Ellingson is one of no more than ten graduate students worldwide who received the award this year. It is given in recognition of the quality and significance of her research in integrating supercomputing technologies with biopharmaceutical research.

Ellingson has been successful in developing efficient programs for screening chemicals for their potential to interact with proteins.  Due to the her program’s association with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, she is able to use the Kraken, Jaguar, and Titan supercomputers to bridge supercomputing and biological research with particular importance in drug discovery and chemical/system biology.

The award comes with a travel fellowship to the national American Chemical Society meeting in Indianapolis this fall, a recognition ceremony during the meeting, and a free license of a well-known industrial computational chemistry program.

Ellingson’s work is performed in the UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics, under the supervision of Jerome Baudry, assistant professor in the Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology department , and Genome Science and Technology faculty in collaboration with Jeremy Smith, UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Molecular Biophysics. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy.

Ellingson has also recently won the 2013 Science Alliance award and, among many travel fellowships, the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing and Supercomputing Broader Engagement awards several years in a row. She has also co-authored many peer-reviewed publications with her advisor and collaborators.

The award is sponsored by the society’s Computers in Chemistry division in association with the Canadian scientific software company Chemical Computing Group. For more information, visit the ACS website.

UT Ambassadors held a surprise party for Robert “Taylor” Thomas, center, when he gave his 300th campus tour.

He knows that the only two graves on UT’s campus belong to dogs and that the most popular class on campus is the History of Rock n’ Roll.

Robert “Taylor” Thomas knows dozens of fun facts about UT.

Thomas, who graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences today with a degree in philosophy, has learned many things at UT. But as a UT Ambassador, he has taught many things as well.

UT Ambassadors are the student liaisons and tour guides for prospective students and their parents who are visiting campus.

Thomas made sure his tours were filled with useful—and quirky—information about UT.

“The Torchbearer’s torch went out once when LSU fans put a jack-o-lantern on it. Another time its arm fell off. Also, in 1974, a public streak was held on Cumberland Avenue after Walter Cronkite named Knoxville the ‘Streaking Capital of the World.’ That’s why we call Cumberland ‘The Strip.’ Those are just some of my favorites,” Thomas said.

Thomas, of Lexington, Tennessee, has given more than 300 campus tours, setting what is believed to be a nationwide record for campus tours.

“My job meant everything to me. Getting on that bus and seeing people’s faces—it was a fun time. I was here to get an education, but being a student ambassador was a very special part of my college experience.”

Thomas applied to be a UT Ambassador at the end of his freshman year. After a year of being an Ambassador, he applied for a leadership position.

“I asked him how he would gain the respect of upperclassmen who had been in the program longer,” said Laura Stansell, assistant director of admissions. “He paused, then said, ‘Well, I don’t speak up a lot, so I like to think that when I do, people listen.’ How right he was!”

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

She apprenticed in a middle school classroom “and I loved it,” she said. “I was sold after that.”

Eakes, of Knoxville, and seven other students will graduate this month as part of VolsTeach’s inaugural class. She already has been hired as a teacher at Karns Middle School for the fall.

VolsTeach graduates. Pictured, from left to right in the front row: Kelsey Ford, Maria Owens, Tara Phillips, Sarah Eakes, and Melinda Hopkins. Back Row, from left to right: Scott Bailey, Joel Smith, and Taylor Brown.

Through VolsTeach, she said, “I never changed my major, which was nice. I just changed my career.”

VolsTeach prepares math, science, and engineering majors to become teachers in Tennessee’s high-need middle and high schools. It has been recognized statewide for helping to solve one of the state’s most vital education problems—a shortage of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in middle and high schools.

VolsTeach, which began in fall 2010, currently has 133 students. Students are able to earn a degree in their discipline and a secondary education teaching license within four years and at no extra cost. Students take VolsTeach as a minor. Their degree provides them with two career paths. The first cohort of students is a year ahead of the initially projected graduation schedule.

The program is a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. It replicates UTeach, a successful model developed by the University of Texas at Austin.

