A leading center at UT will soon have a new director: accomplished faculty member Terry Hazen is taking the helm at the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment.
The appointment was announced this week by College of Engineering Dean Wayne Davis.
Hazen brings an impressive set of environmentally related credentials with him to the new position. In addition to being the joint UT–Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Environmental Biotechnology, Hazen works with the Center for Environmental Biotechnology; directed investigation and recovery efforts surrounding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; and was a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Microbial Communities Division, the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, and the Ecology Department.
Hazen also holds appointments in three UT departments—Civil and Environmental Engineering, Microbiology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences. He is a faculty fellow at ORNL, and works with both the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education and the UT-ORNL Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology.
Hazen replaces Chris Cox, who is leaving to become the head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, though he will remain an ISSE member.
“I look forward to working with the ISSE staff building on Chris Cox’s direction for ISEE and trying to bring in even more faculty participation across campus and at ORNL,” said Hazen.
Cox will be working closely with Hazen over the coming weeks to facilitate a smooth transition in leadership, Davis said.
“The college would like to express its sincere appreciation to Chris for his leadership of ISSE,” said Davis. “He thrived as director of ISSE during a time of change and transition, including the center becoming housed in the college. His service is much appreciated.”
ISSE was founded to promote development of policies, technologies, and educational programs that cut across multiple disciplines; engage the university’s research faculty and staff; and grow in response to environmental issues facing the state, the nation, and the globe.
The institute morphed out of the merger of three previous organizations—the Energy, Environment and Resources Center; the Waste Management Research and Education Institute; and the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment—in 2006.
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C O N T A C T :
David Goddard (865-974-0683, david.goddard@utk.edu)