List of Vanderbilt University people

This is a list of notable current and former faculty members, alumni (graduating and non-graduating) of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Unless otherwise noted, attendees listed graduated with a bachelor's degree. Names with an asterisk (*) graduated from Peabody College prior to its merger with Vanderbilt.

Notable alumni

Academia

Presidents and chancellors

Bob Agee (Ph.D.) – 13th president of Oklahoma Baptist University
Will W. Alexander (B.Th. 1912) – founding president of Dillard University
Niels-Erik Andreasen (Ph.D. 1971) – 5th president of Andrews University
Roslyn Clark Artis (Ed.D. 2010) – 14th president of Benedict College
Robert G. Bottoms (Ph.D. 1972) – 18th president of DePauw University
William Leroy Broun – 4th president of Auburn University
Robert Bruininks (M.A. 1965, Ph.D. 1968) – 15th president of the University of Minnesota
Doak S. Campbell* (M.A. 1928, Ph.D. 1930) – 1st president of Florida State University
Agenia Walker Clark (Ed.D) – 18th president of Fisk University
Shirley Collado (B.A. 1994) – 9th president of Ithaca College
James C. Conwell (Ph.D. 1989) – 15th president of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Dennis Hargrove Cooke* (Ph.D. 1930) – 4th president of East Carolina University
Jesse Lee Cuninggim – 1st president of Scarritt College
Merrimon Cuninggim (B.A. 1931) – 15th president of Salem College
Herman Lee Donovan* (Ph.D. 1928) – 4th president of the University of Kentucky
Ellen Granberg (Ph.D 2001) – 19th president of George Washington University
Sheldon Hackney (B.A. 1955) – 6th president of the University of Pennsylvania; chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities
Thomas K. Hearn (Ph.D. 1965) – 12th president of Wake Forest University
E. Bruce Heilman (B.S. 1951, M.A. 1952) – 5th chancellor of the University of Richmond
Alfred Hume (Ph.D. 1887) – 10th chancellor of the University of Mississippi
Z. T. Johnson* (Ph.D. 1929) – 8th president of Asbury University
David C. Joyce (Ed.D. 1995) – 13th president of Brevard College
Robert L. King (J.D. 1971) – 7th chancellor of the State University of New York
Bradford Knapp (B.A. 1892) – 8th president of Auburn University
John Lowden Knight (M.A.) – 10th president of Nebraska Wesleyan University, 4th president of Baldwin-Wallace College
Michael K. Le Roy (Ph.D. 1994) – 10th president of Calvin College
J. Bernard Machen (B.A. 1966) – 16th president of University of Utah, 11th president of University of Florida
The Rev. Edward Malloy (Ph.D. 1975) – 16th president of the University of Notre Dame
Howard Justus McGinnis* (Ph.D. 1927) – 3rd president of East Carolina University
Candice McQueen (M.Ed 1998) – 18th president of Lipscomb University
Edward C. Merrill Jr. (Ph.D. 1954)* – 4th president of Gallaudet University
Scott D. Miller (Ed.D. 1988) – 4th president of Virginia Wesleyan University
Charles N. Millican* (M.A. 1946) – founding president of the University of Central Florida
Fred Tom Mitchell* (M.A. 1927) – 10th president of Mississippi State University
Niel Nielson (M.A., Ph.D.) – 5th president of Covenant College
Maryly Van Leer Peck (B.E. 1951) – 2nd president of Polk State College
J. Matthew Pinson (Ed.D.) – 5th president of Welch College
Griffith Thompson Pugh Sr. (Ph.D. 1905) – former president of Columbia College
Edwin Richardson (B.S. 1900)* – 9th president of Louisiana Tech University
Kevin M. Ross (Ph.D. 2006) – 5th president of Lynn University
Lee Royce (B.A, 1973, M.B.A, 1976, Ed.D., 1993) – 19th president of Mississippi College
Rubel Shelly (M.A., Ph.D.) – 8th president of Rochester College (now Rochester Christian University)
Heather A. Smith – 8th president of College of Saint Mary
Henry N. Snyder (B.A. 1887) – 4th president of Wofford College
John J. Tigert (B.A. 1904) – Rhodes Scholar, 3rd president of University of Florida, 7th U.S. Commissioner of Education
William Troutt (Ph.D. 1978) – 19th president of Rhodes College
Richard L. Wallace (Ph.D. 1965) – 20th president of the University of Missouri
Toshimasa Yasukata (Ph.D. 1985) – president of Hokkai Gakuen University
M. Norvel Young (M.A., Ph.D. 1937) – 3rd president of Pepperdine University
James Fulton Zimmerman (B.A., M.A.) – 7th president of the University of New Mexico

Professors and scholars

Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa (Ph.D. 1972) – Saudi mathematician; scholar at King Fahd University, King Saud University, Harvard University; founding fellow, Islamic Academy of Sciences^[1]
Erik K. Alexander – professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School; co-chairman, International Guidelines on Thyroid Disease & Pregnancy
Robert Arrington (B.A. 1960) – philosopher, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Oxford Fellow
John Arthur (Ph.D. 1973) – philosopher, professor at Binghamton University, Harvard University, fellow at the University of Oxford
Martha Bailey (Ph.D. 2005) – professor of economics at UCLA, executive board of the American Economic Association^[2]
Jeff Balser (M.D./Ph.D. 1990) – president and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine^[3]
Faisal Basri (M.A. 1988) – Indonesian economist specializing in political economics
Randolph Blake (Ph.D. 1972) – Centennial Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt, former faculty at Northwestern University and Seoul National University, National Academy of Sciences^[4]
Dan Blazer (B.A. 1965) – J.P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry emeritus at Duke University School of Medicine
Cleanth Brooks (B.A. 1928) – literary critic and professor of English at Yale University^[5]
L. Carl Brown (B.A. 1950) – emeritus professor of history at Princeton University, Guggenheim Fellow^[6]
Markus Brunnermeier (M.A. 1994) – economist, Edwards S. Sanford professorship at Princeton University, Guggenheim Fellow
Anthea Butler (M.A., Ph.D. 2001) – Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania^[7]
Sheryll Cashin (B.E. 1984) – law scholar, political adviser, professor at Georgetown University Law Center
Kathleen R. Cho (M.D. 1984) – professor of pathology and internal medicine at Michigan Medicine, National Academy of Medicine^[8]
Ellen Cohn (M.S. 1975) – Associate Dean and professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences^[9]^[10]
Ed Connor (M.S. 1982) – key figure in the neuroscience of object synthesis in higher-level visual cortex,^[11] professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University^[12]
Herman Daly (Ph.D.) – ecological and Georgist economist,^[13] developed the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, Right Livelihood Award winner^[14]
John Emmeus Davis (B.A. 1971) – scholar who has advanced the understanding of community land trusts,^[15] taught at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[16]
Tania Douglas (M.S. 1995) – professor of biomedical engineering, Research Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Innovation at the University of Cape Town,^[17] Quartz Africa Innovators (2018)^[18]
Larry Druffel (Ph.D. 1975) – director emeritus^[19] and visiting scientist at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, Fellow of the IEEE
William Yandell Elliott (B.A. 1917, M.A. 1920) – Rhodes Scholar, professor of history at University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University^[20]
Sarah K. England (Postdoc) – Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Washington University School of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow^[21]
George T. Flom (M.A. 1894) – professor of linguistics and author of numerous reference books,^[22] knighted by 1 Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (1939)
Kenneth Galloway (B.A. 1962) – engineer, distinguished professor of engineering, dean of the school of engineering, emeritus, Vanderbilt University^[23]
John Gaventa, OBE (B.A. 1971) – sociologist, Rhodes Scholar, MacArthur Fellow (1981), Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Cullen B. Gosnell (M.A. 1920), founder and former chair of the department of political science at Emory University
Antonio Gotto (B.A. 1957, M.D. 1965) – dean of Cornell University Weill Medical College, Rhodes Scholar
Edward C. Green – medical anthropologist, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS,^[24] Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health
Roger Groot (B.A. 1963) – Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, expert in criminal law and the death penalty
F. Peter Guengerich (Ph.D. 1973) – Tadashi Inagami Chair in Biochemistry at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Herbert Gursky (M.S. 1953) – superintendent, NRL's Space Science Div., chief scientist, Hulburt Center for Space Research, professor of physics and astronomy at Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia University
J. Alex Haller (B.A. 1947) – first Robert Garrett Professor of Pediatric Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, co-creator and namesake of the Haller index
Helen Hardacre (B.A. 1971, M.A. 1972) – Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University; Guggenheim Fellow; Order of the Rising Sun, Japan (2018)^[25]
Louis R. Harlan (M.S. 1948) – academic historian, winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography^[26]^[27]
David Edwin Harrell (Ph.D. 1962) – historian at Auburn University, emeritus professor and Breeden Eminent Scholar of Southern History^[28]
John Heil (Ph.D.) – professor of philosophy at the Washington University in St. Louis,^[29] Guggenheim Fellow (2018)^[30]
Alfred O. Hero Jr. (M.A. 1950) – political scientist; editor, International Organization; visiting professor, University of Toronto; visiting scholar, Harvard University^[31]
Cindy Hmelo-Silver (Ph.D. 1994) – Distinguished Professor, Barbara B. Jacobs Chair in Education and Technology, Associate Dean, Indiana University Bloomington
Dorothy M. Horstmann (med. resident) – epidemiologist and virologist whose research helped set the stage for the polio vaccine, first female professor of the Yale School of Medicine
Kung Hsiang-fu (Ph.D. 1969) – Chinese geneticist and oncologist, former director of the University of Hong Kong's Institute of Molecular Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences^[32]
G. Scott Hubbard (B.S. 1970) – former director of NASA's Ames Research Center, chairman SpaceX Safety Advisory Panel,^[33] adjunct professor Stanford University
Paul Hudak (B.S. 1973) – professor and chair of computer science department, Yale University, best known for involvement in the design of the programming language Haskell
Richard Hurd (Ph.D.) – professor of industrial and labor relations; ILR associate dean for external relations, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Mainul Islam (Ph.D. 1981) – Bangladeshi economist and academician, awarded Ekushey Padak by the Government of Bangladesh in 2018^[34]
George Pullen Jackson (B.A. 1902) – professor of German at Vanderbilt University^[35]
Alexander D. Johnson (B.A. 1974) – professor and vice chair of the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco^[36]
Joseph A. Kéchichian – Lebanese author and political scientist, Hoover Fellow at Stanford University, former lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles
Edwin A. Keeble (B.E. 1924) – architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, known for tall slender church steeples, nicknamed "Keeble's needles," taught at the University of Pennsylvania
David Kirk (B.A. 1996) – sociologist; associate professor of sociology, University of Oxford; departmental director of research^[37]
J. Davy Kirkpatrick (B.S. 1986) – astronomer at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology whose research was named one of the Top 100 Stories of 2011 by Discover Magazine^[38]
Thomas Kolditz (B.A. 1978) – former director, Leader Development Program at the Yale School of Management;^[39] founding director, Doerr Institute at Rice University^[40]
Leah Krubitzer (Ph.D. 1989) – professor of psychology at University of California, Davis,^[41] and head of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Neurobiology,^[42] MacArthur Fellow (1998)
Frances E. Lee (Ph.D. 1997) – professor of politics and public affairs, Princeton University; co-editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly^[43]
Peter Mancina (Ph.D. 2016) – research associate at the Centre for Criminology, Law Faculty of the University of Oxford^[44]
Tom Maniatis (Ph.D. 1971) – professor of molecular and cellular biology, held faculty positions at Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, and Columbia University, Lasker Award winner (2001)
Henry Manne (B.A. 1950) – writer and academic, considered a founder of the law and economics discipline^[45]^[46]
Jacques Marcovitch (M.M. 1972) – Brazilian emeritus professor at the Business Administration, Economy and Accountancy Faculty, University of São Paulo
Ray Madding McConnell (S.T.R. 1901) – early 20th-century instructor of social ethics at Harvard University^[47]
Donald B. McCormick (B.S. 1953, Ph.D. 1958) – biochemist; professor, Cornell University; chair of biochemistry, Emory University; Guggenheim Fellow
Glenn McGee (M.A. 1991, Ph.D. 1994) – bioethicist; founding editor of the American Journal of Bioethics; associate director of UPenn Bioethics, 1995–2005
Timothy J. McGrew (M.A. 1991, Ph.D. 1992) – professor of philosophy, and chair of the department of philosophy at Western Michigan University
Neil R. McMillen (Ph.D. 1969) – professor emeritus at the University of Southern Mississippi, Bancroft Prize winner (1990), Pulitzer Prize finalist (1990)^[48]
H. Houston Merritt (B.S. 1922) – former Harvard University faculty, former dean of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University^[49]
Edwin Mims (B.A. 1892, M.A. 1893) – chair of the Vanderbilt University English Department (1912–1942), taught many members of the Fugitives and the Southern Agrarians
Chase C. Mooney (B.A. 1935, Ph.D. 1939) – US historian, associate editor of the Journal of American History, Guggenheim Fellow^[50]
Merrill Moore (B.A. 1924) – Ericksonian psychologist, poet, taught neurology at Harvard Medical School, research fellow of the Harvard Psychological Clinic^[51]
David Morton (B.A. 1909) – poet, Golden Rose Award winner, faculty at Amherst College
Pieter Mosterman (Ph.D. 1997) – chief research scientist, director of the MathWorks Advanced Research & Technology Office (MARTO), adjunct professor at McGill University^[52]
Michael Ndurumo (B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) – Kenyan Professor of Psychology at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, activist for special education in Africa
Mark Noll (Ph.D. 1975) – historian, research professor of history at Regent College,^[53] previously Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame
Michael O'Brien – British historian, professor of American Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge
Efosa Ojomo (B.E. 2005) – Global Prosperity Lead, Clayton Christensen Institute, senior research fellow, Harvard Business School^[54]
Marcia O'Malley (MS 1999, PhD 2001) – Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering, associate dean, School of Engineering, Rice University
Kit Parker (Ph.D. 1998) – Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at Harvard University,^[55] research includes tissue engineering, traumatic brain injury, micro- and nanotechnologies
Monica E. Peek (B.S. 1991) – Ellen H. Block Professor for Health Justice at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago
Don K. Price (B.A. 1931) – founding dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1958–1976), Rhodes Scholar
Madison Powers (B.A. 1972, M.A. 1982) – Francis J. McNamara Jr Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University
Bill Purcell (J.D. 1979) – former director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government
M. Azizur Rahman (Ph.D 1988) – former vice-chancellor, Uttara University,^[56] economic advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development
Stuart C. Ray (M.D. 1990) – vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics,^[57] associate director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
J. Fred Rippy (M.A. 1915) – historian of Latin American and American diplomacy, professor of history at the University of Chicago and Duke University,^[58] Guggenheim Fellow
Marylyn D. Ritchie (M.S. 2002, Ph.D. 2004) – professor of genetics; director, Center for Translational Bioinformatics at the University of Pennsylvania^[59]
Irene Roberts (Postdoc) – emeritus professor of paediatric haematology at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford^[60]
Tom Rockmore (Ph.D. 1974) – distinguished humanities chair, professor at Peking University, China
Leland Sage (B.A. 1922) – American historian, professor emeritus of history at the University of Northern Iowa
Elyn Saks (B.A. 1977) – associate dean and professor of law at the University of Southern California; scholar of mental health law; MacArthur Fellow (2009)
Roberto Castillo Sandoval (M.A. 1985) – Chilean author and professor of comparative literature and Latin American studies at Haverford College
Edward Schumacher-Matos (B.A. 1968) – director, Edward R. Murrow Center, Tufts University, former faculty, Columbia University School of Journalism,^[61] former director, migration studies, Harvard University^[62]
James K. Sebenius (B.A. 1975) – economist, Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business administration at Harvard Business School^[63]^[64]
Artyom Shneyerov (M.A. 1997) – microeconomist at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Debora Shuger (B.A. 1975, M.A. 1978, M.A.T. 1978) – distinguished professor of English at UCLA, contributor to the Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature,^[65] Guggenheim Fellow^[66]
Lee Sigelman (Ph.D. 1973) – political scientist, former editor-in-chief of the American Political Science Review
Evgenia Smirni (Ph.D. 1995) – Sidney P. Chockley Professor of Computer Science at the College of William & Mary, IEEE Fellow
D.M. Smith (B.A. 1908, M.A. 1910) – mathematician and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, charter member of the American Mathematical Society
James Perrin Smith (M.A. 1887) – early scholar of Mesozoic rock formations, professor of geology and paleontology at Stanford University, Mary Clark Thompson Medal winner, National Academy of Sciences^[67]
Erica Spatz (B.S. 1997) – associate professor, clinical investigator at the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale University School of Medicine
Mildred T. Stahlman (B.A. 1943, M.D. 1946) – professor of pediatrics and pathology at Vanderbilt, started the first newborn intensive care unit in the world,^[68] John Howland Award winner
David Stuart (Ph.D. 1995) – archaeologist/epigrapher, MacArthur Fellow at age 18, former curator of Maya Hieroglyphs and senior lecturer at Harvard University, Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at UT Austin
John J. Stuhr (M.A., Ph.D. 1976) – distinguished professor of philosophy and American studies at Emory University, coined "genealogical pragmatism"^[69]
Mriganka Sur (M.S. 1975, Ph.D. 1978) – Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Simons Center for the Social Brain Director, investigator at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT^[70]^[71]^[72]^[73]
James R. Thompson (B.S. 1960) – former chair of the department of statistics and Noah Harding Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Rice University^[74]
Antonio D. Tillis (B.S. 1987) – dean, College of Charleston; chair, Latin American studies, Purdue University; chair, African and African-American studies, Dartmouth College^[75]
Richard D. Todd (B.S.) – former Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and director, child and adolescent psychiatry at Washington University^[76]
Victor J. Torres (Ph.D. 2004) – C.V. Starr Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine; director, Anti-Microbial Resistant Pathogens Program;^[77] MacArthur Fellow (2021)^[78]
Thomas J. Trebat (Ph.D.) – economist and political scientist who teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University,^[79] member of the Council on Foreign Relations^[80]
James C. Tsai (M.B.A. 1998) – former Robert R. Young Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and chair, Department of Ophthalmology, Yale University School of Medicine^[81]
David Tzuriel (Ph.D. 1977) – Israeli psychologist, professor and chairman of the school of education at Bar Ilan University
Venkat Venkatasubramanian (M.S. 1979) – Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele Professor of Engineering, Columbia University; founder, Complex Resilient Intelligent Systems Laboratory (CRIS Lab)^[82]
Mark T. Wallace (Ph.D. 1990) Louise B. McGavock Chair of Neuroscience, professor of psychology, Vanderbilt University
Richard M. Weaver (M.A. 1934) – Platonist philosopher, author, scholar, and authority on modern rhetoric, professor of English at the University of Chicago
Emil Carl Wilm (M.A. 1903) – Prussian-American philosopher, professor at Washburn College, Harvard University, Boston University, and Stanford University
John Long Wilson (B.A. 1935) – medical professor and administrator at American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and Stanford University
Sheldon M. Wolff (M.D. 1957) – former chair of the department of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine
Minky Worden (B.A. 1989) – human rights advocate and author, director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch,^[83] professor at Columbia University's School of International and Social Affairs^[84]
Thomas Daniel Young (Ph.D. 1950) – first Gertrude C. Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt

