UTC graduating senior Mackenzie Smith aims to become the seventh physician in her immediate family, but medical school will have to wait until after her soccer career ends. Smith has her eye on playing professional soccer overseas. Then, the two-time all-Southern Conference player and biochemistry major plans to join her five siblings and father and attend medical school.
Moments of wonder: Student biology projects combine research, knowledge, insights and creativity
Sixteen projects were on display on Dec. 4 as part of a collaboration between the animal physiology course taught by Professor Loren Hayes, the meiofaunal biodiversity course taught by Assistant Professor Francesca Leasi and the ant ecology course taught by UC Foundation Associate Professor DeAnna Beasley. The trio began the collaboration, called the Integrative Biology Research Symposium, in fall semester 2022.
Combating the heat: UTC students recognized for their work
Last summer, four UTC students worked with Dr. Dawn Ford and the Hamilton County Health Department on a tabletop exercise to come up with ways to respond in the event of extreme heat. In one of their newsletters this fall, the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) discussed the work they did.
‘Let’s be friends’: How an interdisciplinary gathering led to an environmental collaboration
Associate lecturers Lucy Schultz and Catherine Meeks Quinlan are two driving forces behind UTC’s growing environmental studies minor, an interdisciplinary field that examines human interactions and the environment. These include the effects of human societies on the natural world and the role that environments—both natural and built— have played in shaping human cultures.
Alum Sunny Fleming maps out a plan for a career in GIS
UTC’s Interdisciplinary Geospatial Technologies Lab hosted for GIS Day, a workshop for users of GIS technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in society. The event featured special guest Sunny Fleming—a UTC alum and environment lead at Esri.
UTC alum conducts unique research on widely used ‘forever chemical’
Elizabeth Plunk, who graduated from UTC in 2019 with a degree in biology, is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in New York.
Planting data points: Use of technology stokes ecology lab research
In late September, Associate Lecturer Monica Miles brought two Ecology Laboratory 3070 classes to Reflection Riding to help map the nature center’s invasive species removal efforts—one lab section focused on winter honeysuckle, the other on Oriental bittersweet.
UTC NAACP student chapter to be honored for service to Chattanooga
The UTC National Association for the Advancement of Colored People student chapter has been selected for the 2023 Viola Mapp Membership Ruby Hurley Image Award from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County NAACP.
Mission about Mars: UTC geologist presents ideas during NASA workshop
Early this semester, UTC Assistant Professor of Geology Ashley Manning-Berg was one of 32 early-career scientists selected to participate in a NASA workshop at Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., for what she called “an intense week coming up with ideas of how to look for life on Mars.”
Micromanagement: Research aims to find, remove plastic particles in Chattanooga’s water
Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi and a team of other faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students are researching ways to determine the exact amounts and types of microplastics—plastics broken down to their smallest state—in the water of the Chattanooga metro area. The research also explores ways to filter out microplastics, which are usually carried into water supplies through stormwater drainage.