Vanderbei received widespread attention for something that was developed for us as an exercise for the freshman computer programming course that he used to teach. The US News and World Report magazine, among other media outlets, reprinted his so-called "Purple America" map, which he made after the 2000 (and then subsequent) elections to depict on a county-by-county level how the elections turned out.
In addition to his research interests in probability and optimization, Vanderbei also was an active glider pilot for many years.