Art, literature, and humanities

Alev Alatlı (M.A. 1965) – Turkish economist, philosopher, columnist and bestselling novelist
Thomas B. Allen – expressionist painter and illustrator, pioneer of visual journalism^[85]
John F. Andrews, OBE (Ph.D. 1971) – writer, Shakespeare scholar
Alfred Bartles – composer of "Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble"
Richmond C. Beatty (M.A. 1928, Ph.D. 1930) – biographer and critic, Guggenheim Fellow
Lynne Berry (Ph.D. 1997) – writer and poet
Diann Blakely (M.A. 1980) – poet
Campbell Bonner (B.A. 1896, M.A. 1897) – classicist
Jack Boone (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – writer, O. Henry Award Winner (1932)^[86]
William Brittelle (B.M. 1999) – electro-acoustic composer
Cleanth Brooks (B.A. 1928) – founder of New Criticism, The Well Wrought Urn (1947)
Rita Bullwinkel (MFA 2016) – American author, 2024 Booker Prize^[87]
Thomas G. Burton (M.A. 1958, Ph.D. 1966) – author
Anders Carlson-Wee (MFA) – poet, 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow^[88]
Marshall Chapman (B.A. 1971) – singer-songwriter, author
Brainard Cheney – novelist, playwright and essayist, member of the Southern Agrarians
Mel Chin (B.A. 1975) – conceptual visual artist, MacArthur Fellow (2019)^[89]
Charles Edward Choate – architect
Tiana Clark (M.F.A. 2017) – poet
Clyde Connell – abstract expressionist sculptor^[90]
Alfred Leland Crabb (B.A. Peabody) – author of historical fiction
Bruce Crabtree – architect
Francis Craig – songwriter, including Vanderbilt fight song "Dynamite" (1922)
Compton Newby Crook* (B.A. 1929) – science fiction writer, Hugo Award winner, namesake of the Compton Crook Award
David Dark (Ph.D. 2011) – writer
Donald Davidson (B.A. 1917, M.A. 1922) – novelist, poet, and opera librettist
James Dickey (B.A. 1949) – author and poet, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry, author of the novel Deliverance
Julia Lester Dillon* (B.A. 1890) – landscape architect, inscribed upon the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2003
Marjorie K. Eastman (M.B.A.) – author of The Frontline Generation, 2017 Independent Publishers National Book Award winner^[91]
Ruth Denson Edwards* (B.A. 1913) – hymnwriter and figure in the Sacred Harp movement^[92]
William Eggleston – photographer
Francis Perry Elliott – novelist known for screen adaptions The Square Deceiver (1917) and Pals First (1926)
Karen Essex (M.F.A 1999) – historical novelist known for Leonardo's Swans and Stealing Athena
Maria Beale Fletcher – Radio City Music Hall Rockette; Miss America of 1962
Jesse Hill Ford (B.A. 1951) – writer of Southern Literature
Frances Fowler – painter
Ellen Gilchrist – National Book Award-winning author
Red Grooms – multimedia artist most associated with pop art
Kelsie B. Harder (B.A. 1950, M.A. 1951) – onomastician
Costen Jordan Harrell (M.A. 1910) – writer and bishop of The Methodist Church
William Harrison (M.A. 1959) – novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter, Burton and Speke, Rollerball, Guggenheim Fellow (1973)
Eric L. Harry (BA 1980, MBA 1983, JD 1984) – author best known for his novels Arc Light and Invasion
Ross Hassig (M.A. 1974) – anthropologist, author, Mesoamerica scholar
Sylvia Hyman* (M.A. 1963) – sculptor and ceramic artist
William Inge (Peabody, 1935) – Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, best known for Picnic
Michelle Izmaylov (M.D.) – bestselling writer of fantasy-fiction books
George Pullen Jackson (B.A. 1902) – musicologist, pioneer in the field of Southern American hymnody
Randall Jarrell (M.A. 1938) – United States Poet Laureate
Claire Jiménez (MFA 2014) – Puerto Rican author and essayist
Madison Jones (B.A. 1949) – novelist, member of the Southern Agrarians
Donika Kelly (M.A. 2009) – poet, winner of the 2015 Cave Canem prize
Mark Kendall (B.A. 2005, M.A. 2008) – artist and filmmaker, La Camioneta (2012), Guggenheim Fellow
Matthew Washington Kennedy* (Ph.D.) – classical pianist and composer
Mark Thomas Ketterson (B.A. 1976) – performing arts journalist and critic, Opera News
Perry Lentz (M.A. 1966, Ph.D. 1970) – author, Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Rockefeller Foundation grant holder
Alan LeQuire (B.A. 1978) – sculptor
Andrew Nelson Lytle (B.A. 1925) – novelist and professor
Evan Mack (B.M. 2003) – composer, librettist and pianist
Ellis K. Meacham (LL.B 1937) – authored a Napoleonic era nautical adventure trilogy published by Little, Brown (US) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Creighton Michael (M.A. 1976) – American abstract artist
Greg Miller (B.A. 1979) – poet
Jim Wayne Miller (Ph.D. 1965) – Appalachian poet
Merrill Moore (B.A. 1924) – poet
W. R. Moses (Ph.D.) – poet
Philip Nel (Ph.D. 1997) – scholar of children's literature
Adrienne Outlaw – sculptor
Edd Winfield Parks (Ph.D. 1929) – writer and essayist
H. Clinton Parrent Jr. – architect
James Patterson (M.A. 1970) – bestselling contemporary writer of thrillers
Jon Parrish Peede (B.A.) – former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities^[93]
John Crowe Ransom (B.A. 1909) – poet and essayist, founder of New Criticism, Rhodes Scholar
Fahmi Reza – Malaysian political street artist and documentarian^[94]
Graham Robb FRSL (Ph.D. 1986) – British author, The Discovery of France, Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Kaira Rouda (B.A. 1985) – novelist
Daniel Bernard Roumain (B.M 1993) – composer, performer, violinist, and band-leader
Robert Ryman* – painter associated with monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art^[95]
David P. Sartor – composer and conductor
Steven D. Schroeder (B.A.) – poet
Tom Schulman (B.A. 1972) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film Dead Poets Society
Jeanne Ellison Shaffer (Ph.D. 1970) – composer
Beasley Smith – composer and big band musician
Samuel L. Smith* (M.A. 1918) – practical architect
Elizabeth Spencer (M.A. 1943) – writer of the novella The Light in the Piazza
Laura Spong (B.A. 1948) – Abstract expressionist painter
James Still (M.A. 1930) – poet, novelist and folklorist, best known for the novel River of Earth (1940)
Georgia Stitt (B.M 1994) – composer and lyricist, arranger, conductor, and musical director
H.R. Stoneback (Ph.D. 1970) – academic, poet, and folk singer, Hemingway, Durrell, and Faulkner scholar^[96]
Jesse Stuart – writer, Guggenheim Fellow
Amy H. Sturgis (Ph.D.) – author, speaker and scholar of science fiction/fantasy studies and Native American studies
Walter Sullivan (B.A. 1947) – southern novelist and literary critic, founding charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers
Allen Tate (B.A. 1922) – United States Poet Laureate
Eleanor Ross Taylor – poet, 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Peter Taylor – novelist, short story writer, and playwright, 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction^[97]
Nafissa Thompson-Spires (M.A. 2005, Ph.D. 2009) – writer, 2019 Whiting Award^[98]
Pat Toomay – NFL defensive end, author of Any Given Sunday, basis for Oliver Stone's film of the same name (1999)
William Trowbridge (Ph.D. 1975) – poet, Academy of American Poets Prize^[99]
Robert Turner (M.A. 1950) – Canadian composer, appointed Order of Canada in 2002^[100]
Robert Penn Warren (B.A. 1925) – Pulitzer Prize winner, United States Poet Laureate, author of All the King's Men (1946)
Geoffrey R. Waters (B.A.) – poet and translator, Willis Barnstone Translation Prize
Sarah Webb – Contemporary realist painter
James Whitehead (B.A., M.A.) – poet, 1972 Guggenheim Fellow
Ralph Wickiser* (M.A. 1935, Ph.D. 1938) – painter
Greg Williamson – poet, known for the invention of the "Double Exposure" form in which one poem can be read three different ways
Martin Wilson (B.A. 1995) – writer best known for his award-winning debut novel What They Always Tell Us^[101]
Terri Witek (B.S. 1983, M.A. 1984, Ph.D. 1988) – poet, Slope Editions Prize, Center for Book Arts Prize Winner^[102]
Kat Zhang (B.A. 2013) – science-fiction novelist, What's Left of Me (2012)

Athletics

Baseball

Pedro Alvarez – infielder, Pittsburgh Pirates (2010–15), Baltimore Orioles (2016–18)
Mike Baxter – outfielder, San Diego Padres (2010), New York Mets (2011–13), Los Angeles Dodgers (2014), Chicago Cubs (2015)
Tyler Beede – pitcher, San Francisco Giants (2018–present)
Walker Buehler – pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers (2017–present); All-Star (2019)
Vin Campbell – outfielder, Chicago Cubs (1908), Pittsburgh Pirates (1910–11), Boston Braves (1912), Indianapolis Hoosiers (1914), and Newark Peppers (1915)
Curt Casali – catcher, Tampa Bay Rays (2014–17), Cincinnati Reds (2018), San Francisco Giants (present)
Wilson Collins – outfielder, Boston Braves (1913–1914)
Doc Cook – outfielder, New York Yankees (1913–1916)
Joey Cora – second baseman, Cleveland Indians (1998); Seattle Mariners (1995–98/ All-Star 1997); Chicago White Sox (1991–94); San Diego Padres (1987, 1989–90)
Caleb Cotham – pitcher, New York Yankees (2015), Cincinnati Reds (2016)
Slim Embry – starting pitcher, Chicago White Sox (1923)
Ryan Flaherty – infielder, Baltimore Orioles (2012–17), Atlanta Braves (2018), Cleveland Indians (2019); coach, San Diego Padres (2020–present)
Carson Fulmer – pitcher, Chicago White Sox (2016–present)
Sonny Gray – pitcher, Oakland Athletics (2013–17), New York Yankees (2017–18), Cincinnati Reds (2019–present); All-Star (2015, 2019)
Harvey Hendrick – New York Yankees (1923–24), Cleveland Indians (1925), Brooklyn Robins (1927–31), Cincinnati Reds (1931–32), St. Louis Cardinals (1932), Chicago Cubs (1933), Philadelphia Phillies (1934)
Matt Kata – infielder, Arizona Diamondbacks (2003–05), Philadelphia Phillies (2005), Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates (2007), Houston Astros (2009)
Tony Kemp – second baseman, outfielder, Houston Astros (2016–19), Chicago Cubs (2019), Oakland Athletics (2020–present)
Jack Leiter (B.A. 2023) – pitcher^[103]
Jensen Lewis – broadcaster; pitcher, Cleveland Indians (2005–11), Arizona Diamondbacks (2012), Chicago Cubs (2013); Roberto Clemente Award nominee (2010)
Scotti Madison – third baseman, Detroit Tigers (1985–86), Kansas City Royals (1987–88), Cincinnati Reds (1989)
Austin Martin – shortstop, Toronto Blue Jays (2020–present)
Mike Minor – starting pitcher, Atlanta Braves (2010–14), Kansas City Royals (2017), Texas Rangers (2018–20), Oakland Athletics (2020–present); All-Star (2019)
Scrappy Moore – third baseman, St. Louis Browns (1917)
Penn Murfee – pitcher, United States national baseball team, 2019 WBSC Premier12
Josh Paul – catcher, Arizona Diamondbacks (2003–05), Philadelphia Phillies (2005), Texas Rangers (2007), Pittsburgh Pirates (2007), Houston Astros (2009)
David Price – starting pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers; All-Star (2010–12, 2014, 2015), Cy Young Award (2012), World Series champion (2018)
Andy Reese – infielder/outfielder, New York Giants (1927–30)
Bryan Reynolds – outfielder, Pittsburgh Pirates (2019–present)
Antoan Richardson – outfielder, Atlanta Braves (2011), New York Yankees (2014); first base coach, San Francisco Giants (2020–present)
Scott Sanderson – Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, California Angels, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, California Angels (1978–96); All-Star (1991)
Sam Selman – pitcher, San Francisco Giants (2019–present)
Rip Sewell – starting pitcher, Detroit Tigers (1932), Pittsburgh Pirates (1938–1949); 4× All-Star (1943–1946)
Justus Sheffield – pitcher, New York Yankees (2018), Seattle Mariners (2019–present)
Jeremy Sowers – pitcher, Cleveland Indians (2006–09); executive, Tampa Bay Rays (2020–present)
Dansby Swanson – shortstop, Atlanta Braves (2016–present); Haarlem Baseball Week Gold (2014)
Drew VerHagen – pitcher, Detroit Tigers (2014–19), Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2020–present)
Casey Weathers – pitcher, Colorado Rockies (2007–10), Chicago Cubs (2011–12); Bronze Medal, 2008 Summer Olympics
Mike Willis – pitcher, Toronto Blue Jays (1977–81)
Rhett Wiseman – outfielder, Washington Nationals (Minor League); Team Israel, World Baseball Classic (2017)
Kyle Wright – pitcher, Atlanta Braves (2018–present)
Mike Yastrzemski – outfielder, San Francisco Giants (2019–present); Willie Mac Award (2020)
Josh Zeid – pitcher, Houston Astros (2013–14); Team Israel, World Baseball Classic (2017)

