Several UT Knoxville facilities are being renamed as they transition to new uses. All of the names approved will honor families or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the university and its history. One of the names marks a first in UT history.

Fred D. Brown

The new Fred D. Brown Residence Hall is the first building on the UT Knoxville campus to be named for an African-American person.

“We are proud that we can carry on the legacy of these individuals who have contributed to UT’s rich diversity and inspiring history,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek.

Approved by the board were proposals to name:

• The new residence hall currently under construction on Andy Holt Avenue to the Fred D. Brown Jr. Residence Hall in honor of the longtime staff member who created the Office of Diversity Programs in the College of Engineering. The construction project is the first new residence hall to be built in forty-three years, and the hall will accommodate 700 men and women when it opens in 2014.

Now in its fortieth year, the Office of Diversity programs has recruited and supported more than 900 students from underrepresented groups who have graduated from the college. Brown founded it with just seventeen students, and his work has had a significant impact on the engineering profession.

Brown with students Robert Phillips and Marily Horhn in September 1973.

Brown graduated from Hall High School in Alcoa, Tennessee, and earned his college degree from the Tuskegee Institute. He did post-graduate work at UT, Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and Vanderbilt University. He taught at Hall High School in Alcoa and Oak Ridge High School. He was the first African-American teacher at Oak Ridge High soon after it was integrated and became the first African-American member of the Alcoa Board of Education.

• The former Student Health Center, 1818 Andy Holt Way, to Temple Hall in honor of Oliver P. Temple and his daughter, Mary Boyce Temple. The new Student Health Building opened last year on Volunteer Boulevard. The former health center is currently being renovated for College of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences programs.

Two previous buildings and a street have been named for the Temples throughout UT history. Temple Hall once served as an assembly center on the Agriculture Campus but no longer exists. The main route through campus, Temple Avenue, was renamed Volunteer Boulevard. Temple Court, which housed Career Services on the corner of Cumberland and Volunteer Boulevard, was razed in late 2012 to make room for a larger Student Union now under construction.

Oliver Temple was a trustee of East Tennessee University, which was later named the University of Tennessee, from 1820 until his death in 1907. He was a Greenville, Tennessee, lawyer and once ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Andrew Johnson. He was a driving force in expanding UT’s agriculture programs and its land grant designation.

Mary Boyce Temple continued her father’s work by establishing a foundation in 1919 to purchase and breed purebred animals and improve plant breeding. She later gave her library to UT.

• The new football practice facility the Anderson Training Center in honor of the Anderson families of Knoxville and Florence, Alabama. The families’ generosity helped to make the new state-of-the-art facility a reality. This 145,000-square-foot building includes an amphitheater-style team room, coaches’ offices, position meeting rooms, a first-class dining facility, players’ lounge, a 7,000-square-foot locker room, and a 22,000 square-foot multilevel weight room, as well as a new training room and hydrotherapy area. The Anderson Training Center will be central to the physical training and development of all Tennessee athletic teams.

The board also approved a proposal to modify the name of the Frank H. McClung Museum to the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture to better reflect its mission.

The John D. Tickle Engineering Building’s name was also modified to include the middle initial D of its benefactor, a 1965 graduate of the college. The Tickle building will be home to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The building is set to open to students in fall 2013.

Read more about today’s Board of Trustees meeting at the University of Tennessee System website.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@utk.edu)

The Board of Trustees today approved the degrees for Tennessee natives John Seigenthaler and Mary Costa. Seigenthaler will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and speak at the College of Law commencement at 5:00 p.m. on May 10. Costa will speak and receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane and Musical Letters at the College of Arts and Science commencement at 9:00 a.m. on May 10.

Theirs will be the fifth and sixth honorary degrees UT Knoxville has awarded.

“Throughout his career as a journalist, writer, and public servant, Mr. Seigenthaler has been a staunch advocate and defender of free speech and civil rights. His passion for human equality, for the pursuit of truth, and for protection of free speech and a free press have improved the lives of all Americans,” College of Law Dean Doug Blaze wrote in his letter nominating Seigenthaler for the honor.

A Nashville native, Seigenthaler worked at The Tennessean for forty-three years, moving up from reporter to assistant city editor to special assignment editor and ultimately to editor, publisher, and CEO. While there, he investigated corruption within the local branch of the Teamsters and looked into the criminal activities of Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa. His articles led to the impeachment trial of Chattanooga Criminal Court Judge Ralston Schoolfield.

He took a short break from journalism in the early 1960s to serve in the US Department of Justice as administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He served as negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the Freedom Rides. During that crisis, while attempting to aid Freedom Riders in Montgomery, he was attacked by a mob of Klansmen and hospitalized.

In 1982, while still working at The Tennessean, Seigenthaler became founding editorial director of USA Today. He retired as chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and from USA Today in 1991.

Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center in 1991 to create national discussion, dialogue, and debate about First Amendment rights and values. The center is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is associated with the Newseum and the Diversity Institute. The center has offices in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Seigenthaler attended Peabody College, which is now part of Vanderbilt University, and the American Press Institute at Columbia University. He served in the US Air Force after World War II.

