New faculty members bring their research perspective to the UT natural sciences and math community.
Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee
New faculty members joining the college’s Division of Natural Sciences and Math this fall contribute groundbreaking perspectives across research and scholarship areas, building upon the wide research spectrum of UT’s cutting-edge community of scientists and mathematicians.
Natural sciences and math faculty share their expertise with the tools and concepts of science with students to solve questions of the natural world, discover new mechanisms, and refine mathematical and scientific theories. They engage students through cutting edge programs like the new medicinal chemistry concentration in the Department of Chemistry, for majors interested in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new medicinal compounds. Similarly, the college’s new pre-medicine concentration offers students a comprehensive four-year preparation for medical school and other health-related professions.
“We are proud to be welcoming these excellent scientists and mathematicians to the college,” said Divisional Dean for Natural Sciences and Math Kate Jones. “The work put in by our faculty, staff, and department heads has paid off. It is exciting to see how we are attracting world-class researchers, instructors, and scholars to come work at the University of Tennessee.”
New Tenure-Track Faculty
Sayan Banerjee
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
Banerjee’s research group uses theoretical chemistry, machine learning, and materials science to target complex problems like the electrification of the chemical industry, sustainable recycling, and quantum materials. As part of the Science-Informed AI cluster at UT, their efforts involve creating physical chemistry-aware machine-learning models.
Sabrina Chin
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Chin’s lab uses advanced cell imaging techniques, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry, root morphology, and functional analysis to explore how roots perceive and respond to external stimuli, and how this subsequently affects root growth and development.
Michael Granatosky
Assistant Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Granatosky is an evolutionary biomechanist whose research investigates the interplay between phylogenetic history, evolutionary trade-offs, and competing optimality criteria in shaping animal locomotion.
Dinesh Gupta
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology
Gupta’s lab studies the physiology of methane-metabolizing archaea, a group of anaerobic microorganisms that play a significant role in global carbon cycling via the production and consumption of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and a valuable bioenergy source.
Jennifer Heppert
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology
Heppert’s lab uses nematodes and their bacterial symbionts to understand how beneficial partnerships between animals and bacteria are formed, maintained, and evolve on a molecular and cellular level.
Ling Liang
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Liang’s research uses applied and computational mathematics, optimization, and machine learning. He is particularly interested in developing efficient and scalable algorithms for solving large-scale optimization problems that arise in data science, engineering, and the physical sciences
Zilu Ma
Assistant Professor of Art
Department of Mathematics
Ma’s research interests lie in geometric analysis, with an emphasis on Ricci flow and its applications to geometry and topology.
Marcus Merfa
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology
Merfa works to understand molecular interactions between plant pathogenic bacteria and their host plants to characterize factors in plant colonization and infection and leverage this information to develop practical and sustainable agricultural management strategies.
Farzana Nasrin
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Nasrin’s interdisciplinary research focuses on precision health and environment using applied topology, Bayesian learning, and computational statistics in areas of biology, genomics, health sciences, materials science, biomedical imaging, neuroscience, and oceanography.
Zachary Nicolaou
Assistant Professor
Departments of Physics and Mathematics
Nicolaou is a theoretical and computational physicist whose research focuses on the emergence of complexity in matter with emphasis on nonlinear dynamics, synchronization, pattern formation, and network dynamics in condensed matter systems and fluid mechanics.
Yuqing Qiu
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Qiu investigates non-equilibrium emergent behaviors in soft matter and biophysical systems using computer simulations, machine learning, and theoretical approaches to achieve a deeper understanding of the dynamic behaviors exhibited by living materials.
Manuel Scharrer
David McDonald Endowed Assistant Professor in Critical Minerals
Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Scharrer is an economic geologist, geochemist, and calorimetrist whose interdisciplinary research integrates petrology, mineralogy, geochemistry, and experimental thermodynamics to understand ore-forming processes and the behavior of critical materials.
Chien-Yeah Seng
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Seng studies the strong and the electroweak sector of the Standard Model of particle physics with focus on precise theoretical calculations of non-perturbative effects that are crucial for interpreting various low-energy experiments involving hadronic and nuclear systems.
Nicole (Tianjiao) Yang
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Yang studies systems of interacting diffusions and the optimization of complex systems. She is interested in dynamical systems, stochastic control, mathematical foundations of generative modeling, and machine learning theory.
Hacoun Yu
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Yu (starting January 2026) is an experimental physicist working on quantum techniques and their various applications in quantum sensing, information, and fundamental physics. Her research group focuses on creating novel quantum states, developing new quantum technologies, and addressing fundamental questions about our world.
New Teaching Faculty
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Elsie Adams, Teaching Assistant Professor
Chemistry
- Erin Metzger, Teaching Assistant Professor
Physics
- Zhengyu Xu, Research Assistant Professor
Mathematics
- Rachael Alvir, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Ryan Cushman, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Hannah Garrett, Lecturer
- Alexandros Kafkas, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Barkat Mian, Research Assistant Professor
- Matthew Stone, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Monir Zaman, Lecturer
By Randall Brown