“We’re building that pipeline of students who earn their undergraduate degrees in their content areas and their teaching licensure to fill those critical teaching areas of chemistry, physics, math, and biology,” said Susan Newsom, assistant director of VolsTeach.

For Scott Bailey, a microbiology major from Maynardville, Tennessee, being part of the program has helped him develop his passion.

“I love teaching,” he said. “All the master teachers and instructors have been super thoughtful and helpful about how to make myself a better person and a better teacher.”

Bailey, who will graduate in December, said VolsTeach has given him an added benefit.

“The program has allowed me to meet a whole lot of people and make really close friends,” he said.

To learn more about VolsTeach, visit the program’s website.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

UT will award two honorary degrees and welcome a host of accomplished speakers at this spring’s commencement ceremonies, which begin May 8.

Honorary degrees will be awarded to renowned journalist John Seigenthaler at the College of Law commencement and to opera singer Mary Costa, known as the voice of Sleeping Beauty, at the College of Arts and Sciences commencement. Read more about the recipients in Tennessee Today.

More than 3,730 undergraduate and graduate students will receive degrees at thirteen college ceremonies this spring.

Graduates and their guests can park free in university student parking areas throughout the campus, but should avoid parking in staff lots.

Commencement ceremonies will be webcast.

Webcast links are included below. For information about parking and other details, visit the commencement website.

Below is a list of the commencement ceremonies and speakers. All events take place in Thompson-Boling Arena unless otherwise specified:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

• 8:30 a.m.—College of Nursing. The speaker is Julie Worley, a nursing doctoral student who has a private psychiatry practice. She teaches online at Rush University in Chicago and will be a full-time assistant professor and researcher at Rush after graduation. View the webcast here.

• 11:30 a.m.—College of Engineering. Alumnus Dwight Hutchins, the global managing director of Accenture’s Health and Public Service Strategy practice, will speak. View the webcast here.

• 3:30 p.m.—College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Missy Kane, a former Olympian, a Pan American Games medalist, and a former UT track coach, will speak. She is now a fitness promotion coordinator for Covenant Health. View the webcast here.

THURSDAY, MAY 9

• 8:30 a.m.—College of Communication and Information. The speaker is alumna Monica Langley, an author and senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal. View the webcast here.

• 11 a.m. —Audiology and Speech Pathology. Cox Auditorium in Alumni Memorial Building

• 1:00 p.m.—College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Alumnus Donnie Smith, president and chief executive officer of Tyson Food, will speak. View the webcast here.

• 4:30 p.m.—Graduate Hooding. Amanda Sanford, fifth-year doctoral candidate in political science and president of the Graduate Student Senate, will speak. The Graduate School expects about 300 master’s students and 100 doctoral students to take part in the ceremony. View the webcast here.

FRIDAY, MAY 10

• 9:00 a.m.—College of Arts and Sciences. Costa will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane and Musical Letters and speak briefly. The speaker is alumna Margaret Scobey, former US Ambassador to Egypt and longtime diplomat. She is now deputy commandant, international affairs advisor, Industrial College of the Armed Forces. View the webcast here.

• 2:00 p.m.—College of Business Administration. Mark A. Emkes, Tennessee Commissioner of Finance and Administration and retired chairman, chief executive officer and president of Bridgestone Americas Inc., will speak. View the webcast here.

• 5:00 p.m.—College of Law. Seigenthaler will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and speak briefly. US Sen. Lamar Alexander, who served as Tennessee’s governor, president of the University of Tennessee and US Secretary of Education, will speak. View the webcast here.

SATURDAY, MAY 11

• 10:00 a.m.—College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Patricia Sura, who completed her residency at the College of Veterinary Medicine and was an assistant professor of surgery for six years, will speak. Sura now practices at a veterinary hospital in Kentucky.

• 1:00 p.m.—College of Social Work. No guest speaker. View the webcast here.