The other honorary degree recipient is a well-known Knoxvillian and advocate for children and advancing art and culture.

School of Music Director Jeff Pappas nominated Costa for the honorary degree, saying she was worthy of the honor “because of her extensive and varied career, not just as a musician and entertainer, but for her role as a cultural ambassador, an advocate for the arts, education, young musicians, and at-risk children at the regional and national levels.”

Costa studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory in the late 1940s. An internationally acclaimed soprano, she performed in forty-four operas and worked with many of Hollywood’s legendary entertainers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jack Benny.

But it was early in her career, while she was singing and doing commercials on the radio, that Walt Disney discovered Costa and cast her as Princess Aurora in the 1958 film Sleeping Beauty.

Costa’s big break in opera came in 1958, just after she finished Sleeping Beauty. She was chosen to replace an indisposed Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for a gala concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Costa went on to sing leading roles in opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre, and the San Francisco Opera.

Costa—once heralded by The New York Times as “one of the most beautiful women to grace the operatic stage”—was the guest soloist at the memorial service for President John F. Kennedy at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1963. She also sang at the inaugural concert of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971.

She received the Licia Albanese–Puccini Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989 and the Disney Legends Award in 1999, and was honored with the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Distinguished Verdi Performance of the Twentieth Century for her 1964 Met debut as Violetta in La Traviata. She was appointed to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2003 and served until 2007.

Costa has traveled across the country giving motivational talks at schools and colleges. She has served as an ambassador for Childhelp, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.

UT Knoxville also has given honorary degrees to Howard H. Baker Jr., Dolly Parton, Al Gore, and Charles O. “Chad” Holiday.

Read more about today’s Board of Trustees meeting at the University of Tennessee System website.

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C O N T A C T :

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

That’s why, starting this fall, online learning activities about alcohol awareness and financial responsibility will be part of FYS 100, the credit/no-credit course all freshmen must take.

As in the past, FYS 100 also requires freshmen to read the Life of the Mind book, complete a response to the book, attend an author discussion, and complete several online tutorials, including instruction on how to use campus technology, a review of UT’s plagiarism policy and student success resources, and lessons about civility and coping with college issues.

Freshmen must complete all ten assignments to earn credit for FYS 100. Most of the tutorials take thirty minutes or less to complete.

Jessie Abernathy, assistant director of First-Year Studies, said alcohol awareness and financial literacy are critical issues for freshmen.

“Financial stress can be just as big a factor in student success as academics,” she said. The new online activity, “I.O.U.: The Essentials of Financial Responsibility,” covers financial aid responsibility, personal finances, and credit savvy.

Ashley Blamey, director of the Safety, Environment, and Education (SEE) Center, said the center developed the new “Alcohol and You” online tutorial to begin prevention education before students arrive on campus.

The café, sponsored by Sysco Foods, operates from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive. Each luncheon typically consists of an intermezzo or small appetizer, salad or soup, entrée, and dessert. Advance tickets will be sold for the luncheons, and capacity is eighty diners. Cost will be $12, and the faculty-staff discount does not apply. For tickets and reservations, see Marcia Johnson in the Jessie Harris Building, Room 110, call 865-974-6645, or e-mail rhtm@utk.edu.

The southern French menu is:

Appetizer: Roquefort, Saint Albray, quince paste, and grapes. (Roquefort is the oldest and most renowned of the blue cheeses. Saint Albray is French soft-ripened cheese, and quince is a golden round fruit.)

Salad: Duck confit mesclun (cured and poached duck served shredded with leafy greens, candied walnuts, and warm sherry chardonnay vinaigrette).

Main course: Chicken Provencal (chicken stew with emphasis on tomatoes and garlic).

Dessert: Pots de crème (loose French custard).

Lunch dates and themes for the remainder of the semester are:

• March 21, Northern France
• April 4, Sushi
• April 11, Japanese Cookery
• April 18, Spain
• April 25, Japanese/French Fusion
• May 2, Spanish/Italian Fusion

The luncheons are produced through a collaboration of HRT 445 (the Advanced Food Production and Service Management class), the UT Culinary Institute, and the Pellissippi Culinary Institute.

Students enrolled in the UT course will work as general managers, dining room attendants, assistant kitchen managers, dining room managers, and dining room service employees. They will be responsible for the execution of the dining experience, managing staff, menu planning, food preparation, cooking, cost analysis, service during meal time, marketing of the event, and customer satisfaction activities.

Pellissippi State students will do most of the food preparation and will assist with dining room responsibilities.

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C O N T A C T :

Marcia Johnson (for tickets): (865-974-6645, rhtm@utk.edu)

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

Read the full story here.

Gayle Baker

It’s always a challenge for faculty to stay on top of the advancing technology in their fields. That’s especially true for those who work in libraries.

Professor Gayle Baker, the electronic resources coordinator for UT Libraries, said the technological advances in her field are growing more and more complex each year.

“Publishers of electronic resources are coming out with mobile apps and special-purpose widgets to add to browser toolbars,” she said. “They also are creating new electronic resources, including scanned images of centuries-old documents, as well as collections of streaming videos.”

