaining Alumni program.
Get special discounts for being alumni
The Vanderbilt Alumni Association has teamed up with Abenity to offer special discounts to Vanderbilt alumni. More than 100,000 discounts are available from national and local vendors in your area. Register today for the Vanderbilt Alumni Discount Program.
Find Vanderbilt events at a chapter near you
Connect with fellow Vanderbilt alumni and friends at chapter events in your area. Cities with upcoming chapter events include:
| Atlanta Dallas London Los Angeles New York City Sacramento, Calif. San Francisco Seattle |
View the current calendar of events planned in your area, and check back frequently.
Every day, every year, Vanderbilt reaches new levels of success thanks to gifts from alumni, parents and friends. Please consider making your online gift now.
Having trouble keeping up with all that’s going on at Vanderbilt? Follow the university’s main social media accounts in a central, easy-to-browse location.
Watch all the latest videos about the Vanderbilt community on the university’s own YouTube channel.
Show your favorite young person what it really means to be a Vanderbilt fan with a membership in the new Jr. NCC.
From the Campus
TV show filmed at VUMC now airing
VUMC Reporter—A new reality TV series filmed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Baby’s First Day, is now airing on TLC. For a list of episodes and airdates, please consult the TLC programming schedule. Full story »
Vanderbilt considers proposal to establish Abu Dhabi school
Vanderbilt officials are exploring a proposal from the government of Abu Dhabi to help create an independently accredited school of education there that would train teachers, education leaders and researchers to strengthen the country’s K–12 education system. Full story »
Vanderbilt, Shalom Foundation establish Guatemala clinic
 |
VUMC Reporter—Surgeons, nurses and staff at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt helped the Shalom Foundation—a Franklin, Tenn.-based nonprofit humanitarian aid organization—open a long-awaited and much-needed surgical facility during a recent mission trip to Guatemala. Full story »
Lim named Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology
Paul Lim, assistant professor of divinity, is one of seven scholars of religion nationwide to be named a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology for 2011–2012. Lim will use the opportunity to research a book he’s writing about the English Enlightenment. Full story »
Blair School of Music announces faculty appointments
Philip Dikeman of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Bil Jackson of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will join the Blair School of Music faculty in the fall as associate professor of flute and associate professor of clarinet, respectively. Full story »
Student rocketeers earn NASA award
The Vanderbilt Aerospace Club earned the Payload Design Award for the second year in a row at the NASA University Student Launch Initiative, a yearlong program that culminated in a rocket launch event April 17. Full story »
Russian literature expert Lowe has died
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures David Lowe, an expert in Russian literature who taught at Vanderbilt for three decades, died April 9. He was 63. Full story »
Vanderbilt in the News
 |
Alumna and husband battle cancer, raise awareness
The New York Times—When Vanderbilt alumna Elisa Bond, BA’97, and her husband, Nathan, were both diagnosed with cancer within nine days of one another, Elisa decided to start a blog about the impact of their treatments on their marriage and parenthood. Full story »
Vanderbilt chaplain interviewed about Magdalene House
NPR—The Rev. Becca Stevens, MDiv’90, Episcopal chaplain at Vanderbilt, was interviewed for a recent three-part series about Magdalene House, the residential program she founded for women recovering from drug addiction and prostitution. Full story »
Vanderbilt EMT resuscitates Lady Gaga concertgoer
CNN—Jerry Jones, an EMT supervisor with the Vanderbilt LifeFlight program, resuscitated a woman whose heart stopped for several minutes after going into cardiac arrest at the April 19 Lady Gaga concert in Nashville. Full story »
Incoming freshman designs Oak Ridge solar facility
Knoxville News-Sentinel—Incoming Vanderbilt freshman Ben Terpstra has created a unique proposal to put a community-owned solar facility on the roof of his high school’s cafeteria in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Full story »
 |
||||
vanderbilt.media |
||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
Bob Whaley, the Valere Blair Potter Professor of Management, and Jacob Sagi, the Vanderbilt Financial Markets Research Center Associate Professor of Finance, rang the opening bell for Nasdaq OMX on April 19 to celebrate the start of options trading on a new group of indexes the pair developed. Full story » Fields Medalist joins Vanderbilt faculty Fields Medalist Vaughan F.R. Jones has accepted a position as distinguished professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt beginning this fall. The Fields Medal, which is awarded once every four years to mathematicians age 40 or younger, is generally considered to be the Nobel Prize of mathematics. Full story » |
New, more effective insect repellent discovered Laurence Zwiebel, professor of biological sciences and pharmacology, has helped discover a new class of insect repellent that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET—the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellents—but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants. Full story » Four new Alzheimer’s genes uncovered A consortium of researchers, including a group from Vanderbilt, has taken a significant step toward understanding the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects an estimated 3 million to 5 million people in the U.S., by identifying four new genes linked to it. Full story » Grant bolsters molecular imaging resource The National Center for Research Resources has awarded Vanderbilt $10.3 million over the next five years to establish a National Research Resource for Imaging Mass Spectrometry, which will enable scientists to better understand the molecular changes that cause disease. Full story » |
|||
|
|
|
|
Sports News
Bowlers come in second at NCAA tournament
The Vanderbilt women’s bowling team fell just short of an NCAA bowling championship April 16, losing to Maryland–Eastern Shore in the title match, four games to two. Full story »
Casali key to baseball team’s success
The Tennessean—Senior catcher Curt Casali, who waded through three seasons of injuries and played first base and designated hitter before getting his chance behind the plate, is a big reason why the Commodores are consistently baffling opposing offenses. Full story »
ESPN to launch site named after Grantland Rice
ESPN has announced that in June it will launch Grantland.com, a website named after famous sports writer and Vanderbilt alumnus Grantland Rice, BA 1901. The site will include original columns, features, blog posts and podcasts about sports. Full story »
Take a behind-the-scenes look at a group of walk-ons who try out for—and make—the Vanderbilt football team. Full story »
Mason Rudolph, who won five official PGA Tour events as a professional golfer before becoming director of golf at Vanderbilt, died April 18. He was 76. Full story »
quicklinks | vu home | alumni | bookstore | athletics | jobs | news | calendar | giving
Have something to say about what you read here? Send us an email.
Dot Commodore is published monthly by
Vanderbilt University Development and Alumni Relations Communications
PMB 407703 · 2301 Vanderbilt Place · Nashville, TN 37240-7703
phone: (615) 322-2601 · fax: (615) 343-8547 · Editor: Seth Robertson
