Dr. Sutherland is most widely recognized for winning a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1971 for “his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones,” especially epinephrine via second messengers, namely cyclic AMP.

Dr. Sutherland joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1963 when he was named a professor of Anatomy for the School of Medicine.

A biochemist, Sutherland’s career in medicine was varied. He was an U.S. Army physician in World War II, serving as a battalion surgeon under Gen. George S. Patton. He went on to hold distinguished positions in academia throughout the remainder of his career.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Sutherland was the recipient of other notable awards for his contributions to medicine including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the National Medal of Science.

Dr. Stahlman revolutionized the care of high-risk newborns by creating the world's first modern neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Vanderbilt.

After earning her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in 1943, she earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt in 1946. She served internships in Cleveland and Boston, was assistant resident on the pediatric service at Vanderbilt, an exchange fellow at the Royal Caroline Institute in Stockholm, and a cardiac resident at La Rabida Sanitarium in Chicago. She became an instructor in pediatrics at Vanderbilt in 1951.

Her initial research was in pediatric cardiology, but in October 1961, she was confronted with a life or death situation when a baby girl with severe hyaline membrane disease was born. The girl's parents gave permission for a bold experiment to help their daughter breathe using a respirator that had been modified for a premature baby. The ability to monitor the respirator's effect on blood oxygen with umbilical catheters made respiratory therapy possible.

This interest in the respiratory problems of premature newborns and a National Institutes of Health grant led Dr. Stahlman to put into place the first modern NICU in the world. She was also involved in initiating the regionalization program of high-risk newborn care in Tennessee in 1973, and she started Vanderbilt's Neonatology Fellowship Training Program.

Dr. Sell was one of the key players in the development of the childhood vaccine to protect against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children younger than 5. Her initiatives led to the licensure of several conjugated Hib vaccines in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Dr. Sell, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, earned her undergraduate degree from Berea College in Kentucky and a master’s degree in microbiology from Vanderbilt. When she began medical school at Vanderbilt, Dr. Sell, affectionately known as “Sally,” was one of only two women in her class. The other left after one year.

She graduated from VUSM in 1948 and continued medical training in pediatrics at Vanderbilt and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at LSU and Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She then was appointed to the faculty of Tulane School of Medicine.

Dr. Sell returned to Vanderbilt to join the faculty in 1954, and in addition to her clinical and teaching responsibilities, she performed research that helped lead to the Hib vaccine, which is now routinely given in the U.S. and is saving tens of thousands of children each year from the death and disability previously caused by bacterial meningitis.

Dr. Sanders-Bush is a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, who, while she was an undergraduate at Western Kentucky University, heard a visiting professor in pharmacology from Vanderbilt speak and ended up devoting her career to scientific research. After she earned her undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University, she earned a PhD in pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 1967.

She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969, where she remained until her retirement in 2010, interrupted only by brief sabbaticals at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Stanford University.

Dr. Sanders-Bush’s research has made major contributions to the understanding of serotonin and its receptors, from pharmacology and signal transduction to in vivo brain function. Her research accomplishments have brought her broad recognition at a national and international level. Among her research awards are a Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Neuroscience Research, a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Heftner Prize for Outstanding Basic Research.

Dr. Sanders-Bush has also been a leader in the development of neuroscience research and graduate education at Vanderbilt. In 1997, she spearheaded the creation of a new PhD degree program in neuroscience and served as director of that program until 2008. In 2002, she was appointed the first director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.

In recognition of her impact in graduate education at Vanderbilt, the Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Mentoring Graduate and/or Medical Students in the Research Setting was created in 2006.

After serving in influential roles at Cornell and Washington University, Dr. Robinson joined Vanderbilt as chair of the Department of Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine in 1920.

Dr. Robinson is widely recognized as an agent of change. He led efforts to build a brand-new medical campus for Vanderbilt University. He is credited for establishing the “new” Vanderbilt as one of the nation’s foremost medical training facilities of its time, and on Sept. 25 1925, the magnificent new Vanderbilt Hospital and Medical School (the building now known as Medical Center North) opened its doors.

The advancements Dr. Robinson ushered in were not without controversy. As testament to his leadership and powers of persuasion, he was able to get community-based physicians to change their ways of practicing medicine to join the faculty full time. Further, he was able to persuade the university’s chancellor and board to provide $7 million, the equivalent of approximately $106 million today, for construction and related expenses for the new hospital.

