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Department News

 


Honors Day
, 2021

The Department of Chemistry was unable to host an in-person Honors Day event this year. The Department still recognized the achievements among students, faculty and staff members of the department by distributing awards. Visit chem.utk.edu to see a complete list of recipients for the 42nd Honors Day.

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Bhavya Sharma, assistant professor

Sharma Announced Winner of 2021 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy

Bhavya Sharma, assistant professor, has been named the winner of the 2021 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award. The award will be presented to Sharma at the SciX 2021 conference this fall, where she will give a plenary lecture and be honored in an award symposium.

“We would like to extend congratulations to Professor Sharma for winning the 2021 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award,” said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences™, the parent company of Spectroscopy®. “Sharma is well deserving of this recognition for all of her excellent work as a molecular spectroscopist. We are proud to honor her with this award at the SciX conference this fall.”

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Kostas
Vogiatzis, assistant professor

Vogiatzis Wins OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award

Kostas Vogiatzis, assistant professor with the Department of Chemistry, is one of the recipients of the American Chemical Society, Computers in Chemistry Division (ACS COMP) OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for Spring 2021. This competitive and prestigious award identifies junior faculty of promise in the area of computational chemistry and modeling.

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Bin Zhao
, professor

Zhao Receives Excellence in Research Award

Each year, Dean Theresa Lee and members of her cabinet, with help from department heads, recognize faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences for their excellence in teaching, research and creative activity, and lifetime achievements. Bin Zhao, Paul and Wilma Ziegler Professor in the Department of Chemistry, received a senior career excellence in research award. He has made significant contributions to the field of macromolecular brush materials, from precise synthesis to fundamental understanding and potential applications of surface brushes, polymer brush-grafted particles (hairy particles), and brush polymers. He is widely recognized, nationally and internationally, as one of the leading figures in this field. His work on stimuli-responsive polymers has also received wide attention. Zhao is a dedicated research mentor who seeks to use research opportunities to cultivate scientific reasoning and spirit in his graduate and undergraduate students. “I am very excited to receive this great honor and recognition from our college” Zhao said. “I look forward to continuing contributing to the research mission of our university in the years ahead.”

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Fred Schell

Remembering Fred M. Schell

On Tuesday, April 13, 2021, Fred Martin Schell, loving father and educator passed away at the age of 77.
Schell was born in Cincinnati Ohio to Horace and Rose Schell. He received his BS in pharmaceutical science from the University of Ohio and his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University.

Schell served on the faculty of the University of Tennessee’s Department of Chemistry for over thirty years as a professor, researcher, and administrator. He joined the chemistry faculty at Tennessee in 1972. He has also been a research and development participant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Fred is survived by his two sons, Chris and Greg, his granddaughter Mckinzie and his two sisters Jane Yost and Joy Yungbluth.

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Mourning Albert and Suoma Tuinman’s Passing

It is with deep sorrow we announce the death of Albert Andrew Tuinman and Suoma Annikki Tuinman. The couple passed away in their home on March 16, 2020.  Albert came to the University of Tennessee Department of Chemistry from the Cancer Research Institute in Tempe, AZ serving in the position of Director of Mass Spectrometry and Research Associate Professor from March 1987 until his retirement in April 2006.  A Celebration of Life ceremony was held May 29, 2021

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