It’s Baker’s job to stay current on electronic resources for faculty and students, and then make sure they know how to use them.

“More than anyone, Gayle is responsible for the excellent electronic resources available to UT faculty and students,” said Steve Smith, dean of the UT Libraries. “She leverages her deep knowledge of scholarly databases to bring the very best library resources to our campus scholars.”

Baker also brings her vast experience to bear on research. She has been a key partner in a recent study of return on investment in academic libraries.

Baker became interested in library science as a graduate student at The Ohio State University in the early 70s, though that course of study wasn’t offered at the time. She earned a master’s degree in computer and information science and later earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of Alabama. She came to UT in 1990 as the science and technology coordinator, where she supervised science and technology librarians in Hodges Library. She’s been the electronic resources coordinator since 1993, when librarians performed the vast majority of database searches in the libraries at UT and the cost of access was based upon the amount of time connected with the database and the number of records with citation. There were very few databases of newspapers at the time, and none of scholarly journals.

Baker has served on UT’s Research Council and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Project COUNTER, an international initiative serving librarians and publishers by setting standards for recording and reporting online usage statistics.

When she’s not in the library, Baker and her husband spend their weekends on their farm in the Cumberland Gap area of southwest Virginia where they grow vegetables and hay and raise cattle.

Thura Mack

Thura Mack has been working in libraries since she was in high school. As a student worker, she was assigned to work with an outreach librarian who delivered books on tape for the blind in the community.

“Since I was close to graduating from high school, she made me promise that I would go to college to become a librarian one day,” said Mack. “She provided the coaching to make sure that I had a plan for my education and professional success. I think she would be proud that thirty-three years later, I am still a librarian and now have a role as a coordinator for outreach services.”

Mack is the coordinator of community learning services and diversity programs for UT Libraries. She holds a master’s degree in library science from UT and has worked at the university since 1980.

Since 2003 she has been a member of the Life of the Mind committee, helping to select the common reading book for each year’s incoming freshmen. Mack is currently working with colleagues on the Big Orange STEM Symposium (BOSS), an outreach project for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mack and her team are working with UT’s Outreach and Engagement Council, the L&N STEM Academy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and high schools from around the state.

“In my mind, BOSS is a success story because it has generated interest, collaboration, and enthusiasm in the community and has intellectual promise beyond the program itself,” said Mack. “We hope to make a huge impact in the lives of these high school students and encourage them to pursue their passions at UT.”

“Thura is an expert at community building,” Smith said. “She gives tirelessly of her time and talents to high school students and to faculty colleagues, always thinking of what will benefit the community and the library profession.”

Smith said Mack also has been key to the success of the library’s Diversity Residency Program, a program that enhances the ethnic and cultural diversity of UT Libraries by bringing recent library and information science graduates into the library for work experience.

“Thura is a committed advocate for diversity and one of the best mentors I have ever seen,” Smith said.

In her free time, Mack enjoys spending time with her daughter Niyia, who lives in Los Angeles, and traveling to visit other family members. She also works with toddlers and the elderly at her church.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

Michelle Brown

Michelle Brown, an assistant professor of sociology who teaches classes about law and justice, often has her students talk about difficult topics, such as pain, suffering, and societal exclusion.

These topics can make people squirm in their seats, but Brown manages to get her students to participate in the discussion without hesitation. What is her secret?

She allows her students to be uncomfortable and ask questions, and she hopes their discomfort inspires new ideas that reach beyond traditional thinking.

“Holding the position of discomfort—to borrow from yoga class—or being caught in contexts of uncertainty is a learning and transformative space. These are the places where we are pushed creatively, imaginatively to think beyond the oppressive structures of everyday life,” Brown said.

She has accomplished a great deal since she joined UT, and she recently was honored by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

“Michelle Brown is a productive and hard-working junior faculty member who has accomplished a great deal since she joined our faculty,” said Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Out of the classroom, Brown’s current project examines how people on the fringe of society see themselves beyond legal structures such as citizenship. From these often faceless and voiceless communities, she seeks new ideas about social justice.

“In prisons, camps, and other total institutions as well as in settings of extreme poverty and conflict and disaster dislocation, people are stripped of political rights and compelled to improvise new perspectives and makeshift communities to survive. I see these as spaces where emergent models for social justice are lived and embodied,” Brown said.

Being reminded of the world’s injustice on a regular basis, it might be easy to have a lackluster outlook on life, but Brown does not. Rather, her work inspires her to strive for a better tomorrow.

“A lot of people assume that my work has an unusually dark or bleak focus, but actually I am drawn—or compelled—to these spaces for hopeful reasons,” she said. “I want to learn more about how transformation takes shape amid competing visions of justice and in the starkest of human conditions.”

Brown came to UT in 2011. She previously worked at Indiana University and Ohio University. She did her undergraduate and graduate work at Indiana University.

Tom Burman

As his time as head of the Department of History comes to a close, professor Thomas Burman says he learned more than expected—not just about leadership but also about Booker T. Washington, women travelers of early modern Japan, and many more topics that his colleagues study.

