UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2024
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 and promotions luncheon. This year’s ceremony was held in the newly-opened Agriculture and Natural Resources Building on the UTIA campus in Knoxville on August 14, 2024. 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 Keith Carver hosted the award winners and praised them for their work. “I continue to be amazed by the dedication, enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by the impressive work of our UTIA faculty and staff,” says Carver. “The awards are well deserved, and the impacts of these accomplishments are seen across the state and will benefit Tennesseans for generations.”
Alicia L. Rihn, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is one recipient of the UT AgResearch Dean’s Grantsmanship Award. The UT AgResearch Dean’s Grantsmanship Award recognizes the extraordinary effort of faculty members in successfully securing competitive extramural grants and contracts and who exceed expectations of good departmental and institutional citizenship. This award is based on the total dollar amount of competitive extramural grants or contracts secured by the faculty member serving as principal or co-principal investigator. Sindhu Jagadamma, associate professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, and Tong (Toni) Wang, UTIA institute professor in the Department of Food Science, also received this award.
Rihn’s research focuses on specialty crops, consumer behavior and value-added products and niche markets. She helped establish the Research, Extension and Marketing (REM) Lab, which studies behavioral economics to address needs of businesses in Tennessee and around the southeast. Among the lab’s tools are “eye-tracking glasses” that include special lenses and cameras – allowing someone to view the world through another’s perspective. These special glasses are used to gauge consumer preferences. “Hearing industry stakeholders mention how much they appreciate these efforts has been very rewarding,” Rihn says.
Among her other accomplishments, Rihn received recognition in 2020 from the AAEA for the Outstanding published paper which significantly contributed to transdisciplinary work or specialty crop industries and was named to the Greenhouse Product News (GPN) 40 Under 40 list in 2022. That same year she received a Wiley “Top Cited Article Award.”
Rihn earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
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.