The College of Arts and Sciences honored outstanding faculty and staff in its annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at the UT Conference Center in downtown Knoxville. Faculty and staff awards presentations were combined in a single ceremony to honor colleagues across all areas of the college’s mission, selected by their peers to represent the high standards of the college. Awards were given for excellence in teaching, advising, and mentoring; academic outreach; research and creative activity; four different areas of staff support; and more.
Congratulations to all the award recipients on your outstanding service to our college, UT, the state, and beyond.
Faculty Academic Outreach Awards
College Marshal
Aleydis Van de Moortel, Chancellor’s Professor, Lindsay Young Professor and Head, Department of Classics
Van de Moortel has achieved broad recognition on our campus as a scholar, educator, and in service to the university, particularly her leadership as the head of the Department of Classics since 2016. As co-director of the Mitrou Archaeological Project, a cooperative venture between UT and the Greek Archaeological Service, her work has deepened our understanding of a site in central Greece where human habitation dates to the beginning of the Neolithic period.
Internationally recognized for her scholarship, she has authored or coauthored five books in multiple languages, authored or co-authored more than 60 articles and book chapters, and has received $1.2 million in external funding, including three National Endowment of the Humanities grants and funding from Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, and two Fulbright Fellowships.
Lorayne W. Lester Award
Tom Cervone, managing director of the Clarence Brown Theatre in our Department of Theatre
Cervone received his undergraduate degree in speech and English education with an emphasis in theatre from West Liberty University in West Virginia. He has both his MFA and MBA from UT. He arrived in Knoxville in 1989 as an MFA candidate in acting and was hired in May of 1993 as the company manager, then promoted to managing director in 1995.
Cervone is and has been very active within the UT Knoxville community, having served as Exempt Staff Council chair for many years, co-chair of the LGBT Commission, a member of the Diversity Council and many other UT Knoxville organizations. He is a fervent evangelist on behalf of the art and culture community locally and nationally and was recognized with the Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Service to the University in 2010.
Cervone was inducted into his undergraduate alma mater’s class of 2015 Wall of Honor and was appointed by the Governor of West Virginia in 2021 to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of WLU. He is deservedly proud of this accomplishment.
Outstanding Service Awards
Timothy Hiles, Professor Emeritus, School of Art
Hiles has been a trusted and sought-after colleague throughout his thirty-four years at UT. He has produced great scholarship, been an inspiring teacher, filled important administrative roles in the School of Art, and has taken on a wide variety of service roles across the University. Hiles’ research over the past decade and a half has centered on the history of art and disability. Hiles has extended the expertise developed through his scholarship to the service of society in Tennessee and Kentucky, greatly enhancing the lives of many.
Edward Schilling, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Schilling is known for his significant contributions to plant conservation and botanical science in the southeastern United States. He joined UT in 1979, served as the head of the Department of Botany for 13 years, and maintains active research and teaching. Across his long career, Schilling has championed the discovery, understanding, and conservation of rare plants, and shared his love of botany and plant conservation with our community, including helping discover 10 plant species in our region that were new to science and pioneering applications of molecular barcoding to enable identification of species.
Teaching
Erin Darby, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies
Darby is noted for her work spearheading a large-scale project entitled “Teaching Religion in the Public Sphere,” a project that stemmed from the need to help middle school teachers better navigate discussing and teaching about multiple world religions in a public-school setting, as included in the state-mandated curriculum. Darby led in organizing a collaborative effort to create a vetted, curated, and academically rigorous collection of content-based resources for Knox County School faculty to be able to reliably go to with confidence. Her dedication to reaching teachers and students throughout Knox County and Tennessee is just one piece of a career dedicated to education about religious studies.
Research and Creative Activity
Jessie Tanner, Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Tanner’s two departments had separately nominated her for this award, then decided to combine their nominations based on her outstanding contributions across disciplines. One arm of Tanner’s work focuses on the challenges of animal communication in complex noise environments. A separate arm of her research focuses on the Cherokee language and how it connects with Indigenous knowledge and understanding of the natural world. Tanner has done impactful outreach for both of these topics and has developed a new research initiative that bridges the two. In a community-engaged collaboration with the Cherokee Nation, she investigates how Cherokee language shapes ecological reasoning and understanding.
Excellence in Teaching Awards
James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Teaching Award
Joan Lind, Professor, Department of Mathematics
Lind is beloved and appreciated by her students at all levels of teaching. She has initiated several mentoring efforts for undergraduate math majors and mathematics graduate students, created a professional development class for math majors, and she has received several previous teaching and mentoring awards. Lind has a great talent and love for mentoring mathematics students. She has directed two doctoral theses, three master’s theses, and 14 undergraduate research projects. She also developed several programs to aid and encourage our undergraduate math majors.
