The Torchbearer

Summer 2007/Volume 46, No.2
The Alumni Information Source of the University of Tennessee

News from the Colleges

College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

  • Under a $500,000 USDA grant, UT is working with two North Carolina universities to develop a graduate curriculum to prepare students for jobs in biofuels industries
  • Professor Tom Mueller, plant sciences, received the Southern Weed Science Society’s 2007 Outstanding Educator Award
  • Karen Vail chaired the annual meeting of the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America
  • The Southern Rural Development Center honored agricultural economist George Smith with its 2007 Bonnie Teater Community Development Educator Lifetime Achievement Award.
Photo of Dean Beyl

New Dean for Ag

Dr. Caula A. Beyl is the new dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. She formerly was an administrator with Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University.

Beyl is the first female dean of UT’s nearly century-old college of agriculture. She is among a handful of female leaders of such land-grant colleges across the nation. Her appointment recognizes a shift from traditionally male-dominated programs to studies that are attracting nearly equal numbers of male and female students.

A professor of horticulture, Beyl has received numerous awards and recognitions for her teaching and research. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Purdue University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University.


College of Arts and Sciences

  • College Dean Bruce Bursten is president-elect of the American Chemical Society
  • The English department, with support from the Cormac McCarthy Society, hosted a conference, “The Road Home: McCarthy’s Imaginative Return to the South,” in April
  • Witchcraft trials expert Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University, presented the Milton M. Klein History Studies Endowment lecture in April
  • Religious Studies Professor Rosalind Hackett is executive producer of a music CD benefiting the children of war-torn northern Uganda
  • Associate Professor Derek Hopko, psychology, is leading a study, funded by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, on treating depression in breast cancer patients
  • Microbiology Professor Mark Sangster is assisting in bird flu and vaccine research at the New York Influenza Center of Excellence.

Architecture and Design

  • WBIR-TV in Knoxville featured an interior design class trip to El Salvador and its resulting design proposals for a Salvadoran orphanage
  • The inaugural Design Matters summer camp was held in June for high school students interested in architecture and design
  • An interior design team placed second in the university’s Disability Awareness Design Competition. Its design was for “Sole,” footwear for diabetics
  • Professor George Dodds was named a 2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor
  • Architecture students, with Chattanooga’s Howard High School and civic organizations, are designing and building two houses in Chattanooga. They’ve helped build and/or design 25 houses in the past eight years.

College of Business Administration

  • A “Topping Off” celebration for the college’s new building was held in March [read more]
  • More than 30 high-ranking Air Force personnel graduated in January from the six-month Master Process Manager program, part of the five-year, $25-million contract between UT and the Air Force, signed last year
  • The Physician Executive MBA program, which recently marked its 10th anniversary, has graduated about 250 physicians representing 39 states, Puerto Rico, and five countries [read more]
  • Lifestyle expert Moll Anderson sought advice from students about marketing strategies that will appeal to a younger audience
  • First Tennessee pledged $500,000 for an annual full-time MBA symposium
  • Faculty members Jim Wansley and Tracie Woidtke appeared on the Biography Channel’s “Total Excess: The Robber Barons.”

Communication and Information

  • The School of Information Sciences tops the nation in per capita journal articles published by faculty, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia study
  • Notable recent speakers hosted by the college include Jess Baily, director of the Foreign Press Center, and Robert Krulwich, Emmy-award-winning ABC and NPR science correspondent
  • Professor Dorothy Bowles, a member of the Student Press Law Center advisory board, was honored at the National Press Club in Washington for helping the center establish a $3.75-million endowment.

College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences

  • Assistant Professor Fritz Polite arranged for six graduate students and one undergraduate to work behind-the-scenes at the Super Bowl to see how a large-scale sporting event is planned and carried out [read more]
  • The Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature hosted writer Nikki Giovanni at the Tennessee Theatre in March.

College of Engineering

  • The nuclear engineering department celebrated its 50th anniversary in March
  • Everett Bloom is the new associate director of the Center for Materials Processing
  • Darwin Walker, ‘99, NFL player and member of the 1998 University of Tennessee National Championship Team, spoke at the college’s May commencement
  • Charles “Chad” Holliday Jr., ’70, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of DuPont, received a Captains of Industry Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers in May. He was nominated by Dean Way Kuo. [read more]

College of Law

  • Civil rights pioneer Rita Geier spoke at the seventh annual Julian Blackshear Scholarship Banquet, sponsored by the Black Law Student Association
  • State Supreme Court Justice Cornelia A. “Connie” Clark and Megyn Kelly, co-anchor of FOX News’ “America’s Newsroom,” spoke at the hooding ceremony in May
  • Third-year student Fermin De La Torre placed second in the Louis Jackson Memorial Student Writing Competition in Labor and Employment Law
  • Students Chloe Akers and Erin Wallace, accompanied by Professor Mae Quinn, went to New Orleans during spring break to help with the Katrina-Gideon Project, which represents indigent individuals who have fallen through the cracks of the criminal justice system since the storm
  • Retiring Professor Fran Ansley received this year’s Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award and Knoxville’s 2007 Danny Mayfield Champion of Change Award.

Nursing

  • Associate Professor Susan Speraw addressed medical professionals attending the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine conference in Amsterdam about the evolving role of nurses in disaster health care
  • Clinical Instructors Mary Sowell and Karen Lasater took 10 undergraduates to Belize during spring break to provide healthcare to citizens of remote villages
  • Clinical Assistant Professor Mary Kollar and Associate Professor Dava Shoffner took a group of six nurse practitioner students to New Orleans in late January to provide primary care and women’s healthcare to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

College of Social Work

  • Associate Professor Stan Bowie received the first African American Image Award and was one of 50 college and university faculty and staff to graduate from the UT Leadership Institute
  • The master’s degree program is launching a curriculum to better prepare students for dealing with clients from a complex, multilayered, multicultural, ever-changing global community
  • Dr. Charles Glisson, professor of social work and director of the Children’s Mental Health Services Research Center, was awarded the Society for Social Work Research Award for outstanding research in January 2007.

College of Veterinary Medicine

  • Construction is underway on a 32,000-square-foot expansion of the small animal clinic
  • Dean Michael Blackwell received the FDA’s Distinguished Alumni Award
  • Patricia Coan is the new director of the Office of Laboratory Animal Care and attending veterinarian
  • The college was one of four test sites for Slentrol (dirlotapide), a prescription drug recently approved by the FDA to manage dog obesity
  • The national Veterinary Business Management Association has recognized UT’s new chapter as its best new chapter
  • Jeremy Whitman, ‘02, an associate veterinarian at Equine Medical Associates in Lexington, Kentucky, has received the college’s 2007 First Decade Achievement Award
  • Scott McVey, ‘80, an associate professor at University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Veterinary Diagnostic Center, has received the college’s 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award
  • The college received the 2006 Commitment Award from the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence
  • John Henton, professor in large animal clinical sciences, has received the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award.