Amy Fulcher, Hao Gan and Le Chen receive grantsmanship awards
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.”
Faculty members Amy Fulcher, Hao Gan and Le Chen are recipients of the UT AgResearch Dean’s Grantsmanship Award. This award recognizes the extraordinary effort of faculty members in successfully securing competitive extramural grants and contracts and who exceed expectations of good departmental/institutional citizenship. The award is based on the total dollar amount of competitive extramural grants/contracts secured by the faculty member serving as principal or co-principal investigator.
Fulcher, professor and UT Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences, specializes in sustainable nursery production. She has helped nurseries become more efficient with the use of laser-guided intelligent spray technology, which senses the plant, briefly opens the nozzles and provides just the needed amount of pesticide based on the crop’s density, as well as with efficient irrigation scheduling, integrated pest management, and more recently, adopting labor-saving automation. She said seeing intelligent spray technology commercialized as Smart-Apply is one of her proudest achievements.
“I am humbled to be recognized for my grantsmanship. No proposal is written alone. This is reflective of many amazing teams that I have had the privilege of being a part of, from the Southern Nursery IPM Working Group to the LEAP for Nursery Sustainability Team and many others,” said Fulcher, who has been on the UTIA faculty for 16 years.
She is a previous winner of the J.E. Moss Achievement Award, which recognizes excellent achievement in teaching, research, and Extension. Fulcher earned her bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University, her master’s in horticulture at North Carolina State University and her Ph.D. in crop science at the University of Kentucky.
Gan, associate professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, focuses on sensing and control in precision agriculture, including computer vision systems, sensors, artificial intelligence and robotics. Computers in his lab in Knoxville are connected to devices stationed at UT AgResearch and Education Center, where they map row crops or monitor livestock behavior.
“I appreciate the mentoring, the help, and the collaborations from my colleagues since I started the job at UT seven years ago. They have had an invaluable positive impact on me as I grow as a researcher and educator. Winning this award certainly shows that,” he said.
Gan was previously recognized with other UTIA awards, including the T.J. Whatley Distinguished Young Scientist Award and the W.F. and Golda Moss Outstanding Teaching Award. He is one of the faculty hosts of the “AI in Ag” camp, and he mentors the student robotics club. Gan earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Yangzhou University, his master’s in agricultural engineering at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and Ph.D. in agricultural engineering at the University of Florida.
Chen, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, focuses her research and teaching in applied production economics, specializing in soil health management and conservation, such as cover crops and no-till. She also studies agricultural policies related to risk management, technology adoption and dynamic decision-making.
She is a recipient of the UTIA AgResearch Seed Grant and the 2026 Daniel and Billie Caren Borthick AREC Teaching awards. Chen said she enjoys mentoring graduate students, collaborating with colleagues and contributing to work that supports producers and agricultural stakeholders.
“I am very honored and grateful to receive this award, and I truly appreciate the support I have received from UT AgResearch. As an early-career faculty member, this recognition means a lot to me and encourages me to continue building my research program at UT,” she said.
Chen, who has been on the faculty three years, earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, her master’s in economics from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State 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.