Dr. Malcolm served as Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Radiation Oncology and chair of the department from August 2010 thru December 2014. Malcolm was the first African American to serve as chair of a clinical department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Malcolm’s career with VUMC was lengthy and varied. Among his accomplishments during his tenure as chair, he cemented a culture for delivering world-class oncology services, scientific discovery, and educating leaders, and created a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to the delivery of care to patients with head and neck cancer.

His history with VUMC began in 1971 when he served an externship in radiation oncology. He was hired by Vanderbilt in 1981 as chief of the radiation oncology clinical program. He left VUMC in 1987 to spend 18 years practicing in Southern California before returning to the Vanderbilt faculty in 2005.

In 2016, Vanderbilt University honored Dr. Malcolm with the appointment of professor of Radiation Oncology, emeritus.

A self-described “preacher’s kid,” Dr. Malcolm’s career in medicine began when he served as an U.S. Army medic in Vietnam.

Dr. Limbird joined the Department of Pharmacology of Vanderbilt University in 1979 and was named chair of the department in 1991. This appointment made her the first female department chair in the history of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

After serving as the chair of the Department of Pharmacology for seven years, Dr. Limbird was named as Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s first associate vice chancellor for Research, effectively placing her over all clinical and basic science research activities at VUMC.

In 2005, she retired from VUMC to join Meharry Medical College as vice president for Research and chair of Meharry’s multidisciplinary Department of Biomedical Sciences. In 2008, she moved to Fisk University where she serves as dean of the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Business Administration.

A pioneering scholar in the field of pharmacology, Dr. Limbird’s research focuses on the basis for the actions of epinephrine and norepinephrine via alpha2-adrenergic receptors. She is the recipient of numerous scientific awards and distinctions.

Dr. Hamm is the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Professor of Cardiovascular Research, and professor of Pharmacology, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Orthopedics at Vanderbilt University.

For 14 years she served as chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Pharmacology, one of the nation’s top pharmacology departments judged by reputation, citation analysis, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. As chair, Dr. Hamm oversaw an increase in the size of the department, as well as a quintupling of its NIH funding. She is credited with taking the department in new directions, including drug discovery.

Dr. Hamm’s own research has focused on G protein-coupled receptors, which are targeted by more than half of all drugs. She is known internationally for her elegant dissection of G protein structure and receptor activation research and how these biological switches are turned on to mediate downstream effects.

She also discovered that G protein beta gamma subunits directly inhibit secretion by binding to the exocytotic machinery, an important discovery, the significance of which is still being investigated.

Dr. Goodpasture was the pathologist who discovered the first practical method for developing uncontaminated viruses in chick embryos, making possible the mass production of vaccines.

He was born in 1886 in Montgomery County, Tennessee. He earned an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1912. This was followed by a Rockefeller Fellowship in Pathology and positions at, among other places, Harvard Medical School, in the U.S. Navy, and the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in Manila. Dr. Goodpasture returned to Vanderbilt in 1924 as chair and professor of Pathology.

In 1931, Dr. Goodpasture, in collaboration with Alice Woodruff, developed a method for providing a living environment for viral growth in fertile eggs. Their first success was with fowl pox, but within a year they had also grown both cowpox and cold sore viruses. Within a few years Dr. Goodpasture’s technique had made possible the production of vaccines against yellow fever by Max Theiler and influenza by Thomas Francis.

Dr. Goodpasture’s research enabled the development of vaccines against chicken pox, smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and other diseases.

Dr. Dudley served as Vanderbilt University’s first dean of the School of Medicine, from 1895 to 1912. A true renaissance man, Dr. Dudley’s career and contributions to education, science and medicine were inventive, creative and varied.

Dr. Dudley joined Vanderbilt in 1886 as professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and was appointed dean the year the School of Medicine was founded in 1895. He was responsible for raising the school’s standards of admission, increasing enrollment, recruiting a strong faculty, and adding new buildings to campus.

Along with his leadership in higher education, Dr. Dudley was a creative and curious scientist. He is credited with discovering that a toxic component of tobacco smoke is carbon monoxide, and he held a U.S. patent for the process to electroplate the rare metal iridium.

Commensurate with his varied contributions to Vanderbilt University, Dr. Dudley was involved in athletics and was instrumental in the establishment of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a forerunner to today’s Southeastern Conference. He was known as the “father of southern football,” which compelled Vanderbilt University to name its football stadium Dudley Field in his honor.