T. Edward Yu receives AgResearch Impact Award
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture celebrated the accomplishments of some of its top faculty, staff, researchers and Extension experts at UTIA’s annual awards luncheon. The 2026 ceremony was held on the UTIA campus in Knoxville on August 4. Many of the awards are gifts made possible by faculty, alumni and friends of the institute.
UTIA Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President Keith Carver hosted the celebration and praised the honorees for their devotion to the land-grant mission. “Our UTIA staff and faculty continue to overwhelm me with their enthusiasm and unparalleled expertise,” he said. “I am always in awe of their dedication to providing Real. Life. Solutions. to the people of Tennessee. These award winners represent the efforts and accomplishments this past year that will most benefit all Tennesseans and society – impacts that will have lasting benefits through teaching, research and Extension for years to come.”
T. Edward Yu, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, received the AgResearch Impact Award, which is presented to an AgResearch faculty or professional staff member whose efforts have had a profound effect on improving the efficiency, sustainability and/or economic viability of the food and fiber industry of rural areas of Tennessee.
“It is a great honor to be recognized with the 2026 AgResearch Impact Award,” Yu said. “This achievement is a testament to the collective efforts of my collaborators and students, whose dedication has helped translate my research into meaningful outcomes. I would also like to sincerely thank the UTIA administrators for their continuous encouragement and support.”
Yu, who has been a member of the UTIA faculty for 17 years, researches the economics of biofuels, focusing on agricultural and forestry biomass supply chains, the bioenergy-agriculture-environment interface, and location analysis. Yu and UT AgResearch Associate Dean Tim Rials co-lead a Tennessee team conducting feedstock supply analysis for sustainable aviation fuel for the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment. In 2024, he was appointed to Environmental Issues in Aviation Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yu, the department’s Buford and Beatrice Irwin Endowed Faculty Fellow, has received several awards honoring his achievements, including the 2025 Research Merit Award from the Gamma Delta Sigma UT Chapter, the Outstanding Overseas Visiting Scholar Grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology in 2017-18 and the Emerging Scholar Award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association in 2014. He co-chaired the CASA-Bio Workshop for the National Science Foundation and participated in the OECD–International Transport Forum roundtable.
Since joining UT in 2009, two of his graduate students have received the Southern Agricultural Economics Association’s Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award, and one has earned the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association’s Outstanding M.S. Thesis Award Honorable Mention. Yu earned his bachelor’s degree in maritime transportation management from the National Taiwan Ocean University, his master’s degree in economics from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.