Research & Creative Activity

  • Microbial Manners on the High Seas

    Microbial Manners on the High Seas

    Sargasso Sea plankton and other marine microbes take turns sharing nutrients. A new study co-authored by Steven Wilhelm, Kenneth and Blaire Mossman Professor in microbiology; Joshua Weitz, mathematical modeling professor at the University of Maryland; and team found that microbes in the Sargasso Sea divide nutrients throughout their communities over time, supporting coexistence and efficient…

  • Poetry, Politics, Plague, and More

    Poetry, Politics, Plague, and More

    Students from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, hosted undergraduates from more than a dozen other colleges and presented their own papers during the 13th Annual Tennessee Undergraduate Classics Research Conference in March. “This conference is a competitive event featuring outstanding undergraduate research from across the country,” said Assistant Professor Jessica Westerhold, faculty sponsor from the…

  • Choice Overload

    Choice Overload

    Does it get overwhelming? UT faculty team investigates how animals react to overwhelming options. Humans can have a lot to consider when working out the best choices for their needs: buying a car, choosing a home, or just shopping for groceries. An overwhelming number of options can give a person pause. Animals experience this same…

  • Monteith Lab tracks immune response

    Monteith Lab tracks immune response

    Assistant Professor Andrew Monteith’s lab in the Department of Microbiology is documenting how key immune cells detect infection and how that fails to happen in people with lupus.  Research Associate Ashley Wise led a study focused on neutrophils, the most abundant type of immune cell, and how their mitochondria function as sensory organelles to detect…

  • Defense Scholarship Supports Microbiology Student

    Defense Scholarship Supports Microbiology Student

    While pursuing a PhD in microbiology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Meaghan Adler knows exactly where she’ll be starting her career. The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded her a scholarship for service, providing financial support for her studies in exchange for future employment with the DoD. Adler joined the Department of Microbiology in 2023…

  • Expanded Douglass Day Involves Community in History

    Expanded Douglass Day Involves Community in History

    At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, celebrating Black history lifts the topic out of the textbook, highlights current scholarship on campus, and engages the community in further research. The activities are very much in the spirit of “sankofa,” a word from the African Twi language that refers to looking to the past to inform the…

  • Huang Named Fellow of Mineralogical Society

    Huang Named Fellow of Mineralogical Society

    A Vol researcher who studies the geochemistry of rocks and meteorites to understand the deep interior of Earth and the early history of our solar system has been named a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA). Shichun Huang, the Gerald D. Sisk Associate Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences,…

  • Military Historians Delve into the Declaration

    Military Historians Delve into the Declaration

    The Military History of the Declaration of Independence Symposium 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Saturday, March 1, 2025Baker School of Public Policy and Public AffairsThe event is free and open to the public, but registration is limitedRegister here With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on the horizon, nine military historians from…

  • Factions Unite in Ukraine

    Factions Unite in Ukraine

    Data-driven research by UT faculty shows the dramatic shift in Ukrainian attitudes after invasion. A new study published by an interdisciplinary team of Tennessee researchers sheds light onto the dynamics of national unity experienced by Ukrainians following the 2022 Russian invasion. While a nation would be expected to rally against an aggressive foreign army crossing…

  • Courage to Question

    Courage to Question

    Clarence Brown production of Inherit the Wind celebrates the art and science of asking the big questions. One hundred years ago and less than 100 miles from the UT Knoxville campus, high-school teacher John Scopes went on trial for violating the Butler Act, which outlawed the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee’s public schools and…