• 5:00 p.m.—College of Architecture and Design Hooding Ceremony. The speaker is alumna Robin Klehr Avia, regional managing principal and chair of the board at Gensler, an internationally acclaimed design firm. View the webcast here.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

McSween is a Chancellor’s Professor and distinguished professor of earth and planetary sciences.

The SEC Professor of the Year Award honors one SEC faculty member from the fourteen conference universities whose record in research, scholarship, and service places him or her among the elite in higher education.

“We are honored that Hap won this top award in our conference,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “It is well deserved. He is a stellar representative of our university and what it means to be an extraordinary scientist, teacher, and researcher.”

McSween first won the university’s SEC Faculty Achievement Award, making him a finalist for the top award. He will be honored at the SEC Spring Banquet in Destin, Florida, in May and will receive a $20,000 honorarium.

“Hap is beloved as a truly wonderful human being whose interactions with others are characterized by kindness and generosity,” said Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “He is the epitome of a servant leader and we are indebted to him for responding to calls for his leadership and service at critical times in his department, the college, and the university. He is passionately committed to the success of this institution. We are a better community because Hap McSween is among us.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoUTUr684I8

McSween is the world’s leading expert on the composition of Mars. He is co-investigator for NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft mission, the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Dawn spacecraft mission. He is a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences’ J. Lawrence Smith Medal for his pioneering studies of the parent planets of meteorites and his work on the geological history of Mars, and he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1999, McSween led a team of researchers that discovered geologic evidence on a meteorite that water existed deep in Mars’ crust. He also has an asteroid named for him by the International Astronomical Union, 5223 McSween.

A UT faculty member for thirty-five years, McSween has been named the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences best teacher six times. UT awarded him the Alexander Prize, which recognizes excellence in teaching and research, and the College of Arts and Sciences College Marshal, the highest college honor bestowed upon a faculty member.

The SEC Professor of the Year is selected by the SEC provosts. The award is part of several academic initiatives the Southeastern Conference has undertaken to encourage academic leadership and collaboration within the SEC.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

Harry McSween (865-974-9805, mcsween@utk.edu)

Formichella is an authority on the music of Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846 – 1916) and will perform Tosti’s Italian salon music. Both she and the composer are from the same region – Gulianova, Italy. Formichella is nationally renowned in her country, and is currently a faculty member of the Conservatory L. D’Annunzio of Pescara, Italy. For more info, visit her website.

Formichella also will premiere a new work entitled Vorrei, written by assistant professor Brendan McConville, which he describes as “a re-setting of a Tosti work by the same name,” and “a modern homage to 19th century Italian salon music.”

Distinguished Professor Dan Simberloff, the Gore-Hunger Professor of Environmental Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a leading expert in invasive species, had the idea of starting an institute to study biological invasions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loa2wly3rgY

A project completed by students during the High School Arts Academy.

The twelfth annual High School Arts Academy at UT gave eighty students from thirty East Tennessee schools an opportunity to study visual arts in a university setting last month.

Student participants enrolled in a workshop of their choice: ceramics, layered books, video, watercolor, photo/collage, printmaking, drawing, or improv design. All workshops were taught by School of Art professors.

In addition to the workshops, participants also viewed the current UT student exhibit in the Ewing Gallery, and at the end of the day, they visited the other workshops to see their peers’ creations.

Although spring break in several public school systems hindered attendance, Marcia Goldenstein, the academy’s organizer and a professor in the School of Art, considered this year’s academy a hit.

A student works on a water color portrait during the academy.

“The event was such a success,” Goldenstein said. “Many of high school teachers also came to the academy, and their comments about how valuable the UT High School Arts Academy is for their students means the world to us.”