“As department head, I had to read my colleagues’ scholarly work particularly closely. This has been a marvelous experience because we have such a great group of scholars in the department,” Burman said.

His colleagues’ work was more than a source of information; it was also a source of inspiration. From these works, Burman’s passion as a historian grew.

“Reading the recent works of the faculty members of UT’s history department makes me want to be a better historian,” Burman said.

Burman’s own area of research covers medieval Latin and Arabic manuscripts, and his research inspiration comes from the source of his studies:

“Copies of medieval encyclopedias or copies of the Qur’an that circulated in Europe and were read by European scholars. Holding these old, old handwritten books, often with notes scribbled in the margins by medieval readers, always gets my creative juices going,” Burman said.

Burman’s work does not go unnoticed. He was recently awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for the 2013–2014 academic year, and Dean Lee is delighted by his success.

“He was awarded the fellowship to work on his project titled ‘The Dominicans, Islam, and Christian Thought, 1220–1320.’ This is the second NEH fellowship awarded to Tom; the other one was in 2002–2003,” Lee said.

He derives the material for his graduate student seminar from his research and from a favorite book, which he hopes will inspire the next generation of historians.

“The class is built around George Steiner’s amazing book, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. It’s a book that’s been inspiring me for fifteen years, and I hope it will do the same for them,” he said.

Burman’s term as head of the Department of History ends this summer when he resumes his normal faculty duties.

Burman has been at UT since 1991. He has a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Washington State, a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, a Licentiate of Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, and a doctorate from the University of Toronto.

Witek Nazarewicz

Professor of Physics Witek Nazarewicz is a landscaper, but not in the traditional sense. Where some may fuss with plants and weeds to make a patch of land beautiful, Nazarewicz uses supercomputers to map out the landscape of atomic nuclei to widen the understanding of nuclear landscape.

His work as a nuclear theorist led him to the discovery that the chart of nuclides has more than double the number of nuclei previously identified. He carried out this research using the density functional theory, which is used to describe molecules, solids, and atomic nuclei.

But he did not make this pivotal discovery on his own. He inspired his students, both undergraduate and graduate, to assist him with this research.

“The students made important contributions to this work. They identified and counted the experimentally known isotopes, edited figures, compiled data, and developed codes to graph data for tables and figures,” Nazarewicz said. “It was a pleasure seeing their skills grow through this process.”

Guided by Nazarewicz’s assistance and knowledge, the team made a permanent mark on the frontier of nuclear physics.

Nazarewicz is the recipient of several awards in his field, including the 2012 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics, hailed as the “most prestigious nuclear physics prize in the United States,” as well the 2012 Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Distinguished Scientist Award.

“Nazarewicz is an accomplished senior member of the faculty who has earned an international reputation,” Lee said.

Nazarewicz came to East Tennessee in 1991 as a research professor at the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, and joined UT’s physics faculty as a professor in 1995.

Althea Murphy-Price

For Assistant Professor of Art Althea Murphy-Price, hair serves as an inspiration, a tool, and a process.

Using synthetic hair sent through a variety of processes, she sculpts and makes prints that comment on a personal and cultural history of hair.

“I am interested in hair as a symbol of assimilation, culture, race, and fashion, and my creative process is one that parallels an approach to styling hair—the variable and compliant nature of hair allows me the freedom to work in a number of ways rooted in ornamentation,” Murphy-Price said.

The project grew from her personal history with hair but soon expanded to explore the role of hair in African-American culture.

“Art is all about exploration. Through the creative process you learn so much about who you are,” Murphy-Price said.

Murphy-Price’s work is noticed beyond UT.

“She is one of forty-seven artists from a pool of over 400 nominees selected for the Southern Graphics Council International’s Traveling Exhibition,” Lee said.

Seeing her students work through the creative process motivates Murphy-Price and influences her own work. In the studio, she encourages her students to explore different methods and to revisit their work—sometimes asking them to do unconventional things, such as cutting up their artwork and reworking it. The time spent with her students is reflected in her own work.

“I learn a lot from my students. I want to create an environment where dialogue can be exchanged,” Murphy-Price said.

Murphy-Price has been at UT since 2010. She attended the University of Colorado and earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, her master’s degree from Purdue University and her Master of Fine Arts from Temple University. She also studied in Rome and Florence, Italy.

Visit altheamurphyprice.com for samples of Murphy-Price’s work.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (865-974-2225, ccopela7@utk.edu)

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

He replaces Jan Williams, who retired on February 28 after more than twelve years as dean of the college and thirty-five years at the university.

Before coming to UT, Mangum was senior associate dean at The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of Utah. He earned a doctorate in economics from George Washington University.

He taught and conducted research at George Washington University before joining the faculty of The Ohio State University in 1983. He taught in the Department of Management and Human Resources for several years before managing the department. He became senior associate dean of the Fisher College of Business in 1996.

The eleventh annual Appalachian Spring fundraiser will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Knoxville.

Students will recognize Mayfield as a “Legend of the Industry” for his role in turning a fourth-generation family dairy and ice cream business into one of the nation’s favorite dairy brands. The banquet’s theme, “Tasteful Adventures,” will showcase Mayfield’s favorite destinations around the country, from Mobile Bay and Panama City to New York City and Chicago.

