One of the biggest joys for a university administrator is celebrating the successes of faculty, staff, and students. In this issue of AgResearch Impacts, we proudly and thankfully present to you the faculty and staff affiliated with AgResearch who have made milestone achievements (i.e., promotion or promotion with tenure) or received some of the most prestigious awards of the Institute. These individuals have made exceptional impacts in their respective areas. My hat’s off to you for all you do and heartiest congratulations! The UTIA family is delighted and excited to have Justin McKinney as the new director of the AgResearch and Education Center at Greeneville. Officially on board October 23, McKinney brings more than seventeen years of experience in academia and agricultural industries and recently served as director and financial manager of Eastern Kentucky University Farms. Welcome, Justin! On August 5, 2019, Dr. Don Hodges took the reign as the new head of the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries. Dr. Hodges is a highly accomplished scholar and well-regarded leader at local, national, and global levels. With his twenty years of service at UTIA in various faculty and administrative roles, he possesses a wealth of institutional knowledge that will serve this leadership role well. Don also has a proven track record of being an effective team builder. The UTIA Leadership Team looks forward to working with Dr. Hodges to advance the missions of the department and the Institute. In fact, within his short three months of being head, Don has already demonstrated his great leadership skills. We are also very grateful to Dr. Lisa Muller, who did an excellent job as the interim head. Thank you, Lisa, and welcome, Don! Speaking of department heads, progress is being made in the national search for a permanent head for the Department of Food Science. On-campus interviews of the candidates will conclude this week. In the meantime, a national search for a permanent head for the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics is underway. After twenty-six years of service, including the past eleven years as head of AREC and one year as interim dean of UT Extension, Dr. Delton Gerloff retired on July 31, 2019. We immensely appreciate Delton’s dedicated leadership and service to the Institute and University and wish him a very fulfilling life in retirement. Dr. Kim Jensen has taken the reign of interim head since August 1, 2019, and we look forward to her leadership during this interim period. Together we will Grow the Legacy of AgResearch. Go Vols! |
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Faculty Promotion and Tenure 2019 |
Five AgResearch, Herbert, and UT Extension faculty were recognized at this year’s UTIA Awards and Promotion Luncheon held in Knoxville on August 2. Of the group, three faculty were promoted with tenure and two were promoted to full professor. Congratulations to all faculty and staff who were recognized at the luncheon. Read more about the awardees and their work here. |
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AgResearch Faculty and Staff Presented with Awards at 2019 UTIA Awards and Promotions Luncheon |
Five top AgResearch faculty and staff received awards at the 2019 UTIA Awards and Promotions Luncheon in early August. This year’s award winners are: | • | J.E. Moss Research Award: Greg Blaylock, service supervisor of the Plateau AgResearch and Education Center | | • | T.J. Whatley Distinguished Young Scientist Award: Neelam Poudyal, associate professor of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries | | • | AgResearch Impact Award: Robert Trigiano, professor of Entomology and Plant Pathology (pictured above) | | • | B. Ray Thompson Sr. Outstanding Faculty Performance Award: Robert Hayes, director of the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center and professor of Plant Sciences | | • | UTIA Institute Professor: Burt English, professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics | Read more about the awardees here. |
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2019 AgResearch Directors' Awards |
Each year, UT AgResearch honors employees who exhibit outstanding support service at our AgResearch and Education Centers. The recipients are nominated by Center directors, and a panel of three directors selects award honorees for their work performance, communication skills, and abilities in implementing and reporting research projects. Through the quality of their contributions, these are individuals deemed central to the research mission at their Centers. This year five staff members received this distinction. Meet them here. |
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UTIA Welcomes New Director of AgResearch Center at Greeneville |
Justin McKinney recently joined our team as the director of the AgResearch and Education Center at Greeneville. He comes to us from the University of Eastern Kentucky, where he was the farm director and financial manager of EKU farms. Rob Ellis who served as both director of both the Greeneville AgResearch Center and the Highland Rim AgResearch Center will continue his work at Highland Rim. |
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Faculty 360 | Dr. Laura Russo |
Faculty 360 is an all-around look at a UT AgResearch faculty member. In this issue we feature Laura Russo, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. Dr. Russo joined UTIA in March 2019 and has a 90 percent research and 10 percent teaching appointment. Her research primarily focuses on pollinator ecology, invasion biology, and network theory. Russo received her PhD in ecology from Pennsylvania State University in 2013. She has lived in fifteen states and three countries, and has traveled on six continents. She enjoys learning something new everywhere she goes. Meet Laura here. |
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In the Commendations Corner, we highlight the awards, achievements, and recognition of our faculty. Please send your own accomplishments to agresearchimpacts@utk.edu so that your good news can be included in future newsletters.
| • | Dr. Andrew Muhammad (Agricultural and Resource Economics) and Dr. Mingzhou Jin (UT's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering) received $500,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop an optimal food system model from both an economic and resource-use perspective. | | • | Dr. Scott Lenaghan (Food Science) and Dr. Neal Stewart (Plant Sciences) are co-authors on a policy forum Science article on the responsible development of synthetic biology. | | • | UTIA representatives (Drs. Sindhu Jagadamma, Joanne Logan, Forbes Walker, Chris Clark, and David Ader) attended the Climate Underground Conference hosted by former Vice President Al Gore at his family farm in Carthage, Tennessee. | See more commendations on our website » |
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Highlights from the Field |
This year, AgResearch and Education Centers hosted seventeen field days and special events across the state. More than 7,670 visitors attended these events, and topics ranged from organic crops to heifer development to horse management. Here are a few additional highlights from our AgResearch and Education Centers. Other highlights include: | • | The AgResearch and Education Center at Greeneville and Highland Rim AgResearch and Education Center began the first harvest of commercial hemp research plots. | | • | The West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center hosted thirty-two undergraduate and ten graduate students this summer who conducted agricultural research alongside the Center faculty. | | • | The Plateau AgResearch and Education Center hosted the twenty-seventh annual Bill Wheeler Ag in the Classroom for over 600 Cumberland County third graders and one hundred volunteers. | Highlights from the Field on our website » |
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