Basketball

Chantelle Anderson – women's basketball (1999–2003); Sacramento Monarchs (2003–04), San Antonio Silver Stars (2005–07)
Wade Baldwin IV – men's basketball (2014–16); Memphis Grizzlies (2016–17), Portland Trail Blazers (2017–19), now with Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Rhonda Blades – women's basketball (1991–95); New York Liberty (1997), Detroit Shock (1998)
Derrick Byars – men's basketball (2005–07); SEC Player of the Year (2007); Chicago Bulls (2010), San Antonio Spurs (2012)
Charles Davis – men's basketball (1976–81); Washington Bullets (1981–84), Milwaukee Bucks (1984–87), San Antonio Spurs (1987), Chicago Bulls (1988–90)
Festus Ezeli – men's basketball (2008–12); Golden State Warriors (2012–16), Portland Trail Blazers (2016–17), NBA Champion (2015)
Mariella Fasoula – women's basketball (2018–20); Greece national team
Butch Feher – men's basketball (1972–76); Phoenix Suns (1976–77)
Johnny "Red" Floyd – football and basketball (1915–16, 1919–20); namesake of Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium
Jeff Fosnes – men's basketball (1972–1976); 1st Academic All-American; fourth-round draft pick, Golden State Warriors (1976)
Shan Foster – men's basketball (2005–08); second team Associated Press All-American; 2008 SEC Player of the Year
Rod Freeman – men's basketball (1970–73); Philadelphia 76ers (1973–74)
Matt Freije – men's basketball (2000–04); New Orleans Hornets (2004–05), Atlanta Hawks (2006)
Ronald Green (1944–2012) – American-Israeli men's basketball player
John Jenkins – men's basketball (2009–12); All-SEC (2011, 2012); Atlanta Hawks (2012–15), Dallas Mavericks (2015–16), Phoenix Suns (2016–17), New York Knicks (2019)
Damian Jones – men's basketball (2013–16); Golden State Warriors (2016–19), Atlanta Hawks (2019–present); NBA Champion (2017, 2018)
Hutch Jones – men's basketball (1979–82); San Diego Clippers (1982–83)
Zuzana Klimešová – women's basketball (2001); Czech former basketball player, Olympian in the 2004 Summer Olympics
Frank Kornet – men's basketball (1985–89); Milwaukee Bucks (1989–91)
Luke Kornet – men's basketball (2013–17); New York Knicks (2017–19), Chicago Bulls (2019–present)
Dan Langhi – men's basketball (1996–2000); Houston Rockets (2000–02), Phoenix Suns (2002–03), Golden State Warriors (2003), Milwaukee Bucks (2003)
Clyde Lee – men's basketball (1963–66); SEC Player of the Year (1966), All-American (1966); San Francisco/Golden State Warriors (1966–74), Atlanta Hawks (1975), Philadelphia 76ers (1975–76)
Saben Lee (born 1999), basketball player for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Matt Maloney – men's basketball (1990–91); Houston Rockets (1996–99), Chicago Bulls (2000), Atlanta Hawks (2000–03)
Billy McCaffrey – men's basketball (1991–93); two-time All-American; SEC Player of the Year (1993)
Aaron Nesmith – men's basketball (2018–20); Boston Celtics (2020–present)
Will Perdue – men's basketball (1983–88); Chicago Bulls (1988–95), San Antonio Spurs (1995–99), Portland Trail Blazers (2000–01), 4× NBA Champion (1991–1993, 1999)
Sheri Sam – women's basketball (1992–96); WNBA Charlotte Sting (2005–06), Seattle Storm (2004), Minnesota Lynx (2003), Miami Sol (2000–02), Orlando Miracle (1999)
Simisola Shittu (born 1999) – men's basketball; British-born Canadian basketball player for Ironi Ness Ziona of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Jeffery Taylor – men's basketball (2008–12); Charlotte Hornets (2012–15), Real Madrid (2015–present), EuroLeague Champion (2018)
Carla Thomas – women's basketball (2003–07); Chicago Sky (2007)
Jeff Turner – men's basketball (1980–84); New Jersey Nets (1984–87); gold medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Jan van Breda Kolff – men's basketball (1971–74); SEC Player of the Year (1974); Denver Nuggets (1974–75), New York / New Jersey Nets (1976–83)
Perry Wallace – men's basketball (1967–70); first African-American basketball player in the SEC; U.S. Department of Justice attorney; professor of law, American University (1993–2017)
Payton Willis (born 1998) – men's basketball (2016–18); plays in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

Football

Bob Asher – offensive tackle (1967–69); Dallas Cowboys (1970–71), Chicago Bears (1972–75), Super Bowl VI Champion
Earl Bennett – wide receiver (2005–08); 3× All-SEC (2005–06),Chicago Bears (2008–14), Cleveland Browns (2014)
Lynn Bomar – end (1921–24); New York Giants (1925–26); College Football Hall of Fame (1956)
Mack Brown – running back (1969–70); head coach, University of Texas (1998–2013), University of North Carolina (1988–97, 2019–)
Watson Brown – quarterback (1969–72); head coach, Austin Peay (1979–80), Cincinnati (1983), Rice (1984–85), Vanderbilt (1986–90), UAB (1995–2006), Tennessee Tech (2007–)
Corey Chavous – safety (1994–98); Arizona Cardinals (1998–2001), Minnesota Vikings (2002–05), St. Louis Rams (2006–08)
Josh Cody – tackle (1914–1916, 1919); 3× All-American, College Football Hall of Fame (1970)
David Culley – quarterback (1974–1977); head coach, Houston Texans (2021– )
Zach Cunningham – linebacker (2014–16); First-team All-American (2016); Houston Texans (2017–)
Bucky Curtis – defensive back (1947–1950); Cleveland Browns (1951), Toronto Argonauts (1955–56); All-American (1950)
Jay Cutler – quarterback (2002–05); Denver Broncos (2006–09), Chicago Bears (2009–16), Miami Dolphins (2017); "100 Greatest Bears of All-Time"
Art Demmas – linebacker (1952–56), captain (1956); NFL Official (1970–96)
Jamie Duncan – linebacker (1995–97), All-American (1997); Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1998–2001), St. Louis Rams (2002–03), Atlanta Falcons (2004)
Ewing Y. Freeland – tackle (1909–12); head coach, SMU (1922–23), Texas Tech (1925–28), Austin College (1936–38)
Jonathan Goff – linebacker (2005–07); New York Giants (2008–11); Super Bowl XLVI Champion
Clarence "Pete" Gracey – center (1930–32); All-American (1932)
Corey Harris – safety (1988–91); Green Bay Packers (1992–94), Seattle Seahawks (1995–96), Miami Dolphins (1997), Baltimore Ravens (1998–2001), Detroit Lions (2002–03)
Casey Hayward – cornerback (2008–11); Green Bay Packers (2012–15), Los Angeles Chargers (2016–); 2× Pro Bowl (2016, 2017); NFL interceptions leader (2016)
Hunter Hillenmeyer – linebacker (1999–2002); Chicago Bears (2003–10); NFC Champion (2006)
Carl Hinkle – center (1935–37), Southeastern Conference MVP (1937), College Football Hall of Fame (1959)
Elliott Jones – fullback (1890–92); captain (1890–92)
W. J. "Cap" Keller – quarterback (1893–94); captain (1893–1894)
Everett "Tuck" Kelly – guard (1922–24); All-Southern (1923), captain (1924)
Oliver "Doc" Kuhn – quarterback (1920–1923); captain (1923); Porter Cup (1923)
Frank Kyle – quarterback (1902–05); head coach, Ole Miss (1908)
Clark Lea – fullback (2002–04); defensive coordinator for Notre Dame (2018–20), head coach for Vanderbilt (2021–)^[104]
David Lee – quarterback (1971–75); captain (1974); head coach, University of Texas at El Paso (1989–93), NFL quarterback coach (2003–)
Allama Matthews – wide receiver (1979–82), Atlanta Falcons (1983–85)
D. J. Moore – cornerback (2006–08); Chicago Bears (2009–2012), Carolina Panthers (2013), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2014)
Jess Neely – halfback (1920–22); captain (1922); head coach, Rice University (1940–67), Vanderbilt athletic director (1967–71, 1973)
Dick Plasman – end and captain (1936), Chicago Bears (1937–41, 1944), Chicago Cardinals (1946–47), 3× NFL Champion, last NFL player to play without a helmet^[105]
Shelton Quarles – middle linebacker (1990–93); Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1997–2006); Super Bowl XXXVII Champion
Tom Redmond – defensive tackle (1955–58); St. Louis Cardinals (1960–65)
Herb Rich – safety (1946–49); Baltimore Colts (1950), Los Angeles Rams (1951–53), New York Giants (1954–56)
Bob Rives – tackle (1923–25); All-Southern (1924–1925); Newark Bears (1926)
Jordan Rodgers -- quarterback (2010-2012); Jacksonville Jaguars (2013), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2013), Miami Dolphins (2014); TV personality
Bo Rowland – end (1923–24); head coach, Henderson-Brown (1925–30), The Citadel (1940–42), Oklahoma City (1946–47), George Washington (1948–51)
Justin Skule – offensive tackle (2015–2019); San Francisco 49ers (2019–)
Rupert Smith – halfback, quarterback (1921); SIAA Champion (1921)
Bill Spears – quarterback (1925–27); College Football Hall of Fame (1962)
Matt Stewart – linebacker (1997–2000); Atlanta Falcons (2001–04), Cleveland Browns (2005–07)
Whit Taylor – quarterback (1979–1982); ArenaBowl I Champion (1987), SEC Football Legend (2003)
Ke'Shawn Vaughn – running back (2017–19); SEC Newcomer of the Year (2018); Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2020–)
Bradley Vierling – center (2008–09); Pittsburgh Steelers (2010), Jacksonville Jaguars (2010–11), Pittsburgh Steelers (2012)
Bill Wade – quarterback (1949–51); Southeastern Conference MVP (1951); Los Angeles Rams (1954–60), Chicago Bears (1961–66), NFL Champion (1963)
Henry Wakefield – end (1921–1924); consensus All-American (1924), All-Southern (1923, 1924)
E. M. "Nig" Waller – quarterback (1924–26); head coach, Middle Tennessee (1933–1934)
Stephen Weatherly – defensive end (2013–15); Minnesota Vikings (2016–19), Carolina Panthers (2020–)
Chris Williams – offensive tackle (2005–07); Chicago Bears (2008–12), St. Louis Rams (2012–13), Buffalo Bills (2014)
Jimmy Williams – defensive back (1997–2000); San Francisco 49ers (2001–04), Seattle Seahawks (2005–06), Houston Texans (2008)
Jamie Winborn – linebacker (1998–2000); 49ers (2001–05), Jaguars (2005–06), Buccaneers (2006–07), Broncos (2007–08), Titans (2009–10)
DeMond Winston – linebacker (1986–89), captain (1989); New Orleans Saints (1990–94)
Will Wolford – offensive lineman (1983–85); Buffalo Bills (1986–93), Indianapolis Colts (1993–96), Pittsburgh Steelers (1996–98), 3× Pro Bowl (1990, 1992, 1995)
Todd Yoder – tight end (1996–99); Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2000–03), Jacksonville Jaguars (2004–05), Washington Redskins (2006–09), Super Bowl XXXVII Champion

Other athletes

Marina Alex – professional golfer, Cambia Portland Classic Winner (2018)^[106]
Lawson Aschenbach – professional racing driver; 4× Pirelli World Challenge Champion, 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Champion^[107]
Josie Barnes – ten-pin bowler, 2021 U.S. Women's Open champion
Maria Bulanova – Russian ten-pin bowler, youngest player ever to win a European Bowling Tour title, age 14 (2013)^[108]
Fernanda Contreras – Mexican professional tennis player, 2017 Riviera All-American Championship^[109]
Jon Curran – professional golfer, PGA Championship T33 (2016)
Julie Ditty – professional tennis player, career-high WTA Tour ranking No. 89 (2008)
Andrea Farley – professional tennis player, career-high WTA Tour ranking No. 118 (1989)
Walter Glasgow – sailor, silver medal, fleet/match race keelboat open (Soling) mixed, 1976 Summer Olympics
Lina Granados – Colombian professional soccer player; defender, FF Lugano 1976
Ásthildur Helgadóttir – Icelandic soccer player, Iceland women's national football team (1993–2007), Breiðablik, KR, Malmö FF Dam
Jennifer Hooker – swimmer; gold, 1978 World Aquatics Championships; US Team, 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics
Tony Kuhn – soccer player; forward, Major League Soccer
Peter Lamb – South African professional tennis player, 1978 Davis Cup team, Wimbledon (1980)
Luke List – professional golfer, PGA Championship 6th (2019)
Cheyna Matthews – Jamaican footballer; forward, Washington Spirit, Jamaica women's national team
Scott A. Muller – Panamanian-American canoeist, whitewater slalom in the K-1 event at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Andrew Nisker – Canadian professional tennis player, NCAA Men's SEC Singles Champion (2000)^[110]
Joan Pennington – competition swimmer who won one silver and two gold medals at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships, qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics
Gil Reese – first three-sport captain (1922–25), halfback on the football team, forward on the basketball team, and outfielder on the baseball team
Bobby Reynolds – professional tennis player, career-high ATP Tour ranking No. 63 (2009); ATP doubles title with Andy Roddick, RCA Championships (2006)
Jence Ann Rhoads – professional handball and basketball player, Haukar, Sepsi SIC, ICM Arad; Cupa României (2014); CB Atlético Guardés
Matthias Schwab – Austrian professional golfer, PGA European Tour^[111]
Peter Sharis – Olympic rower, competed in the men's coxless pair event at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Astra Sharma – Australian professional tennis player, career-high WTA Tour ranking No. 85 (2019)
Brandt Snedeker – professional golfer, 2007 PGA Rookie of the Year, 2012 Tour Championship winner
Chelsea Stewart – Canadian soccer player, defender for the German Bundesliga club SC Freiburg
Jerry Sularz – Polish soccer player, Górnik Wałbrzych (1967–1973)
Aleke Tsoubanos – professional tennis player, 4× ITF Women's World Tennis Tour Circuit titles
Shannon Vreeland – competition swimmer, 2012 United States Olympic team, gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 London Summer Olympics
Lily Williams (B.A. 2016) — cyclist, 2020 and 2024 United States Olympic team, gold medal in women's team pursuit at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics^[112]