The evening will include a silent auction, wine-and-beer reception, hors d’oeuvres, and a four-course dinner with wine pairings. UT students will prepare the meal from start to finish.

Tickets are $150 each for the general public and $85 for UT students. Participants also may sponsor an eight-seat table for $1,000. The deadline to buy tickets is March 12.

Students are seeking sponsorships that range from $50 for a “Wall of Thanks” in the program to $5,000 for one full-page advertisement and two sponsored tables.

Last year’s ticket sales and auction raised more than $26,000 for the Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management. The money generated from the banquet will support student scholarships, industry trips and internships, study abroad trips, and leadership development.

To purchase a ticket, contact Marcia Johnson at 865-974-6831 or wjohnso1@utk.edu.

For sponsorship information, contact Ann Fairhurst at 865-974-6614 or fairhurs@utk.edu.

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CONTACT:

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

Steve Adair

Horse lovers from across the Southeast travel hours upon hours to bring their beloved four-legged family members to see Steve Adair.

An associate professor of equine surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist, Adair is known for paying special attention to his patients during their treatment and rehabilitation.

“Dr. Adair has unbridled passion for all horses, but a special place in his heart for equine athletes,” said Jim Thompson, dean of the college.

Adair said when it comes to diagnosing medical problems, there’s a key difference between animal patients and human patients.

“Animals have a different way of communicating their pain with us,” he said. “There’s a process of examination, but also a look in the (animal’s) eye. Over time you develop a sixth sense.

“I enjoy that challenge, and the challenge of teaching students to look for those cues.”

After earning his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Auburn University in 1984, Adair went into private practice in Louisiana, spending much of his time around racehorses. He became interested in horses’ rehabilitation and was accepted to a surgical residency at UT in 1986. He joined UT’s faculty in 1990. His research focuses on laminitis, a foot disease common in horses. He was a charter member of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Adair treating Pattycake.

Adair primarily treats racehorses and other equine athletes, but one of his better-known cases was that of Pattycake, a five-year-old saddle horse burned in a barn fire. Pattycake had the worst burns Adair had seen in his twenty-five year career. Through five months of treatment at the College of Veterinary Medicine, under the care of Adair, three additional doctors, and eight students, Pattycake mended enough to move to a rehab center closer to her home in Sewanee, Tennessee.

“Dr. Adair is a gifted surgeon who works hard to fully understand his patients’ injuries,” said Thompson, “and then works even harder to develop the best treatment and rehabilitation plans to bring his patients back to their greatest level of performance.”

Apart from his UT work, Adair serves as rehabilitation specialist for the Budweiser Clydesdales.

He is an avid fisherman and he and his wife, Stacey, also a veterinarian, enjoy bird watching across the United States and Central America, and working on their farm in Maryville.

Diane Hendrix

Diane Hendrix chose to go into veterinary medicine rather than human medicine because she liked the idea of working with multiple species. A professor of ophthalmology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, her work takes her from the classroom to the exam room to the operating room.

“A great day for me is when I’ve worked on at least four different species,” said Hendrix. “All these eyes are different. All the anatomies are different. It’s challenging and exciting.”

After receiving her doctorate in veterinary medicine from UT in 1990, she interned at North Carolina State University before spending two years in general practice and then entering a residency at the University of Florida. Her two years in general practice prepared her for what many of her students will face when they graduate. Though Hendrix and her students see a myriad of cases at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Hendrix’s students will see fewer ophthalmology cases in their day-to-day practices once they leave UT.

“At UT we see a lot of cases every day that they aren’t going to see very much of in general practice,” she said. “We’re teaching at all levels. And we have to keep learning ourselves all the time because we’re responsible for teaching our students and our residents the most up-to-date information.”

Thompson calls Hendrix “one of our college’s most gifted clinicians.”

“We all love the enthusiasm, positive attitude, and compassion she brings to work every day,” he said. “She is also a spectacular teacher. It’s fun to see her eyes sparkle when she’s teaching. She helps make our college and hospital a wonderful place.”

Hendrix’s research focuses on corneal disease in horses and finding a new type of therapy for treating the most common form of eye cancer, squamous cell carcinoma.

When she’s not in the classroom or the operating room, Hendrix enjoys hiking in the Smokies with her husband and their two teenage daughters.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

The reception begins at 7:00 p.m., followed by the 8:00 p.m. screening. A question-and-answer session with film writer and director Elvin Ross will follow at 9:00 p.m. To RSVP, contact Beth Gladden at 865-974-9008 or bgladden@utk.edu.

For more information on the movie, visit its website.

A computer image of the entire novel of Moby Dick produced through Meaney and Szczepanski’s code.

How does a computer view the human world—say, the human genome or literary works such as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick?

Two UT professors have provided some insight, thanks to a code they’ve created that allows the computer to transform large-scale data and information into digital images—compressed pictures composed of colorful lines.

