UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2022
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture recognized some of its top faculty, staff, researchers and Extension experts at UTIA’s annual Awards and Promotions luncheon on the UTIA campus in Knoxville August 16, 2022. Many of the awards are gifts made possible by faculty, alumni and friends of the Institute.
UT Institute of Agriculture Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President Carrie Castille hosted the award winners and celebrated their work. “I am so excited to recognize excellence as exemplified by the award-winning members of our UTIA faculty and staff,” Castille says. “Their continuing commitment to our land-grant mission ensures that the Institute develops and delivers real-life solutions to improve the health and economy of our state and beyond while also enhancing our environment.”
Toni Wang, a professor in the Department of Food Science, has been named as the 2022 Charles E. Wharton Institute Professor, UTIA’s greatest honor.
“I am honored to be named this year’s Charles E. Wharton Institute Professor. This is a recognition of the passion, dedication and achievements of all the students, postdoctoral and visiting scientists and faculty collaborators I have worked with in the past 22 years as a food scientist,” says Wang. “This prestigious award and title will inspire me to continue to find effective ways to contribute to the growth of the students and UTIA.”
In 2021, along with Vermont Dia, Wang was awarded a $550,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to understand the ice recrystallization and to study the mechanisms on how to restrict the growth of ice crystals. NSF awards are not common among food scientists.
Among her other accolades, Wang was named as the recipient of the 2020 Alton E. Bailey Award presented by the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS). In 2016 she was named an AOCS Fellow and was recognized with the AOCS’ Timothy L. Mounts Award in 2013.
Prior to joining the UT Department of Food Science in 2019, Wang was a member of the faculty at Iowa State University (ISU) for 19 years. She studied food chemistry, receiving her master’s degree at the University of Arkansas and her Ph.D. at ISU. She is the 2014 recipient of the ISU Mid-Career Achievement in Research Award. Throughout her career Wang has received numerous industry and federal research grants that support her creative work and has trained 36 graduate students and 20 post-doctoral appointees and visiting scientists.
Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia.tennessee.edu.