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EEB Faculty Honored at the Annual College of Arts and Sciences Convocation

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The College of Arts and Sciences hosted its annual awards ceremony on Monday, March 31, 2025, at the UT Conference Center in downtown Knoxville. The annual ceremony honors faculty members in all areas of the college’s mission, selected by their colleagues as representatives of the high standards of the college’s faculty as a whole. Awards were given for excellence in teaching, advising, and mentoring; academic outreach; research and creative activity; and more.

Schilling Lab Group Paper Receives Richard and Minnie Windler Award

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The Richard and Minnie Windler award recognizes the best papers in ecology and systematics published in the journal Castanea in 2024. The paper acknowledges support from the Hesler Fund, as well as extensive use of UT Herbarium resources. Two of the co-authors (Jordan Reed and Cory Hale) participated in the project when they were EEB undergraduates. One outcome of the research was to help TDEC with conservation stewardship of the White Fringeless Orchid (Platanthera integrilabia), a Federally-Listed endangered species. 

UT Researchers Receive NSF CAREER Awards for Science, Engineering

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Two researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have received prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER awards to help them establish a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.

Stephanie Kivlin, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Wei Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, join the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, which supports the nation’s best early-career faculty and recognizes their promise as academic role models in research and education.

Adams Expands Research Flock with Latvian Fulbright Experience

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Colton Adams, a 2023 graduate in honors ecology and evolutionary biology, continued his academic journey as one of UT’s 13 Fulbright Scholars for 2023–2024, contributing to the Big Orange reputation as a top producer of these accomplished students. 

Adams traveled to the University of Latvia, in the city of Riga, to collaborate with the zoology and animal ecology group there, investigating questions about behavioral ecology and acoustic communication in mixed-species flocks of birds. He found himself immediately taken with the Eastern European landscape.

Burghardt honored by Animal Behavior Society

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Animal behavior captivated Gordon Burghardt as a boy, and over more than half a century at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, his interdisciplinary research advanced ethology in areas including animal play, social behavior, communication, reptile behavior, enrichment, and animal cognitive abilities.

The Animal Behavior Society (ABS) recognized his outstanding lifetime achievement by awarding Burghardt the 2024 Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award during its annual meeting in late June.

UNDERstory Game is Award Finalist

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Dr. Susan Kalisz, former head of the EEB department, along with Cary Staples of the School of Design and Tim Arment from the College of Architecture and Design have created the UNDERstory board game based on their long-term research. The game has received a lot of attention, and the creators are finalists for a 2023 James Paul GEE! Award!

Check out the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0fSBNVfiQ

and vote for UNDERstory to win the GEE! Award here: https://forms.gle/R3KEi7AFbDA6NRy49