Evan Meaney, assistant professor of art, and Amy Szczepanski, assistant research professor in electrical engineering and computer science, have made a body of artwork called Null_Sets using their code. They’ve also provided a way for the public to make their own art using the code, whether it’s converting a love song, the Patriot Act, or the deed of one’s house into colorful images.

“The goal is to challenge people’s assumptions about what computer data looks like,” Szczepanski said. “In some sense, people trust the computer too much and imagine it as some magical box that does something. They forget that there’s actually a lot of human work that went on behind the scenes to make it happen.

“In as much as we mechanize things we’re still doing things for people and to interact with people.”

Amy Szczepanski

Szczepanski and Meaney designed their approach by running code on a supercomputer at the Remote Data Analysis and Visualization Center (RDAV) to create many test images. The center is an initiative of the UT Joint Institute for Computational Science and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The idea for the project began in 2010 while Szczepanski was working on an RDAV project that was trying to find ways to encourage researchers in other fields besides the hard sciences to consider using supercomputing to help their work.

She contacted Meaney, a digital artist, after a recommendation from UT’s visual arts committee. Together, they wrote the code for Null_Sets. The UT Research Foundation is currently working on patenting the code.

The project is receiving widespread recognition. Meaney recently won the jury prize for the Null_Sets project at the Distributed Microtopias exhibition at the fifteenth Annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Ithaca, New York.

Evan Meaney

Meaney has applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that would allow him and Szczepanski to turn Null_Sets into an iPad and Android app. Right now, the Null_Sets website has a size limit that means large amounts of data can’t be converted, and the server times out after a certain period. With the app, users would be able to upload and convert large amounts of data conveniently.

“We want to put a better face on it and have it be more user-friendly,” Meaney said.

To learn more about the Null_Sets project, view the collection of art, or make your own, visit Meaney’s website.

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CONTACT:

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

David Cihak

While in college, David Cihak worked in a total care facility for elderly people with disabilities where he helped them with daily activities—from getting up to dressing to feeding themselves.

Although meaningful, it encouraged him to take a different career path.

“They passed away, which was extremely sad when you’re eighteen,” he said. “It made me realize that maybe my focus should be working with children, adolescents, and young adults to ensure that they learn the skills they need so they can live in a far more independent manner.”

Cihak, an associate professor of special education, has dedicated his life to that mission. He is co-investigator of UT’s FUTURE Program, an initiative in its third year that aims to give students with intellectual disabilities a college experience while also teaching them how to live and work independently.

Bob Rider, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, noted that Cihak’s involvement with the FUTURE Program is one of his most valuable contributions to the university.

“Through David’s and his colleagues’ efforts, these students are now able to attend UT and enjoy and experience what it means to be a college student,” he said. “David’s work—focusing on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism—is widely known and highly respected.”

With the aspiring special education teachers who come through his classes, Cihak shares research, recommended practices and anecdotes from his time as a classroom teacher, as well as the history of how people with disabilities have been treated. He also helps his students gain experience working with students with disabilities in area schools. His students must complete two practicums and a yearlong professional internship to gather real-world classroom experiences before graduating.

“I try to inspire them by showing the importance of being an effective teacher, building relationships, and providing opportunities for all people to live, to work, and to participate actively in an integrated society,” he said.

Sarah Hillyer

Sarah Hillyer wants students who desire to work in sports-related disciplines to know they have options beyond the corporate arena or for-profit collegiate athletics. They can use sports to bring peace around the world.

She’s demonstrating it with her life. Hillyer, an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies, directs UT’s Center for Sport, Peace, and Society. The center, which opened in January 2012, is partnering with the US Department of State on an initiative to empower women and girls worldwide through sports.

The center also trains and equips students and community members to enact social change in their part of the globe.

“No matter what the discipline is, we all have something we’re really passionate about,” Hillyer said. “Most of us can identify a turning point in our life—a crossroads—where we said, ‘Am I going to choose to make the world a better place, or will I choose apathy and just make it through?’ It’s really about empowering students to create a better world for all of us if that’s what they choose to do with sports.”

The turning point for Hillyer came while she was a college basketball player. Coaches were under such intense pressure to win that student athletes sometimes felt they were nothing more than a jersey number, she said. Some coaches imposed strict weight restrictions and benched players who exceeded the weight by just a few pounds. Because of this, Hillyer developed unhealthy habits.

“Not only did I graduate with a degree in sports management, I also graduated with a severe eating disorder,” she said.

She also had lost her love for sports. While in rehabilitation for her eating disorder, she went through a period of reflection and realized that sports could be used for good or ill.

“Sport is what people choose to do with it,” she said. “I could walk away from it or do something empowering with it.”

Out of this came Sport 4 Peace, an organization Hillyer created to use athletics in a humanitarian way. It led her to China, Iran, Israel, Iraq, and ultimately UT, where she completed her doctoral studies.

The organization is the model for UT’s Center for Sport, Peace, and Society.

Bob Rider, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, which houses the center, said its work—guided by Hillyer—spreads the UT brand all over the world.

“Sarah brings very special talents to our college and the university, helping to lift up girls and women from developing countries and repressed societies,” he said. “She is an amazing ambassador for our university and so wonderfully represents what it means to be a true Volunteer.”

