Two University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standouts, UC Foundation Associate Professor Rick Dierenfeldt and College of Arts and Sciences Student Success Center Director Erica Holmes Trujillo, have been named recipients of the 2025 UT System President’s Awards—the highest honor a faculty or staff member can receive from the UT System.
Fish feast: UTC professor reels in national award
Dr. Rich Walker’s project, titled “The Cicadian Rhythm: Integrated Research And Education To Reveal The Cascading Effects Of A Rare But Massive Terrestrial Resource Pulse In Stream Ecosystem,” is now drawing national recognition. He is one of just 36 early-career faculty members nationwide to be named a 2025 recipient of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of over 160 colleges and universities that collaborates with federal agencies to advance health and scientific knowledge.
UTC’s Rahul R. Bhosale becomes first chemical engineering professor from Tennessee to receive early-career NSF ERI award
Guerry Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Rahul R. Bhosale has become the first chemical engineering professor from both the state of Tennessee and UTC to be awarded the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) Award.
UTC mechanical engineering professor Murat Barisik receives prestigious NSF CAREER Award
Dr. Murat Barisik, assistant professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Mechanical Engineering and a leading researcher in nanoscale heat transfer, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Highly decorated UTC alum named Pickering Fellow
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alum Emma Sprayberry has been selected for the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Graduate Fellowship—a prestigious U.S. Department of State program that prepares individuals for careers in the U.S. Foreign Service. The May 2024 graduate is the first UTC student or alum to earn a Pickering Fellowship.
UTC awarded $450,000 NSF grant to advance metro-scale quantum sensing
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has received a $447,621 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance quantum sensing technology, which can detect small environmental changes with extraordinary precision across large-scale fiber-optic networks.
Chattanooga from space: UTC faculty research featured by NASA
Dr. Azad Hossain’s research on Chattanooga was recently featured as NASA’s Earth Observatory “Image of the Day.” The article, “Building Out Chattanooga,” compares satellite images of Chattanooga from 2001 and 2024 to show how much the city has grown.
Dr. Irven Resnick follows lifelong work to Germany
Dr. Irven Resnick, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Chair of Excellence in Judaic Studies, spent most of the 2024-25 academic year in Essen, Germany, after being selected as a senior fellow at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities at the University Alliance Ruhr/Research Alliance.
UTC professor’s research on ancient sloths earns national recognition
When Dr. Tim Gaudin arrived at UTC 30 years ago, his sights were set on teaching. Behind the scenes, however, Gaudin found additional value in his research—and it paid off. This spring, that work earned him a huge milestone: co-authorship on a paper about sloths published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals.
UTC hosts statewide TCPRA higher ed conference
The UTC Office of Communications and Marketing wrapped up two days of hosting the Tennessee College Public Relations Association’s annual conference on Friday, May 23. Held at The Westin Chattanooga, the event drew higher education professionals from across the state.