Business and economics

Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola (M.S.) – Nigerian CEO of Wecyclers in Lagos, Nigeria^[113]
Jasbina Ahluwalia (B.A. 1991, M.A. 1992) – founder and CEO, Intersections Match^[114]
Michael Ainslie (B.A. 1965) – former president and CEO of Sotheby's^[115]
Anu Aiyengar (M.B.A. 1999) – head of mergers and acquisitions at JPMorgan Chase & Co^[116]
Henry C. Alexander (B.A. 1923) – former president, chairman, and CEO of J.P. Morgan & Co.^[117]^[118]
James M. Anderson (J.D. 1966) – former president and CEO of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center^[119]
John D. Arnold (B.A. 1995) – founder of Centaurus Energy and Arnold Ventures LLC, youngest self-made billionaire in Texas^[120]
Paul S. Atkins (J.D. 1983) – CEO of Patomak Global Partners LLC^[121]
Bill Bain (B.A. 1959) – founder of Bain & Company^[122]
Thomas W. Beasley (J.D. 1973) – co-founder of CoreCivic^[123]
Horace E. Bemis (B.S. 1891) – founder of the Ozan Lumber Company^[124]
Michael Bickford (B.A.) – founder and CEO of Round Hill Capital^[125]
Dennis C. Bottorff (B.E. 1966) – chairman and CEO of the First American Corporation; co-founder, Council Capital^[126]
James Cowdon Bradford Sr. (College, 1912) – chairman of Piggly Wiggly,^[127] founder of J.C. Bradford & Co.^[127]
James W. Bradford (J.D. 1974) – former CEO of AFG Industries^[128]
Michael Burry (M.D. 1997) – founder of the Scion Capital LLC hedge fund,^[129] portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 film The Big Short
Kelly Campbell (B.S. 2000) – president of Hulu^[130]
Monroe J. Carell, Jr. (B.S. 1959) – former chairman and CEO of Central Parking Corporation^[131]
Dong-se Cha (M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1978) – Korean economist, former president of the Korea Development Institute^[132]
Whitefoord Russell Cole (B.A. 1894) – former president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad^[133]
John Cooper (M.B.A. 1985) – former global head of technology investment banking at Lehman Brothers^[134]
Alejandro E. Martínez Cuenca (Ph.D. 1999) – owner of Joya de Nicaragua^[135]
Mark Dalton (J.D. 1975) – CEO of the Tudor Investment Corporation,^[136] Vanderbilt board of trust chairman (2010–2017)^[137]
John Danner (MEd 2002) – co-founder and CEO of Rocketship Education,^[138] co-founder of NetGravity, the world's first advertising server company^[139]
Joe C. Davis, Jr. (B.A. 1941) – founder and CEO of Davis Coals, Inc.^[140]
Krista Donaldson (B.E. 1995) – CEO of D-Rev^[141]
David Dyer (B.E. 1971) – former CEO of Land's End^[142] and Tommy Hilfiger^[142]
Dan K. Eberhart (B.A.) – CEO of Canary, LLC, managing partner of Eberhart Capital, LLC^[143]
John Edgerton (A.B. 1902, M.A.1903) – industrialist, president of the National Association of Manufacturers (1921–1931)^[144]
John A. Elkington (B.A.) – developer, founding board member of the National Civil Rights Museum^[145]
Bruce R. Evans (B.E. 1981) – managing director of Summit Partners,^[146] Vanderbilt board of trust chairman^[147]
David Farr (M.B.A. 1981) – chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric^[148]
Mark L. Feidler (J.D. 1981) – chairman of Equifax^[149]
Erik Feig (1988–89) – president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group^[150]
Zula Inez Ferguson (B.A.) – advertising manager at Blackstone's, Los Angeles^[151]
Greg Fischer (B.A. 1980) – co-invented and founded SerVend International, sold to The Manitowoc Company^[152]
Sam M. Fleming (B.A. 1928) – former president of the American Bankers Association^[153]
Adena Friedman (M.B.A. 1993) – president and CEO of NASDAQ^[154]
Thomas F. Frist Jr. (B.A. 1960) – billionaire entrepreneur, co-founder of the Hospital Corporation of America^[155]
Mahni Ghorashi (M.B.A. 2012) – co-founder of Clear Labs^[156]
Mitch Glazier (J.D. 1991) – chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America^[157]
Francis Guess (M.B.A.) – businessman and civil rights advocate, United States Commission on Civil Rights^[158]
John Hall (B.E. 1955) – former chairman and CEO of Ashland Oil^[159]
Arthur B. Hancock III (B.A. 1965) – owner of thoroughbred racehorses, owner of Stone Farm^[160]
Matthew J. Hart (B.A. 1974) – former chairman and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation^[161]
Robert D. Hays (J.D. 1983) – chairman of King & Spalding^[162]
Bruce Henderson (B.S. 1937) – founder of the Boston Consulting Group^[163]
Robert Selph Henry (LL.B 1910, B.A. 1911) – vice president of the Association of American Railroads (1934–1958)
Bruce Heyman (B.A. 1979, M.B.A. 1980) – vice president and managing director of private wealth management at Goldman Sachs^[164]
Chris Hollod (B.A. 2005) – venture capitalist and angel investor^[165]
David S. Hong (M.A. 1967) – 5th president of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research^[166]
Frank K. Houston (B.A. 1904) – president and chairman of the Chemical Corn Exchange Bank^[167]
Allan Hubbard (B.A. 1969) – director of the National Economic Council^[168]
David Bronson Ingram (M.B.A. 1989) – chairman and president of Ingram Entertainment^[169]
John R. Ingram (M.B.A. 1986) – billionaire chairman and CEO of the Ingram Content Group^[170]
Orrin H. Ingram II (B.A. 1982) – CEO of Ingram Industries, chairman of the Ingram Barge Company^[171]
Paul Jacobson (MBA 1997) – CFO of Delta Air Lines^[172]
Prashant Khemka (M.B.A. 1998) – former CIO of global emerging markets at Goldman Sachs, founder of White Oak Capital Management^[173]
J. Hicks Lanier (B.A. 1962) – chairman and CEO of Oxford Industries^[174]
Sartain Lanier (B.A. 1931) – chairman and CEO of Oxford Industries^[175]
Chong Moon Lee (M.L.S. 1959) – founder of Diamond Multimedia^[176]
Dave Limp (B.S. 1988) – CEO of Blue Origin^[177]
Oliver Luckett (B.A. 1996) – entrepreneur, founded Revver^[178]
Katrina Markoff (B.A. 1995) – founder and CEO of Vosges Haut-Chocolat^[179]
R. Brad Martin (E.M.B.A. 1980) – former chairman and CEO of Saks Incorporated^[180]
Mark P. Mays (B.A. 1985) – president and CEO of Clear Channel Communications^[181]
Mike McWherter (J.D. 1981) – chairman of the board of First State Bank^[182]
Lydia Meredith (M.B.A) – former CEO of the Renaissance Learning Center^[183]
Todd Miller (B.A. 1988) – media executive, CEO of Celestial Tiger Entertainment^[184]
Ann S. Moore (B.A. 1971) – former chairman and CEO of Time Inc.^[185]
Jackson W. Moore (J.D. 1973) – former executive chairman of Union Planters Bank and Regions Financial Corporation^[186]
J. Reagor Motlow (B.A. 1919) – former president of Jack Daniel's^[187]
Mubyarto (M.A. 1962) – Indonesian economist, developer of Pancasila economics, Bintang Jasa Utama (1994)^[188]
Tim Murray (E.M.B.A. 2003) – CEO of Alba^[189]
Roy Neel (B.A. 1972) – president and CEO of the United States Telecom Association^[190]
Ralph Owen (B.A. 1928) – chairman of American Express^[191]
Kevin Parke (B.A. 1981) – president of the Todd Wagner Foundation,^[192] former president of Landmark Theatres^[193]
Doug Parker (M.B.A. 1986) – chairman, president, and CEO of American Airlines Group^[194]
Sunil Paul (B.E. 1987) – entrepreneur, founder of Brightmail,^[195] co-founder and CEO of Sidecar^[196]
Brittany Perkins (B.A. 2008) – CEO of AshBritt Environmental^[197]
H. Ross Perot, Jr. (B.A. 1981) – billionaire chairman and CEO of Perot Systems,^[198] former owner of the Dallas Mavericks^[199]
Charles Plosser (B.E. 1970) – president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia,^[200] former co-editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics^[201]
Edgar E. Rand (B.A. 1927) – former president of the International Shoe Company^[202]
Frank C. Rand (B.A. 1898) – former president of the International Shoe Company,^[203] Vanderbilt board of trust chairman (1935–1949)^[204]
Henry Hale Rand (B.A. 1929) – former president of the International Shoe Company^[205]
Alexis Readinger (B.A. 1996) – founder of Preen, Inc.^[206]
Mark Reuss (B.A. 1986) – president of General Motors^[207]
Catherine Reynolds (B.S. 1979) – former CEO of EduCap, chairman/CEO, Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, Bloomberg Businessweek top 50 philanthropic Americans^[208]
Russ Robinson (B.A. 1979) – founder and CEO of Global Steel Dust^[209]
Joe L. Roby (B.A. 1961) – chairman emeritus, Credit Suisse investment banking division^[210]
Jeffrey J. Rothschild (B.A. 1977, M.S. 1979) – billionaire entrepreneur and executive, founding engineer of Facebook^[211]
Mike Shehan (B.S. 1994) – co-founder and CEO of SpotX^[212]
Jane Silber (M.S.) – former CEO of Canonical Ltd.^[213]
Albert C. Simmonds Jr. (B.A. 1922) – 18th President of the Bank of New York^[214]
Chip Skowron (B.A. 1990) – portfolio manager at FrontPoint Partners^[215]
John Sloan Jr. (B.A. 1958) – VP of the First American National Bank,^[216] President and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business^[217]
Alexander C. Taylor (B.A. 1997) – president and CEO of Cox Enterprises^[218]
Hall W. Thompson – founder and developer of Shoal Creek Club^[219]
Cal Turner, Jr. (B.A. 1962) – billionaire CEO of Dollar General^[220]
William S. Vaughn (B.A. 1923) – Rhodes Scholar, former president and chairman of Eastman Kodak^[221]
Thomas B. Walker, Jr. (B.A. 1947) – Goldman Sachs senior director,^[222] Vanderbilt board of trust^[222]
Emily White (B.A. 2000) – former COO of Snapchat, current board member of Hyperloop One^[223]
Christopher J. Wiernicki (B.S.) – chairman, president, and CEO of American Bureau of Shipping^[224]
Darrin Williams (J.D. 1993) – CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc.^[225]
Jesse Ely Wills (B.A. 1922) – chairman of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company^[226]
David K. Wilson (B.A. 1941) – co-founder and president of Cherokee Equity,^[227] chairman of Genesco,^[227] Vanderbilt board of trust chairman (1981–91)^[228]
Toby S. Wilt (B.E. 1967) – president, TSW Investment Company,^[229] director, CapStar Bank^[230]
Philip C. Wolf (M.B.A. 1980) – founder and CEO of PhoCusWright^[231]
Muhammad Yunus (Ph.D. 1971) – founder of Grameen Bank,^[232] pioneer of microcredit; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner,^[233] 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom^[234]

Entertainment and fashion

Laur Allen (B.A. 2011) – actress best known for her role of Juliet Helton on the soap opera series The Young and the Restless^[235]
Rachel Baiman – folk singer-songwriter
Jim Beavers (M.B.A. 1996) – songwriter, former director of marketing for Capitol Records^[236]
Dierks Bentley (B.A. 1997) – country musician
Curtis Benton – actor, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916), Jealousy (1916), Kid Galahad (1937); writer, The Uninvited Guest (1924)
Cinda Boomershine (B.A. 1994) – founder of fashion accessory line Cinda b
Harold Bradley* (B.A. 1949) – session guitarist and entrepreneur, Musicians Hall of Fame (2007)
Joe Bob Briggs (B.A. 1974) – syndicated American film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer
Logan Browning (B.A. 2011) – actress, lead in Dear White People^[237]
Paula Cale – actress best known for her role as Joanie Hansen on the series Providence
Rosanne Cash (B.A. 1979) – Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter
Fred Coe* – television and Broadway producer and director, Peabody and Emmy Award winner^[238]
Rod Daniel (B.A. 1964) – television and film director best known for the Michael J. Fox film Teen Wolf (1985)
Kim Dickens (B.A. 1987) – actress, Deadwood (2004–06), Gone Girl (2014), House of Cards (2015–17)
Deena Dill (B.S. 1992) – actress and television executive producer
Jimmie Dodd – host of the Walt Disney's The Mickey Mouse Club, actor, Easter Parade (1948), Quicksand (1950)
George Ducas (B.A. 1989) – country music artist
Bob Ferguson (M.A.) – Billboard-topping songwriter, senior record producer for RCA Victor
Chad Gervich (B.A. 1996) – television writer; playwright; author, Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business
Amy Grant – six-time Grammy-winning contemporary Christian music artist (dropped out)
William Gray Espy – actor, The Young and the Restless
Merle Hazard (J.D. 1993) – satirist known as the 'Weird Al' of Wall Street"^[239]
Richard Hull (B.A. 1992) – media and entertainment executive; producer, She's All That; 2011 NAACP Image Award^[240]
Claude Jarman Jr. – former child actor, received a special Academy Award as outstanding child actor of 1946 for The Yearling^[241]
Kevin Royal Johnson (B.E. 1984) – singer-songwriter, founding member of The Linemen^[242]
Duncan Jones – British film director, Source Code (2011), Warcraft (2016), Mute (2018), BAFTA Award winner
Edward Kerr (B.A. 1990) – actor, Pretty Little Liars, starred in Above Suspicion
Jill King (B.A. 1996) – country music artist
Lance Kinsey (B.A. 1975) – Canadian actor and screenwriter, best known for his role as Lt. Proctor in the Police Academy film series
Richard Kyanka (M.A.) – creator of humor website Something Awful
Susanna Kwan (M.F.A.) – Hong Kong singer and actress, Heart of Greed, Moonlight Resonance
Lunic (B.S. 1999) – songwriter, singer, electronic musician, and multi-instrumentalist Kaitee Page
Steven Machat (J.D. 1977) – entertainment mogul and producer
Chris Mann (B.M. 2004) – singer; fourth place in season 2 of The Voice
Delbert Mann (B.A. 1941) – Academy Award-winning director for Marty (1955)
Theresa Meeker (M.Ed.) – written, web, and video content creator
James Melton – popular music actor/singer, Stars Over Broadway (1935), Ziegfeld Follies (1945)
R. Stevie Moore – multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter who pioneered lo-fi/DIY music
Zack Norman – entertainer and film financier, known for his role as Ira in Romancing the Stone (1984)
Bettie Page* (B.A. 1944) – model, 1950s pin-up icon^[243]
Zhubin Parang (B.A. 2003) – head writer of The Daily Show^[244]
Saladin K. Patterson – writer, Frasier, The Bernie Mac Show; creator and executive producer, The Wonder Years^[245]
Woody Paul (B.E. 1977) – member of Riders in the Sky
Michael Pollack (B.A. 2016) – Grammy-nominated Top 40 songwriter and record producer
Amy Ray – singer, songwriter, member of the Indigo Girls (transferred)
Donna Sachet (B.A. 1976) – drag actor, singer, and activist
Dinah Shore (B.A. 1938) – top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s;^[246] actress; television host, The Dinah Shore Show, Dinah!
Scott Siman (B.A. 1976) – music executive, artist manager, former chairman of the Academy of Country Music
Molly Sims – model, actress (dropped out to pursue modeling)
Brock Speer (M.Div.) – bass singer for the Speer Family Southern Gospel group
Chris Stapleton (dropped out) – singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer
Stephanie Storey (B.A. 1997) – actress; screenwriter; director; novelist; producer, The Writers' Room
Amanda Sudano – singer-songwriter, member of Johnnyswim
Brooklyn Sudano – model, actress, and singer
Mikey Wax – singer-songwriter
Tim Weiland (B.A. 2006) – fashion designer and DJ; founder, creative director, Timo Weiland^[247]
Whitney Wolanin (B.S. 2011) – singer and songwriter
Paul Worley (B.A. 1972) – record producer, discovered Lady Antebellum and the Dixie Chicks
Andrea Zonn (B.M.) – singer and fiddle player^[248]