Matt Cooper, Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Cooper is an exceptional educator with a teaching philosophy grounded in intellectual rigor, active engagement, and the creation of a classroom environment that is both challenging and supportive. He maintains a highly productive research program, and he is a master educator in some of the most challenging courses in the neuroscience curriculum, making complex material accessible, meaningful, and intellectually rewarding. He is a dedicated mentor to undergraduate researchers, and a thoughtful leader who continually adapts his teaching to meet the evolving needs of students.
Lecturers
Dan Wang, Distinguished Lecturer of Chinese, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Wang’s excellence in teaching is consistently reflected in student evaluations and has been formally recognized through multiple awards. She has played a key leadership role in coordinating the lower-division Chinese curriculum, demonstrated outstanding service and outreach, and has been instrumental in student recruitment and community engagement through events such as Chinese New Year celebrations, Chinese Trivia Night, cooking demonstrations, film screenings, and cultural competitions.
Bob Guest, Distinguished Lecturer Department of Mathematics
The foundation for Guest’s impact on the math department’s educational program is his personal excellence in teaching, exhibited by years of outstanding student performance, as well as student evaluations and comments. In addition, Guest has made major contributions to the success of the mathematics department, particularly in his management of the Math Place tutorial service, in his organization and supervision of Math 115, and in his introduction of innovative teaching methods and classroom instruction formats.
Robert Jacobson, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Jacobson is a critical member of the department’s faculty, serving as a leader and mentor in training and organizing the graduate teaching assistants for introductory laboratory sections, teaching introductory geology courses, and teaching a major/grad level course in effectively teaching the geosciences. He works tirelessly to improve the learning experience for students. His efforts in generating a culture of excellence within the department’s introductory program are truly outstanding.
Junior
Brittany Murray, Assistant Professor of French, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Murray is an exceptional educator whose teaching excellence, pedagogical innovation, and unwavering commitment to student mentorship distinguish her as one of the most accomplished junior faculty members in the college. She has had a transformative impact on undergraduate and graduate education through her intellectually rigorous, inclusive, and deeply engaging approach to teaching. Students describe her as approachable, insightful, and welcoming, and they consistently emphasize her ability to make complex material both accessible and meaningful.
Lucybel Mendez, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Mendez embodies the ideals of outstanding undergraduate teaching. Her impact is evident not only in student learning outcomes and evaluations, but also in the confidence, curiosity, and academic ambition she cultivates in her students. She creates a classroom climate that is warm, inclusive, respectful, and intellectually safe. Peer observers unanimously emphasize her excellent rapport with students and the welcoming atmosphere she cultivates. She is a model educator, a dedicated mentor, and an invaluable member of our faculty whose contributions exemplify the teaching excellence at UT.
Senior
Jeff Ringer, Associate Professor, Department of English
Ringer is a charismatic, beloved teacher of undergraduates and graduates who has demonstrated exceptional teaching and pedagogical leadership within the English Department for the past 15 years. His expertise in training our graduate writing instructors and his innovative teaching have been essential to our collective success in teaching undergraduates from across the university how to write effectively. He has been one of our faculty’s main guides to navigating the many ways that generative AI has disrupted the teaching of writing.
Professor Christine Nattrass, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Nattrass has distinguished herself through pedagogical innovation, leadership in physics education, and deep commitment to student success across all levels. She engages consistently with students, responds thoughtfully to their questions, and advocates for an inclusive and welcoming environment. She goes beyond formal advising to connect students with research opportunities, internships, and professional development resources, creating a culture in which undergraduates feel seen, supported, and challenged. Nattrass embodies exceptional teaching innovation, commitment to inclusion, leadership, and impact on student learning and success.
Climate, Culture, and Community Award
Claire Hemingway, Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Hemingway joined the college in 2023 and even in this short time has made significant impact on the climate, culture, and community of her departments. She devotes extraordinary effort to making our college and departments better through her teaching, mentoring, formal service roles, and her informal daily interactions. She pursues meaningful change by listening carefully, acting collaboratively, and following through with accountability. Daily, in all her varied roles, Hemingway promotes an atmosphere where all students, staff, and faculty feel welcome and can thrive to achieve success.
Undergraduate Mentor Awards
Gary LeCleir, Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology
LeCleir exemplifies the best we hope to achieve as a highly motivated and energetic teacher and mentor who engages students to become active participants in their education. Through classroom, independent research supervision, and formal and informal mentoring roles, LeCleir provides undergraduate students with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to prepare them for the future.
Kyra Martinez, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Martinez has been an exemplary mentor, with in-classroom mentoring that has translated into strong out-of-classroom mentoring and career and personal development for the great benefit of her students. Her course assignments apply research projects and written feedback and embody community-based case studies that function as mentoring-intensive experiences. She exemplifies the best mentoring qualities our faculty offer: rigorous, caring, and transformative.
Excellence in Research and Creative Achievement Awards
Distinguished Research Career at UT
Linda Kah, Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Kah is a highly productive researcher whose career encompasses a broad spectrum of topics in geology, geochemistry, and paleobiology ranging from the study of some of the oldest carbonate rocks and life on Earth to applying her extensive expertise toward understanding the potential habitability of Mars. Professor Kah has gained international recognition as an innovative problem solver with a genius for synthesizing data across disparate fields of the geosciences into novel interpretation and applications.
