KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, continues to be among the top 10 universities in the nation for the number of new fellows named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
AAAS has named eight UT Knoxville faculty members to the 2010 class of fellows. Seven of the new fellows hail from the College of Arts and Sciences and one from the College of Veterinary Medicine.
For the third consecutive year, UT Knoxville is the best among all other regional universities; UT Knoxville has the third most new AAAS Fellows nationally, tied with Penn State, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Three universities had 10 new fellows and three had nine fellows.
“This recognition illustrates how we are competitive among the top institutions in the country and demonstrates our genuine commitment to becoming a top 25 public research university,” said UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “I am proud of the work our faculty continues to do in furthering science and research in an effort to solve the world’s most challenging problems and make our lives better for generations to come.”
This year, 503 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New fellows will be presented with an official certificate on Feb.19 at the 2011 AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The newly honored fellows, and the citations on their awards, are:
Bradley Fenwick, professor of pathobiology: For distinguished contributions in the field of veterinary and comparative medicine, scientific association leadership, editorial review and research program development and administration.
Richard Jantz, professor emeritus of anthropology: For distinguished contributions to biological anthropology through database and software development and as director of the Forensic Anthropology Center.
Larry McKay, professor of earth and planetary sciences: For distinguished contributions to the field of hydrogeology, through interdisciplinary experimental research, through teaching and through outreach to K-12 students and adults.
Pamela Small, professor emeritus of microbiology: For distinguished contributions to the field of emerging infectious diseases, particularly for research and editorial contributions in the field of neglected tropical diseases.
Soren Sorensen, professor and department head of physics: For distinguished contributions to the field of relativistic heavy ion collisions, particularly for systematic studies of transverse energy production, and to academic leadership and public service.
Kenneth Stephenson, professor of mathematics: For distinguished contributions to analysis and geometry, particularly the development of the circle packing algorithm and the theory of discrete analytic function theory.
Gregory Stuart, professor of psychology: For distinguished contributions to the field of psychology, particularly research on the role of substance use and abuse in intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization.
Ziling Xue, professor of chemistry: For distinguished contributions to the field of inorganic-organometallic chemistry, particularly for synthesis of metal complexes and mechanistic studies of the formation of metal carbenes.
AAAS is one of the largest scientific organizations in the world, serving more than 260 individual science societies with more than 10 million members. It also publishes the prestigious journal Science.
Fellows must be nominated to membership either by three current fellows, the CEO of AAAS or by the leaders of their specific section of AAAS. Nominations are subject to approval by the AAAS Council. The first class of fellows was named in 1874.
For more information on the nomination process and to search a database of current AAAS Fellows, visit http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/fellows/.
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C O N T A C T:
Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)