Faculty Updates – 2022
Faculty Updates – 2022
Melissa Hinten was promoted to senior lecturer in recognition of her outstanding leadership in sustainability and teaching reputation. Through her leadership the department was able to incorporate the sustainability program, and Hinten has successfully worked to build up the program and to mentor and advise Sustainability majors and minors. In addition to the many courses she teaches and her responsibilities as director of sustainability, she has developed a study abroad program in Frieberg, Germany. Finally, Hinten is an exceptional teacher and colleague who looks out for her students and is committed to helping make the department a great place to work. We are lucky to have her in our ranks.
Sally Horn received the Karl and Elisabeth Butzer Award for Lifetime Achievement in the study of Paleoenvironmental Change at the April 2021 meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Presented by the Paleoenvironmental Specialty Group, this award is named after the late Karl Butzer, a geographer who specialized in the study of sedimentary and archaeological evidence of past environments, and his wife and research partner, Elisabeth Butzer, whose continuing research focuses on archival evidence of environmental change. Professor Horn received the award in recognition of her efforts, along with dozens of collaborators and graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee and elsewhere, to document the long-term environmental history of the circum-Caribbean region, South America, and the southeastern US based on lake sediments and other natural archives.
Shih-Lung Shaw has been elected President-Elect of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), which is a non-profit organization that creates and supports communities of practice for GIScience research, education, and policy endeavors in higher education and with allied institutions. It is the professional hub for the academic GIS community in the United States, with partnerships extending this capacity abroad. It will be a three-year service andShaw will serve as president-elect, president, and past president of UCGIS. We thank Professor Shaw for his service and leadership in GIS. Shaw has also published a new book: Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time: Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of a Global Pandemic, co-edited by Daniel Sui.
Kelsey Ellis received a grant from the UT Institute for a Secure & Sustainable Environment (ISSE). Her project is titled “Beat the heat: Building adaptive capacity of vulnerable populations in Knox County to combined stressors from climate change and urban heat.“ Her collaborators on the project include Jennifer First (Social Work) and Kristing Kintziger (Public Health).
LaToya Eaves received an award from the National Science Foundation for her proposal on “The Role of Museums in the Landscape of Minority Representation.” Eaves is the primary investigator on this project, which brings excellent recognition to her, to the department, and to UT. This is a massive research project involving five institutions.
Qiusheng Wu is recognized as a world leader in developing and promoting open source geospatial tools with a special emphasis on geemap and Google Earth Engine. In addition to his on-campus instruction, Dr. Wu posts instructional materials and videos online, recently reaching more than 11,000 subscribers with more than 14,500 watch hours on YouTube.
