UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2021
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Douglas Hayes, professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, is the winner of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s Charles E. Wharton Institute Professor Award. The award is the Institute’s highest honor.
The award was announced at UTIA’s annual awards and promotions luncheon on the UTIA campus in Knoxville July 30 during which the Institute recognized some of its top faculty, staff, researchers and Extension experts for 2021. The event was conducted in person, a welcome return to normalcy after having an online ceremony because of the pandemic last year. The awards honor the extraordinary performance of UTIA employees during a difficult year of online education and changes to procedures because of the pandemic. Many of the awards are gifts made possible by faculty, alumni and friends of the Institute.
UTIA Senior Vice President Tim Cross hosted the award winners and praised them for their work. “After a challenging and stressful year, it’s a pleasure to recognize excellence as exemplified by these award-winning members of the UTIA faculty and staff,” Cross says. “Their continuing dedication to our land-grant mission of serving Tennessee ensures that we develop and deliver real life solutions to improve health, grow the economy and enhance our environment.”
“I am deeply honored to receive the Charles E. Wharton Institute Professor Award,” Hayes says. “This award is a testimony to my research collaborators, several hard-working undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs who have worked in my laboratory, and my colleagues in BESS and UTIA who have provided me with outstanding advice and assistance over the years. I am looking forward to doing all that I can to help UTIA remain a great place to learn and work for students, faculty and staff during the remainder of my career.”
Hayes has been with the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science for 17 years and came to UTIA from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has a research program where he studies interfacial behaviors in agricultural and biological systems. He has also worked with biodegradable mulch to see how that might enhance fruit and vegetable production and overall soil health.
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.