Government, politics, and activism

Activists

Will W. Alexander (B.Th. 1912) – founder of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation
John Amaechi, OBE – English psychologist, consultant, first former NBA player to come out publicly (transferred)^[286]
Akosua Adomako Ampofo (Ph.D. 2000) – Ghanaian public intellectual, activist and scholar, Fulbright Scholar^[287]
Elizabeth Lee Bloomstein (B.A. 1877 Peabody) – American history professor, clubwoman, and suffragist
David Boaz (B.A. 1975) – executive vice president, Cato Institute, leading libertarian thinker
Yun Chi-ho (Div. 1888–1891) – political activist and thinker during the late 1800s and early 1900s in Joseon Korea
George Childress* (B.A. 1826 Peabody) – lawyer, politician, and a principal author of the Texas Declaration of Independence
J. McRee Elrod* (M.A. 1953) – Methodist activist for the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war movements of the 1960s, and the gay pride movement
Hiram Wesley Evans – dental student (did not graduate), Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan^[288]
Peter Farb (B.A. 1950) – author and noted spokesman for environmental conservation
Tom Fox (B.A. 1973) – Quaker peace activist, kidnapped on November 26, 2005, in Baghdad, leading to the 2005–2006 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis
Morris Frank (B.A. 1929) – founder of The Seeing Eye, the first guide-dog school in the United States, activist for accessibility for the visually impaired
John E. Fryer (M.D. 1962) – gay rights activist known for his anonymous speech at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association conference where he appeared in disguise as Dr. Henry Anonymous
Bennett Haselton (M.A.) – founder of Circumventor.com and Peacefire.org, listed in Google Vulnerability Program Hall of Fame for finding and fixing security holes in Google products^[289]
John Jay Hooker (J.D. 1957) – lawyer, entrepreneur, political gadfly, special assistant to Robert F. Kennedy^[290]
Elizabeth Dearborn Hughes (B.A. 2006) – founder of the Akilah Institute in Kigali, Rwanda's first women's college^[291]
Rhoda Kaufman (B.S. 1909) – social activist; White House Conference on Social Work, Hoover administration; League of Women Voters;^[292] UN Women's Organization^[293]
Howard Kester (B.D. 1931) – clergyman and social reformer, organized the Southern Tenant Farmers Union designed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt^[294]
George Ross Kirkpatrick – anti-militarist writer and political activist, 1916 vice presidential nominee of the Socialist Party of America
James Lawson (M.Div. 1960) – civil rights pioneer
Robert V. Lee (B.A. 1972) – humanitarian, Episcopal priest, chairman and CEO of FreshMinistries, HIV/AIDS activist^[295]
Millicent Lownes-Jackson (M.B.A., Ph.D.) – founder, The World Institute for Sustainable Education and Research (The WISER Group)^[296]
Sara Alderman Murphy (B.A. 1945) – civil rights activist, founder of Peace Links^[297]
Marie Ragghianti (B.S. 1975) – parole board administrator, whistleblower who exposed Ray Blanton's "clemency for cash" scandal^[298]
Arthur F. Raper (M.A. 1925) – sociologist, Commission on Interracial Cooperation
Charlie Soong (B.Th. 1885) – Chinese missionary and businessman, key figure in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, father of the Soong sisters
Julie Tien (M.L.S.) – Taiwanese politician and activist, National Women's League of Taiwan^[299]
Madhavi Venkatesan (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – economist and environmental activist, founder and executive director of Sustainable Practices^[300]
Don West (D.Div. 1932) – civil rights activist, labor organizer, poet, educator
Marie C. Wilson (B.A. 1962) – founder and president emerita of The White House Project, founder of Ms. Foundation for Women^[301]
Wolf Wolfensberger* (Ph.D. 1962) – influencer of disability policy through his development of social role valorization, exposed Nazi death camp targeting of the disabled

Journalism and media

Michelle Alexander (B.A. 1989) – author of The New Jim Crow, columnist for The New York Times, Truman Scholar
Joseph Alexander Altsheler – reporter and editor, New York World
Thomas J. Anderson (B.A. 1934) – columnist and publisher, American Party presidential nominee in 1976^[302]
Skip Bayless (B.A. 1974) – Fox Sports personality and nationally syndicated columnist
William E. Beard (B.A. 1893) – journalist, war correspondent, naval historian
Roy Blount Jr. (B.A 1963) – humorist, sportswriter, and author
Mel Bradford (Ph.D. 1962) – paleoconservative political commentator
David Brinkley – broadcast journalist, NBC and ABC; Emmy and Peabody Award winner; Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992)^[303]
Samuel Ashley Brown (Ph.D. 1958) – founder of the literary magazine Shenandoah
Innis Brown (B.A. 1906) – sporting editor of The Atlanta Journal, Rhodes Scholar^[304]
Deena Clark (M.A.) – television news reporter and journalist, The Deena Clark Show on CBS
Lorianne Crook (B.A. 1978) – radio and television host, co-host of Crook & Chase
Terrance Dean (M.A., Ph.D.) – former MTV executive and author of Hiding in Hip-Hop
Alonso Duralde (B.A. 1988) – senior film critic, The Wrap; syndicate writer, Reuters
Linda Ellerbee (A&S 1962–64) – journalist for NBC News, host of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee
Eric Etheridge (B.A. 1979) – first editor of George magazine; author, Breach of Peace (2008)
Frye Gaillard (B.A. 1968) – former editor at The Charlotte Observer
Willie Geist (B.A. 1997) – humorist and host on NBC's Today, anchor of Sunday Today with Willie Geist, co-anchor of MSNBC's Morning Joe
Laurentino Gomes – Brazilian journalist and writer, author of 1808 and 1822
John Steele Gordon (B.A. 1966) – business and finance writer, Wall Street Journal contributor^[305]
Fred Graham (LL.B 1959) – chief anchor and managing editor of the former Court TV, legal correspondent for the New York Times, and CBS News
Clint Grant – photojournalist featured in Paris Match, Newsweek, Time, and Life, covered the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Amelia Greenhall (B.E. 2009) – co-founder and executive director of Double Union, tech blogger
George Zhibin Gu – Chinese political and economic journalist
Alex Heard (B.A. 1980) – editorial director of Outside magazine; editor and writer for The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Washington Post and Slate
Molly Henneberg (B.S. 1995) – correspondent, Fox News
Hunter Hillenmeyer (B.A. 2003) – financial columnist for TheStreet.com^[306]
Henry Blue Kline (M.A. 1929) – member of the Southern Agrarians
Hildy Kuryk (B.A. 1999) – director of communications, Vogue; former national finance director, Democratic National Committee^[307]
Paul Lakeland (Ph.D. 1981) – British author, contributing blogger to The Huffington Post^[308] and a contributing writer to Commonweal
Jincey Lumpkin (B.A. 2002) – producer and columnist for the Huffington Post,^[309] named one of the 100 most influential gay people by Out Magazine^[310]
Andrew Maraniss (B.A. 1992) – author of Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South
Ralph McGill (B.A. 1916) – anti-segregationist Atlanta Constitution editor and publisher, 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing^[311]
Don McNay (M.A.) – financial author and The Huffington Post contributor^[312]
Buster Olney (B.A. 1988) – ESPN baseball writer, former sportswriter for The New York Times
Richard Quest – British reporter, anchor for CNN International^[313]
Wendell Rawls, Jr. (B.A. 1970) – journalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times,^[314] 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting^[315]
Grantland Rice (B.A. 1901) – sportswriter, Atlanta Journal, Cleveland News, New York Tribune; namesake, Grantland Rice Trophy
Fred Russell (B.A. 1927) – sportswriter, Golden Era of Sports, Saturday Evening Post
Christine Sadler* (B.A. 1927) – pioneer female journalist; reporter and Sunday editor, The Washington Post; Washington, D.C., editor, McCall's^[316]
Jeffrey D. Sadow (Ph.D. 1985) – political scientist, columnist
Sebastião Salgado (M.A. 1968) – Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Académie des Beaux-Arts^[317]
James Sandler (M.S. 2012) – investigative journalist, New York Times, PBS Frontline; 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (team)^[318]
Edward Schumacher-Matos (B.A. 1968) – former ombudsman, NPR; reporter; The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal; op-ed columnist, The Washington Post; 1980 Pulitzer Prize (team)^[319]
John Seigenthaler – founding editorial director of USA Today, First Amendment rights advocate, founder of the First Amendment Center^[320]
Elaine Shannon (B.A. 1968) – investigative journalist, former political correspondent for Newsweek and Time^[321]
Jim Squires (B.A. 1966) – former editor of the Chicago Tribune^[322]
James G. Stahlman (B.A. 1916) – publisher of the Nashville Banner, philanthropist, Maria Moors Cabot Prize winner^[323]
Bill Steltemeier (B.A., J.D.) – founding president of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)^[324]
Clay Travis (J.D. 2004) – radio host
William Ridley Wills (B.A. 1956) – novelist, poet and journalist, member of the Fugitive group, Sunday Editor for the New York World
Edwin Wilson (B.A. 1950) – theater critic for The Wall Street Journal (1972–1994), former president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle
E. Thomas Wood (B.A. 1986) – author and journalist

Law

Attorneys

Lawrence Barcella (J.D. 1970) – criminal defense lawyer, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, lead counsel for the House October Surprise Task Force^{[citation needed]}
Lucius E. Burch Jr. (B.A. 1930, J.D. 1936) – attorney, best known for his contributions to conservation, civil rights movement and being attorney for Martin Luther King Jr.^[325]^[326]
Donald Q. Cochran (B.A. 1980, J.D. 1992) – United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee^[327]
Bobby Lee Cook – defense attorney, inspiration for the television series Matlock main character Ben Matlock, which starred Andy Griffith as a Georgia attorney^[328]^[329]
Hickman Ewing (B.A. 1964) – United States attorney, special prosecutor who oversaw the Whitewater investigation^[330]
Zachary T. Fardon (B.A. 1988, J.D. 1992) – United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Attorney in Chicago, appointed by Barack Obama^[331]
Alice S. Fisher (B.A. 1989) – Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C., office of Latham & Watkins LLP.,^[332] former assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice
Sylvan Gotshal (B.A. 1917) – lawyer, known for his advocacy of industrial design rights,^[333]^[334] founding partner of Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Margie Pitts Hames (J.D. 1961) – civil rights lawyer who argued the abortion rights case Doe v. Bolton before the U.S. Supreme Court^[335]
Marci Hamilton (B.A. 1979) – lawyer, won Boerne v. Flores (1997), Constitutional law scholar, Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania^[336]
Robert J. Kabel (J.D. 1972) – attorney and lobbyist with Faegre Baker Daniels, involved in developing the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (1999) and the Dodd-Frank Act (2010)^[337]
John Bell Keeble (LL.B 1888) – attorney, co-founded Keeble, Seay, Stockwell and Keeble,^[338] Vanderbilt University Law School Dean (1915–29)
Jack Kershaw (B.A. 1935) – attorney and sculptor who represented James Earl Ray^[339]
James C. Kirby (B.A. 1950) – former chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, co-authored the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution^[340]
Charles M. La Follette (J.D.) – deputy chief of counsel for the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials (1947)
Alice Martin (B.S. 1978) – former United States Attorney who amassed 140 public corruption convictions and collected approximately $750M in qui tam healthcare fraud settlements^[341]
James F. Neal (J.D. 1957) – trial lawyer, Watergate prosecutor who prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa and top officials of the Nixon Administration, special investigator of the Abscam and Iran-contra scandals
John Randolph Neal Jr. (LL.B 1896) – attorney, best known for his role as chief counsel during the 1925 Scopes trial
Neil Papiano (LL.B 1961) – lawyer, and managing partner of Iverson, Yoakum, Papiano & Hatch
Michelle M. Pettit (J.D. 2001) – Assistant United States Attorney from California, National Security and Cybercrimes Section^[342]
William Bradford Reynolds (LL.B 1967) – Assistant Attorney General in charge of the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division (1981–1988)
Ronald J. Rychlak (J.D. 1983) – lawyer, jurist, and political commentator
James Gordon Shanklin (B.A., LL.B 1935) – lawyer, key player in the investigation of the Kennedy assassination, co-implemented the FBI's National Crime Information Center
Jack Thompson (J.D. 1976) – Vanderbilt Law School, disbarred attorney and activist against obscenity and violence in media and entertainment
Horace Henry White (B.A. 1886, LL.B 1887) – lawyer, authored legal volumes White's Notarial Guide and White's Analytical Index^[343]
Walton J. Wood – attorney and jurist who served as the first public defender in United States history (1914–1921)

