Research & Creative Activity

Social Play by Adult Primates Is Linked to Social Style

UT Professor Emeritus Gordon Burghardt is part of an international team of researchers that has identified the strongest predictor of why only some primate species continue to engage in social play past their juvenile years. Although about half of primate species play as adults with other adults, a team of international researchers has just unlocked…
Molecular Lock Helps Power Life on Earth

Barry Bruce and colleagues shine new light on the mechanisms of photosynthesis. Professor Barry Bruce, Associate Professor Rajan Lamichhane, both of the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB), and colleagues co-authored a paper that newly reveals the dynamics of photosynthesis at the cellular level. The team, which included graduate student Sree Kavya…
Undergraduate Symposium Expands to Student Union

Arts and sciences students step forward with professional research and creative presentations during ASUReS. ASUReS Awards Reception Date: Monday, April 27, 2026 Time: 3:30–5:30 p.m. Location: Student Union, Room 262 The Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium (ASUReS) went big in its third year with a move from meeting spaces in Ayres Hall to large…
UT Graduate Student Joins Researchers in Antarctica

Microbiology doctoral candidate Jason Olavesen sailed to the Southern Ocean with an international team investigating microscopic organisms that drive global carbon cycles. Microbiology research took a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, student on a voyage in the Southern Ocean for nearly seven weeks in early 2026. Jason Olavesen, a third-year PhD student in UT’s Department of…
National Geographic Supports UT Research on Hemlocks

Doctoral student Sonja Schmoyer is using drone-based hyperspectral imaging and AI to detect invasive pests that are endangering one of America’s keystone species. The National Geographic Society has awarded a grant to Sonja Schmoyer, a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for research designed to help protect endangered hemlock trees.Schmoyer is one of…
Center for the Study of Family Health and Well-being

Interdisciplinary UT researchers work directly with communities to tackle issues facing families and children. Guest Lecture “The Freedman’s Bank and the (Un)Making of Reconstruction” Monday, April 6, 20263:30–5:00 p.m. Justene Hill Edwards, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia The Center for the Study of Family Health and Well-being (CSFHW) is an interdisciplinary research…
The Fish Were Biting in Ancient Alabama

Research collaboration uses high-tech scanning technology to reveal a bad-luck day for an ancient undersea predator. Header Image: Paeloart by Miles Mayhall The oceans of the Cretaceous of North America teemed with life. Gigantic fish and enormous marine reptiles hunted the Western Interior Sea. A unique new fossil reported today demonstrates rare evidence of direct…
Keeping It Real with Artificial Intelligence

THRIVE AI initiative boosts projects that maintain the human touch in AI research. A new College of Arts and Sciences initiative launched this spring connects faculty innovators with active state-wide paths for developing artificial intelligence tools for impactful real-world applications. THRIVE (Tennessee Human–AI Readiness & Innovation: Ventures in Excellence) advances AI research and its practical…
Research Shows Warming Impact on Soil Ecosystem

Within only a few decades of higher temperatures, microbial systems change in ways that disrupt carbon and nutrient cycles. Long-term ecosystem warming changes not only plants but the fungi in the soil below, according to a new study including researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “Hidden mycorrhizal fungi below ground are much more vulnerable…
Endowment Boosts International Democracy Studies

An estate endowment by former history and political science faculty members supports student research on democracy in the Middle East. The Louay Bahry and Phebe Marr Middle Eastern Democracy Studies Endowment will establish a scholarship to reward the best undergraduate or graduate student essays on topics of democracy in the Middle East. Bahry served as…