Coble Maintains Winning Faculty Energy
Coble was named the first Southern Company Faculty Fellow in recognition of her work, and also received the inaugural Ted Quinn Early Career Award from the American Nuclear Society.
Her standards also earned her UT’s Angie Warren Perkins Award, named for the university’s first dean of women, to honor outstanding campus leadership. Within the college, Coble won the 2018 Leon and Nancy Cole Superior Teaching Award for her acumen in the classroom.
“Coble is a truly outstanding young faculty member with the energy and expertise to be highly engaged in teaching, research, service, and outreach,” said Department Head Wes Hines. “It is extraordinary when we have a faculty that finds the time to be so highly engaged with outreach in addition to their heavy research, service, and teaching loads.”
Williams Named Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
James Williams, assistant professor of retail, hospitality, and tourism management, has been chosen by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education as one of its top 15 emerging scholars for 2019.
Scholars were selected based on a number of criteria, including research, educational background, publishing and teaching record, competitiveness of field of study, and broad impact on the academy. Williams is the first UT faculty member to be honored by the magazine, which has published its list annually since 2001.
“This is both a great honor for James and for the University of Tennessee,” said Tyvi Small, interim vice chancellor for diversity and engagement.
“James is a mentor and role model to students and a champion of diversity and inclusion on our campus,” Small said. “He is a great example of how our university seeks to be an environment that is welcoming and supportive to all people.”
Graduate Student Wins 2019 Art Future Prize in Taiwan
Nguyen Duc Diem Quynh (also known as Quynh Lam), a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Studio Art (Painting + Drawing) at the University of Tennessee, is one of 15 young and emerging artists selected for the 2019 Art Future Prize in Taiwan. Quynh was chosen for this honor from among artists in 48 countries in Asia. She was the only artist selected from Vietnam. In addition to the Art Future Prize, Quynh received the Special Jury Prize and an invitation to exhibit her work in Taipei this January.
The Art Future Prize committee was comprised of Kwok Kian Chow, former director of Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery Singapore; Wolf Lieser, director of DAM Gallery, Germany; Miyatsu Daisuke, professor at Yokohama University of Art and Design, Japan; Seo Sang-Ho, director of Open Space Bae, Korea; and Huang Shan-Shan, supervisor of JUT Art Museum, Taiwan.
Taufer to Receive 2019 IBM Faculty Award
Professor Michela Taufer has been selected to receive a 2019 IBM Faculty Award for $20,000. This highly competitive award recognizes her leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) and its importance to the computing industry.
UT’s Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is building a partnership with IBM under leadership by Taufer, Department Head Greg Peterson, and Distinguished Professor Jack Dongarra.
Taufer will lead work with IBM to bring the IBM Onsite Deep Learning Workshop on campus. Training EECS students in deep learning and AI disciplines—the backbone of current scientific discovery—will open tremendous opportunities for them in Tennessee and outside the state.
January Sustainability Champion: Christy Hickman
Christy Hickman was chosen by the Committee on the Campus Environment as the January Sustainability Champion. Christy is an Assistant Professor of Practice, in the College of Social Work. She has been working at UT since 2005, and through her work she has inspired everyone around her to live more sustainable lives.
In 2013 Christy joined the College of Social Work, however she had prior roles at UT serving as an adjunct instructor, field instructor, field liaison, and as the IV-E Child Welfare Certification Program Coordinator. In addition to her work in the College of Social Work, Christy served as the Assistant Director of the Safety, Environment, and Education (S.E.E.) Center.
Associate Director of Boyd Center Garners Volunteer of the Year Award
Matthew Murray, associate director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business, was recently honored with the Jim Spradley Volunteer of the Year Award in Economic Development.
The award, presented annually at the Tennessee Economic Development Council’s fall conference, recognizes individuals who give their time and talent to further the economic progress of the state of Tennessee. These individuals’ “activities and accomplishments in industrial and economic development extend beyond those necessary to satisfy the requirements of the vocation for which they are compensated,” according to the council’s website.
“I am extremely honored to receive this award,” Murray said. “There are many people across the state doing outstanding work when it comes to making Tennessee a prosperous entity for recruiting and retaining the many companies that now call the Volunteer State home. Receiving this award from my peers makes it even more rewarding.”
Grad Student Selected 2019 National Humanities Without Walls Fellow
Jeffrey Pannekoek, a PhD student in philosophy, was chosen to represent UT as a predoctoral fellow at a summer workshop organized by Humanities Without Walls, an association of humanities centers at 15 major research universities throughout the United States.
Pannekoek is the first student from UT to be chosen for the organization’s career diversity workshops since the program was launched in 2015. He was nominated to represent the university by the UT Humanities Center.
“I’m really honored to represent UT at the workshop,” Pannekoek said. “I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of the UT Humanities Center and the philosophy department.”