Jurists

Tamara W. Ashford (J.D. 1994) – Article I judge of the United States Tax Court
Jennings Bailey (B.L. 1890) – District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Jeffrey S. Bivins (J.D. 1986) – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
Claria Horn Boom (J.D. 1994) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for Eastern and Western Kentucky
John P. Bourcier (J.D. 1953) – former justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court
John K. Bush (B.A. 1986) – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit (2017–present)
Charles Hardy Carr (B.A. 1925) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and Central California
Albert M. Clark (LL.B 1900) – justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri
Cornelia Clark (B.A. 1971) – justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
Elijah Allen Cox (B.A. 1909) – federal judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi
Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. (J.D. 1981) – Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Larry Creson (LL.B 1928) – former justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
Frank P. Culver Jr. (B.A. 1911) – former justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
Martha Craig Daughtrey (B.A. 1964) – senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Mary Dimke (J.D. 2002) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
Frank Drowota (B.A. 1960, J.D. 1965) – former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
Eric Eisnaugle (J.D. 2003) – judge of the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal
Julia Smith Gibbons (B.A. 1972) – United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
S. Price Gilbert (B.S. 1883) – former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia
David J. Hale (B.A. 1982) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
William Joseph Haynes Jr. (J.D. 1973) – former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Thomas Aquinas Higgins (B.A. 1954, LL.B 1957) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
John W. Holland (LL.B 1906) – former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Andrew O. Holmes (B.S. 1927, LL.B. 1929) – justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court^[344]
Marcia Morales Howard (B.S. 1987) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
Oscar Richard Hundley (LL.B 1877) – United States Federal Judge by recess appointment from President Theodore Roosevelt
Albert C. Hunt (LL.B 1909) – former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma
Edwin Hunt (B.A., J.D.) – appellate advocate, Assistant Attorney General,^[345] U.S. checkers champion (1934)^[346]
Daniel E. Hydrick (B.A. 1882) – former associate justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina
Alan Bond Johnson (B.A. 1961) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming
William F. Jung (B.A. 1980) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
Jeremy Kernodle (J.D. 2001) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas^[347]
William C. Koch Jr. (J.D. 1972) – former justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
W. H. Kornegay (LL.B 1890) – former associate justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, delegate to Oklahoma Constitutional Convention
James C. Mahan (J.D. 1973) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
Jon Phipps McCalla (J.D. 1974) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
Leon Clarence McCord (Law, 1900) – senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Travis Randall McDonough (J.D. 1997) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
Robert Malcolm McRae Jr. (B.A. 1943) – former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
James Clark McReynolds (B.A. 1882) – Supreme Court Justice (1914–1941); Assistant Attorney General (1903–1907)
Gilbert S. Merritt Jr. (LL.B 1960) – lawyer and jurist, senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Edward H. Meyers (B.A. 1995) – United States Federal Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims
Benjamin K. Miller (J.D. 1961) – former chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court
Brian Stacy Miller (J.D. 1995) – Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
John Musmanno (J.D. 1966) – senior judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court
John Trice Nixon (LL.B 1960) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Tom Parker (J.D.) – Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court
Tommy Parker (J.D. 1989) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
Carolyn Miller Parr (M.A. 1960) – former judge of the United States Tax Court (1985-2002)
Marlin T. Phelps (J.D.) – former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona
Thomas W. Phillips (J.D. 1969) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
Jonathan Pittman (J.D. 1990) – associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
Sam C. Pointer Jr. (A.B. 1955) – attorney in Birmingham, Alabama and a United States district judge for Northern Alabama, noted figure in complex multidistrict class-action litigation
Eli J. Richardson (J.D. 1992) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Jay Richardson (B.S. 1999) – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit (2018–present)
Kevin H. Sharp (J.D. 1993) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Eugene Edward Siler Jr. (B.A. 1958) – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
Jane Branstetter Stranch (J.D. 1978) – Order of the Coif, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Sarah Hicks Stewart (J.D. 1992) – associate justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama
Aleta Arthur Trauger (M.A. 1972) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Emory Marvin Underwood (B.A. 1900) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Thomas A. Varlan (J.D. 1981) – Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
Roger Vinson (J.D. 1971) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, former member of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court^[348]
Harry W. Wellford (LL.B 1950) – senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Samuel Cole Williams (LL.B 1884) – noted 19th and 20th century Tennessee jurist, historian, educator, and businessman
Billy Roy Wilson (J.D. 1965) – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. (B.A. 1952, J.D. 1954) – Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
Staci Michelle Yandle (J.D. 1987) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois

Military

Spence M. Armstrong (transferred to Navy) – United States Air Force Lieutenant General, Defense and Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal recipient
Archibald Vincent Arnold (M.A.) – United States Army Major General, 7th Infantry Division during World War II, Army Distinguished Service Medal, former military governor of Korea^[349]
Henry L. Brandon (J.D.) – United States Naval Aviator, Corsair Fighter-Bomber Squadron VBF-82
Kendall L. Card (B.E. 1977) – United States Navy Vice Admiral, 64th director of Naval Intelligence,^[350] Defense Superior Service Medal recipient
Michael Bruce Colegrove (D.Phil.) – former colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, 5th president of the Hargrave Military Academy
Don Flickinger (M.D. 1934) – United States Air Force Brigadier General, aerospace medicine pioneer; commander, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Distinguished Service Medal
Evelyn Greenblatt Howren – pioneering female aviator, first class of Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II
Tramm Hudson (B.A. 1975) – United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, 3rd Infantry Division
Claiborne H. Kinnard Jr. (B.E. 1937) – United States Army Air Force decorated World War II fighter ace, 355th Fighter Group, Distinguished Service Cross
William J. Livsey (M.S. 1964) – United States Army Four-Star General, commander in chief of United Nations Command, Defense and Army Distinguished Service Medal recipient
John Mazach (B.A. 1966) – United States Navy Vice Admiral, commander of the Naval Air Force Atlantic
Lee E. Payne (M.D. 1983) – United States Air Force, former Command Surgeon of the Air Mobility Command,^[351] Distinguished Service Medal
Barbara S. Pope (B.A. 1972) – United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy
William Estel Potts (B.A. 1958) – United States Army Major General, Army Distinguished Service Medal, 22nd Chief of Ordnance for the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame
Jack Reed (B.A. 1947) – United States Army, Signal Intelligence Service during World War II
William "Rip" Robertson – United States Marine Corps Captain in the Pacific Theater, World War II, Paramilitary Operations Officer for the CIA's Special Activities Division, CIA Case Officer
Maritza Sáenz Ryan (J.D. 1988) – United States Army Colonel, first female and Hispanic head of the department of law at the United States Military Academy
Evander Shapard (LL.B 1917) – Royal Air Force World War I flying ace, 92 Squadron, six victories flying the S.E.5a, British Distinguished Flying Cross^[352]
William Ruthven Smith – United States Army Major General, Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, Distinguished Service Medal recipient
Nora W. Tyson (B.A. 1979) – United States Navy Vice Admiral, Legion of Merit, first woman to lead a U.S. Navy ship fleet^[353]
Volney F. Warner (M.A. 1959) – United States Army Four-Star General, Commander-in-Chief, United States Readiness Command (1979–1981), Defense Distinguished Service Medal recipient, coined the phrase "boots on the ground"^[354]

Ministry and religion

Arto Antturi – Finnish Lutheran priest, vicar for the parish of Pitäjänmäki
T. C. Chao (M.A. 1916, B.D. 1917) – one of the leading Christian theological thinkers in China in the early twentieth century^[355]
James L. Crenshaw (Ph.D. 1964) – Robert L. Flowers Professor of the Old Testament at Duke University, leading scholar in Old Testament Wisdom literature, Guggenheim Fellow^[356]
Jane Dixon (B.A., M.A.T.) – Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, second female bishop of the Episcopal Church^[357]
Musa Dube (Ph.D. 1997) – Botswana feminist theologian, 2011 Humboldt Prize winner^[358]
Robert W. Estill (D.Min. 1980) – 9th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina^[359]
Mary McClintock Fulkerson (Ph.D 1986) – Professor Emerita of Theology at Duke Divinity School^[360]
Robert W. Funk (Ph.D. 1953) – biblical scholar, founder of the Jesus Seminar and the nonprofit Westar Institute, Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Scholar
William M. Greathouse – minister and emeritus general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene
William J. Hadden (M.Div. 1946) – Episcopal university chaplain, U.S. Army chaplain, U.S. Navy chaplain; desegregationist, World War II's V-12 Navy College Training Program at Vanderbilt
Charles Robert Hager (M.D. 1894) – Swiss-American missionary, founder of the China Congregational Church in Hong Kong, baptized Sun Yat-sen, first president of the Republic of China^[361]
John Wesley Hardt – bishop of the United Methodist Church, author, and biographer^[362]
William S. Hatcher (B.A. 1957, M.A. 1958) – mathematician, philosopher; served on several National Spiritual Assemblies; wrote several books on the Baháʼí Faith after his 1957 conversion at Vanderbilt
Susan Bunton Haynes (M.Div. 1993) – 11th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia
William G. Johnsson (Ph.D.) – Seventh-day Adventist author, former editor of the Adventist Review
Yung Suk Kim (Ph.D. 2006) – Korean-American biblical scholar and author, editor of the Journal of Bible and Human Transformation^[363] and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion^[364]
Walter Russell Lambuth (M.D. 1877) – recipient of theology and medical degrees from Vanderbilt; Methodist missionary to China, Japan and Africa; later bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
John H. Leith (M.A. 1946) – Presbyterian theologian and ordained minister, authored at 18 books on Christianity
Tat-Siong Benny Liew (M.A. 1994, Ph.D. 1997) – 1956 chair of New Testament studies at the College of the Holy Cross
Robert McIntyre – Scottish-born American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Mark A. Noll (Ph.D. 1975) – progressive evangelical scholar, historian at the University of Notre Dame
Carroll D. Osburn (D.Div. 1970) – scholar recognized as one of North America's leading New Testament textual critics and a prominent Christian egalitarian
Mitch Pacwa SJ (Ph.D.) – bi-ritual American Jesuit priest celebrating liturgy in both the Roman and Maronite rites, president and founder of Ignatius Productions, accomplished linguist
William Powlas Peery (M.A. 1959) – pastor of the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church in Andhra Pradesh, India, significant figure in South Indian Christianity in the 20th century
David Penchansky (Ph.D. 1988) – scholar of the Hebrew Bible, literary critic to the Old Testament, particularly its Wisdom Literature
Brant J. Pitre (M.T.S. 1999) – New Testament scholar, distinguished research professor of scripture at the Augustine Institute, Catholic transubstantiation theorist
Clare Purcell (B.D. 1916) – Methodist bishop
Sidney Sanders (B.A. 1952) – 6th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina
Laurel C. Schneider (Ph.D. 1997) – professor of religious studies, religion and culture at the Vanderbilt Divinity School
Timothy F. Sedgwick (M.A., Ph.D.) – Episcopal ethicist;^[365] editor, Anglican Theological Review; president, board of directors, Society of Christian Ethics
Ken Stone (M.A. 1992, Ph.D. 1995) – author, chairman of the Reading, Theory and the Bible Section of the Society of Biblical Literature, Lambda Literary Award winner
Thomas B. Warren (M.A., Ph.D.) – Restorationist philosopher and theologian
B. Michael Watson (D.M) – bishop of The United Methodist Church
Sharon D. Welch (Ph.D. 1982) – social ethicist and author; Affiliate Faculty, Meadville Lombard Theological School; former associate professor, Harvard Divinity School^[366]
Walter Ziffer (B.E. 1954) – Czech-born Holocaust survivor, theologian, scholar, and author^[367]