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CONTACT:

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

Thomas K. Davis

As an undergraduate student at Cornell University, Thomas K. Davis studied under architecture professors who infused their teaching with such enthusiasm that it birthed in him the desire to do the same.

“I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “I have taught for fifty-six semesters, and I want to give my students that same passion. The more I work with students, there’s so much more I realize I want to learn.”

Davis, who came to UT in 1994, is an associate professor of architecture. His primary interest is urban and architectural design. He teaches a seminar on issues in urban design; a course on architecture, the city and film; and an urban design studio course.

For three years, he served as director of the Nashville Civic Design Center—a nonprofit organization that addresses the city’s urban design challenges—and is on its board of directors. UT students use the center as a satellite learning space and studio. He also established a summer learning program for students in Tennessee’s capital city.

Davis recently received national recognition for his community outreach program with students, Collaborations in Transit-Oriented Development, which aims to produce a walkable, pedestrian-friendly Nashville.

“Our teaching and applied research are having a direct and lasting impact on the people and places, culture and community, environmental health, and economic vitality in the state of Tennessee and beyond, and professor Davis’s longtime work as a leader of urban design in Nashville epitomizes this,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design.

Davis noted that as he works with students, he often encourages them to use their eye and hand to draw—instead of immediately going to the computer—as they attempt to solve architectural problems because it enhances their conceptual thinking.

“I hope they develop a life-long interest and ability to keep on learning,” Davis said. “I want them to have learned to see architecture not just as good-looking objects, but as well-designed spaces and places that people occupy.”

Mary Beth Robinson

Mary Beth Robinson (in blue) with students, from left, Teal Nabors, Michelle Hawfield, and Lindsay Payne.

For interior design students, attending one of Mary Beth Robinson’s classes often results in self discovery.

Robinson, an associate professor of interior design, invites students to explore how they relate to the environment through their own history—important life moments, where they came from, and what sensory influences shaped them.

“It’s important for students to understand what their own motivations are,” she said. “They’re designing and sometimes they’re not quite sure where it’s coming from. Once they pinpoint it, it really frees them up to move on, or inspires them as they design for themselves or for others.”

Robinson has taught interior design at UT for ten years. Prior to that, she was a design practitioner.

“Working with young people in the office really led me to knowing that eventually I would want to go into teaching and share not just the practice aspect, but also learning about design,” she said. “Seeing students discover their passion and what they want to do in life and connecting them to that is something that has always inspired me to teach.”

For many years, she coordinated the Interior Design Program’s summer internship course. She will soon transition into a part-time teaching role as a professor, which will allow her to pursue other ventures while staying connected to the university.

David Matthews, associate dean of the College of Architecture and Design and chair of the Interior Design Program, said Robinson’s love for both the profession and the art of teaching “is evidenced in the high caliber of students who leave our program and enter into varying and robust careers.

“She has modeled the integration of research and design in her teaching by providing opportunities for student to use emerging knowledge as they design interior environments,” he said.

Robinson has an interest in helping students understand how interior space can contribute to wellness and human behavior. She takes her students on field trips to museums and studios in various cities so they can see the practical application of design in action.

“Whether it’s your personal space or a retail environment, it’s how to manipulate all elements of design—lighting, positioning of partitions, color, the furnishings, every aspect—and then understanding the human behavior piece of it and how space can be transformed to benefit how people use that space,” she said.

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C O N T A C T :

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

You can post your own shout-out to your favorite faculty member on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

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

Patouillet has more than thirty years of experience in the alumni profession. Most recently, he led Patouillet Consulting, LLC, an alumni and development consulting firm based Atlanta, Georgia. Before taking the company full time in December 2011, he served as the associate vice president of alumni affairs and executive director of the University of Florida Alumni Association, associate vice chancellor and executive director at the University of Pittsburgh Alumni Association, and executive director of the University of South Florida Alumni Association.

He will begin serving in his new role July 1.

“Lee has a tremendous reputation in the industry and a clear understanding of our journey to become a Top 25 institution,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “During his career, he has led alumni programs at two Top 25 public research universities, and understands how to engage alumni to help us meet that goal.”

Patouillet has a bachelor’s in American studies from the University of South Florida, a master’s in education from UT, and a doctorate in administrative and policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh. The alumni organizations led by Patouillet have received more than 10 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) circle of excellence awards.

“We are ecstatic to bring someone with Lee’s background to our team. Not only is he an industry leader in alumni relations, but as a UT alum, he has a passion for our great institution and understands what makes UT special,” said Scott Rabenold, vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs for the Knoxville campus.

“As an advancement professional and a proud alumnus, I am honored and excited to be joining the team committed to UT’s goal of becoming a Top 25 public research university, and I look forward to developing a great partnership with the UT Alumni Association,” Patouillet said.

UT Knoxville, has more than 220,000 alumni worldwide. For more information, visit the Alumni Association’s website.

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C O N T A C T :

Tiffany Carpenter (865-974-1476, tcarpent@utk.edu)

The summit involved an interdisciplinary group of scientists, economists, academics, entrepreneurs and policy analysts from the US and EU and was held from 2010 to 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Brussels, Belgium.

UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy partnered with the European Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to organize the summit. It was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, and the European Commission.

“Senator Baker, who took an active role in formulating this project, has long been interested in balancing environmental preservation with our desire for economic growth and in the role of science in achieving that balance,” said Matt Murray, Baker Center director. “He has encouraged our collaboration with other institutions in projects that embrace different viewpoints and produce recommendations relevant in an increasingly complex global economy.”

The recommendations include:

• US-EU collaboration on new and innovative education techniques to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and remain competitive in an increasingly competitive global economy.
• An expanded role of the federally run water management organizations to manage water supply in the U.S. as increasing consumption, population growth and climate change will have important implications for water supplies.
• A joint US-EU patent system to enhance commercialization of joint research products, since both entities want to improve their innovation systems through joint research activities.
• US-EU improvement in energy efficiency through improved economic incentives and enhanced understanding of human behavioral issues to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases.

The recommendations come at a time when the US and EU are recovering from severe recessions yet face important decisions about public and private investments in an environmentally constrained world.

“To succeed, these investments should support development of new technologies and improved science and math education and put the United States and the European Union on a path to a low-carbon future,” said summit organizer Robert Shelton, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Baker Center. “These themes were central to summit deliberations.”

The US and EU have much in common, including democratic forms of government and market-based economies.

“Because of these shared values, we have considerable potential for improved cooperation in addressing the many economic, technological, and energy challenges we both face,” said Domenico Rossetti, principal administrator at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and member of the summit’s organizing committee. “This summit created an extensive and productive trans-atlantic dialogue, and these reports capture the essence of that discussion.”

The series of reports is available online at tiny.utk.edu/Summit.

UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan institute devoted to education and scholarship concerning public policy and civic engagement. For more information, visit bakercenter.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T:

Robert Shelton (865-974-9076, rshelto2@utk.edu)

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

Nan Gaylord

If you ask Nan Gaylord what our nation’s most valuable resource is, she won’t answer with water, oil, or natural gas. She’ll tell you, it is our children.

“If children are not well cared for, our next generation will be troubled,” said Gaylord, an associate professor of nursing.

It was this strong belief that led Gaylord to pursue a career in pediatric nursing.

Gaylord is founder of the Vine School Health Center, a school-based health care clinic that serves students in Knox County who have limited access to health care.

“My research and work are dedicated to the access to health care for children, which will hopefully allow for the consideration of alternative delivery sites for care, alternative providers of care, and reimbursement of the care provided in these sites,” she said.

Gaylord has expanded the reach of the Vine School Health Center by using telehealth technologies. Telehealth is the use of digital technologies to deliver medical care, health education, and public health services by connecting multiple users in separate locations.

“Dr. Gaylord is an inspiration to her students, colleagues, and the patients that she serves,” said Dean Vickie Niederhauser. “As the founder and director for the Vine School Health Center, Dr. Gaylord has created a national model for care of children in community-based settings.”

Gaylord inspires many people with her passionate advocacy for children on both the local and national levels.

“Dr. Gaylord is the epitome of a nursing educator and children’s advocate,” said Alicia Alexander-Helms, a former student and now Vine Health Center colleague. “She is a great leader and an empowered woman. She serves her students and community in a tireless manner.”

Gaylord hopes this excitement is contagious and that the next generation of advanced practice nurses she mentors will enjoy their professional life as much as she does.

“I hope I inspire my students to think outside our nursing box, to think about what is possible and what is best for our little patients, and then plan accordingly to see that possibility actualized,” she said.

Peggy Pierce

The aging baby boomer population, coupled with changes in health care, has significantly increased the critical need for advanced practice nurses.

Peggy Pierce, assistant professor of nursing, is tackling this national problem one student at a time. As chair of the College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, she helps students become clinical practice leaders and educators.

“Our students come from many different backgrounds and experiences,” she said. “They work, they have families, but they are trying to accomplish this grand goal. We want to help them move toward this goal in a way that works for them while also meeting our high program standards.”

Ben Barbour, a graduate student in nursing, said Pierce inspires him to approach all of life’s problems from multiple angles.

“Dr. Pierce encourages her students to find creative solutions to complex problems, and base their decisions on sound evidence,” he said. ”She inspires students to treat all patients in a holistic manner, and she has expanded my knowledge of complementary and alternative medical therapies.”

Pierce is making UT history by leading the first interprofessional team-based education program between nursing, industrial engineering, medical, and pharmacy students. This spring, a group of students from the different disciplines began learning together using telehealth technology in the delivery of patient care at clinics around Knox County. This way of learning gives students real-world clinical experience, which studies show improves patient results.

“The future of healthcare reform will depend on cohesive teamwork to provide safe, efficient, and effective patient-centered care models,” said Dean Vickie Niederhauser. “Dr. Pierce’s leadership in this interprofessional endeavor is an inspiration to all the students.”

When Pierce isn’t teaching students in a classroom or clinic, you can find her teaching an early morning outdoor “bootcamp” fitness class.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5034, wheins@utk.edu)