In the News
This section of Dialogue features external media coverage faculty, staff, and students in our college received. Links are sourced from UT System News Roundup.
- GamesRadar+: Red Dead Redemption 2 is being used to teach a University history course (History)
- Knoxville News Sentinel: Ayres Hall at 100: Inside the University of Tennessee’s emblem to the world (Arts & Sciences)
- WBIR: Scientists to share Great Smoky Mountains research in March (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)
- The Daily Times: University of Tennessee historian traces roots of animal activism (History)
- Arts Knoxville: UT School of Music To Feature UT Symphony on Friday’s Virtual Concert Series (Music)
- UT Daily Beacon: Africana Studies to become its own department at University of Tennessee (Africana Studies)
- The New York Times: 36 Podcast Personalities Recommend Their Favorite Shows (Sociology)
Department News & Noteworthy Achievements
This section of Dialogue features internal news and noteworthy achievements by faculty, staff, and students in our college, as well as other department news. If you have a news item, please email Amanda Womac.
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Paul Armsworth, professor of ecology and researcher with the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) is the co-author of a new study showing croplands are prevalent in protected areas, which challenges their efficacy meeting conversation goals. Read More |
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Fran Barrera, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from NIH. The grant provides investigators with flexibility to follow up on interesting results to make important breakthroughs. |
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Alex Bentley, professor in the Department of Anthropology, is part of a team of researchers who collaborated on two studies examining the socioeconomic factors involved in the spread of COVID-19. Read More |
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Jessica Budke, assistant professor and herbarium director in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, received an NSF CAREER award for her work on parent-offspring conflict in mosses. Read More |
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Newly published letters of President James K. Polk shed light on slavery, race riots, and a global cholera pandemic that killed thousands of Americans including Polk himself. Volume 14 of the Correspondence of James K. Polk comprises letters from April 1848 to June 1849. They cover the last year of Polk’s administration and his brief retirement. Edited by Michael David Cohen at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the volume is published by the University of Tennessee Press. Read More |
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Nina Fefferman, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics, was named director for the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), effective March 1. |
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Charles Sanft, professor in the Department of History, received an honorable mention from the Association for Asian Studies for their Joseph Levenson Prize, an annual award recognizing the best book in China, Pre-1900, for his book Literate Community in Early Imperial China: The Northwestern Frontier in Han Times. |
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Kimberly Sheldon, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, received a $1.3 million NSF CAREER award for her work examining whether behavioral responses of tropical and temperate beetles will allow them to persist in a changing world. |
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Kostas Vogiatzis, assistant professor with the Department of Chemistry, is one of the recipients of the American Chemical Society, Computers in Chemistry Division (ACS COMP) OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for Spring 2021. Read More |
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Researchers with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and NIMBioS published a study showing tomato production may be at risk due to a decrease in buzz pollinators. Read More |
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In Memory
Nita Ganguly, former UT professor, passed away February 13, 2021. Professor Ganguly joined UT in 2010 to launch the VolsTeach Program and her eight-year tenure vastly pushed forward the agenda of increasing the number of STEM educators in the US. She also became the state director for the Tennessee Science Olympiad Competition and the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Read her obituary online.