Endowed Chairs

Five Vanderbilt University School of Medicine faculty members named to endowed chairs were lauded for their extraordinary academic achievements during an Aug. 28, 2013, celebration.

Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, noted that the generosity of Vanderbilt’s donor community enables the university to honor renowned scientists, scholars, physicians and teachers.

“Some of the gifts that we honor at this ceremony were given to Vanderbilt more than a century ago, and some very recently,” Balser said. “But they all represent the collective vision and foresight of many individuals who have chosen to invest in the power of knowledge, and believe that it transforms the world. That kind of generosity means a great deal not just to Vanderbilt’s future, but to the future of scholarship and new knowledge in this country and around the world.”

They are:
• David P. Bichell, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Surgery and chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery;
• F. Peter Guengerich, Tadashi Inagami, Ph.D. Chair in Biochemistry;
• Charles R. Sanders II, Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair in Cardiovascular Research, professor of Biochemistry and professor of Medicine;
• Yu Shyr, Harold L. Moses Chair in Cancer Research, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Biostatistics, Biomedical Informatics, Cancer Biology and Preventive Medicine;
• Roland W. Stein, Mark Collie Chair in Diabetes Research, professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and professor of Cell and Developmental Biology.

Since the major University initiative to recruit and retain outstanding scholars and teachers was announced by Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos in August 2010, 114 chair holders have been recognized at institution-wide celebrations.