Chancellor’s Lecture Series

The Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Lecture Series strives to connect the university and the Nashville community with intellectuals who are shaping our world. For more information about the series, email cls@vanderbilt.edu.

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Fall 2018 Lineup

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Gene: An Intimate History

Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author
Associate Professor of Medicine, Columbia University

Thursday, November 1, 2018 | 6:30 p.m. | Langford Auditorium
(Doors open at 5:30 p.m. This event is not ticketed)

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and The Gene: An Intimate History, straddles the empirical and deeply personal, providing readers with paradigm-shifting interpretations of medical research for the modern age. In his Vanderbilt appearance, he will focus on his most recent book, the state of scientific progress in higher education, and the dense world of genetics that, in his words, “governs our form, function and fate and determines the future of our children.”

His keynote address at Langford Auditorium will be followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by Zeppos.

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Temple Grandin, Ph.D.

Thursday, November 29, 2018 | 6:30 p.m. | Commodore Ballroom, Student Life Center
(Doors open at 5:30 p.m. This event is not ticketed)

*In conjunction with the Initiative for Autism, Innovation and the Workforce

More information to come

Robert M. Gates
22nd U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2006-11); 15th Director of
Central Intelligence (1991-93)

Vice President Joe Biden
47th Vice President of the United States (2009-2017)

Chris Matthews
Host, Hardball on MSNBC
Bestselling Author, Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit

The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy
Congressman, Rhode Island (1995-2011)
Founder, The Kennedy Forum on Community Mental Health

Carly Fiorina
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and GOP presidential candidate

Jelani Cobb
Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University

Admiral James Stavridis
16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO

Sally Yates
Former Acting United States Attorney General

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Former United States Attorney General

Nina Totenberg
National Public Radio Legal Affairs Correspondent

Michael Sam
Former NFL Player

Nia Malika Henderson
CNN Senior Political Reporter

Charles Krauthammer
Pulitzer Prize-winning Syndicated Columnist
and Commentator

Peggy Noonan
The Wall Street Journal Columnist
Award for Media Excellence Recipient

Eugene Robinson
Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist
The Washington Post and MSNBC Political Analyst

Harry Belafonte
Civil and human rights activist

Michael Beschloss
Award-winning historian

Annette Gordon-Reed
Pulitzer Prize-winning legal scholar and historian

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Former United States Attorney General

To view more videos in the Chancellor Lecture Series playlist, click the playlist icon near the upper left of the video.

For additional photos of previous lectures click here.