Science, mathematics, and engineering

Mary Jo Baedecker (B.S. 1964) – geochemist, established the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program at the United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award, Meinzer Award
Edward Emerson Barnard (B.A. 1887) – astronomer who discovered Barnard's star, Jupiter's fifth moon, nearly a dozen comets, and nebulous emissions in supernovae
James L Barnard (Ph.D. 1971) – South African engineer, pioneer of biological nutrient remover, a non-chemical means of water treatment to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from used water
Laura P. Bautz (B.S. 1961) – astronomer who created the Bautz–Morgan classification of galaxy clusters;^[368] professor, Northwestern University; director, astronomical science, National Science Foundation^[369]
Bob Boniface (B.A. 1987) – automobile and industrial designer, director, Global Buick exterior design, director, Cadillac exterior design
Sylvia Bozeman (M.S. 1970) – mathematician whose research on functional analysis and image processing has been funded by the Army Research Office, National Science Foundation, and NASA
Kimberly Bryant (B.E. 1989) – biotechnologist for Genentech, Novartis Vaccines, Diagnostics, and Merck, founder of Black Girls Code
Charles Richard Chappell (B.A. 1965) – NASA astronaut, former mission scientist for Spacelab 1, two-time NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal winner^[370]
Yvonne Clark (M.S. 1972) – pioneer for African-American and women engineers, worked for NASA, Westinghouse, and Ford
Baratunde A. Cola (B.E 2002, M.S. 2004) – scientist and engineer specializing in carbon nanotube technology, Alan T. Waterman Award winner
Shirley Corriher (B.A. 1959) – biochemist and author
William A. Davis Jr. (B.E. 1950) – engineer and distinguished leader in Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) for the United States Army
John H. DeWitt Jr. (B.E. 1928) – pioneer in radio broadcasting, radar astronomy and photometry, observed the first successful reception of radio echoes off the moon on January 10, 1946, as part of Project Diana^[371]^[372]
Nathaniel Dean (Ph.D. 1987) – mathematician who has made contributions to abstract and algorithmic graph theory, as well as data visualization and parallel computing^[373]
Harry George Drickamer – pioneer experimentalist in high-pressure studies of condensed matter,^[374] 1974 Irving Langmuir Award, 1989 National Medal of Science
Eric Eidsness (B.E. 1967) – engineer, EPA administrator, wrote the EPA's first environmental impact statement (EIS)^[375] established the EPA's water quality standards^[376]^[377]
Lawrence C. Evans (B.A. 1971) – noted mathematician in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations, proved that solutions of concave, fully nonlinear, uniformly elliptic equations are $C^{2,\alpha }$ , National Academy of Sciences^[378]
Jordan French (B.E. 2007) – engineer and 3D food printing pioneer, founding CMO of BeeHex, Inc.^[379]
Fumiko Futamura (Ph.D. 2007) – mathematician known for her work on the mathematics of perspective,^[380] 2018 Carl B. Allendoerfer Award
Kenneth Galloway (B.A. 1962) – engineer researching solid-state devices, semiconductor technology, and radiation effects in electronics, IEEE Fellow
Mai Gehrke (Postdoc) – Danish mathematician on the theory of lattices at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)^[381]
Michael L. Gernhardt (B.S. 1978) – NASA astronaut and principal investigator of the Prebreathe Reduction Program at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center^[382]
G. Scott Hubbard (B.S. 1970) – former director of NASA's Ames Research Center, chairman SpaceX Safety Advisory Panel,^[383] restructured the Mars program in the wake of mission failures^[384]
Snehalata V. Huzurbazar (M.A. 1988) – statistician, known for her work in statistical genetics, and applications of statistics to geology, Elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association
Jedidah Isler – astrophysicist, expert on blazars (supermassive black holes)^[385] and the astrophysical jet streams emanating from them^[386]
Param Jaggi – inventor, invented Algae Mobile, a device that converts CO₂ emitted from cars into oxygen, CEO of Hatch Technologies, founder and CEO of EcoViate, Forbes 30 Under 30^[387]
Carl Jockusch (A&S 1959) – mathematician who proved (with Robert I. Soare) the low basis theorem, with applications to recursion theory and reverse mathematics^[388]
Steven E. Jones (Ph.D. 1978) – physicist, known for his long research on muon-catalyzed fusion and geo-fusion^[389]^[390]^[391]
John M. Jumper (B.S. 2007) – chemist and computer scientist, director at DeepMind Technologies,^[392] co-creator of AlphaFold,^[393] 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry^[394]
Michael Kearney (M.E. 2002) – youngest person in world history to attain a college degree, having done so at the age of ten;^[395] studied computer science at Vanderbilt
Betty Klepper (B.A. 1958) – USDA scientist at Rhizotron, co-authored more than 200 scientific publications;^[396] first female editor, Crop Science; first female fellow, SSSA; first female president, CSSA
Karen Kohanowich (B.S. 1982) – Undersea Technology Officer for the Office of Ocean Exploration and Research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations^[397]^[398]
Duncan Leitch (B.S. 2006, Ph.D. 2013) – neurobiologist who gained recognition for his work on the integumentary sensory organs in crocodilians
William R. Lucas (M.S., Ph.D.) – 4th director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center^[399]
Ashwin Mahesh (M.S. 1993) – Indian urbanist, journalist, politician and social technologist, climate scientist at NASA^[400]
Dennis Mammana (M.S.) – astronomy writer and sky photographer
Jennifer R. Mandel (Ph.D. 2008) – plant biologist researching plant population, quantitative genetics, evolutionary genetics, and phylogenetics
James Cullen Martin (M.S. 1952) – chemist, responsible for the hexafluorocumyl alcohol derived "Martin" bidentate ligand and a tridentate analog, co-invented the Dess–Martin periodinane, creator of the Martin sulfurane
Emil Wolfgang Menzel Jr. (Ph.D. 1958) – primatologist whose research laid the foundation for the contemporary understanding of communication and cognition in chimpanzees^[401]
Ronald E. Mickens (Ph.D. 1968) – physicist specialized in nonlinear dynamics and mathematical modeling with significant contributions to the theory of nonlinear oscillations^[402]^[403] and numerical analysis^[404]
James O. Mills (B.A. 1984) – archaeologist known for his work in paleopathology, excavations at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), the capital of Upper Egypt in the late 4th millennium BC, ancient Egypt's Protodynastic Period
Stanford Moore (B.A. 1935) – protein chemist, inventor of a method for sequencing proteins, winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Edward Craig Morris (B.A. 1961) – archaeologist whose Inca expeditions created a modern understanding of the Inca civilization,^[405] chair of department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History^[405]
Thiago David Olson (B.E. 2011) – electrical engineer and entrepreneur who created a homemade nuclear fusion reactor at age 17,^[406] electrical engineer at the U.S. Department of Defense, co-founder and CEO of Stratos Technologies, Inc.
Mendel L. Peterson (M.A. 1940) – pioneer of underwater archeology and former curator at the Smithsonian Institution, known as "the father of underwater archeology;"^[407]^[408] namesake of Peterson Island in Antarctica^[409]
Dorothy J. Phillips (B.A. 1967) – pioneering African-American chemist known for work on circular dichroism and bioseparation, director-at-Large of the American Chemical Society^[410]
Polly Phipps (M.A.) – social statistician, Senior Survey Methodologist at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics^[411]
Philip Thomas Porter (B.A. 1952, M.A. 1953, Ph.D.) – electrical engineer and one of the guiding pioneers of the invention and development of early cellular telephone networks
Joseph Melvin Reynolds (B.A. 1946) – physicist, first observation of Landau quantum oscillation in the Hall effect, first detection of LQO in Knight shift, NASA consultant, Guggenheim Fellow^[412]
George G. Robertson – senior researcher, Visualization and Interaction Research Group, Microsoft Research
Amy Rosemond (Ph.D. 1993) – aquatic ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist who advanced the understanding of how nutrients affect energy flow in detritus-based food webs,^[413]^[414] Ecological Society of America Fellow^[415]
J. Robert Sims (B.S. 1963) – chemical, mechanical engineer, former research engineer at ExxonMobil, inventor, former president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers^[416]
Rebecca Sparling (B.A. 1930, M.S. 1931) – materials engineer, advanced the field of metallurgy,^[417]^[418] pioneered dye penetrant inspection for aerospace applications^[419]
Ruth Stokes (M.A. 1923) – mathematician, cryptologist, and astronomer who made pioneering contributions to the theory of linear programming; founder of Pi Mu Epsilon^[420]
John Ridley Stroop (B.S. 1924, M.A. 1925, Ph.D. 1933) – psychologist known for discovering the Stroop effect, a psychological process related to word recognition, color and interference
James R. Thompson (B.S. 1960) – statistician known for biomathematically modeling HIV, AIDS, and cancer^[421]
Bruce J. Tromberg (B.A. 1979) – photochemist and a leading researcher in the field of biophotonics
Douglas Vakoch – astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, president of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence)^[422]
Kalliat Valsaraj (Ph.D. 1983) – inventor, chemical engineer; chemical thermodynamics and kinetics in environmental engineering; National Academy of Inventors,^[423] Royal Society of Chemistry^[424]
Davita Watkins (B.S. 2006) – chemist developing supramolecular synthesis methods to make new organic semiconducting materials for applications in optoelectronic devices^[425]
Marsha Rhea Williams (Ph.D. 1982) – first African-American woman to earn a computer science Ph.D., National Science Foundation fellow^[426]

Medicine

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado (B.S. 1986) – Venezuelan molecular biologist and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Jean R. Anderson (M.D.) – internationally recognized obstetrician and gynaecologist, founder and first director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital HIV Women's Health Program (1991)^[427]
Humphrey Bate (M.D. 1898) – physician and musician who served as a surgeon in the Spanish–American War (1898)
Eugene Lindsay Bishop (M.D. 1914) – director of health and safety, TVA, whose studies and control programs for malaria earned him a Lasker Award (1950)^[428]
Daniel Blain (M.D. 1929) – first medical director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
Ogden Bruton (M.D. 1933) – made significant advances in immunology,^[429]^[430] discovered Bruton-type agammaglobulinemia, namesake of Bruton's tyrosine kinase
Thomas C. Butler (M.D. 1967) – scientist specializing in infectious diseases including cholera and bubonic plague, credited with making oral hydration the standard treatment for diarrhea^[431]
David Charles (B.S. 1986, M.D. 1990) – neurologist, chief medical officer of the Vanderbilt Neuroscience Institute,^[432] director of telemedicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center^[433]
Alice Drew Chenoweth (M.D. 1932) – physician who specialized in pediatrics and public health, served as the chief of the Division of Health Services in the United States Children's Bureau
Robert D. Collins (B.A. 1948, M.D. 1951) – physician and pathologist who established the Lukes–Collins scheme for pathologic classification of lymphoma
Judith A. Cooper (M.S. 1972) – former director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Katherine Cullen (Ph.D. 1995) – biologist whose work provided direct evidence that the larger three-dimensional structure of the genome is related to its function^[434]
Juliet Daniel (Postdoc) – Canadian cancer biologist, discovered and named the protein ZBTB33 "Kaiso" at Vanderbilt in 1996^[435]
William H. Dobelle – biomedical researcher and artificial vision pioneer, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003
Allan L. Drash (B.A. 1953) – pediatric endocrinologist, former president of the American Diabetes Association, one of the original describers of the Denys–Drash syndrome^[436]
Wilton R. Earle (Ph.D. 1928) – cell biologist known for his research in cell culture techniques and carcinogenesis
Arnold Eskin (B.S) – leader in the discovery of mechanisms underlying entrainment of circadian clocks, developed the heuristic Eskinogram
Francis M. Fesmire (M.D. 1985) – emergency physician and nationally recognized expert in myocardial infarction^[437]
J. Donald M. Gass (B.A. 1950, M.D. 1957) – Canadian-American ophthalmologist, one of the world's leading specialists on diseases of the retina,^[438]^[439] first to describe many macular diseases^[440]
Ernest William Goodpasture (B.A. 1908) – pathologist who invented methods for growing viruses and rickettsiae in fertilized chicken eggs, enabling the development of vaccination,^[441] described Goodpasture syndrome^[442]
Barney S. Graham (Ph.D. 1991) – chief, Viral Pathogenesis Lab, Vaccine Research Center; co-designed spike protein with Moderna for the COVID-19 vaccine,^[443] Time 100 Most Influential People (2024)^[444]
James Tayloe Gwathmey (M.D. 1899) – physician and pioneer of early anesthetic devices for medical use,^[445] hailed as the "Father of Modern Anesthesia"^[446]
Tinsley R. Harrison – physician and creator and editor of the first five editions of internal medicine textbook Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine
Tina Hartert (M.D., M.P.H) – Lulu H. Owen Endowed Chair in Medicine, Vanderbilt University; leader, Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS (HEROS) study, National Institutes of Health^[447]
Richard Hatchett (B.A. 1989, M.D. 1995) – CEO of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations,^[448] Secretary of Health and Human Services Distinguished Service Award^[449]
Dorothy E. Johnson (B.S. 1942) – nursing theorist, created the Behavioral System Model, a founder of modern system-based nursing theory^[450]
Robb Krumlauf (B.E. 1970) – developmental biologist best known for his progression of the understanding of Hox genes^[451]
Zenas Sanford Loftis (B.S. 1901) – physician, medical missionary to Tibet
Louis Lowenstein (B.A., M.D.) – medical researcher who made significant contributions in hematology and immunology
John Owsley Manier (B.A. 1907) – physician, accompanied the Vanderbilt hospital unit to Fort McPherson in 1917^[452]
G. Patrick Maxwell (M.D.) – plastic surgeon, first successful microsurgical transfer of the latissimus muscle flap at Johns Hopkins University,^[453] advanced the design of tissue expanders^[454]^[455]
Hugh Jackson Morgan (B.A. 1914) – former chair the department of medicine at Vanderbilt, former president of the American College of Physicians
Harold L. Moses (M.D. 1962) – Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of cancer biology, medicine and pathology, and director emeritus at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, president of the American Association for Cancer Research (1991)
Sharlene Newman (B.E. 1993) – pioneered use of neuroimaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging to study language processing in the human brain^[456]
George C. Nichopoulos (M.D. 1959) – physician best known as Elvis Presley's personal physician^[457]
Jodi Nunnari (Ph.D.) – pioneer in mitochondrial biology; founding principal investigator, Altos Labs;^[458] editor-in-chief, The Journal of Cell Biology; former president, American Society for Cell Biology
Lacy Overby (B.A. 1941, M.S. 1945, Ph.D. 1951) – virologist known for his contributions to Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C research^[459]^[460]
William A. Pusey (B.A. 1885) – physician and past president of the American Medical Association, expert in the study of syphilis, authored the first history of dermatology in English
Sanford Rosenthal (M.D. 1920) – pioneered liver function tests,^[461]^[462] discovered rongalite as the antidote for mercury poisoning,^[463] discovered an antibiotic cure for pneumococcal pneumonia,^[464] Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal (1962)
Samuel Santoro (M.D./Ph.D. 1979) – pioneering researcher in the structure of integrin adhesive receptors for extracellular matrix proteins,^[465] chair of the department of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt^[466]
Robert Taylor Segraves (B.A. 1963, M.D. 1971) – psychiatrist best known for his work on sexual dysfunction and its pharmacologic causes and treatments
Karen Seibert (Ph.D.) – pharmacological scientist, discoverer of celecoxib, instrumental in the elaboration of the COX-2 inflammatory pathway^[467]
Hrayr Shahinian – skull base surgeon and founder of the Skull Base Institute
Norman Shumway (M.D. 1949) – 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform a successful heart transplant in the United States^[468]
John Abner Snell (M.D. 1908) – missionary surgeon and hospital administrator in Suzhou (Soochow), China
Sophie Spitz (M.D. 1932) – pathologist who published the first case series of a special form of benign melanocytic nevi that have come to be known as Spitz nevi^[469]
Mildred T. Stahlman (B.A. 1943, M.D. 1946) – professor of pediatrics and pathology at Vanderbilt, started the first newborn intensive care unit in the world,^[68] winner of the John Howland Award
Ghanshyam Swarup – Indian molecular biologist known for his studies on glaucoma and the discovery of protein tyrosine phosphatase, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar laureate^[470]
Carol Tamminga (M.D. 1971) – psychiatrist and neuroscientist focusing in schizophrenia, psychotic bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder, National Academy of Medicine fellow
Robert V. Tauxe (M.D.) – director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases^[471] of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
James C. Tsai (M.B.A. 1998) – president, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai,^[472]^[473] system chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai Health System
Krystal Tsosie (MPH, Ph.D.) – geneticist and bioethicist known for promoting Indigenous data sovereignty and studying genetics within Indigenous communities
Rhonda Voskuhl (M.D.) – physician and research scientist, Brain Research Institute (BRI) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, principal investigator for treatment trials for multiple sclerosis (MS)^[474]
Peter Walter (M.S. 1977) – German-American molecular biologist and biochemist known for work on unfolded protein response and the signal recognition particle, 2014 Lasker Award, 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences winner^[475]
Levi Watkins (M.D. 1970) – heart surgeon and civil rights activist; first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in a human patient with surgical technologist Vivien Thomas^[476]^[477]
Logan Wright (Ph.D. 1964) – pediatric psychologist, former president of the American Psychological Association, coined the term "pediatric psychology"
Li Yang (Ph.D.) – biologist, senior investigator and head of the tumor microenvironment section at the National Cancer Institute^[478]
Lynn Zechiedrich (Ph.D. 1990) – biochemist, developed novel approaches to characterize the topography of DNA,^[479] National Academy of Inventors (2017)