Early Career
Aris Clemons, Assistant Professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Clemons’s scholarship examines the complex interplay between language and racial identities, especially in media, politics, and education. Her research encompasses Spanish and Decolonial Linguistics, World Language Education, Anthropology, Literacy, and Ethnic/Racial Studies. Her work aims to raise awareness of critical issues, improve public understanding and access to the field of linguistics, and foster accessibility in teaching practices by engaging all segments of society.
Dien Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Nguyen has established herself as a rising leader in experimental nuclear physics, with outstanding research accomplishments, two DOE awards, national-laboratory partnerships, and a deep commitment to mentoring and service. She is an expert in experimental nuclear physics, leading a research program that investigates the fundamental structure of visible matter, addressing some of the most important questions in quantum chromodynamics. Her approach and research distinguish her as an exceptional early-career scholar.
Mid-Career
Aaron Buss, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Since joining the college in 2014, Buss’s accomplishments in research have produced important theoretical contributions and established an international reputation in his field. He investigates how changes in the basic structure and function of the brain at a cellular level map onto developmental changes in thinking and behavior. Buss is a rare scholar who combines deep theory, technical mastery, and creative vision to produce field-defining science, while also excelling as a mentor and leader.
Jian Liu, Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy
Liu has demonstrated sustained and creative research productivity, attracted significant external funding, mentored outstanding students and postdocs, and provided visionary leadership within and beyond the university. His continuous excellence has led to his early promotion to the rank of full professorship in 2025. His work has elevated and will continue to elevate the national and international profile of UT in the field of condensed matter physics.
Senior
Alex Bentley, Professor, Department of Anthropology
Bentley is a widely influential and enormously prolific scholar who combines anthropology with computational models to understand cultural evolution and the social complexity of science. His research encompasses topics ranging from prehistoric disease to contemporary geopolitics, health, sustainability, and technological innovation. He is co-author of four books, including this year’s Collaborators Through Time. His outstanding research record has made him a globally recognized leader in the field.
Alan Tennant, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Tennant is an internationally recognized leader in condensed matter physics whose pioneering research on quantum magnetism and neutron scattering has profoundly advanced our understanding of strongly correlated electron systems. His career exemplifies the highest standards of scientific excellence. Through his vision and accomplishments, he has elevated the University of Tennessee’s research profile and strengthened its leadership in the rapidly evolving field of quantum materials. We are truly fortunate to have a scholar of his caliber on our faculty.
Staff Awards
Academic Support
Lori Mitchell, College Academic Programs
Mitchell’s nomination describes her as a dynamo: intelligent, forward-thinking, energetic, and incredibly nice. She has been astoundingly thorough in helping directors for various interdisciplinary programs with the various forms and approvals needed to coordinate these efforts. Her incredible knowledge of the curriculum and excellent organizational skills are equaled only by her kindness and generosity. Even with a complex workload, she does everything with grace and good humor. She has made a tremendous impact since taking on this role in 2024.
Merrill Roseberry, Division of Biology
Roseberry has distinguished herself as someone who always has the best interests of our students at heart. Her work impacts the college community at multiple levels. She skillfully developed a cohort of graduate teaching assistants to revise labs to better engage the wide range of undergraduates in lab courses. She has been a leader in exploring the best uses of AI in our teaching labs and elsewhere. She brings a fresh perspective to any conversation. When Roseberry speaks, her colleagues listen because her contributions are sincere, well-considered, and constructive.
Technical Support
Anthony Faiia, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Faiia has managed and operated the Stable Isotope Laboratory cost center in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences independence since January 2014, after coming to the department with unusually high qualifications, including a PhD and 10 years of prior laboratory management experience. His knowledge of the instrumentation and variety of methods used in the lab is exceptional. He contributes scientifically and helps the lab users with experimental design and interpretation of isotope data. He is always professional and collegial in his interactions, which keeps outside users coming back.
Brian Klass, Refrigeration Shop Supervisor, Department of Microbiology
Klass is a knowledgeable, dependable, and friendly member of the technical support team who is always prompt, professional, and consistently willing to go above and beyond to ensure problems are resolved as quickly as possible — and always with a positive attitude and a smile. His broad and deep knowledge of all types of refrigeration systems is truly invaluable, as is his expertise, dedication, and commitment to supporting research excellence.
Outstanding New Staff Member
Carmen Atkins, School of Art
In her twin roles as the School of Art’s Graduate Studies Coordinator and Financial Manager, Atkins has significant and wide-ranging responsibilities. She coordinates the department’s graduate programs as assistant to the Associate Director of Graduate Studies and serves as first point-of-contact for current and prospective graduate students. As Financial Manager, Atkins assists the department business manager in numerous duties related to travel, vendor requests, procurement, and much more.
by Randall Brown