Area high schools that participated in the 2013 UT High School Arts Academy included Anderson County High School, Clinton High School, and Oak Ridge High School in Anderson County; Heritage High School in Blount County; Elizabethton High School in Carter County; Chuckey-Doak High School, North Greene High School, and West Greene High School in Greene County; Morristown East High School in Hamblen County; Collegedale Academy in Hamilton County; Bearden High School, Carter High School, Central High School, Farragut High School, Gibbs High School, Halls High School, Hardin Valley Academy, L&N STEM Academy, Knoxville Catholic High School, Powell High School, Tennessee School for the Deaf, Webb School of Knoxville, and West High School in Knox County; Greenback High School and Lenoir City High School in Loudon County; Kings Academy and Sevier County High School in Sevier County; Sullivan Central High School in Sullivan County; Unicoi County High School in Unicoi County; and David Crockett High School in Washington County.

She will be discussing some of the mission’s findings at the Science Forum on April 19.

The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation.

The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.

NASA has been studying Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite, since 2004. Although it is ten times farther from the sun than Earth and about 200 degrees Kelvin colder, Titan’s surface is very similar to Earth’s but composed of very different materials.

Pictures and data from Titan show windblown dunes covering about 20 percent of the moon’s surface. They are similar to sand dunes on Earth but are made of carbon-rich material.

Titan also has many drainage networks, similar to river systems on Earth. Instead of being formed by water, they were formed by liquid hydrocarbon.

Burr studies data after it is released by NASA. She said she is excited about the findings.

“There’s another planetary body—another world—that looks amazingly like Earth, but formed in very different materials,” she said. “It’s really fascinating.”

The last Science Forum presentation of the semester will be April 26 and will feature Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the McClung Museum, presenting “Digging into Our Civil War Past.”

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C O N T A C T :

Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

• New program will expand UT department’s focus in international human rights
• Body of Evidence: UT using donated corpses in mass grave project with international aspirations
• Military atrocities: El Salvador
• Editorial: Projects such as Body Farm pay of academically

Drumheller-Horton feeding a partial cow hind limb to a group of American alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. She was collecting bite mark samples from different species of crocodylian on cow and pig limbs.

Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, lecturer in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, helped make an interesting discovery in a dinosaur fossil earlier this year.

She will be discussing her research at the Science Forum on Friday, April 12.

While analyzing bite marks on some seventy-five million year-old dinosaur bones that were collected in southern Utah in 2002, she and a team of paleontologists found the remnant of a prehistoric crocodylian tooth—evidence that crocs may have eaten small dinosaurs.

“Crocodylian” is a term encompassing several living animals, including alligators, crocodiles, and caimans, and their closest extinct relatives.

Drumheller-Horton studies both modern and ancient crocodylians, comparing the patterns of bite marks they leave on the bones of their prey.

The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation.

Femur with tooth.

The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.

Drumheller-Horton will speak about her work with modern crocodylians and then compare her findings with several case studies of fossils like the dinosaur bones she helped analyze.

She says that comparing bite mark patterns of modern crocodylians to ancient ones allows scientists to identify “very specific behavior that can be traced back sixty or seventy million years.”

They are also able to identify specific types of crocodylian species based on the fossils and learn about what was happening in their ecosystem at the time.

Drumheller-Horton has been studying crocodylian bite marks since 2006, when she began researching them for her dissertation.

Future Science Forums will feature:

• April 19: Devon M. Burr, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, discussing “The Moon That Would Be a Planet: Saturn’s Giant Titan”
• April 26: Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the McClung Museum, presenting “Digging into Our Civil War Past”

The Science Forum is sponsored by the UT Office of Research. For more information about the Science Forum, visit the Office of Research website.

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C O N T A C T :

Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

Instead of manually transferring samples, chemicals and test tubes, the system uses robotics to streamline the
process and allow large batches to be analyzed simultaneously. Photo by Brett Pate, Y-12 Photography.

Y‑12’s formal partnership with UT offers a simple solution: graduate research assistants.

“Using a graduate assistant is a phenomenal value,” said James Bradshaw of Y‑12’s Analytical Chemistry Organization. “We get a lot more done for the taxpayers’ dollar.”

Bradshaw has taken advantage of the UT/Y-12 partnership to collaborate with chemistry professor Michael Sepaniak and doctoral candidate Jennifer Charlton on a project that has potentially significant benefits for responses to nuclear crises like the disaster that occurred at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011.

