Spring commencement at UTC will be celebrated with three separate ceremonies over two days starting Friday, May 3. And for the first time since 2019, commencement will fill McKenzie Arena to the rafters.
Seeing students have ‘those light bulb moments’ keeps adding up for Meg Kiessling
Meg Kiessling’s path to math began after obtaining electrical engineering degrees from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Georgia Institute of Technology.
Tim Gritten named dean of the UTC Library
Tim Gritten, who has spent the last six years as Executive Director of the Library and Special Collections at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, has been appointed Dean of the UTC Library. The appointment is effective July 1, 2024.
Capstone achievement: UTC’s Emma Sprayberry lands Fulbright Scholarship
One of the most highly decorated students in recent UTC history has received another prestigious award before her time as an undergraduate comes to a close. Senior Emma Sprayberry, an Innovations in Honors student in the UTC Honors College majoring in both humanities: international studies (with an emphasis on Asian studies) and Spanish, along with a minor in anthropology, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Taiwan for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Global citizen: UTC’s Emma Roy awarded Boren Scholarship
Emma Roy, currently completing her junior year at UTC, has been selected for the prestigious David L. Boren Scholarship, an initiative of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense. Beginning in mid-September, she will spend 25 weeks—the equivalent of an academic year—at National Taiwan University as part of the International Chinese Language Program.
Perfect chemistry: Two UTC young alums land research fellowships
Recent graduates Christine Rukeyser, an Innovation in Honors student in the UTC Honors College who received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in December 2023, and Bre-Anna Willis, recipient of a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in December 2022, have been selected for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program—a highly competitive program that supports outstanding graduate students in STEM fields.
Call me HAL: UTC nursing students learning from state-of-the-art patient simulator
HAL® S5301, billed as the world’s most advanced interdisciplinary patient simulator, is a new addition to the UTC School of Nursing. HAL has artificial intelligence capabilities and can speak, mimic many different emergent situations such as strokes and heart attacks, and be utilized to practice numerous invasive procedures. “We can make him have a stroke. It can have full facial droop. You can change the eyeballs. It can sweat, it can cry.”
Lessons learned: Takeo Suzuki shares his experiences from a Fulbright visit to India
Dr. Takeo Suzuki is on a mission to spread the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga name worldwide. He is also on a mission to bring the world to UTC. Suzuki, executive director of the UTC Center of Global Education, recently spent two weeks in India after being selected as a 2024-2025 Fulbright U.S. Scholar as part of the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Program.
Dr. Michael Williams named director of UTC Africana Studies program
The UTC Department of History and Africana Studies program announced that Dr. Michael Vinson Williams will join the UTC community in August as a professor of history and director of Africana Studies. Williams comes to UTC from the University of Texas at El Paso, where he has spent the last eight years as a professor of history and director of UTEP’s African American Studies program.
UTC students bring home top honors at Social Work Day on the Hill
At Social Work Day on the Hill, UTC social work student Kelli Webber won the statewide BSW Student of the Year award and the duo of Hannah Kean Davis and Emma Shavers won the state policy presentation competition.