Notable faculty and staff

Virginia Abernethy – professor emerita of psychiatry and anthropology; population expert; immigration reduction advocate
Douglas Adams – distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering
Akram Aldroubi – professor of mathematics and Fellow of the American Mathematical Society
Sidney Altman – Canadian-American molecular biologist, former researcher in molecular biology at Vanderbilt,^[480] 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner^[481]
Igor Ansoff – Russian-American applied mathematician, known as the father of strategic management
Celia Applegate – scholar, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History, Affiliate Faculty of Musicology and Ethnomusicology
Richard Arenstorf – mathematician, discovered a stable orbit between the Earth and the Moon (Arenstorf Orbit), which was the basis of the orbit used by the Apollo Program for going to the Moon^[482]
Jeremy Atack – research professor emeritus of economics
Nils Aall Barricelli – Norwegian-Italian mathematician whose early computer-assisted experiments in symbiogenesis and evolution are considered pioneering in artificial life research^[483]
Larry Bartels – political scientist, co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and Shayne Chair in Public Policy and Social Science
Eugene Biel-Bienne – Austrian painter, former faculty of the department of fine arts in the College of Arts and Science
Camilla Benbow – dean of Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, scholar on education of gifted youth
John Keith Benton (1896–1956) – dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, 1939–1956
Lauren Benton –, historian known for works on the history of empires, Nelson O. Tyrone, Jr. Professor of History and professor of law^[484]
Michael Bess – Chancellor's Professor of History, professor of European studies
David Blackbourn – British historian, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History
Alfred Blalock – professor of surgery; in the 1930s did pioneering research on traumatic shock^[485]
Paolo Boffetta – Italian epidemiologist
John D. Boice Jr. – professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine whose discoveries "have been used to formulate public health measures to reduce population exposure to radiation and prevent radiation-associated diseases"^[486]
Eric Bond –, economist, Joe L. Roby Professor of Economics
William James Booth – professor of political science, professor of philosophy
Constance Bumgarner Gee – art policy scholar, memoirist
George Arthur Buttrick – Christian scholar
Brandon R. Byrd – scholar of African American history
William Caferro – Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History,^[487]^[488]^[489]^[490] 2010 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow^[491]
John Tyler Caldwell (1911–1991) – professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, 1939–1947; chancellor of North Carolina State University, 1959–1975
Joy H. Calico – Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Musicology at the Blair School of Music,^[492]^[493] Berlin Prize Winner (2005)
Kenneth C. Catania, neurobiologist – Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences, MacArthur Fellow (2006)
Jay Clayton – literary critic, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy
Jeff Coffin – Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, member of Dave Matthews Band and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, faculty of the Blair School of Music
Stanley Cohen – biochemist, discoverer of cellular growth factors, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Alain Connes – mathematician, Fields Medal Winner (1982)
James C. Conwell – mechanical engineer, president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Bruce Cooil – Dean Samuel B. and Evelyn R. Richmond Professor of Management at Vanderbilt University in the Owen Graduate School of Management
Tim Corbin – head coach, Vanderbilt Commodores Men's Baseball (2003–present), led Commodores to 2014 National Championship
Margaret Cuninggim – dean of women, 1966–1973; namesake of the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center on campus
Walter Clyde Curry – academic, medievalist and poet, member of Fugitives, joined the English department in 1915, chair of the English department (1941–1955)
J. Dewey Daane – economist and the Frank K. Houston Professor of Finance, emeritus and senior advisor, Financial Markets Research Center at Vanderbilt University,^[494] Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve^[495]
Richard L. Daft – sociologist
Larry Dalton – chemist best known for his work in polymeric nonlinear electro-optics;^[496] introduced the concept of "saturation transfer spectroscopy" while at Vanderbilt
Kate Daniels – poet
Donald Davie, British Movement poet and literary critic, author of Purity of Diction in English Verse, Vanderbilt professor (1978–1988)
Colin Dayan – Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities
Max Delbrück – pioneering molecular biologist, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Arthur Demarest – Ingram Professor of Anthropology, Mesoamerican scholar
Collins Denny (1854–1943) – professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt until 1911; taught John Crowe Ransom; tried to "impose theological control over the university" when he became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South^[497]
Jacob M. Dickinson – professor of law 1897–1899 while he was an attorney for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad; United States Secretary of War, 1909–1911^[498]
Tom Dillehay – anthropologist, Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Religion, and Culture^[499]
Tony Earley – novelist
Jesse Ehrenfeld – professor of anesthesiology, surgery, biomedical informatics, and health policy, chair-elect of the American Medical Association, leading researcher in the field of biomedical informatics
Mark Ellingham – professor of mathematics, discoverer and namesake of the Ellingham–Horton graphs, two cubic 3-vertex-connected bipartite graphs that have no Hamiltonian cycle^[500]
James W. Ely Jr. – Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law emeritus and professor of history emeritus, recipient of the Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize
Leonard Feldman – physicist, named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2016 for contributions to semiconductor-dielectric interfaces for MOS technologies^[501]
Charlotte Froese Fischer – chemist and mathematician responsible for the development of the multi-configurational self-consistent field of computational chemistry
Edward F. Fischer – professor of anthropology
Daniel M. Fleetwood – Olin H. Landreth Chair of the Electrical Engineering, co-invented a memory chip based on mobile protons, one of the top 250 most highly cited researchers in engineering,^[502] Chess Grandmaster
Walter Lynwood Fleming – historian of the South and Reconstruction, dean of the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Sciences in 1923 and later director of the graduate school, supporter of the Southern Agrarians
Jim Foglesong – member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
Hezekiah William Foote – co-founder and Vanderbilt trustee; Confederate veteran, attorney, planter and state politician from Mississippi; great-grandfather of Civil War author Shelby Foote
Harold Ford Jr. – former U.S. Congressman, candidate for Senate
William Franke – academic and philosopher, professor of Comparative Literature
Marilyn Friedman – philosopher, W. Alton Jones Chair of Philosophy
Bill Frist – Majority Leader (2002–2007); U.S. Senate (1995–2007); former transplant surgeon
F. Drew Gaffney – NASA astronaut, Payload Specialist for the STS-40 Space Life Sciences (SLS 1) Space Shuttle mission, professor of medicine
Sidney Clarence Garrison (1885–1945) – 2nd president of Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), 1938–1945
Isabel Gauthier (Ph.D. 1998) – David K. Wilson Chair of Psychology, cognitive neuroscientist
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen – Romanian American mathematician, statistician and economist, distinguished professor of economics, emeritus (1949–1976), progenitor and a paradigm founder in economics, his work was seminal in establishing ecological economics
Sam B. Girgus – author, film and literature scholar
Ellen Goldring – education scholar
Ernest William Goodpasture – pioneering virologist; invented the method of growing viruses in fertile chickens' eggs
George J. Graham Jr. – political theorist who trained generations of political scientists at Vanderbilt, Fulbright scholar, Guggenheim Fellow
Alexander Little Page Green – Methodist minister; a founder of Vanderbilt; his portrait hangs in the Board of Trust lounge of Kirkland Hall on the Vanderbilt campus
Paul Greengard – visiting scholar, neuroscientist known for his work on molecular and cellular function of neurons, 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
F. Peter Guengerich – professor of biochemistry and the director of the Center in Molecular Toxicology, William C. Rose Award winner
Peter Guralnick – music critic and historian; author; screenwriter
Osamu Hayaishi – prominent Japanese biochemist,^[503] discovered oxygenases in 1955
Carolyn Heinrich – economics professor and currently concurrently Sid Richardson Professor at University of Texas at Austin
Suzana Herculano-Houzel – Brazilian neuroscientist working in comparative neuroanatomy; invented method of counting of neurons of the brain,^[504] discovered the relation between the cerebral cortex area and thickness and number of cortical folds^[505]
Nicholas Hobbs – provost (1967–1975); former president of the American Psychological Association
Elijah Embree Hoss – chair of ecclesiastical history, church polity and pastoral theology (1885–90); later a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Milton W. Humphreys – Confederate sergeant during the Civil War, first professor of Latin and Greek at Vanderbilt, president of the American Philological Association (1882–1883)
Dawn Iacobucci – quantitative psychologist and marketing researcher, professor in marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management
Bill Ivey – director of the National Endowment for the Arts during the Clinton administration; director of the Curb Center at Vanderbilt
Kevin Jackson – British writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician, former professor of English, regular BBC contributor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Companion of the Guild of St George
Mark Jarman – poet and critic often identified with the New Narrative branch of New Formalism
Carl H. Johnson – biologist, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences, professor of biological sciences, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics
Sir Vaughan Jones – Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Fields Medal winner (1990)
Bjarni Jónsson – Icelandic mathematician and logician, emeritus distinguished professor of mathematics, namesake of Jónsson algebras, ω-Jónsson functions, Jónsson cardinals, and Jónsson terms
Edward Southey Joynes – first professor of modern languages at Vanderbilt
Peter Kolkay – associate professor of bassoon at the Blair School of Music,^[506] 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant,^[507] First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition^[508]
John Lachs – philosopher and pragmatist
Paul C. H. Lim – Vanderbilt University Divinity School professor, scholar on Reformation and post-Reformation England^[509]
Lee Ann Liska – president of Vanderbilt University Hospital (2023–present)
David Lubinski – psychology professor known for his work in applied research, psychometrics, and individual differences
Nathaniel Thomas Lupton – professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt (1875–1885)
Horace Harmon Lurton – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1909–1914), former dean of Vanderbilt Law School
Ian Macara – British-American biologist researching the molecules that establish Cell polarity in Epithelium, both in normal cells and in cancer,^[510]^[511]^[512] currently the Louise B. McGavock Chair at Vanderbilt^[513]
Anita Mahadevan-Jansen – Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Biomedical Engineering
Thomas H. Malone (1834–1906) – Confederate veteran; judge; dean of the Vanderbilt University Law School for two decades^[514]
David Maraniss – biographer, columnist for the Washington Post; distinguished visiting professor of political science; his articles on President Bill Clinton won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1993
Jesse W. Markham – economist best known for his work on antitrust policy, price theory and industrial organization, former chief economist to the Federal Trade Commission, associate professor (1948–1952)
Richard C. McCarty – professor of psychology and provost of Vanderbilt University
Ralph McKenzie – mathematician, logician, and abstract algebraist^[515]
Douglas G. McMahon – professor of biological sciences and pharmacology, known for discoveries in the fields of chronobiology and vision
Timothy P. McNamara – Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Social and Natural Sciences; Professor, Department of Psychology
Jon Meacham – visiting distinguished professor of political science, former executive vice president of Random House, and presidential biographer
Michael Menaker – former chair of the Pharmacology Department, influential researcher on circadian rhythmicity of vertebrates
Glenn Allan Millikan – former head of the department of physiology at the School of Medicine, introduced oximetry into physiology and clinical medicine, invented the first practical, portable pulse oximeter
Jason H. Moore – translational bioinformatics scientist, founding director of the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education at Vanderbilt (2000–2004)
Lorrie Moore – fiction writer, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English
Gisela Mosig – German-American molecular biologist best known for her work with enterobacteria phage T4, among the first to recognize the importance of recombination intermediates in establishing new DNA replication forks
Velma McBride Murry – psychologist and sociologist^[516]
Roy Neel – campaign manager for Howard Dean; deputy chief of staff for Bill Clinton and chief of staff for Al Gore
Herman Clarence Nixon – professor, member of the Southern Agrarians
Thomas Nyfenger – principal flutist of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony, former associate professor of flute at the Blair School of Music
Kelly Oliver – philosopher specializing in feminism, political philosophy and ethics, W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy, founder of the feminist philosophy journal philoSOPHIA^[517]
Aleksandr Olshansky – Soviet and Russian mathematician working in combinatorial and geometric group theory, professor of mathematics, Maltsev Prize laureate^[518]
Frank Lawrence Owsley – American historian
Thomas J. Palmeri (Ph.D. 1995) – Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Sokrates Pantelides – university distinguished professor of physics and engineering, William and Nancy McMinn Professor of Physics
Lyman Ray Patterson – influential copyright scholar and historian, former Vanderbilt University Law School professor, served as an assistant United States Attorney while teaching at Vanderbilt
Bruce Ryburn Payne (1874–1937) – founding president of Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), 1911–1937
Michael D. Plummer – retired professor of mathematics, known for his contributions to graph theory
Ambra A. Pozzi – professor of nephrology working on matrix biology and matrix receptor biology
Michael Alec Rose – composer, author, and professor of music composition at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music
Edward B. Saff – mathematician, specializing in complex analysis, approximation theory, numerical analysis, and potential theory, Guggenheim Fellow
Herbert Charles Sanborn (1873–1967) – chair of the department of philosophy and psychology at Vanderbilt University 1921–1942
Samuel Santoro – Dorothy B. and Theodore R. Austin Professor and chair at Vanderbilt University, microbiologist and immunologist researching structure and biology of integrin adhesive receptors for extracellular matrix proteins^[465]^[519]
Mark Sapir – Russian-American mathematician working in geometric group theory, semigroup theory and combinatorial algebra, Centennial Professor of Mathematics
Charles Madison Sarratt (1888–1978) – chair of the department of mathematics at Vanderbilt University, 1924–1946; dean of students, 1939–1945; vice-chancellor, 1946–1958; dean of alumni, 1958–1978
Douglas C. Schmidt, computer scientist
Ronald D. Schrimpf, electrical engineer and scientist, Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, director of the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics at Vanderbilt
Thomas Alan Schwartz – historian of American foreign relations, former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Julia Sears – mathematician, pioneering feminist
Margaret Rhea Seddon – astronaut
Choon-Leong Seow – Singaporean biblical scholar, semitist, epigrapher, and historian of Near Eastern religion, currently as Vanderbilt, Buffington, Cupples Chair in Divinity and distinguished professor of Hebrew Bible
Carl Keenan Seyfert – astronomer, known for research on high-excitation line emission from the centers of some spiral galaxies named Seyfert galaxies, first director of Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory
Albert Micajah Shipp – professor of exegetical theology at Vanderbilt University in 1875; dean of the Divinity School, 1882–1887
Steve Simpson – research professor of mathematics, known for reverse mathematics
Ganesh Sitaraman – legal scholar, professor of law, adviser to Elizabeth Warren, senior fellow of the Center for American Progress
Francis G. Slack – professor of physics and head of the department of physics (appointed 1939), instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission^[520]
William Oscar Smith – jazz double bassist; founder of the W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville; former professor at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music
Larry Soderquist – professor of law at Vanderbilt University Law School (1981–2005), director at Corporate and Securities Law Institute
Ronald Spores – archaeologist, ethnohistorian and Mesoamerican scholar
Hans Stoll – his research revolutionized the field of financial derivatives and market microstructure
Hans Herrman Strupp (1921–2006) – Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Thomas Osgood Summers – Methodist theologian; dean of the Biblical Department at Vanderbilt in 1878
Earl Sutherland, physiologist; discoverer of hormonal second messengers; winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Carol Miller Swain – professor of Political Science and Law
Kent Syverud – former Garner Anthony Professor of Law at the Vanderbilt University Law School, expert on complex litigation, insurance law, and civil procedure
Janos Sztipanovits – computer scientist, led the research group that created a novel area in computer engineering called Model Integrated Computing (MIC)^[521]
Robert B. Talisse – philosopher and political theorist, former editor of Public Affairs Quarterly
Dean S. Tarbell – former distinguished professor of chemistry known for his development of detection methods of chemical warfare agents during World War II, and his discovery of mixed carboxylic-carbonic anhydrides
Vivian Thomas – surgical technician working with Alfred Blalock; developed techniques that enabled key advances in the treatment of traumatic shock
Wilbur Fisk Tillett (1854–1936) – professor of theology, dean of the Theological Faculty after 1884 and vice-chancellor after 1886
Norman Tolk – physicist
Jada Benn Torres – Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Laboratory of Genetic Anthropology and Biocultural Studies
Barbara Tsakirgis – classical archaeologist with specialization in Greek and Roman archaeology
Kalman Varga – Hungarian-American physicist, Fellow of the American Physical Society^[522]^[523]^[524]
William J. Vaughn (1834–1912) – professor of mathematics; librarian
Jerzy Vetulani – Polish neuroscientist, pharmacologist and biochemist, former research professor, discovered β-downregulation by chronic administration of antidepressants
W. Kip Viscusi – economist, university distinguished professor of law, economics, and management at Vanderbilt University Law School
John Donald Wade – member of English faculty, contributed to Southern Agrarian manifesto I'll Take My Stand
Taylor Wang – first Taiwanese person of Han Chinese ancestry to go into space, employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-B
John Wikswo – biological physicist, Gordon A. Cain University Professor, professor of biomedical engineering, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, director, Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education, A.B. Learned Professor in Living State Physics
Consuelo H. Wilkins – physician, researcher, academic and administrator, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Arthur Frank Witulski – research associate professor electrical engineering and computer science,^[525] engineer at the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics at Vanderbilt
David Wood – British philosopher
Daoxing Xia – Chinese American mathematician, currently a professor in the department of mathematics, elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980
Christopher Yoo – professor at Vanderbilt University Law School (1999–2007), former director of Vanderbilt's Technology and Entertainment Law Program, among the most frequently cited scholars of technology law, media law and copyright^[526]
Guoliang Yu – Chinese American mathematician best known for his fundamental contributions to the Novikov conjecture on homotopy invariants of higher signatures,^[527]^[528] professor of mathematics (2000–2012)
Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky – Russian historian, specialized in economic history in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Guggenheim Fellow
Mel Ziegler – artist specialized in community art, integrated arts, public art, current chair of the Department of Art^[529]