Happy New Year and welcome back! This week’s recognitions include a CEE senior lecturer, four UT undergraduates, faculty from supply chain management, and a professor of architecture.
Recognitions
Recognitions, November 13
Music Grad Student Wins Research Award to Have KSO Play His Compositions
At 46, in the midst of a successful career as a commercial musician, music director, teacher, and performer, Dennis Belisle decided to enroll in UT’s School of Music to pursue a new dream—being a composer.
He completed a bachelor’s degree in sacred music in spring 2018 and immediately began working on his Master of Music degree in composition degree with a theory pedagogy certificate.
Belisle graduates in December, and he’s wrapping up his studies on a very high note: members of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will perform his musical compositions during a special concert at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 15, at the Powell Recital Hall in the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center.
Belisle received the inaugural Robert W. Pedersen Memorial Research Award to fund the performance. Pedersen, a UT alumnus, left money to the university in an endowment earmarked “for awards for outstanding performance by students and/or faculty.”
Recognitions, October 30
UT Professor Awarded NIH MIRA Grant for 3D Genome Structure Research
A UT biophysicist has been awarded a $1.84 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute for General Medical Science (NIGMS) to investigate how the 3D folded structure of the human genome reacts to physical stress in health and disease.
The award provides funding to operate Rachel Patton McCord’s lab and research program. McCord is an assistant professor in UT’s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.
NIGMS is among the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The MIRA program provides long-term stability—the funding is granted over five years—and allows for flexibility if the direction of a project shifts.
McCord’s project seeks to clarify the role of a chromosome’s structure in its biological response to physical stress, which can inform future disease diagnosis and treatment.
Recognitions, October 16
UT Human Development Specialist Recognized with National Excellence in Extension Award
Matthew Devereaux, interim assistant dean and head for UT Extension Family and Consumer Sciences, has been selected to receive the National Excellence in Extension Award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Cooperative Extension, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). Devereaux’s research has focused on best practices for positively developing youth in afterschool settings. He will receive the award at a ceremony on November 10 in San Diego, California during APLU’s 132nd Annual Meeting. Photo by T. Salvador, courtesy UTIA.
A University of Tennessee Extension professional has been recognized by national organizations for his contribution to national Cooperative Extension programs. Matthew Devereaux, a human development specialist in Family and Consumer Sciences and interim assistant dean of UT Extension, has been honored with the National Excellence in Extension Award.