Through the project, Charlton has gained academic, field, laboratory, and US Department of Energy experience.

“We’re getting a lot of work from a very skilled individual,” Bradshaw said. “We can actually deliver quality results while educating the next generation of scientists—this is a no-brainer.”

The initial assessment of a nuclear event’s severity—of how much radioactive material was released, where it went, and who might be affected by it—relies on accurate and timely measurements of nearby surfaces.

Those measurements are currently done by a manual process—collect a soil sample, process it, digest it in acid, wait two hours—that works in twelve-sample batches. Then there’s the analysis time, which can take hours or days. In total, two researchers using these techniques can expect to complete roughly 100 samples in a twenty-four-hour period.

Bradshaw and Charlton hope to dramatically increase that throughput to as many as 10,000 samples a day for two operators.

“Current methods only allow for the isolation of one actinide, such as uranium, at a time,” Charlton said. “We’ve modified the chemistry to include the rest of the actinides.” Actinides, elements 89 through 103 on the Periodic Table, are the radioactive elements of interest to researchers and crisis responders. By detecting specific actinides, responders, medical personnel, and clean-up crews can act quickly and efficiently to provide relief and assistance.

“We’ve also taken the manual actinide separation process and automated it. Our system uses robotics to streamline the process and allow large batches to be analyzed simultaneously,” Charlton said.

The outcome has potential benefits for National Nuclear Security Administration researchers, other Y‑12 processes and, eventually, first responders.

-Written by Y-12′s Eric Swanson

The pilgrimage is a five-day exploration of plant and animal life. It will be held April 23-27 and includes 143 guided walks and indoor presentations that cover the region’s rich wildflowers, fauna, ecology, and cultural and natural history.

The Society recognizes the tremendous impact the pilgrimage has had on promoting education and appreciation of the spring flora of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A formal presentation of the award will be held on Thursday, April 25 during the evening program in the Mills Auditorium.

Online registration for the pilgrimage is now open and on-site registration begins at 5 p.m.

Since its founding in 1978, the Tennessee Native Plant Society has helped nurture the growing interest in wildflowers and other native flora while also working to protect Tennessee’s native plant heritage and preserve it for future generations.

For more information about the event, visit the Tennessee Today announcement.

The bioremediation expert presented his Deepwater Horizon disaster research findings at the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

Hazen conducted research following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which is estimated to have spilled 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. His research team used a powerful new approach for identifying microbes in the environment to discover previously unknown and naturally occurring bacteria that consume and break down crude oil.

“The Deepwater Horizon oil provided a new source of nutrients in the deepest waters,” said Hazen. “With more food present in the water, there was a population explosion among those bacteria already adapted to using oil as a food source. It was surprising how fast they consumed the oil. In some locations, it took only one day for them to reduce a gallon of oil to a half gallon. In others, the half-life for a given quantity of spilled oil was six days.”

This data suggests that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep sea and other environs in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil-eating bacteria are natural inhabitants of the Gulf because of the constant supply of oil as food.

Hazen’s team used a novel approach for identifying previously recognized kinds of oil-eating bacteria that contributed to the natural clean up of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Instead of growing the microbes in a laboratory, the team used “ecogenomics.” This approach uses genetic and other analyses of the DNA, proteins, and other footprints of bacteria to provide a more detailed picture of microbial life in the water.

“The bottom line from this research may be that the Gulf of Mexico is more resilient and better able to recover from oil spills than anyone thought,” Hazen said. “It shows that we may not need the kinds of heroic measures proposed after the Deepwater Horizon spill, like adding nutrients to speed up the growth of bacteria that break down oil, or using genetically engineered bacteria. The Gulf has a broad base of natural bacteria, and they respond to the presence of oil by multiplying quite rapidly.”

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. For more information, visit  www.acs.org.

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C O N T A C T :

Terry Hazen (865-974-7709, tchazen@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)